Ajit Pawar
Credit: X/ @Jaypawarspeaks
Mumbai: A gesture of compassion by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar returned in a cruel twist of fate as the very ambulance he helped secure for the Baramati municipality carried his mortal remains, the ambulance driver recalled on Thursday.
Nazeem Kazi, who has been serving as an ambulance driver with the municipal council, said Pawar had intervened around six months ago after learning that the local body was operating with a decades-old ambulance.
“There was a news report that the Baramati Municipal Council had a very old ambulance. After learning about it, Ajit Pawar immediately convened a meeting of the officials concerned. He ensured that a new ambulance was provided without any delay,” Kazi said.
His voice choked with emotion as he recounted the heartbreaking irony that followed Pawar’s untimely death.
“Unfortunately, I had to drive Ajit Pawar’s body from the hospital in the same ambulance he helped us get,” Kazi said with teary eyes.
Recalling his last interaction with the leader, Kazi said Pawar had given him one simple but powerful piece of advice when the ambulance was handed over.
“He told me to do my job honestly. I cannot forget those words today, because I had to drive the ambulance carrying him for the last time,” he said.
Pawar and four other persons on board a private chartered plane were killed on Wednesday morning after it crashed barely 200 metres from the edge of the tabletop airstrip in his home turf Baramati in Pune district.
The 66-year-old NCP chief, popularly known as ‘Dada’ (elder brother), was cremated with full state honours at the Vidya Pratishthan college ground in Baramati on Thursday.