Panaji, Jan 29 (PTI) A biography chronicling the personal and political journey of Goa’s former chief minister Pratapsingh Rane has shared anecdotes of the changing political landscape of the coastal state and provides glimpses into his style of governance.
One of the chapters in the book recalls how, in the early 80s, Rane helped his political rival and then MLA Dilkush Desai to be airlifted using an Indian Navy helicopter to the Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai after being shot with a pellet gun.
While Desai recovered, many years later, he behaved in an unexpected manner and on Goa Legislator’s Day in 2007, flung a packet of cow-dung on Rane, as per the book.
Rane (85), who was then the CM, did not react and refused to press charges against Desai, says the book, titled ‘Maker of Modern Goa: The Untold Story of Pratapsingh Rane’ and authored by his wife Vijayadevi Rane.
“This is democracy, it’s nothing, these things happen,” Pratapsingh Rane then told mediapersons.
The 236-page book was released on Sunday at an event in Sattari area of North Goa district in the presence of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, former Union minister Suresh Prabhu, the ex-CM’s minister son and BJP leader Vishwajit Rane, his MLA daughter-in-law Deviya Rane and his wife.
In the introduction of the 236-page book, the author, who has been married to Pratapsingh Rane for more than 55 years, says it is a dynamic and engaging biography that reveals how he brought in “stability and sane, reasoned governance” to Goa’s volatile and unstable politics every time he became the chief minister.
Rane was the first chief minister of Goa state and its longest-serving MLA, having completed more than 50 years of his career. PTI RPS GK
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