PM Modi not a team player; Marked improvement in Rahul

Pune : Nationalist Congress party President Sharad Pawar launched a scathing attack against leaders of the BJP and the Prime Minister on Wednesday in Pune saying the tendency to humiliate past leaders of the country are condemnable.

Referring to Prime Minister’s recent speech in the parliament in which he targeted India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, NCP President said it was very wrong to attack former leaders of the country for political benefits. Pawar said that caste division and communal tensions is the biggest challenge Maharashtra faces today.

NCP President Pawar was speaking during an interview given to Maharashtra Navanirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray during one of its kind event where leader of one political party interviewed former union minister on a public platform.

“You may have political differences with some leaders or some previous Prime Ministers but that does not give you the right to launch personal attacks and malign their image in places like parliament. This is a worrisome trend,” Pawar said.

“It is a very serious and worrying trend that certain people are trying to divide the society on caste and communal lines for their political gains, but I hope that the next generation and youngsters will change this trend in the near future” Pawar lamented.

Answering a question about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s initiatives in diplomatic space, Mr. Pawar said “People have started ridiculing the PM for his habit of hugging each and every head of state who arrives in India and then taking that leader to his hometown Ahmedabad”

Speaking about demonetisation and the problems farmers are facing because of demonetisation Pawar said “Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and other prosperous states have cooperative banks. The farmers heavily depend on those banks but after demonetisation when farmers deposited their old currency in these banks their money was no exchanged so now lakhs of farmers are suffering huge losses. I raised this issue several times in parliament but the PM has refused to answer”.

Answering a question about Prime Minister’s pet projects of Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train Pawar said that a bullet train project should have been designed between Mumbai and Delhi or Mumbai and Nagpur. There is no logic to connecting Mumbai and Ahmedabad with a bullet train.

Speaking about Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the NCP president said “He has tremendous energy and he works hard those are his positive sides. He has been a successful CM. But when it comes to running the country one must have a team and one must trust a team. Modi is not a team player. This is very wrong, one cannot run the country unless you are a team player”.

Talking about Rahul Gandhi he said that there is a marked improvement in Rahul Gandhi as he is now willing to travel all over and learn various things.

Asked about his experience during his tenure in the national capital in the union government Pawar said “There is a group of influential group of people in New Delhi which goes around lobbying and they ensure that no leader from Maharashtra rises beyond a certain level”

Speaking about his tenure in the cricket sphere Sharad Pawar recounted some memories of changes in India’s cricket sphere and the commercialisation in the sport. “When I realised that old cricketers were in financial difficulty I took the initiative of starting pension to every player who has played even one test match”, Pawar said.