Rupani’s daughter lashes out: Is wearing a stern expression…only sign of a leader?

She also said that during the terror attack on the Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar in Sept 2002, “My father was the first person to visit even before Modiji visited the premises.”

Former chief minister Vijay Rupani’s daughter Radhika who lives in London, in an emotional post on her Facebook page on Sunday has lashed out at all those who held her father’s “soft-spoken” image as his undoing and recounted instances from his political life to say how he had wanted to be a “sensitive” politician.

She also claimed that during the terror attack on the Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar in September 2002, “My father was the first person to visit even before Modiji visited the premises” .

In the post titled “Vijay Rupani from the eyes of a daughter”, Radhika wrote “Very few people know that during the major threats of Tauktae (Cyclone) and Corona, my father was up till 2.30 am making arrangements via the CM dashboard and taking calls”.

According to her, while for many her father’s tenure began as a worker, through the various political positions till chief minister, “but in my view my father’s tenure began from the 1979 Morbi floods, the Amreli cloudburst, Kutch earthquake, Swaminarayan temple terrorist attack, Godhra incident, Banaskantha’s floods, Tauktae, and even during Covid when my father was on his toes”. She said that her father, who was handling rescue and rehabilitation at Bhachau during the 2001 quake, had taken her and her brother Rushabh to Kutch to make them understand an earthquake. In the post which also tags pictures of the Rupani family, Radhika says when they were children, their parents would not take them to the Race Course (a former race course that is now a popular hangout place in Rajkot) or movie theatres on Sundays but to “two BJP workers’ homes”.

Quoting a headline that said Rupani’s ‘soft spoken image worked against him’, Radhika says: “Should there not be sensitivity and grace in politicians? Isn’t it a necessary quality we need in a leader? He (Rupani) has taken stern steps and decisions like anti-land grabbing law, anti- love jihad, Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime Act (GujCTOC), CM Dashboard are evidence of this. Is wearing a stern facial expression …the only sign of a leader?”

She said that at home “we would always discuss if a simple person (like my father) would survive in Indian politics where corruption and negativity is prevalent. My father would always say that the image of politics and politicians was influenced by Indian movies and age old perception and that we had to change that. He never supported groupism and that was his specialty. Some political analysts might be thinking that –‘this is the end of Vijaybhai’s tenure’– but in our opinion instead of nuisance or resistance, it is better to quit without greed for power as per the principles of the RSS and BJP (sic).”

Rupani who belongs to Rajkot and is an MLA from there, resigned Saturday after five years as chief minister.

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