Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, taking aim at the rebel faction led by his nephew Ajit Pawar, on Sunday rubbished their claim that they had aligned with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to ensure Maharashtra’s development. He remarked they had defected fearing investigation by Central agencies.
Mr. Pawar was addressing his party workers at Pune, as part of a Statewide tour to rebuild his party following the split engineered by his nephew last month.
“Some of our colleagues, who have changed their party, claim they went there [to the BJP] for the sake of Maharashtra’s development. This is nonsense. Most of those who defected were facing an Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe launched by the [BJP-led] Central government and were not ready to face that probe,” he said.
‘Pressure politics’
The NCP patriarch said that those from his party who had joined the BJP-ruled government were forced to speak from the BJP’s side on any question.
“They have been told that if you speak on our behalf, there is no problem. But if you do not, then we [the BJP] will send you somewhere else. Those who were afraid to face the probe went over to the other side,” he said.
Mr. Pawar observed that in stark contrast to the position taken by the rebel NCP leaders led by Mr. Ajit Pawar who joined the government, former Home Minister and senior NCP leader Anil Deshmukh had faced jail for 14 months as he refused the BJP’s offer to join them.
“Anil Deshmukh flatly refused to join the BJP, saying he had not committed any crime. He refused to change his beliefs. The same with the editor of the Saamana [Shiv Sena UBT leader Sanjay Raut],” Mr. Pawar said.
He said the very fact that the NCP defectors were still claiming their beliefs were still of the NCP and not the BJP meant they were being subjected to “pressure politics”.
Ever since Mr. Ajit Pawar and eight other NCP leaders were sworn in on July 2 as part of the ruling BJP-Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena government, the new Deputy CM has claimed he aligned himself with the BJP to ensure Maharashtra’s speedy development and that he was influenced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision.
Meanwhile, Mr. Pawar, addressing his third rally after the split within his party on July 2, stressed the importance of increasing reach through social media.
“No one can ignore social media today. The ruling party is misusing power through it,” he claimed.
‘Misuse of power’
Without naming anyone, Mr. Pawar trained his guns on the BJP top brass, remarking: “At a very important place in the country, a person, whom I shall not name, misuses power using a unique method. He has installed 200 TV screens in his office and has appointed people to closely monitor news channels. If anything negative is said about the government, then an important person in the government calls up the head of the network and threatens him to withdraw that piece of news.”
Mr. Pawar said that for all the talk of freedom of speech and democracy, heads of television channels had allegedly confided to the NCP chief that they were being pressured.
He further expressed concern about the circular issued by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) asking schools to inform students about the situation which erupted during Partition of the country in 1947.
“The history of Partition is the history of the country’s division amid great bloodshed. It is improper for the younger generation to imbibe such thoughts. Keeping in mind national and social unity, the State government must ensure no subject heightens social tensions in society,” said Mr. Pawar, adding that the Maharashtra government must tell the CBSE that it would have nothing to do with the circular.
