कै. राम भंकाळ
हिंदुहृदयसम्राट शिवसेनाप्रमुख बाळासाहेब ठाकरे यांच्या विचाराने प्रेरित झालेले राम भंकाळ हे शिवसेनेच्या बहुसंख्य कार्यक्रमांना उपस्थिती लावीत असत. शिवसेनेच्या अनेक नेत्यांशी त्यांचा जिव्हाळ्याचा संबंध होता. १९८६-८७ च्या सुमारास एसटीतील अनेक कर्मचाऱ्यांना शिवसेनेची युनियन एस.टी. महामंडळात असावी असे वाटत होते. त्यासाठी त्यांचे प्रयत्न सुरू होते. एस.टी.तील काही मंडळींनी शिवसेना नेते सुभाष देसाई यांची भेट घेतली आणि आपली कल्पना त्यांना सांगितली. हा प्रस्ताव मा. शिवसेनाप्रमुखांकडे गेला. शिवसेनाप्रमुखांनाही शिवसेनेचीच युनियन एस.टी.मध्ये असावी असे वाटले. त्यानंतर डिसेंबर १९८८ मध्ये पुणे येथे झालेल्या शिवसेना अधिवेशनात एस.टी. कामगार सेनेच्या स्थापनेची रीतसर घोषणा करण्यात आली. शिवसेना नेते सुभाष देसाई हे अध्यक्ष, राम भंकाळ कार्याध्यक्ष, तर अरविंद सावंत सरचिटणीस अशी जबाबदारी मा. बाळासाहेबांनी या सर्वांना बोलावून त्यांच्यावर टाकली. राम भंकाळ यांनी एस.टी. कामगार सेनेच्या माध्यमातून शिवसेनाप्रमुखांचे विचार जिल्ह्या-जिल्हयांत पोहोचले होते. त्याचदरम्यान संभाजीनगर मनपाच्या निवडणुकीत सेनेला घवघवीत यश मिळाले होते. त्यामुळे एस.टी. कामगार सेना जिल्ह्या-जिल्हयांत अगदी चांदा ते बांदापर्यंत पोहोचली होती. त्या काळी नेते सुभाष देसाई, राम भंकाळ, अरविंद सावंत यांनी एस.टी.च्या लालगाडीतून प्रवास केला आणि २५० तालुक्यांतील एस.टी. डेपोंवर एस.टी. कामगार सेनेचा भगवा फडकवला. १९९० साली एस.टी. कामगार सेनेचे पहिले अधिवेशन संपन्न झाले. ’गाव तिथे एस.टी. प्रवास सुखावह’ असे ब्रीदवाक्य एस.टी. महामंडळाचे होते. प्रवास सुखावह होण्यासाठी एस.टी. वाहक-चालक इमाने-इतबारे काम करीत होते, परंतु कामगारांचे दुःख, हाल याविषयी कुणी विचारीत नव्हते. अशा वेळी एस.टी. कामगार सेना त्यांच्यावरील अन्यायाचे निवारण करण्यासाठी प्रयत्नशील होती. राम भंकाळ यांचा त्यात खूपच महत्त्वाचा वाटा होता. आज एस.टी. चालक-वाहक यांचे जीवनमान उंचावले आहे. त्यांना डेपोत ज्या सुविधा उपलब्ध आहेत, त्यासाठी एस.टी. कामगार सेना महामंडळाशी भांडली होती. एस.टी. कामगार सेनेने ठाणे एस.टी. डेपोचे भंगारचोरीचे प्रकरण बाहेर काढले आणि एस.टी. महामंडळाचे एक कोटी वाचविले. त्यामुळे कामगारांमध्ये एस.टी. कामगार सेनेविषयी विश्वास निर्माण झाला. १९९० ते ९५ या काळात अनेक कामे संघटनेने केली. यापूर्वी एस.टी. कामगारांसाठी करार झाला होता. तो ‘काळा करार’ म्हणून ओळखला जायचा. ९५ साली महाराष्ट्रात सेना-भाजप युतीची सत्ता आली. सत्तेच्या काळात एस.टी. कामगार संघटनेने इतर सर्व कामगार संघटनांना एकत्रित करून त्यांच्या साक्षीने एक देदीप्यमान करार केला. एस.टी. कामगारांच्या हक्काच्या मागण्यांसाठी एसटी कामगार सेनेने प्रचंड मोर्चाही आयोजित केला. ‘जय भवानी जय शिवाजी’, ‘शिवसेना झिंदाबाद’, ‘कोण म्हणतं देणार नाय, घेतल्याशिवाय राहणार नाय’, ‘एसटी आमच्या हक्काची, नाही कोणाच्या बापाची…’ अशा गगनभेदी घोषणांनी आझाद मैदान परिसर दणाणला. वर्षानुवर्षे प्रलंबित असलेल्या एसटी कामगारांच्या मागण्यांकडे झोपलेले काँग्रेस आघाडी सरकार दुर्लक्ष करीत होते. या सरकारला जाग आणण्यासाठी एसटी कामगार सेनेच्या वतीने धरणे आंदोलन करण्यात आले. एस.टी. कामगारांच्या हितासाठी आणि शिवसेनेचे विचार महाराष्ट्राच्या कानाकोपऱ्यात पोहोचवण्यासाठी राम भंकाळ यांनी बरीच मेहनत घेतली होती.
