With several leaders of his party being under investigation by central agencies, NCP president Sharad Pawar struck a combative note on Sunday, saying Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj taught them to “never surrender before Delhi”.
Addressing the NCP’s eighth national convention at New Delhi’s Talkatora Stadium, Pawar targeted the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, holding him responsible for issues ranging from price rise and communal discord to “misleading” the country on “Chinese incursions” on Indian soil.
“We are proud of the fact that NCP works as a progressive party. If you look at the history of Shivaji Maharaj, he kept a model in front of us. It was about not surrendering before the rulers in Delhi,” Pawar said, urging party workers to put up a spirited resistance against the BJP.
NCP leaders Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh are in jail in connection with money laundering cases registered by the Enforcement Directorate.
Pawar, who has over the past few months emerged as a rallying point for anti-BJP parties, said at the meeting that working towards bringing about unity in Opposition ranks “would be the NCP’s top priority”.
In June, Pawar had turned down a combined Opposition request to contest as the presidential candidate. He had said at the time that he was happy to “continue my service for the well-being of the common man”, and later played a leading role in forging a consensus in favour of Yashwant Sinha, who lost against the NDA’s Droupadi Murmu.
On Saturday, the NCP adopted a draft political resolution. “Sharad Pawar has played an important role in bringing together these parties and putting up a united front to counter the NDA. We must strengthen this resolve and work towards the goal of opposition unity and make sure we achieve this successfully,” the draft resolution said.
There appeared to be a note of dissonance at the meeting, however, with former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar not delivering his scheduled speech.
When he was called on to speak, he was not found on the stage. Subsequently, senior party leader Praful Patel announced from the stage that Ajit had gone to the washroom and would speak when he returned. But the speech did not take place.
NCP spokesperson Sonia Dohan said when contacted that reports of Ajit Pawar leaving the meeting were false. “While returning from the washroom, the media accosted him and there was a delay of about seven to eight minutes for him to return to the stage. But he did return.”
Meanwhile, in his speech on Sunday, Sharad Pawar accused the BJP of attempting to divert the attention of the youth from issues like unemployment by bringing up religion. “Karl Marx said religion is the opium for the masses. We will have to be alert and careful about the Union government’s divisive policies on the basis of religion, caste,” he said.
Targeting the Prime Minister, Sharad Pawar said that while speeches were made from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the need to uphold the rights of women, “the same BJP’s government in Gujarat sets free convicts who brutalised a woman, and killed her children and family members.”
Attacking the Centre on the national security front, Pawar termed the border crisis with China as “grave”.
“The PM had said that the Chinese army did not enter (Indian soil), but now it is clear that he had misrepresented facts,” he said.