Politics in Goa revolved around Manohar Parrikar, irrespective of whether he held office or not

Manohar Parrikar's greatest strength lay in his simplicity and transparency, and his reticent nature — not the positions he occupied or the policies he framed.

bollywood mourns Manohar Parrikar demise — Manohar Parrikar was 63. (Express archive photo)

Sometime in the early 2000s, I visited Goa in connection with some RSS work. A meeting with the state’s chief minister was arranged at his residence in the morning before he began his official work. I was at the CM’s residence by about 8.30 am. After a few minutes, I found Parrikar, the then CM of Goa, driving in in his personal car, a Maruti Zen, if I remember correctly. A bit surprised, I asked him if there was no driver available that morning. The CM replied in a very matter-of-fact way that he uses his personal car every morning to drop his children to school. He used the services of the government driver only for going to the Secretariat later in the morning.