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Journalism of Courage
SURAT, June 10: It’s not often that you come across resumes spread over four sheets. But then you don’t have to meet an ambassador or an official on the United Nations assignment to come across such credentials, any Bharatiya Janata Party activist will do.
But the saffron brigade is careful enough not to flaunt those hidden virtues to everyone, it’s only when they are showered with some plum post — which they refer to as responsibility — that they find the temptation to share those facts with the rest of the world too hard to resist.
So here you have Arvind Godiwala, who was nominated by the party to take over as the chairman of the Surat Urban Development Authority (SUDA), only on Monday. If supporters can print a full book devoted to the works and deeds of three-time Member of Parliament Kashiram Rana, others can be pardoned if they are taken over by the urge to follow suit.
No wonder Godiwala was able to come up with an equally impressive biodata by Tuesday afternoon, credentials that will do any Noble laureate proud. In 54 years of his existence, he has involved himself in a host of activities along with taking care of his varied interests.
A Commerce graduate, his editorial stint began when he was appointed as magazine secretary of his school magazine in 1960. Unfortunately, his forays into the Fourth Estate ended there, or else he would at least become editor of one of the sports magazines, given his excessive interest in sports and allied activities.
And he is not only interested in cricket — the game about which he has read extensively and takes pains to tell others that he keeps track of all cricket matches played anywhere and to the last ball — but also in tennis, basket ball and football.
The biodata traces his association with Jan Sangh which began in 1966 and reels off the number of positions he adorned in the BJP, from ward-level to being the observer in elections. His party may have lost count of the number of yatras it took out either to symbolise or to commemorate something, but the biodata religiously states the role he played in stretches by taking raths from one place to another in his jurisdiction. His list of achievements comes to an abrupt halt when he was appointed the city unit president of the party.
While his political innings consume a major chunk, it does not forget his reading interests, his contributions to the society by way of his holding various posts in social and co-operative organisations.
Surprisingly, no cricketer figures among persons who have influenced his life. Though he has not shown interest in hockey, all were sure that he was armed with enough dribbling skills to find his way through the Hajuria-Khajuria divide. Incidentally, he had managed to defend a googly turned in by his party’s bete noire Shankersinh Vaghela who had offered him the same position when the RJP government came to power. He did not fall in the trap, knowing that his day of reckoning was to come.
