Just happened to see a headline on Sify.com & mid-day.com that Shiv Sena Supermo Balasaheb Thackeray has hinted at making Narayan Rane as the next CM of Maharashtra. If I am right, Rane had already completed a stint as a CM between 1998 and 2000, taking over Manohar Joshi.
All know that any CM in Maharashtra is a remote control in the hands of the roaring tiger Thackeray ? thanks to his charisma and support he has gained in Maharashtra by his noble deeds of changing the city?s name and station?s name. Whenever I think of Balasaheb?s decision of calling Victoria Terminus (VT) as Chatrapathi Shivaji Terminus (CST), the only joke I am reminded of is the one where an American makes a needle, a German makes a hole through it, and an Indian prints Made in India on it.
We (my boss and I) had decided to call the Demolition Man of Mumbai Khairnar for a live chat with the The Indian Express Online Media Ltd (TIEOML), and we had gone to meet him at his house. I was a bit taken aback by his simplicity. He was a kind man seated in his hall wearing a vest and a lungi. I never could imagine a person who is known to be so strong from inside could be so delicate from outside.
The house was unfilled. It was a government quarters, and there were no furniture except for a sofa in the hall. Khairnar was also known for his honesty and uncorrupt policies ? and it was visible.
We had a good informal chat with him, and he readily agreed for the live chat to be held at Express Towers, Nariman Point, Mumbai.
Our discussion lead to Indian polity when my boss Anil Nair asked him the reason to have rejected the seat being offered by Shiv Sena in the assembly election. Khairnar got a bit restless?and could not hold back the truth. He blasted the Shiv Sainiks for their gundaism and anti social and anti secular attitudes.
Anil was good at getting news - a real nose for news he had. He was trying to get the reason why Khairnar didn?t turn up for the party launched by Nararyan Rane after taking up chief ministership. And Khairnar replied, I had caught Naryan Rane in a rape case, slapped him, took him to the police station, and got him arrested. And you want me to be part of the party hosted by this person who was a gunda and a womaniser?!!!
God save Maharashtra!