Leader of my town

Uttamrao Devrao Patil
(1943-2012)

‘Dada’ passed away silently, leaving the entire district of Yavatmal in silence. His oneness with silence was proved even at the time of his final farewell. Unlike other loudmouths in politics, this man, who preferred silence throughout his life, brought silent revolution to this region which hardly had any voice on national and international level.

Uttamrao Patil represented Yavatmal in Lok Sabha for more than two decades. His work was like cool breeze -- unseen but deeply felt. One hardly realizes correlation between these two happenings, but some ten years ago, since Dada was kept out of the active politics, Yavatmal started gaining its ill-identity as ‘district of farmers’ suicides.’

Even if being a member of parliament for twenty five years, Patil’s leadership was not charismatic. He never had influential oratory skills. He neither had any ambition of bigger position nor was he counted amongst the great leaders on national level. Still, he was the man who instilled the confidence in farmers of cotton belt that they are not helpless. He preferred to work for villages, as his constituency literally had no big city in it. Yavatmal, his headquarter, too, is a small town and the whole economy of this region runs only on the basis of farming. Being a farmer since generations, Dada was well-aware of this fact. But, is today’s city-oriented developmental mindscape, one sees development only in hi-tech IT parks, industries, and shining corporate firms. Dada’s vision was far ahead of this. He knew what exactly his people want – a good farming atmosphere, for which he worked all the time.

Uttamrao Patil had his own way to do the things. His silent presence, slow and steady work, and freedom given to the young workers, made him people’s leader. It is said that a leader becomes successful in real sense when things go perfect even without his physical presence. Dada had achieved this degree of success. He crafted an entire generation of leaders in Yavatmal region, but never faced any rebel action. He searched people from nowhere and gave them important responsibilities, but never faced any revolt by unsatisfied established workers. In short, Dada knew his workers completely and they loved Dada by heart. That is why, when national leader Gulam Nabi Azad tried his luck from Yavatmal, Dada came into his support as a true Congress loyalist; but his workers and people themselves voted against him. This shows that people were not blindly voting to the Congress’ ‘Panja’, but they were voting to the man – Uttamrao Patil – whose work used to speak louder, not tongue.

Unfortunately, Dada was kept away, ignored and insulted many times by his own party and had to join the NCP as his constituency was broken into three in restructuring. He was and will remain the last Congress MP of Yavatmal Lok Sabha seat. With Uttamrao Patil leaving Congress recently, the party has lost its strength in Yavatmal, its very own bastion. However, something must be paining in Dada’s heart. After all, it was his ancestral association with the Congress. That is why; he must have suffered cardiac arrest before leading the NCP towards success in Yavatmal.

Leaders like Uttamrao Patil are rare in these days of shining and showing. The age is of advertising and marketing. Dada failed in that, like many other Congressmen in past. However, he will be remembered for all the time as a man, who gave Yavatmal an identity of ‘cotton city’.