Sushilkumar Shinde’s autobiography casts a warm glow upon a time when camaraderie ruled over calumny

MUMBAI: Politics thrives on shifting alliances and frail fealty; but it’s a thought Sushilkumar Shinde would not buy into easily.

The Congress veteran’s autobiography, ‘Five decades in politics’, is a paean to friendship, which, he says, shepherded him through the dark maze of power politics, as also his rise from a police constable to the majestic North Block in Lutyen’s New Delhi as the country’s Union home minister. The autobiography was released at a function in New Delhi recently.

While Shinde has chosen to keep in the shadows several key policy issues which he handled as UPA home minister (he cites an oath of secrecy as the reason), the gentle, effusive tone sets it apart from the shrill ‘bare it all’ tomes that flood the market, say political observers.

Shinde’s list of friends and icons include Yashwantrao Chavan, Vasantrao Naik, Vasantdada Patil, A R Antulay, Vilasrao Deshmukh and Balasaheb Thackeray, the pipe-chewing, cartoonist-turned-Shiv Sena chief. Shinde has expressed his gratitude to Sonia Gandhi as well. She has written a brief note praising the book, while former Union minister and NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar has penned the foreword.

Shinde’s list

It is Pawar who takes away a large share of Shinde’s affection, or so it seems. A greenhorn in politics, Shinde looked up to Pawar during his early years. “Pawar guided me, often placing a Gandhi cap on my head while on a campaign trail, teaching me how to wave at crowds and fold my hands to do ‘namaste’ each time I faced a group of supporters or a large gathering,” Shinde remembers. He further says that Pawar had a “special admiration” for him as he had come up the hard way from the backwaters of Solapur, his hometown— a Dalit from ‘dhor galli’.

Shinde also speaks fondly of Vilasrao Deshmukh, adding that the duo was known as ‘Do hanson kaa joda’ (a popular song from the 1961 film ‘Gunga Jumna’) in political circles, and that each would recommend the other’s name for CM-ship whenever the Congress high command despatched a party observer to Mumbai for a change of guard in the state.

Political analysts say Shinde’s life story resonates with human values which set the ‘lakshman rekha’ for Maharashtra politicians. ‘Vidhaveche paise khayche naahi’ (Don’t fleece a widow of her money) was the first and foremost rule in rural politics, it is said.

A gentle time

Back then, politicians sat down together to break bread, laugh and chill — and loved a good fight as well only to make peace, all in the larger interest of the party.

Vasantrao Naik and Vasantdada Patil, both lauded as Maharashtra’s able chief ministers, had warm equations with Opposition bigwigs such as Krishnarao Dhulup, Keshavrao Dhondge, D B Patil and Ganpatrao Deshmukh, among others. Dhondge’s rustic humour often brought the house down, defusing many a crises.

Patil, a school dropout, had fine social skills. Before he took his seat in the state legislative assembly, Patil would, in keeping with the protocol, greet the Speaker, and also Mrinal Gore, the gritty leader of the Opposition. “Taiee, sambhaloon ghya,” (Don’t bother us too much), he would say.

On their part, party elders took a generous view of their followers’ rapport with political rivals. Shinde recounts a cute story. Indira Gandhi, who had returned to power in 1980, was keen to have Pawar in her party, the Congress (I). Pawar was then heading the Progressive Democratic Front government, a loose alliance of a clutch of Opposition parties.

As Pawar seemed stubborn, Gandhi once buttonholed Shinde and asked him straight about his close friendship with the Baramati man. Shinde said their ties were beyond the pale of party politics. After a pause, Gandhi put Shinde to ease, and said that he was a rarity because others spoke against Pawar in her presence, and shook hands with him when they returned to Mumbai.

Atal Behari Vajpayee had a soft spot for Socialist George Fernandes, and gave him the crucial defence portfolio in the NDA regime. Fernandes would address Balasaheb Thackeray as just ‘Bal’. During the heady Shiv Sena-BJP alliance in the 1990s activists from both parties would, during poll campaigns, together eat a grubby ‘bhaaji paav’ meal after a day’s hard work.

There’s an endearing story of how Pawar brought a seriously ailing Hamid Dalwai, a well-known and much respected social reformer, to Varsha, the CM’s official residence, and took good care of him.

Old-timers recalled how Indira Gandhi, during a visit to Mumbai as Prime Minister, had set aside protocol and called on an ailing Shripad Amrit Dange, the legendary Communist lion king, at his Dadar residence. Equally endearing was RSS ideologue Dattopant Thengdi’s friendship with Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar despite an age gap, it is said.

“Those were the days when politicians were held in esteem as lawmakers, and people had faith in them. Today, they have political heft but lack credibility. This is all of their own making,” says Satyajeet Tambe, 41, an MLC (Independent) from Nashik.

Dawn of the savage tongue

Pointing out that calumny has replaced camaraderie, publisher and political commentator Arun Shevte says, “If one contrasts the warm, friendly tone of Shinde’s book with today’s angry outbursts one realises that something has gone terribly wrong with Maharashtra politics.”

Ashok Rajwade, former IIT-ian and cultural activist, attributed today’s grossness in public discourse to unbridled greed for power and a certain aggressiveness which, he points out, was “dangerous” to the democratic process. “With ideology junked out of the window now it’s only about power and pelf,” he adds.

Not that young politicos are unaware of the indignities they heap on the spoken word. “But we are in a trap. If I don’t match the decibel level and the venomous vocabulary of my political rival I am seen as weak, a loser. The social networking media and television news channels have made no mean contribution to the steady decline in public debate,” says a Shiv Sena (UBT) functionary on condition of anonymity.

Holding politicians solely responsible for the decline in values and loss of prestige, Tambe says, “Many young politicians haven’t crawled their way up. So, neither do they feel accountable to people nor do they have a connect with them. Entitlement politics often breeds brazenness.”

The last word comes from a writer. In a statement on Friday, Shripal Sabnis, the former president of the Marathi sahitya sammelan, expressed delight over the Centre’s decision to accord the much coveted ‘classical language’ status to Marathi.

“Politicians should now speak classical Marathi and reject their vituperative vocabulary,” says Sabnis.