Pawar laments politics losing its civilized tone

Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday lamented that politics today has lost its “civilized tone,” and said the kind of language used today was unheard of earlier.

He was speaking at a discussion to commemorate the acclaimed 1979 Marathi film “Simhasan” (Throne) directed by Jabbar Patel. The film revolves around Maharashtra’s politics in the 1970s.

“Politics has lost its civilized tone today. The extreme language that is used now was never part of the political discourse in the past,” Pawar said.

“Politics of those days was more civilized,” he added when asked what he missed about those days.

Besides Pawar, Lok Sabha member and his daughter Supriya Sule, director Jabbar Patel and actors Nana Patekar and Mohan Agashe (both of whom featured in the film) were interviewed by senior journalists Amberish Mishra and Rajeev Khandekar.

Pawar was Maharashtra’s Chief Minister when the film was made and had allowed Patel to shoot inside the Mantralaya as well as the offices and bungalows of then ministers and MLAs.

The film is based on two novels — Mumbai Dinank and Simhasan — written by journalist-writer late Arun Sadhu, while the screenplay was written by late Vijay Tendulkar.

Asked which character he empathises with the most in the film, Pawar said it was the journalist played by the late Nilu Phule.

“Journalists who cover government sometimes feel that they know everything and some of them even become advisors to ministers and MLAs,” Pawar said in a tongue-in-cheek remark.

Patekar and Agashe said politics was never innocent. “But it was never vengeful. There were certain principles which were followed then, which we fail to see today, ” said Agashe.