Political rivals engage in verbal encounter on stage

From a Rao-Rawle tussle on “corruption in the Enron issue” to an ostensible show of good-will (the three candidates posed for a picture holding hands), the forum threatened to digress into a three-pronged campaign at times. Though Shirsat, Rawle and Rao agreed that MPs should be answerable to voters, Rawle vehemently opposed the suggestion to recall non-performing MPs’. “Such a system will onlycreate chaos. It is easy to gather a mob and demand the removal of a sitting MP, and the opposition is likely to do it for trivial reasons,” he said adding that the real auditing of an MP’s performance is done by his party chief. “If voters have complaints about my work, they can approach Balasaheb Thackarey. If he asks me to vacate my seat, I will,” he said.

Rao in turn asserted that an MP could be recalled only in extreme cases and not for minor errors. “And this will be done by a voters’ council, not mobs,” he added. Rao, however, admitted that the implementation of such a system will take a long time.

Asked to explain the irony behind an army man’s son joining a party led by gang lords, Shirsat dismissed the question as a joke’. Describing himself as a social worker, he said, “I thought this discussion was about our political plans. I joined the ABS because I support the party’s ideology.” Shirsat stressed that increasing the salaries of policemen will reduce corruption in the policeforce.

Rawle and Shirsat were then questioned about the ABS fielding Shirsat despite Rawle’s sympathies towards ABS president Arun Gawli. Rawle once again clarified that his hunger strike was against the breach of trust on part of the concerned Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) and not against Gawli’s arrest per se.