Maharashtra Home Ministers, Their Working Styles, Challenges And Controversies

Devendra Fadnavis

Source : Getty

Mumbai: The home department of the Maharashtra government recently drew flak for reducing the security cover of opposition MVA leaders and enhancing that provided to those supporting the ruling dispensation. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is the state’s home minister as well. Recently, during an informal interaction with journalists, Fadnavis said the home department was not one of his favourite portfolios. The home minister has to regularly deal with bad news. Often the day starts with some unpleasant information and it was one reason he started taking meetings with senior police officials in the afternoon instead of morning. 

The home minister, being the political boss of the police force, is one of the most powerful members of the cabinet. Generally, a stalwart from the ruling party is offered the post. In the last 27 years, Maharashtra has seen seven home ministers. Each one had their own challenges and style of functioning. Here is a look:

Gopinath Munde

In 1995, for the first time, the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance came into power in Maharashtra. Manohar Joshi from the Sena became the CM and Gopinath Munde from the BJP was made the Deputy CM and given the charge of home.  

When Munde took over as the home minister, Mumbai posed an enormous challenge for him. The city was under the grip of organised criminal gangs run by gangsters like Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Rajan, Amar Naik and Arun Gawli. Apart from fighting amongst themselves, they made national headlines for killing prominent people from the fields of politics, real estate, the film industry and other businesses, and also for extortion. Daily killing and extortion calls were rampant. The conventional methods of dealing with the criminals proved ineffective. The gangsters took advantage of the loopholes in the judicial system and went scot free even after being arrested. Hence, Munde allowed the Mumbai Police to deal with the gangsters with an iron hand. He sanctioned the controversial policy of encounters. Every day, the cops started shooting members belonging to different gangs on the ground of self-defence. 

Around a hundred gangsters were killed every year by the police after Munde took over as the home minister. Human rights organisations created a furore by alleging that the encounters were nothing but extra-judicial killings. Despite litigations and strictures by the courts, the police pursued its policy of encounters and were backed by Munde. The policy showed results and by 1999, the number of daily killings by the gangs and extortion calls had decimated. It was by this time that a stringent law called Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) also came into the force. Most of the major names were shot dead by the police or were sent behind the bars.

Chhagan Bhujbal 

The Shiv Sena-BJP alliance lost power in the 1999 Vidhan Sabha polls and was replaced by the Congress-NCP post-poll alliance. Vilasrao Deshmukh from the Congress became the CM and Chhagan Bhujbal from the NCP was made the Deputy CM with the home portfolio. The tenure of Bhujbal as the home minister was full of controversies as there were allegations of corruption. The tenure also saw some bomb blasts. It was speculated that police posts were auctioned and money exchanged hands for transfer and postings of officials. However, such allegations were never substantiated with evidence and were considered nothing more than a ploy by Bhujbal’s detractors. However, unearthing of the multi-crore fake stamp paper stamp scam brought a big trouble for Bhujbal. Since the kingpin of the scam was Abdul Karim Telgi, it was also known as Telgi Scam. Officers top down, from the rank of police commissioner to that of a constable, were arrested by a Special Investigation Team set up by the Bombay High Court for extorting money from Telgi, helping him in his fake stamp paper business and offering him comforts while he was in the police custody. There was speculation that Bhujbal and his nephew Samir were also going to be arrested in the scam, but that never happened. The case was transferred to the CBI, and Bhujbal had to resign because of adverse media coverage.

RR Patil

Chhagan Bhujbal was replaced by RR Patil aka Aaba. Patil was known as a soft-spoken, upright and honest politician. After assuming charge as the home minister, he brought officers who were seen to be honest, and who were so far were being sidelined and not given any important responsibility, to important posts. It was during his tenure that the four decades old dance bar industry of Maharashtra was banned. 

It was a brave decision, considering the fact that many politicians, including some from his own party, ran dance bars. The lobby of bar owners was powerful, and it was a money minting industry for many police, politicians and administrative officials. Patil warned that if any dance bar was found operating, the DCP of that zone would be shunted out. 

He had to face a challenge from Naxals as well, who had killed several policemen in the Gadchiroli district. However, he received the biggest blow on November 26, 2008, when ten terrorists infiltrated from Pakistan and created havoc in Mumbai, killing nearly 200 people. While speaking to the media, Patil, not adept in Hindi, had a slip of tongue when he said, “Bade Bade Shehron Me Chhoti Chhoti Batein Hoti Rehti Hain (Such small things happen in big cities).” Patil’s remark was seen as insensitive and there was a tremendous uproar against him. Ultimately, he had to resign considering adverse public opinion against him.

Jayant Patil

Patil was replaced by Jayant Patil, who was then the minister of finance. In his eleven months’ tenure as the home minister, nothing remarkable happened. Some of the measures for coastal security, like purchase of speedboats etc, were done during his tenure. He focused on an increased police presence at public places to instill a sense of security among Mumbaikars. 

In November 2009, RR Patil returned as the home minister after the NCP felt that the outrage against him had died down. Patil remained the home minister until 2014 when the Congress-NCP government was replaced again by the BJP-Shiv Sena combine.

Devendra Fadnavis

Devendra Fadnavis became the CM and, as per the pattern followed during BJP rule in thr state, he kept the home portfolio with himself. His tenure was marred by cases of violence in different parts of the state because of an agitation launched for the reservation of Marathas in jobs and education. The Sheena Bora murder case made headlines in 2015, where he appeared to be at loggerheads with then Mumbai Police commissioner Rakesh Maria. Fadnavis transferred Maria from the top post to that of Home Guard chief over differences in the manner of the investigation. It was during his tenure that underworld don Chhota Rajan was deported from Indonesia, but all 70 cases registered against him by the Mumbai Police were transferred to the CBI. Allegations of phone interception of his political opponents came to the fore after he was replaced by Uddhav Thackeray as the CM in 2019.

Anil Deshmukh

Anil Deshmukh of the NCP became the home minister in the tri-party MVA government. Shortly after he became the home minister, lockdown was implemented because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Deshmukh was criticised for ordering the police to be strict and beat up people who violated the curfew. However, shortly afterwards, it was exposed that an official from his home ministry allowed favours for the family of a bank scam accused by facilitating their movement from one tourist location to another. The journalist who exposed the story was later on arrested on the false charges of rumour mongering. In February 2011, the Antillia case rocked the political corridors of Maharashtra. Sachin Waze, an officer of the Mumbai Police, allegedly parked an explosive-laden car outside industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence, Antillia on Carmichael Road in south Mumbai. After Waze was arrested, then commissioner Parambir Singh was removed from his post. Deshmukh made a statement before the media that Singh was misleading him on the case. This infuriated Singh, and he wrote a damning letter to CM Uddhav Thackeray and Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, alleging that Deshmukh forced Waze to extort Rs 100 crore every month from bar owners and hoteliers. This led to a tremendous uproar and Deshmukh had to resign. Later on, he was arrested by the CBI.

Dilip Walse Patil

Dilip Walse Patil, a confidant of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, replaced Deshmukh. He kept a low profile and avoided any controversy. In the political circles, Patil was seen as a rubber stamp home minister, since behind the curtains, other senior leaders of the NCP played a role in decision making. He had to face flak when, in June 2022, there was a rebellion in the Shiv Sena and many MLAs went to Gujarat with Eknath Shinde without the police getting a whiff.