A day after the Tilak Smarak Mandir Trust declared Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the recipient of the Lokmanya Tilak National Award, the Pune city unit of the Congress Tuesday expressed its displeasure and said party workers were “unhappy” over the award given to Modi by a trust which is in control of a Congress leader. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray also questioned PM Modi who is set to accept the award from NCP chief Sharad Pawar whom he recently accused of being “corrupt”. Vice-president of the trust Rohit Tilak – a descendent of freedom fighter Lokmanya Tilak and the general secretary of the state Congress – had on Monday declared that this year’s award would be conferred on PM Modi on August 1 as per the decision of the trust. Speaking to reporters, Uddhav said he was surprised to read in the papers that PM Modi will receive the Lokmanya Tilak award from Sharad Pawar. "Lokmanya Tilak asked the British government 'Sarkarche Doke Thikanavar Ahe Ka? (Is the government out of its mind?)’ Now who should be asking this question? The party that was accused of Rs 70,000 crore corruption is with you (BJP). Sharad Pawar is going to present you with the award and defectors from our party are with you.," Uddhav said in Mumbai. Disagreeing with the trust’s move, city Congress chief Arvind Shinde said, “The vice-president of the Tilak Smarak Mandir Trust is a state Congress office-bearer. Our leader Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party have been criticising the policies of the Modi government. Party workers are unhappy with the announcement of the award by a Congress leader to Prime Minister Modi hailing his contribution for nation building. They have expressed displeasure over it.” The city Congress has also written a letter to the Maharashtra unit of the party saying Lokmanya Tilak was a Congress man and giving an award in his name to PM Modi will send the wrong message to party workers and across the country. Responding to the development, Rohit Tilak said, “I am unaware of the displeasure or opposition of the Congress in giving the Lokmanya Tilak National Award to the Prime Minister. No one has conveyed [it] to me.” Moreover, the function is non-political and the award has been conferred to prime ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Indira Gandhi and Manmohan Singh in the past, he pointed out. “This award is to felicitate eminent personalities from various fields including politics, science, health, infrastructure and the social sector,” Rohit Tilak said, adding that PM Modi’s name was finalised by the trustees unanimously. The chief guest for the award function will be Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar while Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar have also been invited. Senior Congress leader Sushilkumar Shinde, one of the trustees, will also attend the function.
