Priya meets Lead India candidates

MUMBAI: Priya Dutt strides into the Bandra flat in linen trousers, short kurta and an airy red-and-white dupatta. Since an astounding 73% of her North Central constituency is slum and campaigning involves a warren of gutters and gullies, her feet are sensibly encased in a tough pair of Adidas trainers. She is without hand bag or make-up, on one finger sits a large Sai Baba ring, on one wrist a chunky steel Rolex, whose crown insignia could pass off for an aristocratic panja.
Close behind is husband Owen Roncon, in khadi and sneakers, and with them is their savvy manager Krishna Hegde, whom Priya inherited from her late MP father Sunil Dutt.There is, however, no flotilla of flunkies. It���s the last few hours of vote-catching and the Congress MP has agreed to meet a group of Lead India candidates and Bandra ALM folk armed, not with shoes, but with sockers: ��� And where did the slums come from? From heaven?������
After Dutt���s predictable spiel of how people should become part of policy-making instead of throwing brickbats, host Al-Nasser Zakaria throws the floor open to questions. Dutt, with a politician���s deep politeness, answers every query with, ��� That��� s a very good question.������ When asked to describe one challenging experience in her three-and-a-half-year term, she talks about how slum-dwellers at the Irla nallah were successfully rehabilitated.
Lead India��� s Vandana Shah asks about women��� s empowerment (Dutt talks about the Domestic Violence Bill); another person asks about the danger posed by Pakistan (��� We are prepared though attacking is not the answer.������ ); and Lead India��� s Saurabh Bhatt asks if the MP would ever consider exercising her conscience vote in Parliament (��� Yes, I would.������ ) And then Bandra resident Helen Miranda lobs a googly: ��� Why don��� t you come to Carter Road and see what��� s happening. When I look out of my building I think I��� m in Kashmir with houseboats on the water,������ she said, referring to the mysterious appearance of boats on the water every night. The MP says she will investigate\emdash after Kasab and Company, no one in Mumbai wants to treat boats lightly.