Tilak award for PM Modi, Sharad Pawar chief guest: Pune Trust

Those invited for the function include Maharashtra Governor Ramesh Bais, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, Tilak said. Former chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde, too, will be present as a trustee. The award will be presented by Deepak Tilak, president of the Trust, which was earlier known as Hind Swaraj Sangh.

The possibility of Modi and Sharad Pawar sharing a stage assumes significance given the latest political churn in Maharashtra.

Following the split in the NCP, with a bulk of the party’s MLAs siding with Ajit Pawar who joined the Sena-BJP government, Sharad Pawar has repeatedly targeted Modi for his earlier comments on “widespread corruption” in the party. With several of the breakaway MLAs facing probes by central agencies, Pawar reiterated at a rally on Saturday that the Prime Minister should now take action against them.

Rohit Tilak, who is a Congress leader and had contested the Assembly election from the Kasba constituency in the past, said, “The award function is non-political and nothing should be read from it. Modi has given his consent for the award and will be present to accept it. Sharad Pawar has also confirmed that he will be the chief guest for the function. It was planned a few months ago.”

Tilak said the award has in the past been given to other prime ministers, too, including Indira Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh. “This award is given to leaders from various fields for their contributions to the country. It has been given to leaders from science and social fields, which include N R Narayanmurthy, G Madhavan, Dr Koti Harinarayan, Cyrus Poonawala and Prakash Amte,” he said.

The award consists of a memento, a certificate and Rs 1 lakh. According to Tilak, the “life and work of Prime Minister Modi finds great resonance with the efforts of Lokmanya Tilak”.

“Lokmanya Tilak gave the clarion call of ‘Swaraj is my birthright.’ Taking a step forward, Prime Minister Narendra Modi… has worked to ensure Surajya for the most vulnerable and outcast members of society as well as the poorest of the impoverished. The people of India have undergone enormous changes because of Prime Minister Modi’s human-centric vision of development, from financial inclusion to social security, from universal access to healthcare to affordable housing,” Tilak said.

“Over the past nine years, India’s growth trajectory has seen substantial change… Modi has put India as a leader on the global map in the production of the Covid vaccine. His untiring efforts enabled the vaccination of the maximum number of people from our country. It is creditable to note that a country with 140 crore population has achieved maximum vaccination because of the Prime Minister’s commitment and vision to keep the citizens safe throughout the pandemic,” he said.