Nashik Diary

This time, it was Govind Ragho Khairnar, Mumbai8217;s former deputy municipal commissioner, who had earned himself the sobriquet, Demolition Man,8217; for his aversion to the metro8217;s illegal structures and his prompt remedy for the same.

Having been at the receiving end of Khairnar8217;s utterances recently, it was clearly time for a rejoinder.

The man8217;s criticism of the Sena, Thackeray began, was 8220;baseless8221; and 8220;contained not an iota of truth.8221;

After all, he went on, hadn8217;t Khairnar once claimed that he had a 8220;truckload of proof8221; against then chief minister Sharad Pawar?

The former cartoonist then used his favourite flourish: the metaphor. The truckload in question, he observed, had shrunk to the size of a suitcase and thence to a briefcase, before it 8220;vanished into thin air.8221;

What escaped the injured First Sainik8217;smemory was that when Khairnar took up arms against Pawar nearly five years ago, the Sena had thrown its weight behind him for all it was worth.

Now that the former civic official had trained his guns on the Sena, all its supremo can 8212; and did 8212; manage, was to admit there was no truth in the charges against Pawar.

And vent his frustrations with the help of assorted figures of speech.

New Times, Old Promises

No, the Shiv Sena and BJP with their combined intelligence, won8217;t learn from past mistakes. Instead, they tell themselves, let us find comfort 8212; and stimulus 8212; in new ones.

Like Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde who announced at a public meeting in Chandwad Nashik recently that every village in the state would be provided with two transformers each, to ensure unhindered power supply. No mention, however, of where the money would come from.

No allusion, moreover, to the fact that the two allies are yet to agree on the subject of provision of free electricity to farmers. Or, tothe funds crunch faced by the Maharashtra State Electricity Board MSEB thanks to accumulated power bills.

Maybe it8217;s time the allies got together to think of a survival strategy. Before they find themselves out of power.

Exclusive Press

The recent convention of Shiv Sena activists and elected representatives here was a closed-door affair; mediapersons and photographers were hustled out after the mandatory pictures of the inauguration ceremony were taken and no official briefing was held for the press later.

Thackeray, who had promised to meet reporters the next morning, slipped back into Mumbai that very night.

The next day, who would have the exclusive8217; story but Sena mouthpiece Saamna, up there on the front page.

Two ways of looking at it: Either the convention was open exclusively8217; to the Saamna. Or, the Saamna is not part of the media. Wonder what Thackeray meant.

Stuck For A Signal

Nashik appears to be seen as some sort of mascot by theSena. In November 1994, ahead of the 1995 Assembly elections, the party organised a rally in the city, and was ushered into power three months later.

Leader of the Sthaniya Lokadhar Samiti, Mumbai, Arvind Sawant, who had organised the rally was rewarded with a seat in the Legislative Council.

Now, with the next Assembly elections less than a year away, the party8217;s back in Nashik. No prizes for guessing who8217;s in charge of things this time round too.

But if the Sena8217;s into omens and symbolism, it8217;s probably time to start worrying. For, at the public meeting held at the Golf Club grounds renamed after Anant Laxman Kanhere, the revolutionary freedom fighter, most of the saffron flags hoisted by Thackeray got entangled in the scaffolding holding up the loudspeakers. And stayed there.