PM Modi’s dig at Sharad Pawar: Repeat performance or political strategy?

With the 2024 Lok Sabha elections around the corner, PM Modi’s attack against Pawar was natural, many within the BJP argue. “In Maharashtra, Sharad Pawar remains the tallest leader even after the split within the NCP. He has a standing Opposition front called INDIA. Given his hold amongst the Maratha community, especially in western Maharashtra, BJP leaders are bound to target him as part of their strategy,” a BJP minister said, requesting anonymity.

The attack against Pawar did not go down well with the NCP though. “In the past, Modi has always praised Sharad Pawar for his role in the agriculture sector,” state NCP chief Jayant Patil pointed out.

However, there have been several such instances where Modi and Pawar have attacked each other bitterly ahead of the elections – only to set aside their political differences and share a common dais later.

In Maharashtra, barely a month after the BJP engineered a split in the NCP, PM Modi and Pawar shared a stage at an award ceremony in Pune. Opposition parties, including the Congress and the INDIA bloc, had urged Pawar not to share the dais with PM Modi but he ignored their entreaties.

At the Lokmanya Tilak National Award ceremony on August 1, where the Prime Minister was bestowed with an award by the Tilak Smarak Mandir Trust on the 103rd death anniversary of freedom fighter Lokmanya Tilak, Modi and Pawar greeted each other warmly and shared smiles.

In the past, on February 14, 2015, PM Modi inaugurated the Krishi Vigyan Kendra at Pawar’s home turf Baramati. He later had lunch with the Pawars. The following year, the PM inaugurated a three-day conference organised by the Vasantdada Sugar Institute in Manjri near Pune just days after announcing demonetisation.

Modi has even referred to Pawar as his political mentor. “I have personal respect for Sharadrao Pawar. He held my finger and helped me walk into politics. I feel proud to announce this publicly,” he had said. The Modi-Pawar bonding had unsettled the state BJP then as it was engaged in a bitter fight with the NCP in the 2014 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

Pawar Senior had reciprocated with equal generosity. “I wonder how Modi works. In the morning, he was in Japan. On his return, he immediately visited Goa. Then Belgaum, and now here. Wonder where he goes at night?” he had said.

Two years later, in January 2017, Pawar referred to this episode while taking potshots at the PM. “I said, this is it. I brought him into politics. He (Modi) is a smooth talker. He speaks in such a powerful manner that the person hearing him believes there is something to the man…that he must have a 56-inch chest.”

It was the Modi-led government in 2017 which bestowed Pawar with the Padma Vibhushan, an acknowledgement of his contribution to the agriculture sector.

A year before the 2019 polls, Modi and Pawar turned foes. In 2018, at the NCP plenary in Pune, Pawar targeted Modi over the “worsening condition” of Dalits, minorities, and women in the country and questioned the Prime Minister’s silence on the issues.

On several occasions, Pawar Senior also warned that Modi’s autocratic leadership was a threat to the Constitution and democracy. Pawar was at the forefront of leading the opposition at ‘Save Democracy’ rallies held in Delhi and Mumbai ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

PM Modi, on the other hand, urged people to uproot the Pawars’ rule in Baramati. The NCP, he said during the poll campaign, was not a “rashtravadi (nationalist)” party but a “bhrashtravadi (corrupt)” one. The NCP, he added, was the “Natural Corrupt Party”.

Once the elections were over, the political rivals mended fences. At an event organised by Marathi newspaper Loksatta in Pune in January 2021, Pawar said, “Modi has a good hold over administration which is his strength. He has this trait of perseverance. If he takes on a task, he ensures it reaches its conclusion.”

Their oscillating relationship was also on display earlier this year when the Congress-led Opposition cornered the Modi government over the Hindenburg report and questioned industrialist Gautam Adani’s links to the Prime Minister. Pawar distanced himself from the Opposition offensive and followed it up by meeting Adani.