How Sena got the title 'Saamna' for mouthpiece
Nikhil Deshmukh, TNN | Nov 19, 2012, 03.09AM IST
PUNE: When 'Saamma', the Shiv Sena's mouthpiece was launched in 1989, the title was already in possession with a farmer-turned-publisher, Vasant Kanade, from Madha tehsil of Solapur, who was not publishing it routinely.
When party supremo late Bal Thackeray asked Kanade what he expected in return for the title, he was surprised to hear that Kanade wanted the post of Saamna's district-correspondent.
Sudheer Purwant, Shiv Sena's one-time Solapur district unit chief, had played a key role in getting the title for the party. Purwant was a school teacher at Shet Agarchand Kunkoolol high school in Barshi and had enrolled in Sena in the early days following an appeal published in Marmik, the weekly magazine launched earlier by Thackeray.
It was in 1988 that Thackeray decided to launch his own newspaper in Marathi. Thackeray had decided on the title, which was, however, already allotted to Kanade, who was running a forthnightly.
During the registration process, Thackeray had suggested five names for the newspaper, but was keen on 'Saamna', as he thought it suited the philosohpy of Shiv Sena as a party. Subhash Desai, who was then the Sena leader and was involved in the registration process, contacted Ram Bhankal, district coordinator of Solapur to see if Kanade would transfer the title to Shiv Sena.
Purwant said Kanade's fortnightly was not even published regularly and was circulated locally. "I put forward the proposal. of transferring the title to Shiv Sena
Kanade did not give a concrete reply. He expressed his wish to meet the supremo in person. We booked bus tickets and
reached Mumbai with Kanade and his wife. The Kanades received a warm welcome from the Thackeray family and they were pleased."
Kanade agreed to transfer the title. When Thackeray asked him if he wanted something in return,, he was surprised to hear Kanade's reply
Kanade said, "I do not want a single rupee, but I want to be appointed as the district correspondent of your newspaper."
"Thackeray was pleased and impressed with Kanade's generosity. He immediately appointed him as Saamna's district correspondent,'' Purwant said. Saamna was launched on January 23, 1989.
How
Bal Thackeray’s newspaper got its name
By
ANOSH MALEKAR | December 1, 2013
TWENTY-FIVE
YEARS AGO, when Bal Thackeray, the founder and leader of the Shiv Sena, decided
to launch a publication to serve
as the party’s mouthpiece, he settled on the name “Saamna” (Confrontation) for
it. According to the journalist Harish Kenchi,
who would go on to work as an editor for the paper, Thackeray was keen on the
name because it was phonetically simple
and was familiar to the public because of Jabbar Patel’s 1974 Marathi film of
the same name. It also suited the aggressive
editorial approach he had planned for his paper, Kenchi said. Thackeray
learnt, however, that the title had already been registered. Vasant Kanade, a
resident of the village of Madha in Solapur
district had launched a publication with the title Saamna in 1975, and had been
running it since. But Thackeray had his heart
set on the name and approached Kanade to ask him to part with it.
“It
was not an easy decision—no parent gives up a baby willingly,” Narmada Mane
said of her late husband’s decision to transfer
the title to Thackeray. “I am handing over my child to you. Please take good
care of it,” he told Thackeray on 12 August
1988, the day they formalised the transfer deed at a Bandra court. The new
Saamna was launched on 23 January 1989,
and as the journalist Vaibhav Purandare notes in his book Bal Thackeray and the
rise of the Shiv Sena, the paper flaunted
its politics from its very first issue, announcing itself on its masthead, the
book says, as “the only Marathi daily which advocates
the cause of fiery, militant Hindutva”.
