NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is at the centre of attack by the opposition leaders over the split in Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) with nine of its MLAs led by Ajit Pawar joining the BJP-Shiv Sena (Shinde) government in Maharashtra on Sunday.
Ajit Pawar of the NCP was sworn in as the deputy chief minister of the state with Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP being the first one in the coalition government led by chief minister Eknath Shinde.
The political coup has come in for sharp criticism from the opposition which has targetting the prime minister.
Opposition leaders attack PM Modi
Modi’s naming of NCP and Sharad Pawar a couple of times in his recent speech made the opposition leaders to counter him.
Sharad Pawar, in a tweet on Saturday, said, “The statement made by the Prime Minister of the country two days ago was against the Nationalist Congress Party. In that statement, he said two things. The Nationalist Congress Party is a corruption-ridden party.”
Pawar noted that while saying this, the PM mentioned the complaint in the State Co-operative Bank and irrigation department. “After the allegations made by the Prime Minister, today he administered the oath to some colleagues of the NCP in the state cabinet. This means that the allegations made by the Prime Minister were not true. I am thankful to the Prime Minister for exonerating the party and those against whom the allegations were made,” he said.
Rajya Sabha MP and Congress general secretary in-charge of organisation KC Venugopal also trained his guns at the PM. He alleged that the BJP’s dirty tricks department is working on overdrive in Maharashtra. This is not a legitimately elected government, but an ED-facilitated power grab, he said.
He accused the Maharashtra government of being a product of corruption and sin. The people have very well identified the traitors, corrupt and compromised leaders of Maharashtra and each of them will be taught the lessons of their lifetime in the next elections, he said.
Attacking the prime minister, Venugopal said in a tweet, “On June 29, PM Modi had spoken about corruption. It appears he switched on the washing machine and these leaders are now squeaky clean after this oath-taking ceremony.”
TMC MLA Babul Supriyo, who switched over from the BJP before the last West Bengal assembly election, alleged that after having roped in quite a few tainted, corrupt and hated men as ministers in Maharashtra, the BJP and PM Modi have no business talking about 'Bhrastachar ke khilaaf ladai' (fight against corruption).
He said, “How hypocritical an approach! There is a reason why majority of NDA partners have deserted BJP for lack of respect. And it's the same Ajit Pawar who made a 'chicken' out of BJP not so long ago. #Shame”
Why PM Modi is being targetted
The reason behind the PM being singled out is his sharp attack on the opposition leaders, including NCP, over corruption not long ago.
Speaking at the BJP’s ‘Mera booth, sabse majboot’ programme at Bhopal on June 27, the prime minister had specifically mentioned NCP and its chief Sharad Pawar for allegedly being involved in scams worth crores of rupees.
In his close to two-hour speech, Modi had teared into the opposition. Talking about the opposition, he said some people live only for their parties. They want to do good only for their parties. They do these things because they get portions of corruption, commission and cut money. They do not have to work hard for the path they have chosen. This path is of appeasement and vote bank, he said.
He further said the politics of the opposition parties goes on only by keeping the poor and downtrodden in that condition. The path of appeasement can pay rich dividends for some days but it is extremely destructive for the country. This stops the growth of the country, creates discrimination, and erects walls in the society, he said.
Naming the political parties, Modi said no poor wants their children to remain in poverty. The result of voting for these parties was that the future of their children improved and this must be told to the people who voted for them. Those who sought votes in the name of their family did good only for their family, he said.
PM Modi said, “You have to think and decide whose good they want to see happening. Vote for the Congress if you have to ensure the growth of the Gandhi family's son and daughter. Vote for Samajwadi Party if you want to ensure the growth of Mulayam Singh Yadav's son. Vote for RJD if you want to ensure the growth of Lalu family's sons and daughters.”
Speaking further, the PM said, “Vote for NCP if you want to ensure the growth of Sharad Pawar's daughter. Vote for the National Conference if you want to ensure the growth of Abdullah family's son. Vote for DMK if you want to ensure the growth of Karunanidhi's sons, daughters and grandchildren. Vote for BRS if you want to ensure the growth of K Chandrasekhar Rao's daughter.”
Exhorting the people to vote for his party, Modi said, “Vote for the BJP if you want to ensure the growth of your sons, daughters and grandchildren.”
The prime minister also lashed out at the opposition on the issue of promising guarantees during elections.
He said a new word is being made popular these days. That word is guarantee, which is being said quite often. It is a great responsibility of the BJP workers to tell the people what the opposition parties are guarantee for. All these opposition parties are a guarantee of lakhs of crores of corruption, he alleged.
Talking about the joint meeting of some opposition parties in Patna on June 23, Modi said there was a photo-op programme of these parties. “If you look at the history of the parties in this meeting, they are a guarantee of corruption worth at least Rs 20 lakh crore,” he said.
He said the Congress's corruption alone is of lakhs of crores - Coalgate of Rs 1.86 lakh crore, 2G scam worth Rs 1.76 lakh crore, CWG scam worth Rs 70,000 crore and MNREGA scam worth Rs 10,000 crore. There is no area from air to submarine which has not fallen victim to scams by Congress, he noted.
PM Modi said there are allegations of thousands of crores of corruption against the Lalau Prasad-led RJD. They include the fodder scam, coaltar scam, animal husbandry shed scam and flood relief scam. The list of scams by the RJD is so long that even the courts have got tired of them. They are pronouncing one sentence after another, he said.
Attacking the DMK, he said there is an allegation of creating property illegally worth Rs 1.25 lakh crore against the party ruling. Tamil Nadu party. Attacking Mamata Banerjee-led TMC, he said allegations of corruption against it included Rose Valley scam, Sharda scam, teacher recruitment scam, cow smuggling scam and coal smuggling scam worth more than Rs 23,000 crore.
Subsequently, the PM came to NCP. He said, “If I talk about NCP, there are charges of about Rs 70,000 crore worth of corruption such as Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank scam, Maharashtra irrigation scam and illegal mining scam. Their list is also very long.”
He said the metre of the scams by these parties is never down. He urged upon any innovative BJP worker to draw a metre of these scams. These parties have experience of only scams. That is why if there is any guarantee of these parties, that is a guarantee of scams, he noted.
He said the country has to decide whether it will accept this “guarantee of scams”. He said he has emerged from amongst the BJP workers who have sent him to Delhi. Therefore, he said, he also wants to give a guarantee to them.
The prime minister said, “If they have a guarantee of scams, there is a guarantee of Modi also. My guarantee is to take action against every scamster, thief and robber, who have looted the poor and the country. They will have to pay for their misdeeds. These parties are getting together today when the stick of law is being wielded and the prison bars are getting visible before them. Their common minimum programme (CMP) is to escape from the actions being taken against corruption.”
The prime minister repeated some of the charges at a function to launch the National Sickle Cell Anemia Eradication Mission 2047 at Shahdol in MP on July 1.
