Sunday Interview: ‘Shah’s leadership is the way to victory’

Why did it take you so long to join politics? You were supposed to join the Bharatiya Janata Party last year, during the Lok Sabha polls.
Life is a change to which we say “YES!” What comes before and after has many schools of thought. I have been reading, listening and experiencing it afresh. I have seen life changing already. I have not planned it. It came by destiny.

What are your priorities for Delhi?
What is not a priority for Delhi? What is less important? I have always had a very comprehensive and wholesome approach towards everything. For me, a government is an organic whole. I am an organic observer. I am convinced about delivering organically. Everybody is important — from the top position to the simple person sweeping the street… For me, going to a police station every morning at 8.30 was mandatory. From a child to an aged person, everybody will get importance.

You will contest from which constituency…
I will fight from wherever the party decides. I am not a chooser of my own constituency. My approach is to live in the present. Work for the present to the maximum and plan for the future.

What’s your take on full statehood for Delhi?
I do not think this is the central issue right now. I will think on this as a Delhiite.

So, what according to you are Delhi’s prime concerns?
Women’s security, cleanliness, providing essential amenities like electricity and water are my prime concerns. As for me, corruption is the prime concern which needs to be dealt with utmost care, and would go parallel with women’s security.

What is this 6P formula you talk about?
The 6P’s are: people, politician, police, prosecution, prison and the press, for ensuring women’s security in the national capital. Therefore, for the alignment of all these Ps, a government should be in place. I will not only strengthen Delhi’s civil defence but also recall, retrain and redeploy them on the streets of Delhi. In my civil defence team all will wear a yellow shirt as an alert all over the city.

If Delhi police has a strength of one lakh personnel, then we will have a citizen police force of maybe 50,000. Every civil defence volunteer will get an honorarium of nearly Rs 200 a day.
So if you get a distant learning student who devotes a few hours on civil defence, he or she will be paid. There is a budget and it is directly under the Delhi government. So one is the hub and other is the civil defence. We will call upon the youth who are doing distant learning. Anybody and everybody won’t be called. The selection would be done through proper screening. We have a great school of civil defence.

Do you feel bad about the way things turned out between you and Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal?
I look forward with positivity. The kind of leadership that Amit Shah is providing, his thoroughness would be the way to victory.

What is your take on Sakshi Maharaj’s comments?
He has been issued a show-cause notice.

Ghar wapsi?
I think they have been asking for a law which bans conversions… Let the Parliament decide whether to ban conversions or leave it at abolition. There can be no forced conversions. There is no ban on conversions and neither is there any ban on return to one’s old religion.