NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday took a dig at Narendra Modi over his public gaffes and said BJP’s PM nominee lacked accurate knowledge of history of the country.
Addressing a joint rally organised in support of Congress and NCP candidates, namely Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil, Pawar also raked up the 2002 communal riots and appealed to people to “prevent communal forces from tarnishing secular fabric of the country”.
“Modi said in his Vardha rally that Quit India movement was launched from there… How can he run the Central government when he does not even know correct history of the country?” Pawar said.
Shinde filed his nomination as Congress candidate from his home turf Solapur while Mohite-Patil as NCP nominee from Madha seat, represented by Pawar who became a Rajya Sabha member recently.
In an apparent reference to the killing of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri and others in a massacre in Gulbarg Society in Gujarat during 2002 riots, Pawar said, “..An MP and other people were hacked to death despite the place of incident being merely 20 kms away from residence of a minister.”
The NCP chief said the “communal forces” were trying to vitiate the atmosphere by running divisive election campaign. “…Communal forces are trying hard to control the country and to hurt the secular fabric of India…that should be averted,” he said.
Pawar said the Congress-NCP combine had “relieved farmers of paying huge debt and also taken steps to benefit the common man”.