This
was in sharp contrast to Kanade’s Saamna, a four-page weekly launched at the
Madha municipal hall on 10 October 1975 by
Sushilkumar Shinde, then the youth affairs minister in the Maharashtra cabinet.
The first issue carried a prominent box item on
page one, declaring Kanade’s support for Professor Naseema Pathan, a
progressive Muslim academic from Solapur. “We are
happy to have her preside over the launch function. We will continue to support
her views and publicise them regularly in Saamna,”
Kanade wrote in a brief note carried under the academic’s grainy
black-and-white photograph. Kanade’s
writings suggest he was a politically inclined man with progressive views. He
served as the sarpanch of Madha village for
more than six years in the mid and late 1970s, and his journalism reflected
this work, chiefly covering taluka and districtlevel political rivalries within
the Congress, which dominated rural Maharashtra. Kanade also wrote on the
frequent droughts, the
problems faced by farmers and the scourge of illiteracy and blind faith.
In
1979, Kanade shifted base from Madha to the neighbouring town of Barshi to live
with Mane, whom he had secretly married in
1974 against their parents’ wishes. “It was an inter-caste marriage, but we
were in love,” Mane said. Around this time, Saamna’s
publication became infrequent. It had been launched as a weekly but time and
funds were both short. Kanade started
reporting for sundry Marathi dailies, struggling to feed his growing family on
stringer fees of Rs 100 and Rs 150 a month.
Narmada secured a job as a junior clerk with the state agriculture department
in 1979 and two sons, Laxmiraj and Devraj,
were born to the couple in the early and mid eighties. “We were happy despite
our daily struggles to survive,” Mane recalled.
“Vasant could not be bothered with money, he loved his journalism and his
tipple after a hard day’s work.”
By
1988, the Shiv Sena’s influence had spread to rural Maharashtra. That year,
local sainiks in Madha and Barshi approached Kanade,
informing him of Thackeray’s interest in buying the name “Saamna”. “A leader as
senior as Subhash Desai got in touch
with Ram Bhankal, party leader in Solapur, asking him to pursue the matter,”
Mane recalled. Bhankal
suggested to Kanade that he visit Mumbai and meet the Sena chief. “We were very
tense,” Mane recalled. “I told my husband
to give up Saamna, reminding him that ‘sar salamat, to pagdi hazaar’ (If your
head is intact, you can have a thousand turbans).”
They spent three days in Mumbai. “We stayed with the Thackerays,” Mane said.
“Balasaheb turned out to be very friendly,
treating us like his family. [Thackeray’s wife] Meenatai was a great host.”
When Thackeray asked Kanade what he wanted
in exchange for the name, the journalist asked to be made Solapur district’s
correspondent for Saamna. Thackeray agreed.
Although Kanade wasn’t a regular staffer of the paper, he received a monthly
payment, retaining the role for the rest of
his
life. It
might seem surprising that Kanade, a man with progressive views, wanted to work
for Thackeray, even then known for spewing
hate-filled, divisive rhetoric. Harish Kenchi suggested that one explanation
for this lay in the fact that Thackeray’s appeal
to the Marathi-speaking public was many-dimensional. “Bal Thackeray himself
held progressive views on women, caste and
other social issues,” Kenchi said. It is likely that Thackeray’s grassroots
political views, which were focused on uprooting the
behemoth of the Congress from Maharashtra, were not in conflict with Kanade’s.
Further, Kanade was a prolific journalist, who
contributed to a number of publications, including Rusi Karanjia’s Blitz, the
Express Group’s Loksatta, Sakal, owned by Sharad
Pawar’s family and the Sangh mouthpiece Tarun Bharat. Since Thackeray allowed
Kanade to write what he wanted for Saamna
and didn’t restrict him from writing for other publications, the arrangement
suited Kanade well.
