Mumbai (Maharashtra): Former Lok Sabha Speaker and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Manohar Joshi passed away at a private hospital in Mumbai in the wee hours of Friday.
A staunch 'Shiv Sainik', Joshi was a close aide of Shiv Sena founder late Balasaheb Thackeray. His health deteriorated and he was admitted to the PD Hinduja Hospital in Mahim here. Late on Thursday night, his health further deteriorated and he passed away following a heart attack.
Intellectual and Witty: Manohar Joshi was the first Chief Minister I saw after my journalistic journey began. I had heard many stories about his intellectual policies and of him taking a compulsory one-hour nap in the afternoon. I had witnessed Joshi Sir, who innocently stated that he did not hear the taunts of late Balasaheb Thackeray. But I always felt respect for his talent, punctuality, intelligence and his overall presence. Manohar Joshi, who was working as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, saw that the title of 'Sir', affectionately given to him by the people, was convincing. I had the opportunity to meet and interview him on numerous occasions. We used to get some 'exclusive' information from his interviews. After asking a question, he would answer it straightforwardly without throwing in the typical leader's style of "That's the way it is," "I tell you," etc. His wit, intelligence, diplomacy, sophistication, eloquence and sense of humour were frequently recognised while he was answering difficult questions.
In 2000, Shiv Sena's summit was held in Amravati, Maharashtra. Manohar Joshi was speaking in full flow and he mentioned about 200 crores of corruption by the opponents. Shiv Sena leader and current Union Minister Narayan Rane, who was sitting on the side, showed four fingers to Joshi meaning 200 not 400. On that, Joshi quipped, "Our Rane is smart. I don't know when he will do 200 or 400." The entire audience went into laughter.
Another episode which shows the sense of humour of Sir. I was interviewing him live on the national channel while he was Lok Sabha Speaker. The format of the program was I was the interviewer, Manohar Joshi was the guest and the anchor was asking questions from the audience to us from the studio in New Delhi. The studio was quite noisy. So Sir did not hear the question asked by the anchor. After asking the question twice, Sir quipped, "Hey, there is so much noise from your side that for a moment I thought I was not in the TV studio but in the Lok Sabha." The audience once again busted into laughter.
Not stingy, thrifty: Born in a poor Brahmin family in Nandavi village (then Kulaba) in Raigad district, Manohar Joshi sought help from families in the village till the age of fourteen. He had decided that he would not continue doing this for the rest of his life. So whether it was working in a hospital, working as a golf boy or working as a primary teacher for a while, he aimed to do business and was working in that regard. It was the beginning of the vast expansion of the 'Kohinoor' industrial group. Despite owning properties worth billions of rupees, the 'frugal beggar' in him remained awake. When he was a Member of Parliament, the president of one local group along with office bearers came to his Dadar office. The topic was to take donations for Navratri from Sir. Sir welcomed everyone with a smile and after a few minutes, the officials informed him about their purpose. Sir said, "How can I refuse a donation? It should be given and it should be given more than last year," and wrote a number on a cheque.
"Last year, I donated Rs 1,001. The faces of the office bearers brightened up. After that, Sir said, "I give a subscription of Rs 1,011" and presented the cheque to them. Sometimes his thrifty nature was admired. Sir, who attended the inauguration ceremony of the school built by Shiv Sena MLA Ravindra Mane in Devrukh in Konkan while he was the Chief Minister, asked him to keep the garlands received in the event in his car while leaving after the event. When asked the reason for doing this, he said, "The financial situation of the organisation for which they are going to go from here on is not very good. So, I have told them that they should not spend on garlands. These garlands can be given to them. How many leaders will think about organisers? Most importantly, Manohar Joshi did not make any compromise regarding the development works in his constituency.
Straight-forward Manohar Joshi
He wholeheartedly worshipped the deity called democracy in the religious area of the Municipal Corporation, Legislative Council, Legislative Assembly, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. He did justice to all the important posts like corporator, Mumbai mayor, MLA, Chief Minister, Leader of Opposition, MP and Lok Sabha Speaker.
He was thankful to late Balasaheb Thackeray and expressed his gratitude on several occasions. In an interview, Sir was asked about this, "You should have got some positions before others. There was a delay in getting them. How did you feel?" An outspoken Manohar Joshi stated, "I was angry. I was agitated. I felt sad. But then I remembered the teachings of Sai Baba of Shirdi to his devotees. Be patient. Then I thought to myself that someone more deserving than me had got the right position. I should be patient." "I was eventually patient and all the top posts came to me." Rarely would a leader have expressed his displeasure about the position he did not get. But Sir without any hesitation spoke the truth.
The Shiv Sena-BJP coalition government came to power in 1995. Then the name of Shiv Sena's Sudhir Joshi was at the forefront for the post of Chief Minister. Sudhir Joshi is Mahohar Joshi's nephew and a very unassuming personality. Before Sudhir Joshi's name was announced in the meeting of Shiv Sena leaders, Manohar Joshi's magic made sure that his name was announced for the post of Chief Minister. Sudhir Joshi proposed the name of Manohar Joshi as Chief Minister. When I once tried to talk to Manohar Joshi on this issue, he said with a serious face, "Achievements are important in politics. What I have achieved has benefited me. But no one has suffered."
Don't say no, don't do anything - A tall leader from India asked Manohar Joshi to do one thing when he was the Chief Minister. The subject was of course the financial interests of some people. Sir assured the leader that his work would be done but ensured that the work was not done.
Manohar Joshi is the 'Chanakya' of politics! The sweetness of his keen intellect, brilliant memory and precise speech are praised across Delhi. He maintained friendships throughout the country. And so the BJP gave an opportunity to Shiv Sena and Shiv Sena chief selected Manohar Joshi for the post of Lok Sabha Speaker which was vacant after the death of then Lok Sabha Speaker GMC Balayogi.
In support of Manohar Joshi, all Marathi MPs, except those belonging to Congress, signed the document. When he was Speaker of the Lok Sabha, the Lok Sabha was run under the discipline of a school teacher. His reaction to the media also made headlines, but then something just went wrong.
Manohar Joshi developed some diseases as he grew older. By mistake, he gave anti-party bytes to the media. The intellectual 'Chanakya' started to forget many things as he got older. Representatives of channels, ready to do anything for TRP, saw breaking news in this. But many respected Sir's seniority and stopped taking his responses on sensitive topics.
Joshi met media representatives every year on 'Ganesh Chaturthi'. But that's it. In 2019, I was awarded the prestigious 'Mumbai Gaurav Award' by him at the Ravindra Natya Mandir in Prabhadevi. Having met him countless times, had a great chat with him before the program. He interacted with my family, especially my daughter Urvi and blessed her. Everything seemed fine. But then after the program started, he kept staring at me blankly and spoke like a stranger with respect. I had tears in my eyes. The same thing happened on Friday.
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