After RR Patil was divested of the portfolio in the wake of the 26/11 attack, he worked his way up to regain it in less than a year.
When it comes to refurbishing one’s image, nobody can beat home minister RR Patil. After he was divested of the portfolio in the wake of the 26/11 attack, he worked his way up to regain it in less than a year. Senior colleagues of the home minister in the Nationalist Congress Party often ridicule his publicity stunts. But there is no denying that Patil pursues his goals with a missionary zeal, which often works to the party’s advantage.
Patil earned the tag of a clean politician long ago. Now, his decision to lead the anti-Naxal operations in the state by taking charge as guardian minister of the troubled Gadchiroli district has gone down well with the rank and file of the police. What’s more, Patil has made it mandatory for all police officers to serve for at least a couple of years in the tribal district. While lauding Patil’s efforts, NCP insiders say the real brain behind the reforms implemented in Gadchiroli was former home minister Jayant Patil. Unfortunately, he was moved from home to rural development within a year, leaving his hometown rival (both hail from Sangli district) to reap the benefit.
Power brakes on celebration
Eknath ‘Balasaheb’ Vikhe-Patil, now in his seventies, is no stranger to controversy. But even he would never have imagined that his rivals would raise a storm over the pending electricity dues of the cooperative society headed by him soon after he was bestowed with the Padma Bhushan. The Pravara Electricity Cooperative Society owes the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) a cool Rs1,800 crore. Always clad in white kurta-pyjama and sporting a Gandhi cap, Vikhe-Patil has dominated the political scene in Ahmednagar district in Western Maharashtra for almost five decades now. Successive governments have been wary of cracking the whip against him, preferring to strike political deals instead. Now, he is being asked to explain why his cooperative has not cleared its dues. Wonder what CM Ashok Chavan will do now.
Agitating the agitationists
Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh (BBM) chief Prakash Ambedkar sees nothing wrong in taking the support of Naxalites to intensify the agitation for a separate Vidarbha. The grandson of BR Ambedkar says, “Naxals operating in the cotton-growing belt are also voicing issues related to the suppressed sections of society. There is nothing wrong if they want to become part of the agitation.” But none of the mainstream political parties is ready to accept Ambedkar’s theory. Many, from home minister RR Patil to BJP president Nitin Gadkari, have dismissed his suggestion. Leaders of the NCP and the BJP argue that the Naxals are a banned group and giving them a political platform would only help them to consolidate their base across the state.
Dismissing Ambedkar’s theory as dangerous, these parties say those worried about the development of Vidarbha should first shun the path of violence. Nobody in the state wants a bifurcation at gunpoint, they insist. The creation of a separate state should be founded on the basis of a mass movement and the consent of the government.
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