NCP (SP) leader Sharad Pawar has launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, comparing him to Russian President Vladimir Putin and warning that a ‘new autocracy’ is in the making in India.
Pawar alleged that Modi is trying to create fear and emulating Putin’s tactics. He said that while former prime ministers worked to build a new India, Modi only criticizes others and avoids talking about his government’s achievements in the last ten years.
“Instead of telling what the Central government did in the last ten years, he (Modi) keeps criticizing others,” Pawar said. “We fear that a new Putin is in the making in India.”
Pawar was addressing a campaign rally in Amravati for a Maha Vikas Aghadi candidate. He praised former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s contributions to the country and claimed that some BJP leaders have spoken publicly about changing the Constitution. He urged people not to allow autocracy to take shape in India.
A high-profile poll battle is shaping up in the Amravati Lok Sabha constituency where the BJP has fielded Navneet Rana, the sitting MP who won the 2019 polls as an Independent candidate, against Balwant Wankhede of Congress.
Pawar said he has come to apologize to the people of Amravati for the “mistake” he had committed in the 2019 elections by supporting Rana. “In the last elections, I sought the support of people and made an appeal (to elect Rana). People elected the candidate I had appealed for. Time has come to amend that mistake,” he said.
Wankhede, who belongs to Congress, is contesting the election as a candidate of the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprising Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar), and Congress.
“After Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, I saw the work of almost all PMs ranging from Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, and Narasimha Rao to Manmohan Singh. Their efforts were to make a new India, but the incumbent PM only criticizes,” Pawar said.
He said that no one in history can forget the contribution of former PM Jawaharlal Nehru, but the prime minister (Modi) continuously criticizes him.
He praised Shiv Sena (UBT) led by Uddhav Thackeray for “shouldering the responsibility to protect the national interest” by working closely with the Congress and the NCP (SP) like in the past.
