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Pawar takes apart BJP-Sena at MPCC meet

Sharad Pawar today launched a blistering attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena alliance government in Maharashtra, and described both as fascist powers.

Pawar, leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, spewed venom at the BJP and Shiv Sena after inaugurating the two-day state-level convention hosted by the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee in Nashik today.

Prominent Congress leaders who attended the inaugural session included Najma Heptulla, Congress Working Committee members V N Gadgil, Sushilkumar Shinde and Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Lok Sabha speaker Shivraj Patil, former Maharashtra chief ministers A R Antulay and Shivajirao Patil-Nilangekar, former Union ministers Vasant Sathe and N K P Salve, leaders of the Opposition in the state assembly and council, Madhukarrao Pichad and Chhagan Bhujbal respectively.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad have whipped up passions by taking up the Ram temple issue, while the BJP proclaims that the Ram Janambhoomi movement launched by it is the biggest movement of this century, Pawar said.

The BJP has thus tried to demean the freedom movement under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, Pawar added.

Pawar said the BJP had retained important portfolios while allotting less important portfolios to its allies.

He charged that the BJP had done this deliberately since these departments could be utilised by it to foster its fascist and narrow-minded tendencies as prompted by the wishes of the RSS.

In this regard, Pawar sought to draw attention to the HRD department's endeavour to enforce a change in the educational syllabi, through the new curriculum, where the younger generation has been made to infer that Chhatrapati Shivaji, rather than being secular, was anti-Muslim. Chapters on Veer Savarkar and Hegdewar have been included but care has been taken to ensure that their progressive thoughts are not incorporated, Pawar said.

Pawar also came down heavily on the BJP's inclination to restructure the Constitution. A committee has been appointed to review the Constitution, Pawar said, and pointed out that almost all the members of the committee had, at one time or the other, openly declared their antagonism for parliamentary democracy and were vociferous advocates of the presidential form of government.

While emphasising that the Congress would not make any attempts to topple the Vajpayee-led government at the Centre, Pawar was, however, sceptical about the continuance of the government for long. He said "Samata, Mamata and Jayalalitha have been causing much unhappiness to this brahmachari (Vajpayee)."

Training his guns on the Maharashtra government, Pawar said it was misusing its powers. Acknowledging that the state government was empowered to withhold the Srikrishna report on the Bombay riots for six months, Pawar, however, asserted that considering the amount of interest the report had generated, the state government should have revealed its contents.

It appears that the government has something to hide, Pawar alleged. He claimed that a Shiv Sena leader had told him that if the findings of the report were made public, the Sena would never again be able to hold the reins of power.

This realisation has made that party adopt a rigid Hindutva stance as was exemplified by its recent disruption of Pakistani artiste Ghulam Ali's concert in Bombay.

He also accused the government of being anti-farmer, and cited the suicide of 26 farmers in the state as evidence. Although the state government has since announced a relief of Rs 100,000 to the victims's next of kin, it should not be forgotten that the farmers were driven to commit suicide owing to the failure of their crops and heavy debts, which is a pointer to their neglect, Pawar stated.

UNI

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