Insomniac Politicians & Mystery of Eknath Shinde’s Sleep
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.
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