Pawar slams Modi on Bilkis case; says attempts being made to bring together non-BJP parties
Pawar, a former Union minister, said that attempts were being made to bring together non-BJP parties to build public opinion against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for its “attempts to bring down the governments” in different states.
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NCP President Sharad Pawar addresses the media during his visit to Thane district on Monday. (Express Photo by Deepak Joshi)The reality of the “sermon on respecting women” delivered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Independence Day speech was “there for everyone to see when rapists of Bilkis Bano were released in his state Gujarat”, said Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Monday.
Pawar, a former Union minister, said that attempts were being made to bring together non-BJP parties to build public opinion against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for its “attempts to bring down the governments” in different states.
“We intently listened to the speech delivered by the Prime Minister on August 15 where he talked of respecting women. But the state from which he hails let the rapists of Bilkis Bano go despite the heinous crime they committed. Everybody witnessed the reality behind the position the Prime Minister took,” said Pawar. He was addressing a press conference in Thane after taking a review meeting of his party’s performance in the district.
Slamming the central government, Pawar said that instead of fulfilling the promises it made to the people of the country, political leadership was busy slapping cases on people through Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). “Not just Maharashtra but similar complaints are being made even in Gujarat and in Jharkhand. Especially in states where BJP is not in power, it has started this programme of using central agencies,” he said.
Pawar alleged that the BJP is using the technique of breaking the people in states where it is not in government in a bid to capture power there. “Except for four to five states, the people are not ready to give power to the BJP. They are ignoring the BJP. And therefore, this party is using agencies such as ED to grab the power. This is today’s reality,” he added.
The NCP chief stated that he is trying to coordinate with non-BJP political parties to create a public opinion against the ongoing practice of dethroning the state governments. “It is important to look into this as Parliamentary democracy is being threatened,” he said.
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Pawar gave example of state’s former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh who is currently in jail. “He faced 110 raids from central probe agencies. Never before in this country have so many raids taken place on a single person. A similar thing is being seen in cases of Nawab Malik and Sanjay Raut. The situation is worsening,” he said.
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