Maintain decorum of home minister’s post: Sharad Pawar on Shah’s remarks

Mumbai: Former Union minister Sharad Pawar on Tuesday rubbished Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks that the BJP’s victory in the Maharashtra Assembly polls ended the politics of betrayal and treachery started by him in 1978.

“I was the chief minister in 1978. I am not aware about his whereabouts then,” Pawar told reporters in Mumbai. “When I was the chief minister, there were people like Uttamrao Patil from Jan Sangh in my ministry,” Pawar added.

The decorum of the post of home minister should be maintained, the NCP (SP) chief said, bemoaning the lack of communication between present political leaders.

“There used to be ‘susanvad’ (good communication) between political leaders earlier but that is missing now,” he said.

“The victory of BJP in Maharashtra ended the politics of instability and backstabbing started by Sharad Pawar in 1978. You (people) have buried such politics 20-foot in the ground,” Shah had said, addressing a state-level convention of BJP in Shirdi on Sunday.

Shah’s apparent reference was to Pawar walking out of the Vasantdada Patil-led government in 1978 with 40 MLAs and becoming the CM.

Pawar recalled that then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee had made him the vice-chairman of the Disaster Management Authority after the Bhuj earthquake despite being in the opposition.