Holding the BJP cent per cent responsible for the riots in Delhi, NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday charged that having realised in the run-up to the recent Assembly polls it was not receiving public support and would not come to power, the ruling party at the Centre tried to derive political mileage by creating a communal divide in the national Capital.
Launching an all-out attack against the BJP at party workers at Somaya grounds at Chunnabatti north-central Mumbai, Pawar said: “The BJP is 100 per cent responsible for the recent riots in Delhi. The Narendra Modi government has miserably failed in preventing in riots in Delhi and in the process failed to maintain law and order fin the national Capital”.
Pawar also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former BJP president Amit Shah of fomenting communal tension during the Assembly polls in the national Capital through their vitriolic speeches.
“One could realise from the speeches of Narendra Modi, he was triggering controversies on religious issues. It was worrisome that Modi — as the Prime Minister of India —was resorting to this of electioneering. Instead of making effective use of power in hand at the hand for the benefit of people, the BJP leaders used ‘Goli maro” language in their speeches”.
“Having all lost all elections in the recent times, the BJP realised that the mood that was in its favour during the Lok Sabha polls was suddenly going against it. No wonder the BJP was creating a divide in the society in an effort to derive political mileage in the Delhi Assembly polls.
The speeches made by Modi, Shah, Union Ministers and party leaders in their election rally appeared to be breaking social and communal amity in the society,” the NCP chief said.
Underscoring the dire need to unseating the BJP from power at the Centre, Pawar said: “There is serious concern in all sections of the society across the country about what happened in the national capital. Apart from
preventing recurrence of the situation witnessed in Delhi in any other parts of the country, there is a need to keep all such forces which are threatening unity and integrity of the country. It time for us to think about alternatives (to the current Government at the
Centre)”.
Taking objection to language used by Modi in his public speeches, Pawar said: “Modi said that there was no need to investigate as to who were the opponents of the BJP and its Government at the Centre. This, he said, was because one could recognise the people by the headgears they were wearing. It is a matter of serious concern that the Prime Minister of the country was making such statements which drive a wedge in the society. The Rs Goli Maro..’ statement by a union minister was aimed at creating an atmosphere of terror in the society”.
Slamming the Modi government for the prevailing economic crisis in the country, Pawar said: “Our industry in dire straits. There is phenomenal rise in unemployment in the country. The government at the Centre does not seem to bother about the future of the country. A party (BJP) that won more 300 seats in the Lok Sabha polls is not in power in many states. The people are regretting as to why they re-elected BJP — a party that does not have the country's interest in the mind—to power at the Centre”.
Pawar said that the NCP would play prominent part in fighting the forces which were dividing the country on religious and casteist lines. “We have shove aside forces that whip up communal passion and engineer riots in their diabolic design to win elections,” he said.
Dismissing speculation about the possibility of collapse of MVA government in Maharashtra, Pawar said: “The MVA government is committed to resolving the issues of the people. This Government will complete its full five-year term”.