NAGPUR, December 18: Gopinath Munde was today not amused as what should have been a routine discussion on law and order in Maharashtra turned into a personal crusade for and against him between Treasury and Opposition members of the Legislative Assembly here.

The series of rapes reported from his home taluka, Parli, in the Marathwada region of the State, said to involve his kith and kin, today appeared to have turned into an albatross round his neck as Opposition members raked it up time and again to focus on the police inaction in these and other cases throughout Maharashtra.

The Deputy Chief Minister was particularly embarrassed by the repeated pun on his name with several members evoking the spirit of Lord Krishna to assail Munde for allegedly allowing the atrocities to rage unchecked. ``Gopinath, by virtue of his name, should be the protector of women. Instead, in his reign, they have become orphaned,'' said Dr Madhav Kinhalkar, former Minister of State for Home under the previous Congress regime in Maharashtra.

A grim-faced Munde looked on silently as Janata Dal member Sambhajirao Pawar dramatised his brief three-minute speech on the subject with pantomime to hold Munde (who is also Minister for Home) to ridicule. ``He used to expand his chest and set forth on an attack on the law and order situation against the previous government,'' Pawar said. ``Now what does he do when the police stations in the State have virtually turned into addas of the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party everywhere?'' Pawar charged the police with failing to take action against criminals for this very reason. He equated Maharashtra-under-Munde with Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, or even worse. ``Even Texas (in the USA) might have a better law and order situation although the trigger-happy there are free to shoot from the hips and go dhain dhain dhain (bang bang bang) with the least provocation,'' he said, acting out the words for the benefit of the members.

Pawar's allegations obviously cut deep for he was interrupted heatedly by the Treasury benches on several occasions with even the presiding officer in the chair appearing equally unamused.

Treasury members, however, rose swiftly to Munde's defence. Describing the Deputy Chief Minister as fauladi (iron-cast), Abhiram Singh of the BJP avowed that Munde was on top of the law and order situation and not swamped by it, as alleged by the Opposition members.

Munde, who is slated to attend the BJP convention in Bhubaneshwar beginning on Friday, realising that he might not be in a position to reply to the allegations (the discussion resumes tomorrow), later stood to plead with Pawar, ``I have a good deal of respect for you. My only request to you now is that you refrain from making personal comments,'' he said. Pawar duly subsided in this exchange of asides that continued throughout the debate.However, it was not just women and the failure of the police to take action against the rapes in Parli and Pune that had Munde under pressure. Dr Kinhalkar re-opened an old controversy between the media and Sena supremo Bal Thackeray by placing on record Governor P C Alexander's comments on law and order breakdown made in Goa in October. ``Apart from innocents being slayed by criminals against whom police fail to act, farmers agitate and two are shot dead by the police. Dalits agitate, 11 are killed by the police. Women are raped, there is injustice by the police. They do not even record their complaints,'' he said.

Added Pawar, ``No farmer today has the guts to till his fields beyond daylight. If he chooses to guard them at night, he might be dead by morning.''

Munde, however, appeared unfazed. ``There is nothing you (the Opposition) have said that I cannot challenge,'' he said in another aside. And thumbing his nose at his detractors, ``I can wrap it all up in less than half an hour!'' he added.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.