Daughter sees Mahatma in BSY

“I felt I was looking at Mahatma Gandhi on his salt satyagraha march, when he walked towards Raj Bhavan with all his supporters,” Aruna Devi told Deccan Herald.

Aruna Devi, who had come down to Bangalore from Shimoga just to be with her father on his “big day,” said the chief minister’s exit was unfair and that his conduct on the last day in office was “admirable.”

She called it a proud moment as her father stepped out of the house and walked to the Governor’s residence “with his head held high.”

She said before he left the house to address a convention at Palace Grounds, all the daughters gathered around him in the pooja room, where he paid his salutations to his late wife’s portrait and to God.

“We also made him perform ‘aarti’. For most part of the morning, he had shut himself in his room, where he prepared for his speech. He didn’t become too emotional during the speech and his body language bore a lot of confidence. When he came back home after the convention, he had lunch with the legislators and rested for a while. When he left for Raj Bhavan, all of us, his five children, our spouses and his grandchildren bade him away proudly,” she said.

Not nepotistic
To a question on allegations of nepotism against him, Aruna said the charges were baseless.

“My father has been attacked ever since he became the chief minister. A mafia has been continuously against him, trying to pull him down at every given opportunity. But this has been a good experience. He has had a good exposure,” she said.

A great vacation
She said the Mauritius trip was memorable. “He did get upset when the Lokayukta report got leaked, and told us he would leave for India. We insisted he stay back, as he didn’t have to feel guilty about anything,” she said.