New Delhi: The best part about the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is that it has not witnessed a single scam by any of its leaders, says actor-turned-politician Khushbu Sundar, who resigned from the Congress and joined the BJP Monday.
In an interview with ThePrint, she said her previous criticism of the party was a result of loyalty to the Congress and part of her duty as “a prime person from the opposition”. The Modi government, she added, had been cleared of all allegations raised against it.
“Being in opposition, you’ll have that… PM-CARES and this one and that one and Rafale and all that. But I think everything, the Supreme Court has cleared it for them and there is not a single scam (allegation) against any of the leaders,” she said. “So, you can understand how clean in the past six years this party has been. And I definitely believe that.”
Khushbu Sundar, who was born in Mumbai but now lives in Chennai, joined the party months before Tamil Nadu is scheduled to go to the polls. She has worked in around 200 films in multiple languages, and served as a national Congress spokesperson until Monday.
Her sudden entry into the BJP came as a shock to many, since she has been a frequent critic of the party.
Speaking to ThePrint, however, Sundar hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “vision”, saying the country needs someone like Modi to take it forward in the right direction.
“… I say somebody like Narendra Modi ji has to lead the country because… you have 128 crore people completely trusting one man, believing that he is ready to take the country forward. I think it’s high time we all start thinking about it,” she said.
“For somebody like me, who has been so vocal, so open, about my criticism and any other issues for that matter, I do not hide my feelings… If a thinking person like me can understand that it is Narendra Modi ji who can lead the country, I don’t think there can be any better example,” she added.
Yawn! Tell me something new @khushsundar #khushbusundar pic.twitter.com/259p25B96o
— Suby #ReleaseSanjivBhatt (@Subytweets) October 12, 2020
Finally @BJP4TamilNadu has deposited 2₹ in #Khushbusundar account ?????? https://t.co/1MFQhyjdlf
— நிவி❣️ (@Nivi45) October 11, 2020
Asked about the criticism she has faced for what is being described as an overnight switch in ideology — just earlier this month, she criticised the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh over his handling of the Hathras case — Sundar said her criticism of PM Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the BJP in the past was part of her job as an opposition leader.
“People who are on Twitter are not the ones who actually go out and vote. Anybody who trolls is actually a paid troll. They don’t have their names, identities. I’m least bothered. I’m not going to deny that (criticism of the Modi government). As a prime person from the opposition, it is my duty to make sure that I work with all loyalty towards the party I am in,” she added.
Sundar said “the prime job of a national spokesperson of a party, that too in opposition, is to fight, to find faults, whether right or wrong, just push it across”.
“There is a party line, there is a passage that is given, and they say you have to defend the party on these lines and you have to offend the ruling party on these lines. There have been multiple times where I have not been very comfortable because I thought what the BJP was doing was absolutely right. When the Congress tried to criticise PM Modi personally, I told my party that this was not right. I have never done that”.
Hours before her induction into the BJP, the Congress dropped her as an AICC spokesperson after she sent in her resignation from the party’s primary membership.
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‘Congress doesn’t have leadership’
Sundar said the “problem” with the Congress is that “they don’t have leadership”.
“Who do we call a leader? Sonia Gandhi is the interim president. But we don’t have a president. So whom do we reach out to? Rahul Gandhi has not taken over, if he wants to do so, he needs to do it boldly. Your position in the party is not about whether you lose or win elections. It’s about how you take the party forward,” she added.
“It was very disappointing that Rahul Gandhi ji resigned,” she said, referring to the leader’s resignation as Congress chief in 2019, after the party suffered a second successive debacle in the national elections.
When asked what prompted her to resign from the party, which she joined in 2014, Sundar said: “There are certain people within the Congress who don’t allow ‘actual voices’ to reach Rahul Gandhi. Everyone in the Congress is working for themselves and for power. They want a place next to Rahul and Sonia ji. They are not working for the party but for individual growth. Unfortunately, that’s the scenario in the Congress.”
She also criticised Congress leaders in Tamil Nadu for following a very “patriarchal mindset”. “They are insecure, they have an inferiority complex. I worked in the Congress for six years, but look at the statement the Congress state president has made. He said, after all, she’s an actress (while referring to me).
“This is… after working for six years, giving everything to the party, defending the party in every nook and corner, day in and day out. Giving up my time with my family and children. My work in the past six years has completely taken a backseat,” she said.
“At least people know me as an actress, but you are a nobody, yet you are to take the party forward in Tamil Nadu,” added Sundar, referring to Tamil Nadu Congress president K.S. Alagiri.
“The point is, if this is the mentality of the party I’ve been with for six years, with my position, my name and fame, imagine the plight of other women in the party,” she added.
She said the party’s lack of action against Alagiri “hurts but unfortunately also shows what the Congress is about”.
“There are atrocities against women in other parties, but look at your party first. No one would reprimand him, no one would raise questions as to how could he even say that,” she added.
