new delhi in the early 80s when he spearheaded the move to bring colour tv to india vasant sathe faced trenchant criticism that a country that could not provide clean water to its citizens should not be squandering resources for an esoteric luxury almost three decades later potable water is yet to reach many parts of the country but the black and white tv sets have vanished without a trace urban slums and remote rural homesteads all sport a colour tv set colour broadcasts were a revelation and with the 1982 asian games and indias 1983 world cup victory there was no looking back when 86yearold congress veteran vasant sathe breathed his last on friday he left a legacy of visionary or a maverick or both depending on how the observer chose to see him sathe was a open critic of mandal commission claiming he was ready to argue against the quotas himself in court he was brought by his family to artemis hospital at 750 pm and taken in as emergency however despite the efforts by the team of doctors he could not be revived and was declared dead by 815 pm his body will be donated to aiims on saturday a lawyer by training and an early unionist sathe was an advocate of the presidential system of directly elected heads although his opponents could never quite figure out whether this was a command performance or just one of the leaders quainter ideas sathe won elections from wardha in maharashtra and as a brahmin in the states marathaoriented politics he did not find it easy to survive had it not been for indira gandhis fondness for him after she returned to power in 1977 she made him information and broadcasting minister causing intense heartburn among other contenders an avid lover of arts and culture sathe had a flamboyant style that saw him being criticized for being indiscreet he could not have cared less even as he paid token obeisance to more proper behaviour he wholeheartedly backed richard attenboroughs gandhi when many suspected that a foreigner might twist the tale privately he held the view that perhaps only a foreigner could be dispassionate about gandhi he countered the films detractors by reading out passages from the script in parliament arguing that the mahatma would not be slighted sathe wrote books with a passion and was accused of being a soft saffron a charge that he countered by saying that he was and would be a staunch congressman his eccentricities and a zest for life made him an interesting figure in national politics he also had time to help those he felt deserved his support in his later years he did criticize aspects of congress policies like the handling of the baba ramdev stir while he was an outspoken leader never shy of airing his views sathe was also a gandhi loyalist there was never much doubt of that