Hindustan Times
Sushma Swaraj’s colour coding
Last week I met BJP’s Sushma Swaraj. She was a panelist at one of the sessions at Hindustan Times Leadership Summit. Ofcourse she spoke at length and put up a strong defense for her party, which according to some in the audience, was doing very badly. She was shrill and spoke in Hindi and English.
After a point I stopped listening to her and others on the panel comprising India’s opposition.Part of what they were saying I had heard earlier. Instead I looked at Sushma’s saree and I wondered if she had matched it to the day of the week. 
For those who don’t know this part of Swaraj’s personality, the BJP leader takes gemology and astrology a bit too seriously. For instance every Monday she will wear white and eat white: usually safed channa and cauliflower if it is in season, The logic: Monday is governed by the Moon and the ruling gemstone is pearl. The auspicious colour for that day: White. Hence there is little chance that Swaraj will wear anything but white.
On Tuesday, (ruling planet Mars and gemstone coral) Sushma will always wear red or at best maroon saree and eat rajma and carrots. Wednsdays ruling planet is Mercury which is dominated by the colour green. So it will be green sarees and day’s menu: capsicum and spinach. If there is dal on the menu, then it must be garnished with coriander.
Low down for the other days of the week: Thursday: ruling planet Jupiter: Colour/gemstone: topaz or yellow sapphire. Sushma will only wear yellow sarees and eat kari and besan chila. On Fridays ruled by Venus) and Sushma wears grey and eats mixed moong and urad daal which gives a kind of a grey hue. On Saturdays, (ruling planet Saturn and gem stone blue sapphire) it is black sarees and black gram as food. On Sundays she takes a break Sunday and eats what she wants and dons any colour.
In fact Swaraj’s wardrobe (which has exquisite sarees including some spun in jute) sarees are lined according to the days of the week, kept in neat rows of white, maroon, red, green and so on. Check out her kitchen and the week’s menu is planned according to colours. Who told me all this? Sushma Swaraj herself. Ofcourse she added that, apart from astrology and gemology, it is “effective time management” because it helps the domestic staff to know what to cook rather than wait for instructions.
Sarees apart, she has a collection of “nice shawls” (read pashmina) even while claiming to have burnt to ashes both the shahtoosh she possessed after the yarn was declared illegal. Dominated by planet Saturn, Sushma loves black and wears a blue sapphire ring and ofcourse the customary mangalsutra. . Once over tea she told me that every time she visits Ambala, her hometown, she savours Ved ke golgappe, Kalkawale ki kachori, overdone peanuts and alu paranthas dripping with homemade butter. So next time Swaraj is on your guest list make sure you follow colours and go according to what the planets dictate.
(5 votes, average: 3.8 out of 5)
Loading ...Posted by Kumkum Chadha on Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Filed under India · Tagged astrology, gemology, Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, Sushma Swaraj
Despite Sushma Swaraj’s prediliction for astrology, she is clearly riding a downward curve- the way I see it. The first disastrous step she took was when she announced that she would tonsure herself if Sonia Gandhi assumed office as Prime Minister. In time, she stopped visiting Bellary too, which she had accepted as her own after being defeated by Mrs. Gandhi there. Her proteges (the Reddy brothers) are now holding the Karnataka Government to ransom with their enormous (ill-gotten) money power. Her election from Vidisha itself was by arranging that Raj Kumar Patel, the Congress nominee would file faulty nomination papers against her, which would strategically be rejected. So much for Mrs. Swaraj.
A word of advice-In Indian politics- its important to appear moderate, to keep the right company and to take yourself less seriously than she does- important lessons that the BJP’s posterboy A.B. Vajpayee taught in his own affable manner. Incidentally, she has not made even one worthy intervention, which could even vaguely be called statesmanly, in the Lok Sabha. I would personally rate Arun Jaitley as being far above her in terms of contribution to the BJP and to the polity of this country.
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Seriously what’s the point of this article other than painting some BJP leader as voodo practitioner..
Get some real work if this is what you do in name of journalism then I feel sorry for your ilk madam
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million of issues in India that needs to be raised, disscussed and debated and yet aouthor is more concerned about what Sushma wears and eats.
Seriously, get a life and report something useful!
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To me at one level it speaks volumes on the insecurity leaders have.
On another level it speaks volumes for the strong belief systemsleaders have in astrological symbolism.
Many world leaders have resorted to astrological / spiritual advise. Jean Dixon for the US presidency, a soothsayer for Juan Peron, Rasputin for the Russian Monarchy, Dhirendra Bhramachari for Indira Gandhi, and so on.
Why do they do it? One possible reason is that leaders are constantly faced with a set of issues that have no straightforward answer. I guess leaning towards astrology / spiritualism gives them some form of solace, for whatever it is worth.
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What is wrong with some simple color and food related practices ?
Is she making the whole society follow her beliefs by passing some fatwa ?
or claiming that god had told that this is the only way ?
There is nothing wrong in writing an article, but please compare with some other things which cause lot more havoc to the society..
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I didn’t know this journalist has such thin skin.
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