Shame on Narendra Modi for making wild allegations against Manmohan Singh: Sharad Pawar

NAGPUR: Veteran politician and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar has heavily criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for alleging that his predecessor Manmohan Singh was conspiring with Pakistan for the BJP's defeat in Gujarat.

Addressing a massive rally on after leading a massive 'Jan Aakrosh Halla Bol' procession, the NCP supremo said PM Modi should be ashamed of making such "wild allegations" against Singh, whom "no one in the world could point fingers at".

"Shame on you, prime minister, for making such allegations! You have made the allegations against this country's former prime minister (Manmohan Singh) and former defence officials," Pawar, a former defence minister himself, said.

"Ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government has taken power, it has destroyed the country, it is indulging in extremely dirty politics and it has invoked Pakistan merely to cling to power. It is a very sad development," Pawar added.

"This attempt to invoke Pakistan was made to divert the people's attention towards the government's failures in addressing the farmers' issues, lack of jobs and other people's issues," Pawar alleged.

"The Modi government has not solved the issues of farmers and other issues the country is facing, but he is bringing the Pakistan angle as a diversionary tactic during the Gujarat elections," Pawar said.

Modi, while speaking at a poll rally in Gujarat on Sunday, had sought to link the dinner meeting hosted by Aiyar for Pakistani dignitaries and attended by Manmohan Singh, among others, with the ongoing Assembly polls and a conspiracy against the BJP.

Pawar made the comments while addressing the massive rally jointly with the Congress and other parties against the BJP-Shiv Sena government.

Pawar - who led a political procession after 37 years, said when Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was informed of Tuesday's procession, he responded that he "would show them their place when they came to him".

"The CM has threatened us. He has complete authority to govern the state, but if he threatens to throw us in jail, the farmers of the state are powerful enough to uproot you from power," Pawar warned.

Senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad also alleged that Modi has stooped to a low level and levelling allegations against the people of his own country.

The procession, signaling a realignment of the political opposion, was led by an ailing Pawar - who recently underwent a toe surgery, but he appeared fit, cheerful and in full form.

Joined by an estimated 200,000 farmers and party activists from entire Vidarbha region of eastern Maharasthra, the procession started from Dhanwate National College grounds and slowly wended its way to the Maharashtra Legislature which has currently assembled here for the Winter Session in the state's second capital.

It culminated there into a rally which was addressed by Pawar, several senior NCP leaders Praful Patel, Tatkare, Leader of Opposition in Council Dhanjay Munde, Congress's former Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, state Congress President Ashok Chavan, Leader of Opposition in Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil and others from both parties.

Tuesday's procession-cum-rally was part of the ongoing agitation launched by the NCP on December 1, in different parts of the state intended to "condemn and awaken the sleeping state government on its various unfulfilled promises" for the people of Maharashtra.

Besides the national parties, the procession saw participation of activists and leaders of other smaller and regional parties like Samajwadi Party, Peasants & Workers Party, Republican Party of India-G and RPI-K, farmers groups, etc.