It felt as if the sky had crashed down on us: Sunetra

Deputy chief minister and NCP president Sunetra Pawar said her husband’s death must not be politicised

MUMBAI: “It felt as if the sky had come crashing down on us,” said deputy chief minister and NCP president Sunetra Pawar, her first-ever public comment on the death of her husband and predecessor, Ajit Pawar in a plane crash in Baramati in January.

Deputy chief minister and NCP president Sunetra Pawar (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo)

Pawar also hit out at NCP (SP) working president, Supirya Sule, who questioned the absence of an FIR into the crash that claimed her cousin’s life even though Ajit’s party, the NCP, was a part of the ruling Mahayuti government.

Pawar said her husband’s death must not be politicised. “Honestly, who would know better than me and my children, the void caused by the loss of Ajit Dada,” asked Pawar. “Everyone wants details of the investigation and we are making efforts. You all know that we have met the Prime Minister and the home minister.”

Pawar said chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had told the state legislature that he was committed to the investigation. “He is making every possible effort to honour that commitment,” she remarked.

On a more emotional note, she remarked, “We also need to think about Dada’s mother, children and wife. Who could be more pained than us? There is no reason to believe we have no feelings,” she said, adding that the family wanted the investigation completed at the earliest and is making every effort to expedite it.

“You know such matters are repeatedly discussed in the media. I feel no one should politicise Dada’s death in this manner,” Pawar said, in another oblique reference to NCP (SP) leaders.

Sule had raised the issue on Wednesday while referring to an FIR registered against MNS chief Raj Thackeray’s son Amit Thackeray, who allegedly removed a photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from a wall at a government polytechnic in Pune.

She pivoted to Pawar’s death, saying, “Why has no FIR been registered regarding my brother Ajit Pawar’s death? We lost a prominent member of our family. The NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) is part of the current government. Have any of their 40 MLAs or eight-nine ministers ever uttered a single word demanding an FIR or a proper investigation into my brother’s death? Our brother is gone, and they are enjoying power,” she had said.

NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar too has repeatedly expressed apprehensions over the circumstances surrounding the crash that claimed Ajit Pawar’s life.