Lost chance to say sorry, forever: Uma Bharti

Bhopal: Five days after her ‘foster father’, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee passed away, Union minister Uma Bharti on Tuesday revealed the “greatest regret” of her life: that she could not say sorry to the saffron leader for giving him trouble many times during his lifetime.

“I had given him trouble so many times since I came in association with him when I was barely eight-year-old. I wanted to say sorry to him every time I had caused him pain, but somehow I could not get the

opportunity. I have the greatest regret of my life that I could not apologise to him for hurting his sentiments many times in my four-decade-long political career. Today I appeal to you (the late former Prime Minister) to accept my apology wherever you are,” an emotionally charged Ms Bharti said while looking at the sky with folded hands.

She was participating in an all-party condolence meeting organised to pay respects to the departed leader.

She went on to say that her party colleagues had the impression that she was the protégé of BJP patriarch L.K. Advani.

“Advaniji is my ideological mentor, but I see in Vajpayeeji a father figure,” she said.

She narrated how she had once left late Mr Vajpayee’s place in a huff when the latter made her wait without being able to give her an audience at the appointed time.

“Later, I was shocked and overwhelmed to see him (Mr Vajpayee) coming to my home to explain why he could not meet me at the appointed time,” she recounted.