NCP chief suggest dialogue should take place in alliance government
“Pitamaha (grandfather like figure) of Indian politics”, this is by far a biggest ever praise that has come for Sharad Pawar, the chief of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), from Shiv Sena, an alliance partner in the Maha Vikas Aghadi Government in Maharashtra.
Mumbai: “Sharad Pawar is the Pitamaha of politics (grandfather like figure) in the country. A question was asked in Delhi after the government formation in the state where the ‘Chanakya’ is?” On this, it was said “Chanakya is in Delhi but the father of Chanakya is in Maharashtra”, read the introductory part in the third part of an interview of Sharad Pawar to ‘Saamana‘, the mouthpiece of Shiv Sena. Sanjay Raut, senior Shiv Sena leader and executive editor of the newspaper has interviewed Pawar.
Refuting the allegations made by Devendra Fadnavis – the Leader of Opposition (LoP) that NCP supremo took a U-turn as he earlier he was in favour of forming the government with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Pawar retorted saying that BJP leaders were in talks with the leaders of NCP including himself. They talked to me on a couple of occasions.
“Their expectation was to vouch on the good relationship I have with the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi). They felt that the Prime Minister should intervene and I should endorse that. To clear the misconception, I personally went to Prime Minister’s chamber in Parliament and told him that NCP was not in favour of going along with BJP. I told him that we can go with Shiv Sena and if that does not happen we are ready to sit in opposition,” he said.
Pawar said, there should be only one centre of power and that should be with the chief minister. If there are two centers of power then it creates problems. In many states, this is happening because of which the chief ministers are not able to discharge their duties effectively.
Pawar stressed on having a dialogue in the alliance government. “There are various issues which need to be addressed. We (Congress-NCP) have certain suggestions to make (to the chief minister) and for that dialogue is needed. In a parliamentary democracy, dialogue should always be maintained. The current government is for three parties. And if the two alliance partners have certain things to say then it should be resolved through dialogues”.
“We do not see any loopholes in (Uddhav) Thackeray’s way of functioning. The only thing missing is dialogue”, he added stating that it should happen consistently.
Replying to a question about Fadnavis revealing that senior leaders from BJP and NCP were making attempts to form the government in Maharashtra after the 2014 assembly election in the state, said, “I strongly felt that Shiv Sena should not form a government with BJP. When I sensed that Shiv Sena will go with BJP that time I made that statement that NCP was ready to extend outside support to the BJP government. The intent was to keep Shiv Sena at bay…but that did not happen. Our attempt was that reins of power going to BJP was not in the interest of Shiv Sena. It was our political move”.
He said he accepts that the NCP deliberately made attempts to create a rift between Shiv Sena and BJP.
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Pawar while advocating that one should be “humble” when in Government, said the incident which has happened with Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from the BJP is an example of hubris of power.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development had recently served a notice on her to vacate the said premises in New Delhi before August 1 as she no longer comes under SPG security cover.
“One should always keep in mind that the contribution of Jawaharlal Nehru in the freedom struggle was important. He worked out on the modalities to bring democracy in the country. His daughter Indira Gandhi sacrificed her life for the country. Indiraji’s son Rajiv Gandhi too laid down his life for the country”, Pawar said. There can be political differences, but that does not mean that one should misuse his power and harass someone, he remarked. “I do not see any cultural ethos in all this”, he added.
Sharing an anecdote, he said when he was a minister in the UPA government, that time Narendra Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat. “That time BJP had a government in some states. I have seen that whenever there was a conference of chief ministers, prior to it there used to be a separate meeting of the CMs of BJP ruled states. Modi uses to chair that meeting. He uses to be very critical to Manmohan Singh which cannot be explained. We have seen a chief minister having extreme stand against the Prime Minister of the country. This had never happened before”, he highlighted.
Now the scenario is different. There are several states which do not endorse Centre but still have not taken any extreme stand. They are trying to get along with the Centre. Modi, when he was the chief minister of Gujarat criticised Manmohan Singh. But Dr Singh never reciprocated his anger on Gujarat.
On asked what “Operation Kamal (lotus) is, he said, “It clearly means misusing power. To destabilise the government elected by the people”, he added.
To another query that it is continuously spread that in the month of October “Operation Lotus” will be carried out in Maharashtra, to which Pawar said, first they said it will be done in three months, now they are saying six months. I am sure the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government will complete its five-year tenure successfully and it will not have its impact on the Uddhav Thackeray-led government.
