The Class of 83 by Hussain Zaidi

Author:Hussain Zaidi
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789353056612
Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited
Published: 2019-10-21T16:00:00+00:00

16

Salaskar’s Strategy

Salaskar rolled down the window of his Maruti 1000 with one hand, while absently running his finger over his service revolver with the other. Next to him, in the front passenger seat, his wireless set crackled intermittently. Rajawadi junction was close to Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar and there was a steady flow of both pedestrian and vehicular traffic. A few minutes ago, Salaskar had reached the spot and asked his colleague, SI Subhash Mayekar, to take position further down the road.

That afternoon, in August 1997, was just one chapter in a long story that had begun in the early 1990s when Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray, in a rally at Shivaji Park shortly after the 1992–93 riots, had declared, ‘If you [the Muslim community] have Dawood, we have Gawli.’

The late Thackeray’s statement may have been a reference to the murder of Dawood’s brother-in-law, Ibrahim Parkar, in 1992. Parkar was shot dead by Shailesh Haldankar, Gawli’s aide. The murder was Gawli’s revenge against Dawood for the murder of his brother Pappa alias Kishore Gawli. The blatant hit on someone so closely related to Dawood—who was already in Dubai by the time—and that too on his home turf in Nagpada made everyone sit up and take notice. Suddenly, Dawood was no longer a scary name whispered to keep the kids in line. Suddenly, he seemed human. Suddenly, there was someone who could hit him where it hurt without any care about the consequences.

Thackeray, like any good politician, used it to his advantage. His single point agenda was to fan the already burning flame of communal disharmony so that the Hindu votes come rolling in his favour. And so, Thackeray made the statement that further boosted Gawli’s image.

A grateful Gawli extended his full support to the Shiv Sena, helping the party organize election rallies and campaigns. In March 1995, the Shiv Sena–BJP alliance defeated the Congress (I) government and came to power for the first time in twenty-nine years.

Perhaps due to Thackeray’s statement at the rally, and also because he thought that his efforts in the recent election campaigning had earned him huge favour in the corridors of the Mantralaya, Gawli did something that shocked everyone, be it in the underworld, the police or the government. He applied for police protection.

The decision was not because Gawli was living in a fool’s paradise. Fear was an important factor. After all, he had laid a hand directly on Dawood’s body, so to speak, and a furious Dawood like any wounded tiger was bound to hit back. In fact, whispers were already rife in the underworld that Dawood had offered a massive reward to anyone who avenged Parkar’s murder. What Gawli did not understand was that politicians do not have friends. Everyone is expendable and there are no exceptions.

When Gawli’s application made its way up the ranks of the Mumbai Police and reached then Home Minister Gopinath Munde’s desk, the latter didn’t know whether to laugh or be furious. As he read the file and realized that it was not a practical joke, he dismissed the request and threw the file out.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.