Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for skipping an all-party meeting soon after the Pulwama terror strike and instead addressing a pre-election rally in Yavatmal district.
Mr. Pawar claimed that it was he who had suggested the destruction of terrorist camps when asked by Union Home Minister [Rajnath Singh], who chaired the meeting in the PM’s absence, as to what course of action was to be taken.
“Neither the Prime Minister nor the Defence Minister was present at the meeting. We got to know that the PM was in Maharashtra and campaigning for his party’s candidates,” Mr. Pawar said at a public meeting in Chakan in Pune district.
He said, “On the one hand, Mr. Modi boasts he is the chowkidar (guardian), the country’s security is safe in his hands, and that he has a 56-inch chest. Then, what was he doing in Yavatmal, issuing these vaunted statements in the aftermath of the terror strike?”
Urging Opposition parties to overthrow the Modi-led NDA in the general election, Mr. Pawar lambasted the BJP for its misuse of power in the last five years. “A great number of tall promises has been made by the BJP government…the farmers today are in a truly pitiable condition. Since the Fadnavis government in Maharashtra, more than 12,000 farmers have committed suicide,” he said.
Mr. Pawar alleged that the BJP government’s claims of waiving farmers’ loans were false. “Barely 50% of the farmers have received the benefits of this mega loan waiver scheme announced by the BJP government…this [BJP] government has proved extremely insensitive to farmers. Once, [the then] Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and I had left our official duties and rushed to Yavatmal to provide succour to the family of a farmer who had taken his life,” he said.
