Insomniac Politicians & Mystery of Eknath Shinde’s Sleep

Lord Rama’s younger brother, Laxman, was an insomniac who didn’t sleep for fourteen years while he accompanied Rama and Seeta in the forest. While Laxman’s could be an extreme case of control over one’s sleep, we have a few politicians in our country who barely sleep. PM Modi sleeps just for four hours but there are a few politicians in Maharashtra as well who don’t like to be much in the dreamland. Generally, politicians appear formally before the media to maintain a certain impression, but there are a few occasions where they open up and let the journos glance through their real selves.  

 The festive season of Diwali also brings along a series of invitations for get-togethers and parties from politicians. While such events are purely off-camera and conversations here are deemed to be off-the-record, they help journalists in discovering different aspects of their host’s personality. Last Tuesday, I attended two such events–the lunch at Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis’ home Meghdoot and the dinner at CM Eknath Shinde’s residence, Varsha.

After lunch, Fadnavis sat at a round table occupied by senior journos of the print and electronic media. Amidst cracking jokes and political comments in a lighter vein, some journalists subtly attempted to sniff out some sensational stories by asking tricky questions. But Fadnavis was too smart a politician and avoided speaking anything that could create a stir or appear on TV screens as “Breaking News”. His last Diwali get-together with journalists at Varsha bungalow in 2019 was an explosive one when he said that Uddhav’s claim was false that Amit Shah promised to divide the Chief Minister’s post between the two parties for half of the tenure. That statement led to a series of events which culminated in the breaking of the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance. Now, three years later, Fadnavis once again hosted the journalists, but this time he had learnt his lesson.

Amidst discussions on Parambir Singh, Sachin Waze, BMC elections, cabinet expansion and soon-to-be-started Shirdi-Nagpur Super Highway, somebody asked for his view on Eknath Shinde, his boss in the cabinet.

“When does Shinde Saheb sleeps is a subject of research?” said Fadnavis while praising Shinde’s dedication towards work and his efforts to keep in touch with his workers.

Fadnavis revealed that he too sleeps only for five hours. Because of meetings and other official work, he gets to sleep only by 3 am and gets up at 8 am. Sometimes he gets up at 7 am if he has to catch a flight.

The same evening, I met CM Shinde over dinner. A few of the journalists who were earlier at Fadnavis’ event were also present.

One of them said  - “Fadnavis said that when you sleep is a matter of research. Do you sleep at all? We have seen you often participating in events late at night. Especially, during Ganeshutsav you were visiting pandals till late at night and still next morning you appear to be fresh. What is the secret behind this?”

Shinde smiled and said, “I have gained this habit from Anand Dighe (His Guru in politics). He used to work till late at night and got up early. People queued outside his house and he met them even while brushing his teeth. Before becoming CM, I used to meet people at Thane till late at night. They came from the last local train and left by the first train in the morning after meeting me. I still do that. I don’t want people to believe that I have changed after becoming the CM. People should feel that the CM is somebody from them.”

Shinde believes that remaining awake till late is advantageous.

“In case some medical emergency happens with any of my workers or somebody has been hospitalised because of an accident, I personally reach the hospital to check on the situation. This activates the entire system, and the patient gets the required attention.”

He said that it has now become his habit to sleep late. Even if he wants to sleep early, he can’t. Recollecting the rebellion against Uddhav Thackeray last June, he said, “I didn’t sleep continuously for three days when we went to Surat and then to Guwahati. On the fourth day, I tried to sleep but still I couldn’t. I took a pill, but that too helped little. Phone calls were coming throughout and if I slept, there was a chance that things could go haywire.”

While talking about his sleepless nights, Shinde confirmed his overnight visit to Vadodara for meeting Amit Shah to discuss further strategy.

“When everybody went to sleep, I took a flight to Vadodara from Guwahati and returned before they woke up,” Shinde said with a mischievous smile.

Shinde said that he too sleeps by 3 am and gets up by 8 am.