Throwing their weight behind Maharashtra Minority Affairs Minister and senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case, the leadership of the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government on Wednesday categorically ruled out Mr. Malik’s resignation until his guilt was proven.
Following Mr. Malik’s arrest, all top NCP leaders, including Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, MP Supriya Sule and Minister Jayant Patil, met at NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s residence in Mumbai. This was immediately followed by a meeting at Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s official residence in which leaders of the Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress, including Mr. Pawar were present.
‘Bid to destabilise government’
Speaking to reporters after the MVA leadership meeting, NCP Minister Chhagan Bhujbal said: “Nawab Malik’s arrest by the ED is unfortunate. There is no question of accepting his resignation until his guilt has been proven. This is an attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] to destabilise the MVA government.”
The MVA government would not give the BJP the satisfaction of seeing its Ministers resign after the latter dug up obscure 'cases' against them, he remarked.
“Nawab Malik's name has not surfaced once in the 30 years that have passed since the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts. So, this attempt by the BJP, by raking up some obscure case against him is clearly an effort to disrupt the MVA,” he said.
Mr. Bhujbal said that as a mark of protest against Mr. Malik’s arrest and the BJP-led Union government’s misuse of Central agencies, all MVA Ministers would sit on a dharna on Thursday. All three parties would jointly hold State-wide protest on Friday at the district as well as taluka levels.
Following Mr. Malik’s arrest, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had called up Mr. Sharad Pawar to express her solidarity. Sources close to Ms. Banerjee said the Trinamool Congress chairperson had suggested to the NCP chief not to remove Mr. Malik from the Ministry. The leaders also discussed on having a united front against the Central investigative agencies.
Ms. Banerjee had in December 2021 during her visit to Mumbai met Mr. Pawar and spoke about the unity of Opposition parties.
‘Nothing surprising’
Rebuking the BJP-led Central government, Mr. Sharad Pawar said Mr. Malik was being harassed for being vocal against the Union government’s misuse of Central agencies and that there was “nothing surprising” about the interrogation.
The BJP has called for Mr. Malik's resignation, with BJP State president Chandrakant Patil stating that the NCP leader had “no moral claim” to be part of the State Cabinet now. Senior BJP leader Ashish Shelar questioned the MVA whether probe agencies ought to turn a blind eye and not probe terrorist links.
Mr. Shelar accused the MVA of using pressure tactics on the Central agencies, particularly by the Sena and the NCP leadership and alleged that they were doing this only to save their government.
The MVA lashed out at the BJP with Mr. Sharad Pawar spearheading the verbal charge.
“We were certain that something like this would happen soon. Nawab Malik had been outspoken against the Centre and its misuse of agencies…Those who express their views openly against the BJP government and the investigating agencies, those who speak the truth, are being harassed,” said the NCP chief.
He further said that it was very easy (for the Centre) to invoke Dawood Ibrahim’s name particularly in regards to a Muslim party activist against whom some old case would be dug up by the agencies.
‘Easy to link with Dawood’
“It is easy to link a Muslim [political] worker with Dawood [Ibrahim]. I also faced similar allegations when I was Chief Minister of Maharashtra. An environment was created [against me] which lasted for some 25 years… Link people with a name, harass and defame them by misusing power. The same is happening in this case,” Mr. Sharad Pawar said.
NCP State president and Minister Mr. Jayant Patil said Mr. Malik had been taken from his residence around 6 a.m. by the ED without any notice being served on him.
“This has now become a familiar pattern which began with the ED targeting Anil Deshmukh and other Ministers of the MVA government. But the NCP stands firmly behind Mr. Malik,” said Mr. Patil.
Security beefed up
A massive throng of NCP activists and Mr. Malik’s supporters gathered outside the ED office, raising slogans in support of the Minister and against the Central government as security was beefed up.
Supriya Sule, the NCP MP from Baramati, said the ED interrogation was hardly surprising given Mr. Malik’s vocal stance against the Centre. “For the last few months, we [NCP leaders] have frequently been given such threats [of probes by the ED or other Central agency] by their [BJP] leaders on social media platforms like Twitter…Given that Nawab Malik was conducting one expose after another, it was anticipated that he would soon be troubled by a Central agency. It is unfortunate that Maharashtra’s politics have come down to such a level,” said Ms. Sule.
‘Politics of malice’
Congress MP Husain Dalwai said the BJP was indulging in “the politics of malice”. “This is a party [BJP] that is groomed on the hate of Nathuram Godse [Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin]. Nothing else can be expected from this party,” he said.
Calling Mr. Malik’s interrogation “a deliberate challenge” to the stability of the ruling MVA government, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said the BJP’s misuse of Central agencies would not last beyond the 2024 Lok Sabha election, which would see a change at the Centre.
NCP’s Rajya Sabha member Majeed Menon questioned whether the ED probe was being conducted following Leader of the Opposition Devendra Fadnavis’ allegations against Mr. Malik.
“It appears the ED probe is being done at the behest of Mr. Fadnavis … This is the same ED which had summoned Mr. Pawar himself, but had quickly backed down. Moreover, had the ED any evidence against Mr. Malik, they ought to have conducted it quietly rather than propagating it on all television channels… secrecy is the hallmark of a fair investigation,” said Mr. Menon, questioning why the ED had woken up after 17 years to dig up a 2005 case against Mr. Malik.
Fadnavis’ charge
Last year, it was Mr. Fadnavis who had alleged that Mr. Malik had apparently struck a property deal with 1993 Mumbai bomb blast case convict Sardar Shahwali Khan and Mohd Salim Ishaq Patel, said to be the ‘frontman’ of Haseena Parkar, Dawood Ibrahim’s sister.
“A prime property of 2.80 acres at LBS Marg in Kurla was bought by Solidus Investment Private Limited for a meagre ₹30 lakh. The signatory of the deal transacted was Faraz Malik, who is Nawab Malik’s son," Mr. Fadnavis had alleged.
The ED last week had raided at least 10 locations in Mumbai and neighbouring areas, including Parkar’s residence, in connection with the money laundering case. It also questioned some businessmen last week. Dawood Ibrahim’s brother, Iqbal Kaskar, is already in the ED’s custody.
Mr. Malik’s interrogation is one of a long line of crackdowns by the Central agencies which began with former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and included MVA leaders like the NCP’s Mr. Ajit Pawar and the Sena’s Anil Parab, Mr. Sanjay Raut and Pratap Sarnaik among others.
