Launching a blistering attack on Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar’s alleged “track-record of appeasement politics”, former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday remarked that Mr. Pawar’s recent statements against the film The Kashmir Files were hardly surprising given the NCP’s wont of allegedly “polarising society along communal lines.”
In a series of tweets buttressed by newspaper clippings of Mr. Pawar’s statements in the past, Mr. Fadnavis, who is the BJP’s leader of opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, lashed out at the NCP’s “double-standards” in appeasing the minority community.
“Mr. Pawar’s recent statements on[filmmaker] Vivek Agnihotri’s The Kashmir Files are not surprising at all. t’s not surprising at all. In fact, they are totally in line with NCP’s decades old track record of appeasement policy & politics and polarising the society on communal basis,” said the BJP leader.
Mr. Fadnavis questioned the NCP chief’s alleged “double standards” on communal harmony.
“Why does a movie based on real testimonials of sufferings of Kashmiri Pandits disturb someone? Just because it doesn’t suit the pseudo-secular agenda?” Mr. Fadnavis said.
He further asserted that the movie was not against any religion but against those who “chose to look the other way when people were suffering.”
“Because these people [read Mr. Pawar and the NCP] felt that it suited their political agenda of appeasement, thereby achieving a communal divide,” Mr. Fadnavis said
Mr. Pawar has voiced his opposition to The Kashmir Files, stating that it ought not to have been cleared for screening but was instead being given tax concessions while those responsible for keeping the country united (read BJP-led Centre) were encouraging people to watch a film that apparently stoked anger among people.
Tweeting on the occasion of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s birth anniversary, Mr. Fadnavis claimed that Mr. Pawar had “grand plans” on bringing a Muslim quota in Maharashtra even though the Constitution did not provide for such a provision.
“Shameful how vote-bank politics prevail over Constitutional values,” the BJP leader said.
Mr. Fadnavis further said that it was Mr. Pawar who had declared (deceased 19-year-old terror suspect) Ishrat Jahan as ‘innocent’ and was the first to use the phrase ‘Hindu terror’.
“Not only was Ishrat Jahan [who was killed in a highly controversial 2004 police encounter] was called ‘innocent’ but senior leaders of the NCP extended help to her and even went to the extent of demeaning the Intelligence Bureau (IB) even though they [NCP-Congress government in State and UPA at Centre] themselves were in power at that time,” said the BJP leader.
He further said that during the 1993 Mumbai blasts, Mr. Pawar had “invented” a 13th blast in a Muslim area.
“Instead of law and order, appeasement was his first priority,” the former CM said. Mr. Pawar, who was Maharashtra’s Chief Minister in 1993, had later defended his ‘lie’ of the 13 th blast by stating he had done so in an attempt to keep communal violence in Mumbai city at bay as all the 12 blasts had occurred in Hindu-dominated areas.
