Anyone with self-respect would quit after Amit Shah’s rebuke: Pawar on Governor Koshyari

In an interview to a TV news channel last week, Shah reacted to the raging controversy and said that Governor Koshyari could have chosen his words better

Sharad Pawar, the chief of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), on Monday upped the ante against Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari over his “secular” jibe to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray last week.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar interacts with farmers during a visit to a village to inspect damaged crops, at Tuljapur in Osmanabad district of Maharashtra on Sunday. (PTI)

Pawar said any person, who has self-respect, would have resigned from the position of the Governor after being publicly rebuked by the Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah.

He said that he has never seen such a Governor in his long political career.

“What can I say about the Governor? The Union Minister for Home Affairs has spoken about him. Was the dignity of the office (of the Governor) exalted because of his remark? I have come across several Governors in my long political career, but none has taken such a stand. A Governor must uphold the dignity of the office. He is also expected to maintain the dignity of a CM’s office,” Pawar said.

In an interview to a TV news channel last week, Shah reacted to the raging controversy and said that Governor Koshyari could have chosen his words better.

“I have gone through the letter. He has made a passing reference. However, I feel he should have been more restrained in his choice of words,” Shah has said.

Koshyari recently wrote to the CM about reopening places of worship in the state amid the raging coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak and asked if Thackeray, who is also the president of the ruling Shiv Sena, had “suddenly turned secular”.

His remark triggered a war of words with the CM, as the latter reminded him that secularism was one of tenets of the Constitution that he swore upon while taking oath as Maharashtra Governor.

The NCP is a part of the ruling Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government, which also comprises the Sena and the Congress.