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This is an archive article published on March 23, 2024

Those taking stand against Modi are being put in jail: Sharad Pawar calls out PM for ‘dictatorship’

Referring to the Enforcement Directorate's probe against Oppostion leaders, Pawar said the way power is being misused used today, it smacks of dictatorship that is being followed by the Modi government.

Sharad Pawar PM Modi EDPawar said Modi government's policies are not in national interest. (File)

CRITICISING Narendra Modi for ”following the path of dictatorship” and putting those against him in jail, NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar said the Prime Minister was following an ideology of his own, which was not in the interest of the nation.

”When Narendra Modi came to Baramati, he had said that he held my hand to enter politics. But his politics does not have any relation with my ideology. Had he held my hand, I would not have allowed him to work in this manner,” said Pawar at a campaign rally for his daughter and MVA’s Lok Sabha candidate from Baramati Supriya Sule in Indapur on Sunday afternoon.

Referring to the Enforcement Directorate’s probe against Oppostion leaders, Pawar said the way power is being misused used today, it smacks of dictatorship that is being followed by the Modi government.

Referring to those who are being put behind bars for taking a stand against Modi, the veteran politician said, “The Jharkand CM was put in jail because he had taken a stand against Modi. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal has been jailed in a similar manner. Arvind Kejriwal belongs to a ordinary middle class family. His way of running the government has drawn people from across the country and outside…the way he has reformed the education and health sectors has been a hit with people. Why are good politicians like him are being put in jail?”

Pawar said Modi government’s policies are not in national interest. ”The Prime Minister imposes taxes. If the government gets Rs 100 tax from people, the Prime Minister says he has put Rs 6 in your pocket. The Prime Minister is taking Rs 100 and returning Rs 6. This is Modi guarantee. This is neither in the interest of the nation, nor in the interest of the common man. It is time for change and that is why this time, the Lok Sabha elections are very important,” 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.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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