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This is an archive article published on April 8, 2023

‘His stand is party’s stand’: On Adani, Ajit Pawar backs Sharad Pawar

“I have seen the NDTV interview of our party chief. Pawar saheb is our supreme leader. When the top leader of our party takes a stand, we cannot discuss about...We cannot take a separate stand from what he takes..." says Ajit Pawar

Ajit PawarNCP chief Sharad Pawar and Opposition Leader in Maharashtra Assembly Ajit Pawar. (Express archives photo)
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‘His stand is party’s stand’: On Adani, Ajit Pawar backs Sharad Pawar
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A day after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar said he was against a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into short-selling firm Hindenburg’s report on the Adani Group, party leader Ajit Pawar, who is the Opposition Leader in the State Assembly, backed his party chief, saying that the party stood by his stand.

“I have seen the NDTV interview of our party chief. Pawar saheb is our supreme leader. When the top leader of our party takes a stand, we cannot discuss about…We cannot take a separate stand from what he takes. Therefore, the stand taken by Pawarsaheb is also our party’s stand and also of our rank and file,” Ajit Pawar told reporters in the Kharadi area of Pune city.

Ajit Pawar, who had remained incommunicado through the day on Friday, said he was taking rest at his residence after he felt uneasy in the morning. “I was suffering from acidity problem due to constant tours and lack of sleep. And therefore I went to a doctor, took some pills and was resting at home. However, the media indulged in speculations, repeatedly saying that I was unreachable…I am also a human being, I suffer from the problem of acidity…but I felt bad that the media was indulging in wild speculations and trying to defame me,” Pawar said.

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The NCP leader, who was supposed to attend a New English School students’ function in Chinchwad on Saturday, did not turn up for the event. Over 1,000 students waited for him but for two hours, there was no word from his office. However, the organisers said they were told that Ajit Pawar would not be able to make it. “We will have to cancel the cultural event and will have to hold it on another day. Over 1,000 students and their parents had assembled for the event,” the organisers said. A secretary in Ajit Pawar’s office said he was not feeling well and hence cancelled the Chinchwad function.

On Friday, breaking ranks with the Opposition, Sharad Pawar had said that he believes the Adani Group is being “targeted” by unknown entities whose motives he questioned.

In an interview to NDTV, a channel in which the Gautam Adani-led Adani Group is the majority shareholder, Pawar distanced himself from the Congress’s demand of a JPC probe into the report by Hindenburg and said he did not agree with stalling of Parliament by the Congress-led Opposition on the matter.

“…This time out-of-proportion importance was given to the issue. The issues that were raised, who raised them, we had never heard of these people (Hindenburg) who gave the statement, what is their background? When they raise issues that cause a ruckus across the country, the cost is borne by the country’s economy. We cannot disregard these things. It seems this was targeted,” Pawar had 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.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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