PUNE, Jan 28: The recent felicitation of 16 Puneites, who served jail terms as political prisoners during Emergency, has been criticised strongly by a section of emergency detractors including former deputy chairman of planning commission Mohan Dharia, former mayor of Pune Bhai Vaidya and socialist G P Pradhan. They were given ``Sanmanpatras'' by State Minister Leeladhar Dake also the guardian minister at the official flag hoisting ceremony here to mark the Republic Day on Tuesday.Some of them received the certificates posthumously. Among the them were acting president of State Planning Commission Prakash Jawadekar, MLA Girish Bapat, Babanrao Tukaram Ganjiwale, Sumatibai Vishwanath Bhagvat, Jayant Ramchandra Sane, Narayan Raghunath Tulshibagwale, Vasantrao Prasade, Dilip Nagarkar, Shivajirao Adhav, Dhananjay Shitole, Vikas Deshpande, Dhundiraj Gokhale, Krishnabai Vasudeo Nimkar, Dattatray Govind Shejvalkar, Govind Chintaman Malshe, Bhaskar Sitaram Bapat, Dnyanoba Hanumant Ghone, Sadashiv Narayan Ambike, Balbhim Balkrishna Walimbe, Vishwanath Rambhau Bhegde, Chandrakant Damodar Shete, Keshav Balvant Medhi, Suresh Lalchand Shah, Shivram Baburao Yevle, Waman Moreshwar Joglekar and Chintaman Vishnu Sherekar.Dharia, Vaidya and Pradhan and many others, also imprisoned during the emergency, were not included in the list. Later, the minister announced that others would also be given ``Sanmanpatras'' in the first week of February.Dharia said felicitating certain persons at a national function was improper. G P Pradhan sought to know whether the State was planning to honour even those who showed willingness to tender written apologies after being jailed during emergency. Bhai Vaidya said the State's decision was not surprising as it had a bias towards certain parties, castes and religion.
