Nitin Gadkari and Raju Korti, Warriors of '57

Raju Korti
As a professional journalist with 42 years of experience behind me, I have always and scrupulously avoided making friendship with politicians. I have always kept them at arm's length as very early on in my career I had seen some of my ilk using them as piggybacks and turning wheeler-dealers. Without sounding too pompous or holier than though, vested interests was never my cup of tea. The only exception to this professional credo of mine was Nitin Gadkari who is now a serving minister in the Narendra Modi-led government. Notice the past tense.

Nitin and I are almost same age, he being barely three months older. He opted for Commerce and Law  before becoming a political leader while I chose Engineering, Science, Management, Law and Mass Communication to finally end up being a professional mediaperson. He was sharp, witty, incisive and interactive. One of his features, which is still in evidence, is the perpetual sardonic smile creasing his face. From my experience with him, I know what exactly goes into the making of that smile.

When I started as a journalist, he was just finding his moorings in Politics as student leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidya Parishad and later the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha. We used to cross paths often, me on my Honda motor-cycle and he on his Vespa. There was this rickety 'chai tapri' where we would cross and he would invariably beckon me with a wave of his hand. Our meeting would last around 15 minutes, sipping chai and sharing small talk and pleasantries.

Knowing, I would never entertain any political discussion that smacked of vested interests, he respected my bearing and I reciprocated by never asking for any favours. There was always a touch of humour to his talk punctuated with a grin and over a period of time I started understanding when it was sarcastic and when benign. 

What was absolutely genuine, however, was his love for food, especially snacks like Samosa, Aaloo Bonda, Kachori, Chakli and Chivda which he would freak out on any time of the day. I didn't have to be a dietitian to realize that this fond fascination for junk food had contributed largely to his portly structure. (Purely as pun) I never saw him throwing his weight around as is the won't of the modern-day leaders. Later, during a chance meeting in Mantralaya, he told me how he had to exercise restraint to shed those extra kilos and belly fat. Knowing his cravings, I knew it must have been too tough on him but diabetes and cholesterol don't exempt politicians.

Nitin matched this gluttony with an equal appetite for figures. All those who wonder how he reels out complicated financial and other figures of the projects that his ministry executes, ask me. He was remarkably good at those, a healthy commentary on his memory. You could/can never catch him on the wrong foot there. I suspect a lot of his rivals grudgingly respect his penchant to throw figures with an articulation that sometimes sounds a little glib.

When he sent me a personal invitation for his son's thread ceremony, I chose not to go for the reason I have already mentioned. Instead, I called him up and wished him formally. At Mantralaya, I avoided mingling with him too much. The conversation never went beyond formalities and we both knew we could have (had) much more deeper exchanges than the shallow ones. A couple of times I jokingly referred to him as "Sattawancha Senani" (Warrior of 1957, the title of a famous Marathi  book by Vasant Varkhedkar on Tatya Tope, the General of the 1857 mutiny) although we both were born almost a century later. He would respond with his trade-mark smile.

I am not surprised he has traveled thus far. I had seen the traits of a seasoned leader much before he had made it to the national consciousness. For the record, this piece has nothing to do with my political proclivities. This is as I have seen him as a person from close quarters. As he completes 65 years today, I extend my birthday greetings to him through this blog because I know if I call him, he will respond with "Ye bhetayla" (Come and meet).

And that is one thing I will not do. One, he is now busy up to his neck as union minister, and two, politicians do not have the same priorities as other mortals. Once a politician, always a politician. Maybe if and when he hangs his boots and to relive some nostalgia.