Uma pours out woes to Sonia

Uma pours out woes to Sonia
SHARAD GUPTA

NEW DELHI, MAY 11: Congress president Sonia Gandhi today lent a patient ear to firebrand BJP leader Uma Bharti and her bagful of complaints against Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh at a 15-minute meeting this evening.

``She belongs to a different party, yet I met her to seek her help on humanitarian grounds,'' Bharti told The Indian Express later. ``I told her that by reinstating the sacked daily-wage employees, the state government won't incur any additional burden. She patiently heard me but did not give any assurance.''

The former Union minister claims to be still fasting for reinstatement of some 35,000 daily-wage employees retrenched by the Digvijay Government in January this year. A number of the sacked employees, unable to cope up with unemployment, have committed suicide in Madhya Pradesh.

Bharti had sought an appointment with Sonia in the morning. Sonia called her at 4.30 pm at her Parliament office, but the meeting could not materialise as Sonia left for home after the House was adjourned for the day. Sonia later called Bharti to 10 Janpath at 7.30 pm.

Earlier, Home Minister L K Advani reportedly assured Bharti that he would ask the state government to explain the cause of the spate of suicides by its former employees, and what it was doing to check recurrence of such incidents.

Bharti reminded Advani that a few years ago, then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao had not only intervened administratively but also personally visited the site when some starvation deaths had taken place in Sarguja district.

Advani also assured Bharti that he would ask the state government to hold an inquiry into the alleged attempted assault on her during her indefinite hunger strike on the issue in Bhopal last week.