Clad in a green silk saree, sporting her quintessential big bindi and sindoor in her hairline, when Sushma Swaraj came on stage at a public rally in Ballari in August 1999 (see video below), it had just been a few weeks since she had been introduced to the politics of this mining town.
According to a journalist who covered the speech, the crowd, expecting another Hindi speech, like her opponent Sonia Gandhi, was left awestruck when Swaraj spoke. “Maanya Sabhadyakshare (the distinguished guest on dais…),” she began in Kannada. The crowd erupted in cheers, forcing her to pause the speech for a few seconds.
On Wednesday, 7 August, after she passed away due to cardiac arrest, this very speech of hers became the talk of the town again.
A minute into her speech she continued to surprise, while the audience expected her Kannada to fade out after a few lines, she kept the audience gripped with a flair that showed she was familiar with the language for years.
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“It was astonishing for everybody. There was certain disbelief when people saw a north Indian speak fluent Kannada. There should not be any doubts, if you compare her speeches with that of Sonia Gandhi, Mrs Gandhi was far behind,” said M Ahiraj, a veteran political reporter from Ballari.
In 1999, when Sonia Gandhi decided to file nomination from the Congress stronghold of Ballari, the BJP’s response was to make the contest in Ballari, beti vs bahu (daughter vs daughter-in-law) and the choice for the daughter was Sushma Swaraj.
While Swaraj might have lost this 1999 elections her connection with Ballari had only begun. From learning the local language, to visiting Ballari every year since, to becoming Sushma thayi (mother) for mining barons Reddy brothers; her relationship with Ballari went beyond a single election.
The Doctor’s Family that Became Her Home in Ballari
BK Srinivas Murthy, a prominent doctor in Ballari, met Sushma Swaraj for the first time when he was asked to be one of the proposers for her nomination from Ballari. A couple of days later he got another call, this time they wanted his services as a doctor.
“Then she was staying in a hotel and she had fallen ill. I gave her a check-up and after the check-up, to my surprise, she asked if she could stay at my house instead of the hotel. I said it was my pleasure to have you as a guest,” said Murthy.
For the two weeks, Murthy says she had become a member of the family. It was during this time she started tradition of participating in the Varamahalakshmi festival.
“While she was in our house, we were celebrating the festival and she was very excited and joined us. From then, for more than 11 years, even after she lost the election, she would come to our house to celebrate the festival with my family,” he said.
Murthy’s last conversation with Swaraj too was about the festival. “Three days ago, I had called her. I told her she should come for the festival this year. But she said: I want to, but my health wouldn’t permit me. After that I’m hearing the news of her demise, it is very upsetting,” he told The Quint.
The Kannada Lessons
According to Murthy, Swaraj mastered Kannada in a week. To improve her diction and pronunciation she would often speak to her family in the same language too.
“The day she arrived at our home, she asked if she could get a Kannada teacher. I contacted one of the professors in Allum Sumangalamma College, one Mrs Patil. She used to come home and give Sushamaji Kannada lessons for couple of hours. She was a quick learner,” recalled Murthy.
After the lessons, it was Murthy’s family who helped her with the pronunciation. “She would talk to us and ask if her pronunciation was correct. People wouldn’t believe when they were told that someone learnt to speak Kannada within a week, but she did,” he added.
The Reddy Brothers and Their Sushma Thayi
For the former mining barons of Ballari, Karunakar, Janardhana, Somasekhar Reddy and their associate Sriramalu, Swaraj was Sushma thayi (mother). When Swaraj was announced as the BJP’s candidate from Ballari, it was the Reddy brothers who funded and ran her campaign.
Over the years, this relationship grew stronger. Her visits to Dr Murthy’s house for Varamahalaskhmi festival was always followed by mass marriage organized by Sriramulu of the BJP, who claimed to be her ‘adopted son’.
In 2009, when the Reddy brothers had rebelled against the Yediyurappa led BJP government, it was her intervention that resolved the crisis.
But when Janardhana Reddy’s name emerged in the iron ore scam, she cut her ties with the Reddy brothers and her visits to the mining town reduced.
In an interview she said: “I have nothing to do with them, whether in their business or their political rise. My total interaction with them is limited to one day in the year, when I go to Bellary for the puja of Varnadevi.”
Despite the ups and downs in her relationship with Ballari, she is still remembered by many as Ballari’s daughter. According to Ahiraj, the reason for her electoral loss was the political history of the region. “The Congress was so strong here that Gandhi’s victory was certain, but Sushma gave her a tough fight and won the hearts of the people in the process,” he said.
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