12973 - My views on Aadhaar linkage won’t embarrass BJP leadership: Rajeev Chandrasekhar - TNN

TNN | Updated: Mar 13, 2018, 07:59 IST

BENGALURU: Outgoing Independent MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who is now a primary BJP member and the party’s official candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls from Karnataka, told TOI that chief minister Siddaramaiah is invoking Kannada pride when polls are nearing. Happy to join the saffron party, he said the move will help him turn his ideas into reality. 

The BJP nominated you for Rajya Sabha after a lot of dilly-dallying. Are you happy? 

I am excited that BJP has considered me for the third term of RS at a time when the clamour for urban governance reforms has just started growing. Since my politics is 50-60% about Bengaluru, I am happy that I can work with a political party whose focus is on improving governance in cities and make them smart. 

Lobbying won’t work with the Modi-Shah team. Perhaps, leaders in the BJP knew my work as I have a distinguished track record as an MP since 2006 and my attendance level in Parliament is high. I was the one who raised 2G and NPS scams. Arun Jaitley had once described me as the ‘de jure’ partyman of BJP and called me a de facto BJP MP. Party leaders were also impressed with my work and vision for improving cities. 

You have been an independent MP for two consecutive terms. Now you have joined a party with a right-wing ideology... 

I joined BJP knowing fully well that the party’s ideology and my political values are almost complete, consistent and congressional. I do understand that by joining BJP I will lose the freedom that I enjoyed as an Independent MP and that I need to work under many bosses both at the state and national levels. But I am willing to accept that change to achieve the large goal. The advantage of joining BJP is that I can finally turn my ideas into reality after struggling for 12 years.

It’s sad and pathetic that the Siddaramaiah government has been invoking regional pride ahead of the assembly polls. I have lived in Bengaluru for 40 years and I don’t need to prove that I belong here. The irony, though, is that Siddaramaiah himself as MLA had voted for me when I contested the RS polls in 2006. Belated Kannada wisdom seems to have dawned on him now. 

But voters won’t buy any such narratives and will go with the party which speaks of issues like traffic, women security, law and order and farmers’ suicides. For voters, how government ensures that their children don’t get beaten up by Congress thugs is more important than locals getting tickets.

My views on Aadhaar are not inconsistent and I have no intention to embarrass anyone. I believe some form of Aadhaar should be there but my only worry is about the possible leakage of information from the Aadhaar database. I have been fighting legally to incorporate the informed consent clause in the Aadhaar Act.