In the year 1958, after passing his SSC, Sharad Pawar came to Pune for higher studies and enrolled in BMCC College, commerce faculty. I am a son of a businessman and in those days, our parents did not have any angle about giving guidance, so we had to decide on our own. I felt that a commerce degree would be useful in future once I joined my father’s business, so I joined that faculty too.

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Both of us had done our studies up to SSC in Marathi and continued to do so in college as well. It was a small class of about 60 students. We found common interests between us and some of our friends. Apart from academics, we were also interested in sports and other cultural activities.

We used to meet practically everyday on the college grounds and gradually became friends.

This was the stage when I realized that he possessed strong leadership qualities. He was made the leader of physical training under the guidance of the sports teacher. Even at that age it was obvious that he was different from me, from the rest of the students.

During the college elections, I fought twice under his banner but lost both times. That is why I humorously point out that in spite of being the close friend of a politician who has fought and won elections for 40 years, I was not able to win even a college election!

Our friendship remained thick as time passed. Sharad Pawar was college representative in the second year and became the student’s representative in the university during the third year. In fact, students from other colleges whom he didn’t even know used to fight their internal elections under the ‘Sharad Pawar’ banner, which indicated his image and popularity as a youth leader.   

During the Chinese aggression of 1961, Sharad Pawar was the student’s representative in the university. He decided to organise a students morcha, which was very disciplined and well-organised. Kakasaheb Gadgil, the then Vice Chancellor, was invited to be the chief guest at the meeting that followed.

After the morcha ended and the meeting began, Sharad and the other student leaders spoke against the Chinese invasion of India. When the time came for the chief guest to address the meeting, he said, “After fighting for India’s independence, I was worried about the future of our country. But after listening to these students, especially Sharad Pawar, I am very sure that our country is safe in the hands of this boy.”

What Kakasheb said in 1961 has come true today. Sharad Pawar has the ability to do the job and get it done. 

Late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi also found leadership qualities in Sharad Pawar and felt that if the two worked together, they could make the country better on every level. 

Sharad Pawar is in politics but he does not do politics at each and every time of the day. Once elections are over, he just looks at the interest and progress of the people. The bottom level person has to be lifted up. Once the economy is strengthened the common man will also grow.

Another quality of Sharad Pawar is that he sees himself as a student. He always tries to make friends, interact with them, understand how they do their duties, learn from them and then gets charged, educated and tries to implement those things. He is a man above board. People have seen him as a contributor and given him posts automatically.

Sharad Pawar came out of his medical problem partly due to his strong will power, which contributed to a speedy recovery.  He feels that God has given him this new life for serving the common man, every moment he lives is for the common man. He has tremendous mobility; no other Indian politician will have travelled so much. He puts in an 18-hour workday even today without getting exhausted attributing it to the good wishes and expectations of those around him.  (The writer is a college classmate and friend of Sharad Pawar)