Madhya Pradesh Cabinet minister Kailash Vijayvargiya’s slippery Lakshman rekha

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Cabinet minister Kailash Vijayvargiya often draws a Lakshman rekha for women. The self-appointed custodian of culture advises women not to wear revealing clothes or cross certain limits, indirectly blaming them for inviting unwanted attention.

Days after the brutal 2012 Delhi gangrape, the senior BJP leader had come up with the Lakshman rekha remark, drawing rebuke not just from political rivals, women, and activists but also his party’s high command, which publicly asked him to withdraw his distasteful comments. In an insincere apology, he claimed the remark was meant for everybody, not just women.

Recently, Vijayvargiya — now the state’s urban development minister who also holds the parliamentary affairs portfolio — crossed another line when he flew off the handle while answering persistent queries from a television reporter who sought accountability for deaths caused by contaminated drinking water in Indore. The congested locality where this incident occurred is part of the constituency Vijayvargiya represents in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly.

The video of the angry exchange between the minister and the reporter went viral, turning the spotlight on the tragedy that had taken many lives and left hundreds hospitalised.

Indore, which had been in the headlines for many years for being the cleanest city in the country, found its image sullied in more ways than one. Sensing the damage done by the altercation, Vijayvargiya apologised again. This time, unconditionally.

Precarious position

Once considered close to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the 69-year-old maverick politician has navigated his way through a slew of controversies, usually caused by his off-the-cuff remarks, especially against women, and corruption accusations.

Party insiders read frustration in the intemperate language used by the minister, whose political stock is now in decline. When Shivraj Singh Chouhan was the chief minister, Vijayvargiya was seen snapping at his heels. He was considered number two in the state politics, and therefore a threat to Chouhan, who helmed the state from 2005-end to 2023, barring a 15-month Congress rule.

A much younger Mohan Yadav succeeded Chouhan, leaving the likes of Vijayvargiya squirming. Many called Yadav, who hails from Ujjain, hardly 35 km from Indore, a protégé of Vijayvargiya till the high command’s unexpected decision changed the power equation.

A go-getter, Vijayvargiya usually maintains a friendly demeanour. He prefers to keep his arms around the shoulders of journalists while talking to them until he’s cornered, like he was the other day. He also occasionally loses his cool while defending ideological issues.

But something changed in the last few years, coinciding with uncertainty over his and his son Akash’s political future. In the Indore region, his closest party rival was veteran parliamentarian and former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. The media loved to call their tussle “Tai (elder sister in Marathi) vs Bhai”.

Vijayvargiya did not contest the 2018 Assembly election, knowing well that the party would not field him as well as his son. The junior Vijayvargiya fell from grace after he was caught on camera chasing and hitting a municipal official with a cricket bat. Prime Minister Narendra Modi reportedly censured him, and he was not fielded in the 2023 elections.

Vijayvargiya Sr was not too keen on another electoral battle, but the party forced him and some other seniors in 2023. He expressed displeasure in his typical style, saying he thought he had become an important leader who makes speeches for others, but was surprised to be made to campaign for himself.

Personal flair

Outside Madhya Pradesh, he was once in charge of the party’s West Bengal election campaign. A good showing in Haryana and then Bengal had helped him get closer to the national leadership.

Rivals of the former Indore mayor demean him as a showboat for his antics and the issues he chooses to highlight. Once, he targeted a vibrating condom, describing it as an assault on Indian values.

His past rhetoric against indecent television advertisements and double-entendre dialogues had many takers. He successfully campaigned to replace colonial convocation dresses with dhoti-kurta. When a Muslim candidate from the Congress won from Bhopal, he asked how a “beef-eater” achieved victory when a nationalist government was ruling Madhya Pradesh.

He began his political innings in 1975, the year Sholay was released. Not surprisingly, he once compared himself to Thakur, saying he was as helpless as the character. Chouhan was the CM then. During the brief Congress rule under Kamal Nath, he used the “Tera Kya Hoga” dialogue from the iconic movie to warn officials against behaving in a partisan manner.

Around the same time, he warned an official in Indore that he would have set the town on fire but for the presence of RSS office-bearers.

Hailing from a modest background, he makes it a point to sell groceries from an old family shop once a year. It’s another matter that, given the wealth and resources he has amassed over the decades, this annual “ritual” is only for the cameras.

Belting out bhajans and Hindi songs in party functions, he fancies himself as a singer. It remains to be seen whether he will face the music for his recent outburst.

(The writer is a Bhopal-based senior journalist)