Pune Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘bluster’ about development, Maharashtra had only witnessed severe industrial stagnation and soaring unemployment during the five years of the BJP-led governments at the Centre and the State, said Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday.
Alleging that Mr. Modi had deceived the people, the NCP chief termed demonetisation “a thoughtless decision” that had disastrous consequences on the livelihoods of common people. It cost 15 lakh persons their jobs in Maharashtra, he said.
“Demonetisation yielded no advantages whatsoever nor did it benefit anybody. It just caused a lot of misery and aggravated unemployment,” said Mr. Pawar at a public meeting in Talegaon-Dabhade as part of the campaign for his grand nephew Parth Pawar.
“This is an extremely critical election. Five years ago, Mr. Modi had sought and received a massive mandate while promising to address soaring unemployment, sagging industrial growth, farmers’ problems and maintain the unity of this country. But today, he has failed on all counts and has instead badly misled the Indian people,” said the NCP chief.
Mr. Parth Pawar, son of senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar, is the NCP-Congress grand alliance’s candidate for the fiercely contested Maval Lok Sabha constituency. Mr. Pawar had earlier endorsed his candidacy while taking back his decision to contest from the Madha Lok Sabha seat, saying youth must be given a chance.
Mr. Pawar said the NCP had given tickets to a number of young candidates who would strive for the welfare of the State.
“The politics in this country is changing rapidly. As Yashwantrao Chavan in the late 1960s had given opportunities to youngsters, so have the Congress and the NCP given tickets to many youngsters for the good of Maharashtra,” he said citing the examples of Mr. Parth Pawar, Dr. Amol Kolhe (Shirur) and Sanjay Shinde (Madha) among others.
Lashing out at Mr. Modi, Mr. Pawar said: “Modi keeps on alleging about the Congress-NCP’s supposed misrule of the past 15 years but it was only when our democratic alliance was in power that areas like Chakan, Hinjewadi and Shirur could become developed suburbs and today are important manufacturing hubs and industrial zones catering to the State and the country.”
The NCP chief reiterated that the Prime Minister was wrongly appropriating credit for the release of IAF officer Abhinandan Varthaman from the clutches of the Pakistan armed forces.
“The reality is that the entire international community led by the U.S. had put tremendous pressure on Pakistan to release the IAF pilot as per the Geneva Convention. Yet, Modi claims sole credit. If indeed he had managed to secure Abhinandan’s release, then why does his ‘56 inch chest’ shrink to ‘12 inches’ when it comes to securing the release of Kulbhushan Jadhav?” Mr. Pawar asked.
The prestige of the Pawar clan, and especially that of Mr. Ajit Pawar, is on the line in Maval, where Mr. Parth Pawar is pitted against the Shiv Sena’s sitting MP Shrirang Barne.