Shiv Sena (UBT) mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ on Tuesday criticised Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) founder Sharad Pawar, who shared the stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Lokmanya Tilak award ceremony in Pune, saying Maharashtra would have lauded Sharad Pawar if he stayed away from the event to protest “dictatorial policies” of the prime minister.
Saamana editorial claimed that PM Modi accused the NCP of corruption and then engineered a split in the party and muddied the politics of Maharashtra. “Still, Sharad Pawar will welcome Modi and this has not gone down well with some people. This was a good opportunity for Pawar to turn his back on the programme and clear the doubts about him among people,” the Marathi editorial said.
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The editorial also recalled a quote by Lokmanya Tilak to take a stinging swipe at the 82-year-old leader and stated, “To become the leader of people, a person needs to give up selfishness and his conduct should be good”.
“People had different expectations from a leader such as NCP chief Sharad Pawar at a time the country was fighting what it described as the second freedom struggle”, it read.
“It is contradictory when the leader shares the dais with PM Modi and NCP workers hold protests against the PM. A few days back, PM Modi levelled corruption charges, then split the same party and accommodated its leaders in the Maharashtra government. Therefore, some people did not like Sharad Pawar’s decision to attend the function,” the editorial added.
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Pawar had the opportunity to dispel doubts about him by not attending the function “but he chose to attend the event,” it said, stressing that Pawar would have been lauded by the entire state if he absented himself from the event.
PM Modi was on a visit to Pune on Tuesday to launch various development projects and also receive the Lokmanya Tilak National Award, instituted by the Tilak Smarak Mandir Trust in 1983.
Sharad Pawar and PM Modi “were seen exchanging jovial banter, with Pawar patting Modi’s back” before the event started, PTI reported.
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Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, who were also present, shook hands with Sharad Pawar but Pawar’s estranged nephew and deputy chief minister, Ajit Pawar, walked past his uncle.