She is bold and beautiful, and successful. That she is a dalit, only adds that bit of hurt, and grit, to the persona.
“Actress Hema Malini is an MP from the neighbouring temple town of Mathura. Did these Hindu leaders/sadhus question her election candidature like they are slamming mine?” asks an incredulous Archana Gautam.
Since the day Congress announced Archana as it’s candidate from Hastinapur assembly seat last week, the little-known model and movie actor, as also Miss Bikini etc, has been in the eye of a storm, inundated by a coarse avalanche of her bikini-clad pictures on social media and sly queries about why she had been fielded by a weak Congress. As if on cue, the so-called religious seers raised a red flag over “such a woman’s” suitability to fight elections from the holy town of the Mahabharat mythology.
But with stigma and struggle part of her hardscrabble upbringing in the deeply feudal western UP, Archana has come too far to back down now.
“I am being run down while Hema Malini was not, I think, because I am a dalit. Else, she also wore skimpy clothes … It’s nothing but social trolling. I don’t care about it,” she told TOI.
It is difficult to figure out if Archana’s grit flows from her upbringing as a poor dalit girl in Hastinapur/Meerut or if her flight for freedom, that took her to Mumbai, Chennai and landed the wide eyed go-getter on silver screen, steeled her to question and confront.
But she, all of 26 years, knows her Ambedkar enough to credit her growth, and of all women, to the father of the constitution, and also to tell the sadhus that their opposition to her is akin to “bringing religion into politics”, contrary to the “secular Constitution”. After finding untouchability all around her growing up, she found it liberating that “there is no discrimination in modelling/film industry”.
It is intriguing that the articulate young “star” attracting such attention is from the weak Congress ticket. But she says Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has enabled her aspirations to move to the next level, after she managed to leave Meerut and land in Mumbai, “and became a star”.
“I am confident Congress can win. My voters have voted SP, BSP, BJP. I am asking Hastinapur to give me a chance too. I will develop my village. I am a local, and I am getting support,” she says with conviction. In BSP leader Mayawati, she finds an “inspiration of the community” and is urging people to support her like they did “our elder sister”.
Far from the puritan worldview of sadhus and conservatives, Archana paints in their midst a society where “girls like me” are harassed by rowdies no sooner we step out on the streets and are promptly pushed back inside the oppressive four walls. “Our girls have small dreams but even they die early… I want to be a role model for them. My victory will liberate them,” she says, of her dreams and goals behind the political plunge.
Wherever, it’s coming from, Archana is confident enough to put herself at par with politician-actors – Hema, Jaya, Jayalalithaa et al. “I have big movies in south But I am making a big sacrifice. I have told people that if I win, I will never go back to the industry and will only work for their welfare. Most of the actors come to politics after 40 when their careers are over, I am coming at 26,” is her strong pitch in her favour.
In the end, the trolled dalit girl sees a historic mission for herself. “Draupadi had cursed Hastinapur that no woman will rise from here. That curse will be broken this time by a woman, and i will become a medium for it,” she said, with the confidence of a self-made person.
“Actress Hema Malini is an MP from the neighbouring temple town of Mathura. Did these Hindu leaders/sadhus question her election candidature like they are slamming mine?” asks an incredulous Archana Gautam.
Since the day Congress announced Archana as it’s candidate from Hastinapur assembly seat last week, the little-known model and movie actor, as also Miss Bikini etc, has been in the eye of a storm, inundated by a coarse avalanche of her bikini-clad pictures on social media and sly queries about why she had been fielded by a weak Congress. As if on cue, the so-called religious seers raised a red flag over “such a woman’s” suitability to fight elections from the holy town of the Mahabharat mythology.
But with stigma and struggle part of her hardscrabble upbringing in the deeply feudal western UP, Archana has come too far to back down now.
“I am being run down while Hema Malini was not, I think, because I am a dalit. Else, she also wore skimpy clothes … It’s nothing but social trolling. I don’t care about it,” she told TOI.
It is difficult to figure out if Archana’s grit flows from her upbringing as a poor dalit girl in Hastinapur/Meerut or if her flight for freedom, that took her to Mumbai, Chennai and landed the wide eyed go-getter on silver screen, steeled her to question and confront.
But she, all of 26 years, knows her Ambedkar enough to credit her growth, and of all women, to the father of the constitution, and also to tell the sadhus that their opposition to her is akin to “bringing religion into politics”, contrary to the “secular Constitution”. After finding untouchability all around her growing up, she found it liberating that “there is no discrimination in modelling/film industry”.
It is intriguing that the articulate young “star” attracting such attention is from the weak Congress ticket. But she says Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has enabled her aspirations to move to the next level, after she managed to leave Meerut and land in Mumbai, “and became a star”.
“I am confident Congress can win. My voters have voted SP, BSP, BJP. I am asking Hastinapur to give me a chance too. I will develop my village. I am a local, and I am getting support,” she says with conviction. In BSP leader Mayawati, she finds an “inspiration of the community” and is urging people to support her like they did “our elder sister”.
Far from the puritan worldview of sadhus and conservatives, Archana paints in their midst a society where “girls like me” are harassed by rowdies no sooner we step out on the streets and are promptly pushed back inside the oppressive four walls. “Our girls have small dreams but even they die early… I want to be a role model for them. My victory will liberate them,” she says, of her dreams and goals behind the political plunge.
Wherever, it’s coming from, Archana is confident enough to put herself at par with politician-actors – Hema, Jaya, Jayalalithaa et al. “I have big movies in south But I am making a big sacrifice. I have told people that if I win, I will never go back to the industry and will only work for their welfare. Most of the actors come to politics after 40 when their careers are over, I am coming at 26,” is her strong pitch in her favour.
In the end, the trolled dalit girl sees a historic mission for herself. “Draupadi had cursed Hastinapur that no woman will rise from here. That curse will be broken this time by a woman, and i will become a medium for it,” she said, with the confidence of a self-made person.
.