Nashik Diary

Placing the onus of guilt on the Congress, Gholap said he had resigned despite being innocent as the Congress had launched a state-wide smear campaign against the Sena. But his resignation has aborted any such plan.

An optimistic Gholap said he would come out clean in court as he had done nothing to bring shame to the party or his voters.

Ironically speaking

Politicians are known for their short-term memory. Chief Minister Narayan Rane, on his Nashik visit last week to attend afunction organised by a Marathi daily Lokmat, suddenly decided to preach ethics and professionalism. He called upon newspapers not to indulge in politics or devise means to increase circulation but instead work honestly towards public interest.

But in his enthusiasm wasn’t he forgetting that the Marathi daily Saamna edited by his mentor and Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray is essentially a political tool, a Sena mouthpiece?

And if he strains his memory a bit, didn’t Saamna on October 14, 1998, carry an editorial lambasting the Darda family which owns Lokmat?

How about taking lessons in ethics yourself first, Mr Rane?

Lip service

If `Shiv Sahi’ Babasaheb Purandare, a scholar on renowned Marathi warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj is to be believed, 533 forts belonging to Shivaji resemble dumping grounds. The reason: Neglect by visitors and the Shiv Sena-BJP Government’s failure to preserve the forts. Almost all the forts are littered with cigarette or bidi butts andempty bottles. Purandare, who was in Nashik for staging Jaanta Raja, a Marathi play based on Shivaji’s life, agrees that repair and maintenance of each fort would cost about Rs 10 to Rs 15 crore. But at least they would be free of graffiti and garbage, he argues.

To prove their point the Government has gone about renaming all and sundry places after Shivaji but, by neglecting forts of Shivaji, to whom they own their lineage, one fails to see what point it is this time that they want to prove.

Wanted: A lawyer

Pandu Mahadu Ramoshi, a farmer hailing from Dapur village in Sinnar taluka, is running from pillar to post — for a lawyer! But none of the Sinnar lawyers are ready to take up his case of land dispute. Not because the opposite side would bash them up but because Pandu himself might.

Pandu had attacked a lawyer in the Sinnar court and was punished with a day’s simple imprisonment and a fine of Rs 75. Pandu attacked the lawyer of the opposite side, J S Pandit, presuming that thelatter was responsible for delaying the hearing of his case. Pandu is fighting the case for years and is expecting prompt justice.

Mr Foot In The Mouth

At a Kisan Sabha rally in Peth, former MLA Jiva Pandu Gavit literally put his foot in the mouth. While addressing tribals, he went overboard and started criticising government officials. At least thrice, he used `unparliamentary’ words against the police and forest officials for exploiting the tribals. He also urged them to `break the limbs’ of officials who were corrupt and anti-tribal. He told the gathering that even after five decades of independence, tribals of the region were still denied pure drinking water, education and health facilities. Sadly, all this while he failed to realise that he had been elected to the Legislative Assembly for four successive terms till 1995. Wonder what he did for 20 years as the Surgana constituency (which includes Peth) MLA?