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"I'm Appalled By All This Modi-Bashing Around Us"

Actress and emerging BJP leader Roopa Ganguly on the growing hold of her party in Bengal and why she joined politics

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"I'm Appalled By All This Modi-Bashing Around Us"
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The irony was hard to miss. Best known as the actress who played Draupadi in B.R. Cho­pra’s TV opus Maha­bharata and now an emer­ging leader of the BJP in West Bengal, Roopa Ganguly appe­ared in a blue-and-white sari in her fourth-floor flat overlooking the rolling greens of the Royal Calcutta Golf Course. All three colours are associated with Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool Cong­ress. Settl­ing down for a conversation with Dola Mitra, she says these are just the colours she likes. Excerpts from the interview:

How do you react to reports that the BJP and Mamata Banerjee are getting closer in West Bengal?

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The question of joining Mamata Bane­rjee doe­sn’t arise because people are fed up with her government. In the past five years, they have unleashed a reign of terror in the state.

Once, years ago, I was driving back from a shoot in Mumbai when I saw an accident victim lying on the road, writhing in pain. I got off my car and tried to help. Some boys warned me and said, “Drau­padiji, yeh aapka Bangal nahin hain (This isn’t your Bengal). There you help someone and it won’t harm you. But here they will only blame you. Please get back into your car.” I felt helplessness but also pride for my state. Under Mamata, tho­ugh, it’s the rule of the jungle. Women used to be safe in Bengal, but now it has become India’s rape capital.

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Post-2014, the BJP seemed to be emerging as a strong political force in the state. Has it run out of steam?

It is not quite true. Even in the ass­embly bypolls for two constituencies, the BJP candidate (Samik Bhattacharya) won one. During our recent tour, in which we walked for 10 days from Kamduni to Kakdwip, people flocked to us with words of support. They told us about the hardships they face every day and how the Mamata government let them down.

How do you rate your party’s chances in the upcoming assembly elections?

Many people feel that if the Tata Nano project had not been driven out, it would have benefited Bengal. Modiji had the vision and was able to make it happen in Gujarat. The people of my state feel they have been left behind. They want change, growth and development. The BJP is the main alternative.

The BJP has drawn flak on a number of issues, the latest being the crackdown on JNU students. How will this affect the party’s prospects?

These are debates of convenience, all this talk around ‘nationalism’, ‘capital punishment’, ‘intolerance’ and such like. Modi is not one of those suave, urbane, fluent-in-English leaders, so it has become fashionable to attack him on every issue. I am quite appalled by how many people ridicule everything from ‘Swachh Bharat’ to ‘Make In India’. What do they expect his government to do? Shouldn’t he act against terrorism?

What made you join politics?

Even before I became an artiste, when I barely had the means to support anyone financially, I took care of several destitute women, giving them shelter, food and clothing. I have seen poverty first hand. My parents were not well-off. They were in Ban­gladesh and I—just a child then—was sent off to live in my uncle’s house in Calcutta. I have stayed in homes that didn’t have basic infrastructure such as proper washrooms. I have struggled in life and this has made me sensitive towards the needs of others. Politics gives you the opportunity to really do something.

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Why BJP?

I was invited to join the party long back. Atal Behari Vajpayeeji was then the prime minister. Many of my co-actors in Mahabharata had already joined. I alw­ays admired Vajpayeeji. His vision and style of work attracted me. I am equally impressed with the current leadership. The fact that Modiji got bank accounts opened for rickshaw-pullers was one of the first things that drew me in.

You were friends with former CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharya.

We knew each other and interacted with each other. We were both regular visitors to Nandan (a centre for cultural activities, including private cinema screenings, initiated when Buddhadeb was culture minister) and once I asked him what he thought of my singing. I gave him a copy of a recording of Rabindrasangeet sung by me. He said he liked it. We shared a cordial relationship, but that doesn’t mean I would shy away from expressing our political differences.

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