Also Read: No more politics or movies, time off has helped me find myself, says Divya Spandana
‘Didn’t switch party for personal gains’
Sundar denied she has switched parties for personal and political gains. If that had been the case, she said, she would have done it six years ago.
“Let me remind everyone… I joined the Congress in November 2014, months after it had been decimated in the Lok Sabha elections. So, there were people who came to me and said I was crazy for jumping on a boat that was sinking. Yet, I had my ideology or my mindset that I had been brought up in the Congress, the kind of regard I had for Indira Gandhi ji and Rajiv Gandhi ji. So, I took a plunge into the Congress,” she added.
“It would have been easier for me to take a plunge with the ruling party — the BJP. But something in me, at that point, said the Congress is the right choice.”
She said the Congress had not done her any favour by giving her the post of national spokesperson, adding that she deserved it.
Stressing that she is multilingual, she added, “They gave me the position of the national spokesperson because they knew I can speak well. I know several languages. They know I have the capability. When I joined the party, the first thing Sonia Gandhi pointed out was that ‘I’ve seen your debates and you speak well’. So they knew they were giving it (the post of the national spokesperson) to the right person.”
She said she wanted to take the Congress forward, but was denied the chance. “It was again because there were people who think that a woman, an intelligent woman — and to hell with modesty — a beautiful woman, should not be talking actual business. A woman with beauty and brains is absolutely no-no,” she added.
‘Will contest elections if party asks’
She said she had not demanded anything from the BJP as a condition for joining the party, adding that she will work to ensure the party’s victory in the upcoming Tamil Nadu elections.
Asked whether she will contest the elections, she said she will if the party asks her.
The 2021 Tamil Nadu assembly election will be the first since the two political stalwarts of the state — J. Jayalalithaa of the AIADMK and M. Karunanidhi of the DMK — passed away, leaving a massive void in state politics.
The BJP has been trying to make inroads in the state, where it’s currently in alliance with the AIADMK, but hasn’t had much success.
Also Read: ‘Stay within Lakshman Rekha’ — AIADMK tells BJP as rift between TN allies appears to widen
Their own economic advisor said it’s economy is worst in 70 yrs.
And there is bigger scam than inefficiency n putting each n all under sedition, least you open your mouth.
Congress & other parties like AAP must be eliminated from India , as they are doing nothing but commenting,???,
For sure, what Ms. Khushboo has said here is borne out of her new compulsions, which consist of showing her loyalty to the new bosses; who, unfortunately, are the ones who are out to sell the country totally shelving and disregarding its hitherto all essential constitutional and democratic norms. No scam can be bigger than this, which Ms. Khushboo deliberately wishes to ignore. I thought she would live up to the quality of her name “Khushboo”, but she seems to be smelling foul of late.
She should understand that the BJP and SHIVSENA are the real secular parties as they haven’t discriminated against HINDUS or tried to divide them along caste lines.
Both BJP AND SHIVSENA never promoted proselytizers to win votes.
HINDUS believe in education and science and prosperity and are SECULAR as they don’t seek to proselytize and hence are free from HATRED against other religions .
Madam Khushboo,why no scam ? Media is scared of Modi-Shah and not daring to speak about scams.Thease have now grown manifol.
NO doubt her’s is a right decision for her political career . But Khushboo is under a false impression that there are no scams in BJP.
She has forgotten the non financial scams of Swaraj and Raje aiding the fugitive Lalit Modi is several ways in 2014, the PDS scam in MP and the CAG’s scathing remarks regarding Financial scams in GUjarat from 2010- 2014. The CBI also chose not to probe further into the Janardhan Reddy iron ore export scams , even though a mountain of evidence was collected by Justice Hegde . These scam s remain without investigation due to pressure on the agencies by the Centre.
She has exposed herself that she has nothing and BJP is desperate to rope any shit material into party . Last week she heaped abuses on PM not any political leader has done. But shamelessly she is telling that Modi is leader ! She will be a torn for BJP in TN except her own publicity she will bury BJP Good venom is in BJP
Has the lady expressed herself with candour on Hathras, and will she feel free to do so now …
Oh Khushboo, you are excused. That is exactly what all political opposition in any democracy always think and do to perfection.
To be taken seriously one has to give the devil its due, whether in the opposition or in the Government.
Just to join a party she has to give some reasoning that is her comments. Scam what she means , Raffle is not.
Kushbuji is good speaker .a public figure and and seems ambitious as see is shuffling her cards
now and then to win in the game. Parties are interested in reaching vote banks with the help of
popular public figures as was with Aachi, Soundarya and others.She may also be sort good as
party spokeswoman and lash out at congress opposition. But will she turn to be another Smrithi
Iraniji and grow with the party is something one has to wait and see.For Kushbuji, this is an opportunity to know first hand of the national party-BJP as an insider.
Congress bad mouths become sober after joining BJP. Khusbu must be feeling a great change in the political approaches of BJP and Congress that has now reduced to a bunch of crooks.