The Hindu : National : Maggie beat me to it, says Cherie

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Friday, Sep 09, 2005

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Maggie beat me to it, says Cherie

Sushma Ramchandran

TRADITIONAL WELCOME: British Prime Minister's wife Cherie Blair being welcomed at the Mother's International School in New Delhi on Thursday. — PHOTO: PTI

NEW DELHI: It was over idlis and vadas on Wednesday that Cherie Blair confessed to having harboured ambitions of being the first woman prime minister of the United Kingdom. At 14, she had told her school friends that she would be the first, "but Maggie beat me to it."

In an informal meeting with women journalists at the Indian Women's Press Corps, the British Prime Minister's wife who is a reputed lawyer, said these ambitions died down when she turned 18 and began studying law. Denying that she had any Prime Ministerial ambitions, she said: "I am not going to be another Hillary Clinton."

Munching on "rice-cakes" with coconut chutney and sambhar, she insisted that 22 years of being the wife of an MP and a Prime Minister had doused her youthful political aspirations. "I've seen it all now. I am very happy with my law," she said.

No conflicts of interest

Asked about possible conflicts of interest in her practice and told about the Nalini Chidambaram imbroglio, she said: "I have never taken up any government brief since my husband became Prime Minister." On the other hand, she has taken up cases against the government. In fact, she argued one relating to parental leave facility not being granted by the government when she was eight months pregnant with her fourth child, Leo. "Of course that was not planned. Leo was not planned," she said with a smile.

Behind Blair's Iraq policy

Ms. Blair, who sipped herbal tea throughout her 90-minute interaction, had to move from room to room, leaving most of her thali untouched as the grilling intensified on Britain's Iraq policy. "I am fully behind my husband's Iraq policy," she stressed while confessing to a fascination for Islam because "I am a religious person."

She firmly disagreed with those who felt the Iraqi people might not have quite welcomed being liberated by the Americans and the British. She welcomed a "non-political" question, but added: "I think nothing is non-political." On her wearing Indian clothes, she said: "I love wearing saris and salwar kameezes." For the morning visit to Rajpath, she felt it would be proper to be fully British with a suit. But the heat compelled her to change into the black "kurti" with Indian embroidery, which she wore over black trousers for her luncheon meeting.

The meeting, which began with a "tika" and garlands on the occasion of Vinayaka Chaturthi, ended in a rush with an urgent call from the Prime Minister's Office, forcing Ms. Blair to cut short the conversation.

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