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The Rediff Election Interview/Vinod Khanna

'I want to be more than a showpiece'

The lives of some people are like rivers. Starting on a craggy mountain top, progressively gaining heft as it moves through different unexpected territories, and finally ending at a place it would never have imagined at its birth.

Vinod Khanna strikes you as an exemplar of that. An instance of a life that appears to have a direction, a course of its own -- independent even, of the liver thereof.

"Those days, there were two subjects we never really discussed -- one was movies, the other was religion." The speaker is a lady who was part of a group of youngsters that included a 20-year-old Vinod Khanna and his first romance, Gitanjali Taleyarkhan (who he was later to marry). "I remember him as very quiet, very polite and courteous. Sure, he was hunk so girls were pretty crazy about him -- but he was a very balanced guy, even that young."

The 'balaced guy' marries his sweetheart despite some initial opposition from both parents. And is already expecting his first son Rahul when he stumbles into films thanks to a chance encounter with a producer at a wedding.

"He always struck me as very focussed on whatever he was doing," says another intimate. "There's this drive in him to succeed -- almost as if he is afraid of failure."

He succeeds to an extent where, having started out as a villain, he is bracketed with Amitabh Bachchan.

Next thing you know, he's chucked everything up and trotted off to Rajneesh. Changing his suits for saffron, the lights and glitter for a gardener's spade, he works in the Rajneesh commune in Oregon.

Was he nuts? I mean, you don't sweat to succeed, then toss it all in the trashcan, do you? "It struck me at the time that I was losing my sense of identity. I was one character, then another. But never Vinod Khanna. And so..." the sentence trails into a shrug of those broad shoulders.

There were more to follow, his return, his remarriage, his younger son Akshaye's launch in a home production, his own spluttering film career. Questions, and more, as Prem Panicker finds out:

Mr Khanna, just who, and what, are you? Star? Sanyasi? Politician? And is there more to come?

I am, I guess, a human being who does what feels right to him at the time, does what he really wants to do. Sure, it is easy to latch onto one thing, to be and do that all your life -- but within you is a voice saying there must be something more to life. I look for that something more.

In politics?

Sure, there are two ways of looking at things that go bad. One is to say, something must be done. But if everyone sits on their butt saying that, nothing ever gets done. My approach is -- I must do something. So, yes, if politics is bad and you realise it, then you get in there and try to do something about it.

Here, as in the BJP? Here, as in the fold of a party whose ideology you approve of?

My parents were Congress supporters. But that was at the time of Independence. Today it is nothing but a money-making machine. In the BJP I find honesty, conviction, determination. Qualities that mean much to me.

Are you okay with the BJP's fundmental, religion based mindset?

Fundamental is a label. There are so many Christian countries in the West, so many Islamic nations, we don't call then fundamental. The BJP stands for uniform status for all citizens -- and that I was comfortable with.

Okay, so why a backwater like Gurdaspur?

I was offered a seat in either Bombay or Delhi, I declined, I decided that if I was entering politics, I wanted to be more than a showpiece, I wanted to do something real. So I asked the BJP to give me a backward constituency. And since I am a Jat, I said I would prefer one in Punjab.

So what is your overall impression of the place?

Backward. Criminally backward. I mean you don't expect industries, bustling towns in every corner of a country as big as India. But you do expect a decent road, you expect basic infrastructure. This place has none.

Why do you suppose that is so?

When your local MP has no opposition, when elections for her are a catwalk, what need was there for her to do any work? An MP gets one crore a year to spend on the constituency. Bhinder has been MP from here for five terms -- if she had even bothered to spend some of the money, this place would not be such a mess.

She talks of colleges, food and catering institutes...?

Yeah, right, you don't have roads but you have a food institute! As for the college -- it is in memory of Beant Singh, his family took the initiative, what had she to do with it?

I believe that 36 villages in the area are boycotting elections this time -- what is that all about?

That's another incredible story. Those villages are marooned on the other side of the river Ravi. There is no bridge -- so no way for them to bring their produce to the market, to send their kids to school. All they have are foundation stones -- each election, the Congress lays a new one, this last was in 1996 when Pranab Mukherjee laid a stone while launching Bhinder's campaign.

But Mukherjee in a recent statement and Bhinder in her meetings, explain that security is the season why there is no bridge....?

Do they take us all for fools? In this age of satellite spying, how does one bridge more or less make a difference? Besides, if there is a security consideration, then why lay a foundation stone at election time when you know the bridge cannot be built? Again, why promise the people a bridge? Why not, if your security consideration is real, try and resettle them instead of leaving them to rot?

So the boycott is on?

No. They will vote. I met them all, I have promised them they will get their bridge. There is another foundation stone as well -- over the Beas to connect Gurdaspur with Mukarian, in Hoshiarpur district. The Congress has laid foundation stones all over the place, we will build bridges.

Your opponent doesn't seem to think you can do much! A nautanki-wallah sans Substance is her assessment of you.

She may think I can't do much -- but what is the result of her first five terms in office? Everyone knows she has done nothing. Her non-performance is a matter of record -- what I can do, remains for her to see.

Kavita Khanna butts in: Can I say something here? Politicians sneering at rivals, I can understand. I do not understand the media's cynicism, the sneer, when it comes to Vinod. Has there been any point in his life to which you can point and say, at this time he did less than his best?

Another thing -- you people saw nothing unusual in lawyers, doctors, journalists, contesting elections. But if it is a film star, you sneer - why's that? Acting is a profession too -- is it a crime to belong to that profession? Your career politicians are in it to make money -- Vinod is here because he believes he can do something. If it was just money, why politics? Why Gurdaspur? What money can he make out of this place?

The argument seems to be, after the election you won't be seen here. So how do the local approach you for help?

I plan to set up a full-fledged, computerised office here. One that links me with all nine MLAs of the region via hotline, so that I am accessible at any time I am needed.

Kavita: Besides, it is naive to assume an MP's job is to personally stay here and clean up nullahs. Of course, Vinod won't live here all the time, does Bhinder? He will be in Bombay, attending to his film work, he is after all part of the industry. He will be in Delhi attending Parliament. He will also be in Gurdaspur when needed. Ideally, how it works is, individual problems go to the panchayat heads, they go to the local MLA, problems that need central intervention are taken by the MLA to the MP. And that is how it will be here.

So what, as an MP, would you say your priority areas were?

On top of the agenda is the Narot Mehra bridge. Then, medical care in villages which, to my shock, I found non-existent. Schools. A girls college. Roads. In a word, basic, very basic, infrastructure. All it needs is the will to do something -- none of the things I listed are difficult to achieve, and cumulatively, they can make an enormous difference to this area.

I came expecting a glittering campaign -- stars and starlets dazzling the janata, so where are they all?

Jeetendra, Randhir Kapoor, Mukesh Khanna, a couple of others will campaign on the last day. But yes, we kept the campaign non-starry. I don't want votes because people are dazzled -- I want votes because people believe in me, think I can make a difference.

As a filmi hero, you are used to omnipotence. The hero in the end solves all problems -- thanks to the script. Have you budgeted for the fact that a backbench MP is in fact nothing much in the political scheme of things? That you may not be able to deliver because here, you are just another walk as part?

That is why I have kept my sights low. I'm not promising to turn this into Utopia. I am promising little things -- a bridge, a road a little clinic. Things I can personally guarantee given the will, given the funds available to me as MP, given the goodwill of my party leaders. I'm not promising the moon -- merely a little candle so you can see in the dark.

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