For the first time after Ajit Pawar and the MLAs supporting him orchestrated a split from NCP, Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray has criticised Pawar junior. Thackeray said he did not like the way he advised his uncle Sharad Pawar, 82, to retire from politics since he had 'grown old'. Ajit's remarks were in very poor taste. I didn’t like it. It is not in our culture to speak in such a manner about someone from whom we have gained everything. We must be respectful to elders. So what if they have become old? Then from whom should we take blessings? I didn't like his statement,” Thackeray said in an interview with Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut, executive editor of Sena (UBT) party mouthpiece Saamana. Thackeray further said that if Ajit Pawar did not agree with him, he could have said it publicly. "But even at this age, he (Sharad) gave you (Ajit) everything. I don’t understand how you can talk to him like this,” he said, in the second part of the interview published in Saamana on Thursday and aired on the party’s social media channels. After launching a rebellion and joining the Eknath Shinde-led government as deputy chief minister, Ajit Pawar on July 5 hit out at his uncle. “You (Sharad Pawar) have become old. your age is 82, 83. are you ever going to stop? In every profession, there is a retirement age, be it bureaucracy or politics. In BJP, the retirement age is 75, we have examples of LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and others before them,” he had said. Thackeray, in the second part of the interview, further said those who wish to defect from any party should admit they are leaving for their own selfish reasons. “Anybody who wishes to leave (the party) should own up to their self-interest. People may still accept them after that. But after getting everything from the party, it is not okay to speak disparagingly against it, or whine about the injustice heaped upon them,” Thackeray said. Incidentally, in the first part of the interview, published Wednesday, Thackeray had praised Ajit Pawar for his efficiency. “He was with us for two and a half years, served as the deputy CM, and he even had the finance portfolio. He is a man who works in a proper framework. He managed the administration and the finance portfolio well,” Thackeray had said.
