Sharad Pawar, 79, criticized the governor of Maharashtra, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, for the latter’s letter.
Osmanabad:
The head of the Nationalist Congress Party, Sharad Pawar, criticized Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari for his controversial exchange with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray last week about the reopening of places of worship in the state.
“Anyone who respects himself will not continue in office,” said Pawar, an ally of Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, on Monday, noting that Union Interior Minister Amit Shah had said that Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari he could have chosen his words better. .
“Anyone who respects himself will not continue in office. Who are we to make any demands,” Pawar told reporters in Osmanabad district, where he was taking stock of areas affected by the floods. “After the statement of the Union Minister of the Interior expressing disappointment at the language of the letter, anyone who respects himself will answer a call on whether to continue in office or not.”
“If the Union Interior Minister has expressed concern about the language used by the Governor of Maharashtra, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, it is significant,” he said.
Shah told News18 on Saturday that “(Bhagat Singh) Koshyari could have chosen his words better.”
Last Monday, the governor wrote to Uddhav Thackeray “requesting that he immediately announce” the reopening of places of worship with Covid precautions. “You have been a great devotee of Hindutva. You had publicly manifested your devotion to Lord Rama by visiting Ayodhya after assuming the post of Chief Minister. You had visited the Vitthal Rukmini Mandir in Pandharpur and performed the puja at Ashadhi Ekadashi,” wrote Koshyari. .
“I wonder if they are getting some divine premonition to keep putting off the reopening of places of worship again and again or if they have gone ‘secular’, a term they hated.”
Responding to Koshyari on the same day, Thackeray said his Hindutva did not require a certificate from the governor or anyone else and that he would make a decision after careful consideration. “Did you say that I am receiving divine premonitions? You may have them, but I am not that great,” he wrote in Marathi.
Sharad Pawar, 79, had supported the Chief Minister. He had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he was “shocked and surprised” by the language used by the governor.
Maharashtra, the second opposition-ruled state where a politically active governor has assumed the post of chief minister. In Bengal, Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has been a relentless critic of the Mamata Banerjee government and has made this clear on social media.
(With inputs from PTI and ANI)
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