Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi: Veteran Maharashtra politician Sharad Pawar has responded to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent attack, where Shah described him as the “kingpin of corruption.” Pawar reminded Shah of his Supreme Court-ordered exile from Gujarat, Shah’s home state.
“A few days ago, Home Minister Amit Shah attacked me, calling me the ‘commander of all the corrupt people in the country.’ Strangely, the Home Minister is someone who misused the law in Gujarat, for which the Supreme Court banished him from Gujarat,” said Pawar, leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar).
Pawar referenced the 2010 incident when Shah, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member, was expelled from Gujarat for two years in connection with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case. Shah was later acquitted in 2014.
“The one who was banished is the Home Minister today. So, we should think about where we are headed. The way the people in whose hands this country is, are taking the wrong path, we should think about it; or else, I am 100% confident that they will take the country on the wrong path. We must pay attention to this,” the former chief minister of Maharashtra added.
On July 21, during a BJP conclave in Pune, Shah accused the ex-Union minister of “institutionalizing corruption.” He stated, “They (opposition) are speaking about corruption. The biggest kingpin of corruption in Indian politics is Sharad Pawar and I have no confusion in that. What will they accuse us of now? If somebody has done the job of institutionalizing corruption, Sharad Pawar, it is you.”
Maharashtra is set to elect its next government in October. The ruling alliance, Mahayuti, comprises the BJP, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, and the NCP led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Sharad Pawar’s nephew. The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition includes the Congress, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), and NCP (SP).
