‘Ajit can’t use my photo, I won’t go with the BJP’: Sharad Pawar

The meeting disturbed his Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi allies, Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) so much that they openly expressed their displeasure for the first time.

Days after the confusion created by his “secret” meeting with his nephew Ajit, NCP chief Sharad Pawar took a strong line against him as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Aurangabad: NCP President Sharad Pawar during a press conference in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023. (PTI Photo) (PTI08_16_2023_000171B) (PTI)

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The NCP chief, who will address a rally in Beed on Thursday, declared that he would approach the judiciary if the rebel NCP faction led by Ajit did not stop using his photograph on its banners and hoardings. He also lashed out at the Modi-led central government, accusing it of disturbing social harmony across the country, and said that the prime minister was more concerned about his return to power in 2024 than Manipur, which has been burning due to ethnic violence for 90 days now.

After Pawar’s meeting with Ajit in Pune last Saturday, there was much uncertainty about his next step. The meeting disturbed his Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi allies—the Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT)—so much that they openly expressed their displeasure for the first time. Pawar’s remarks in the media on Wednesday are being seen as an attempt to clear the air about himself.

The NCP chief flayed Modi on multiple counts. “Manipur is burning, there have been attacks on people and the police and women are being harassed and paraded nude, but the Modi government remains a mute spectator,” he said. “The crisis in the North-East is not important for him—he is only concerned about his return to power.”

Pawar charged the Modi government with deliberately creating animosity among communities and disturbing the unity of the country. To corroborate his claim, he spoke about a new circular issued by the Central Board of Secondary Education, directing all its 27,000 affiliated schools to observe Partition Horrors Remembrance Day on August 14. “The Modi government wants to rekindle the pain and horror of Partition, which the country has been trying to overcome over decades,” he said. “I am going to raise this matter in the upcoming meeting of the I.N.D.I.A. coalition in Mumbai.”

Coming back to his rebel nephew, Pawar claimed that the meeting between him and Ajit was an innocuous one. “It has been a tradition that as the head of the Pawar family, they come to me for a discussion if there is something important. So there is no reason to blow the meeting out of proportion,” Pawar said, trying to draw a curtain over the controversy over his “secret” meeting once and for all.

He also clarified that they did not “discuss politics”. “Who will discuss politics with me?” he asked. “The party in which they all were, who was its founder? Who is the seniormost person in the NCP? What is left to discuss?” Pawar was referring to the widespread speculation that Ajit had come to ask him to join the BJP, and alleging that no one would have the temerity to ask him such a thing.

The NCP chief then countered the remarks made by Congress leaders questioning his credibility after his meeting with Ajit and his sharing of a dais with Modi in Pune. “I want to point out that the Tilak Smarak Mandir trust, which felicitated the prime minister with the Lokmanya Tilak Award, is controlled by Rohit Tilak, a Congress leader,” he said. “Former union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde is one of the trustees. No one said anything about them but they are saying everything about me.”

Read here: EC gives 3 more weeks to Sharad Pawar, Ajit factions to revert on NCP name, symbol

Pawar also alleged that the BJP government was misusing its powers, and he would not be surprised if the ruling in the dispute over the NCP’s name and symbol went against him. “However, I have contested 14 elections and done so on different symbols,” he said. “Every time people elected me. What election symbol you have really does not matter.”

The BJP has retorted to the claims made by the NCP chief. “The party (NCP) which has failed to maintain its ‘national status’ has no right to make comments on the Prime Minister. The people of the country will re-elect Narendra Modi in the general elections of 2024,” said Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Maharashtra BJP president.