In 2002, the BJP MLA from Naroda, Dr Maya Kodnani, was a name to reckon with. As a doctor-turned-politician, Kodnani had clout and she exercised it to solve people’s problems — always with a smiling face.
Cut to 2012. She has lost most of her powers and misses the glory of listening to people’s woes in her office. She lost her ministerial post.
She spends her time quietly examining patients at her women’s hospital at Saijpur Tower in Naroda.
And when there is a court hearing, she spends hours in the courtroom along with other accused. She though attends some political activities like Lok Darbars, when she finds time.
In fact, her fate has been like that of other accused and victims of Naroda Patia and Naroda Gaam riot incidents of 2002. She is among the prime accused in both the incidents that killed 109 people altogether on February 28, 2002.
She is accused of inciting and leading mobs in both the cases.
Kodnani is a three-time BJP MLA from Naroda. After her win in 2007 assembly elections, she became minister of state for women and child development. She was arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in March 2009, but was later released on bail. Just before her arrest, she had resigned from the ministerial post in the Narendra Modi government.
Until her arrest, Kodnani’s day would start with meeting officials, people and party followers. But now, her day starts with preparing the case papers and getting ready to go to the court for the hearing of criminal cases. And in the courtroom, she sits on the last row along with 62 accused of Naroda Patia case, perhaps not intending to make herself prominent by sitting on the front row. After all, it is not her ministerial chamber where she can give orders to officials and staff. The doctor — and a rising star within the saffron party — would never have imagined that her life would treat her like this, when she won the election from the Naroda assembly constituency with a huge margin of 1.8 lakh votes in 2007, full five years after the 2002 riots.
Once always a smiling face as a woman political leader, Kodnani has now become quite quiet. Literally.