Kanade
faced some criticism from peers for selling his title. He wrote angrily about
this in Bhrastachi Chahul (which loosely translates
as “Tip-off on the Corrupt”), another weekly he launched in 1999. “Some people
keep saying I sold the ‘Saamna’
title,
which is not true,” he wrote. “I did not accept a single penny.” He continued
to live in a small, decrepit stone and tin-roofed house
in a congested lane opposite the state transport bus stand in Barshi. Kanade
was diagnosed with blood cancer in 1997. Mane
nursed him for five years, during which he was treated at the Nargis Dutt
Memorial Cancer Hospital in Barshi. “Doctors told
us he had only a few months to live,” she said. “But I was determined and so
was Vasant. He would dictate his dispatches to
Saamna and other papers as he had no strength to write himself.” Kanade died on
10 October 2002.
Today,
a black-and-white picture of a young Kanade, clean shaven and wearing a Gandhi
cap, adorns the wall of a two-room makeshift
house that the family rents, which adjoins their original stone house, now
being rebuilt into a two-storey brick and cement
concrete structure. “We need a bigger house now,” Mane said. “The boys have
grown up and I want to get them
married.” When
I visited the family, 27-year-old Laxmiraj, an engineer, was away in Solapur,
exploring the possibility of securing a job abroad.
Twenty-four-year-old Devraj, a journalist, said he was keen on continuing his
father’s legacy in Barshi. “I sought a job with
Saamna, but someone else got it,” he said. “This despite my telling them I was
Vasant Kanade’s son. We’ve stopped taking the
paper ever since.” Devraj worked for a brief while with his friends to launch a
weekly in 2007, called Pakshik Saamna (“pakshik”
is Marathi for “fortnightly”). “But the people involved lacked the guts to take
on corruption,” he said. “So I left that too.”
Devraj
is keen on following in the footsteps of his father, who had targeted
corruption frequently in his later years. Writing in Bhrastachi
Chahul, Kanade, in an article titled ‘Barshichya patrakaraani aabru ghalawali’
(Barshi journalists have forsaken honour),
had claimed that local journalists were only interested in making money for
their publications by blackmailing politicians
and bureaucrats into buying advertising space. “I want to continue his legacy
by reviving the weekly,” Devraj said. “I want
to pursue independent writing even while working for other media.” Narmada
looked on with satisfaction as Devraj spoke. She believes her husband’s
journalistic instinct was ahead of its time. “He thought
of Saamna when Shiv Sena’s confrontational style of politics was taking root in
the state,” she said. “Then he thought
of
Bhrastachi Chahul, which hints at taking on the corrupt, which is a major issue
today.”
The
Shiv Sena saluted Kanade when Bal Thackeray died last year, in a rare
melancholy piece in Saamna. “Shiv Sena’s mouthpiece,
Saamna, which covers political and social issues of the state in a pungent and
no-holds-barred style has lost Vasantrao
Narhari Kanade, who gave birth to it, and Balasaheb Thackeray, who nurtured
it,” the piece said. “He doghe aaplyat
FROM : http://caravanmagazine.in/print/4028
FROM : http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/mumbai/too-few-open-seats-too-many-contenders/article1-771910.aspx
Too few open seats, too many contenders
Bhavika Jain, Hindustan Times Mumbai, November 21, 2011
First Published: 01:18 IST(21/11/2011) | Last Updated: 01:20 IST(21/11/2011)
Though not many are willing to admit it, the tussle for party tickets for the forthcoming civic polls has intensified.
This is because many sitting corporators, who have lost their wards due to 50 per cent reservation for women this year, are desperately trying to contest from other wards. Besides, many political heavyweights too have thrown their hats into the ring.
Several former corporators, who held key posts in the civic body but are now in political wilderness, have been sending feelers to their respective parties for tickets.
According to civic sources, senior leaders like Ram Bhankal, former mayors Datta Dalvi and Mahadeo Deole, former leader of the house Digambar Kandarkar from Shiv Sena, former opposition leaders like Gunwant Seth, Kisan Jadhav and Ravindra Pawar from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have expressed an interest to contest. According to Shiv Sena sources, even the name of former MLA Arvind Nerkar has been doing the rounds.
“This is a very worrying trend. There is already an imbalance after the 50 per cent reservation for women. Now if the parties agree to give the former leaders a chance from the open seats it will lead to lots of infighting,” said a senior corporator whose ward has been reserved for women.
After the lottery for various reservations, only 77 out of the 227 seats in the civic body are left for the open category.
Agreeing that he is planning to contest the polls, Ravindra Pawar said “Like everybody else, I am interested in contesting, but it is up to the party to decide to whom to give ticket.”
Digambar Kandarkar of Shiv Sena said, “Though I am not very keen to contest polls, if the party decides to field me, I will have to take into confidence the party workers.” He had joined the MNS before returning to the Sena.
Though the names of former mayors Mahadev Deole and Hareshwar Patil (who is now in the Congress) are also doing the rounds both denied that they wanted to contest the civic polls.