ON BAL THACKERAY: He's a very different kind of person, a rare diamond. has not lost sight of his middle-class moorings. He is not the remote he has full control of the government. What is there that he can't Balasaheb thinks he can have a system similar to that of Emperor Akbar's. surprising thing is that he has!
ON SANJAY DUTT: If Balasaheb wasn't there, nobody's grandfather could bailed out Sanjay. He told Manohar Joshi: "Sunil Dutt may be my rival, but not a traitor. Let Sanjay out, but if you find a shred of evidence against hang him." Officers working on the case said if they did so, they would have let out several others who had been rounded up on flimsy charges, and the ernment would stand exposed. It was then that he told me, "Mukesh, you low up on Sanjay's release." For four months, he did not let me go to working me constantly about the progress in the case. Every day, I'd would about four hours liaising with the government, meeting legal advisers, cates, and getting paperwork done. I've seen the case inside out.
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ON ENRON: When Rebecca Mark first met him, Balasaheb told her: "Forget padding and payoffs, just read this and convince me it's wrong." It was report on the danger the project will cause to the environment. Weeks she sent along reply—by courier. Balasaheb did not like it; he did not read Enron's people then left a note in my office comparing their project with other fast-track projects. It looked convincing.
I asked Balasaheb what he was looking for, political gain or the nation's efit in calling off the contract. Country before self, he said. What if I that the deal is for our good, I asked. Then we will restart, he said. It was that Mark and her boss Kenneth Lay flew down. Balasaheb turned towards and said, "Tell him, I don't take money from a white man, that he can a hospital instead." And that is what Lay, who is a top functionary in wants to do, in memory of Meenatai (Thackeray's wife).
