This is an archive article published on June 10, 2024
‘Bhatakta atma’ will haunt Prime Minister Modi forever, says Sharad Pawar
“In one of his election speeches, Modi called me 'bhatakti atma’...Good that he said so. According to Modi, ‘atma’ remains forever. And this ‘atma’ will continue to haunt him,'' Pawar said at a rally organised to mark the 25th Foundation Day of the NCP in Ahmednagar on Monday.
UNDERLINING THAT his comment ‘bhatakta atma’ will continue to haunt Prime Minister Narendra Modi forever, NCP (SP) national chief Sharad Pawar said on Monday that the kind of language the Prime Minister used during his election campaigning only lowered the dignity of his office.
“In one of his election speeches, Modi called me ‘bhatakti atma’…Good that he said so. According to Modi, ‘atma’ remains forever. And this ‘atma’ will continue to haunt him,” Pawar said at a rally organised to mark the 25th Foundation Day of the NCP in Ahmednagar on Monday.
Asking whether Modi really had the mandate to take oath as the Prime Minister for the third time, Pawar said, “Did Modi have people’s mandate before he took the oath of office? Did he take consent of the people? He did not have the majority. He took the help of Bihar Chief Minster and TDP to form the government,” Pawar said.
All eight newly elected MPs of the party, besides party’s state chief Jayant Patil, Jitendra Ahwad and other leaders were present at the rally.
Recalling Modi’s campaign speeches, Pawar said, “Wherever Modi went during election campaign, he was emphasising on the words Modi Sarkar and Modi Guarantee. The Modi Guarantee does not exist anymore. Similarly, there is no Modi Sarkar. Modi was forced to state that it is not Modi Sarkar but Indian Government and Bharat Sarkar. He was forced to take a different stand.”
Pawar said the Prime Minister does not belong to any particular party, but Modi forgot this. ”It is expected that the Prime Minister of this country should think about all sections of society, people of all castes, creed and religions. But Modi forgot this. I don’t think he actually forgot; it was part of his ideology. Whether Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis…minorities whichever denomination they belong to, are important part of the country. The rulers have the responsibility to create confidence in them. But Modi failed in inspiring confidence among the minorities.”
Recalling another speech of the PM during the election rallies, Pawar said, “During one of his rallies, Modi said there is one particular community in the country among whose families more children take birth. This means he was referring to the Muslim community of this country…Then, he said if the INDIA bloc comes to power, they will snatch your mangalsutra. He also said at a meeting that INDIA bloc people will take away the buffalo of a farmer. What was he talking about? This is what a Prime Minister of this country is supposed to speak? Is a Prime Minister supposed to discuss such things in his speeches? Modi saheb did not maintain the decorum of his office. As political parties, we attack each other but we maintain certain decorum.”
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Criticising the Prime Minister for calling Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena as ‘nakli’ Shiv Sena, Pawar said, “Bal Thackeray formed the Shiv Sena and took it to new heights. The BJP struck alliance with Shiv Sena and formed a government. They won the confidence of the Marathi manoos. And now, Modi calls Shiv Sena of Balasaheb Thackeray as ‘nakli’ Shiv Sena. Does it suit a person holding the Prime Minister office? This means when a person knows it will be difficult for him to return to power, he resorts to making such wild statements and becomes restless, he said.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
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