“I immense respect for Sharad Pawar,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, merely a week after the NCP (SP) leader criticised and equated him with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In an exclusive interview with Network18, PM Modi said: “It doesn’t matter whether people who have been in public life for long are with us or against us. I respect him a lot.”
‘Big Contradiction’
Prime Minister Modi further said, “But this means that he is proud of receiving the award from a government headed by someone he sees as Putin. This is a big contradiction.”
PM Modi was responding to a question asked by News18 Lokmat news presenter Vilas Bade during the interview that in 2017 Modi-led government at the Centre had bestowed Sharad Pawar with the Padma Vibhushan, but the NCP (SP) leader said, “Modi is becoming the country’s new Putin.” How do you see this comment?
What did Sharad Pawar say?
Addressing a Lok Sabha election 2024 rally in Amravati for a Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) candidate on April 22, Pawar claimed former prime ministers worked to make a new India but Modi only criticises others and doesn’t speak about what his government had done for the people in the last 10 years.
“After Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, I saw the working of almost all PMs ranging from Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, and Narasimha Rao to Manmohan Singh. Their efforts were to make a new India, but the incumbent PM only criticises,” Pawar alleged.
The NCP (SP) had also claimed no one in history can forget the contribution of former PM Jawaharlal Nehru but the prime minister (Modi) continuously criticises him.
“Instead of telling what the Central government did in the last ten years, he (Modi) keeps criticising others,” Pawar had said.
“We fear that a new Putin is in the making in India”, he had said.
Padma Awards ’not Modi’s personal property’
The Prime Minister further said the Padma award is not Modi’s personal property and that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) doesn’t have a copyright on it.
“We gave Bharat Ratna to Pranab Mukherjee, Narasimha Rao, Chaudhary Charan Singh, Karpoori Thakur. Nobody in this country questioned our choices. Everybody understood it was long due and well-deserved. They were from opposition parties and had even criticised us in the past, but our decision was not based on such things,” PM Modi told Network18.
“Former defence minister late Mulayam Singh Yadav, ex-CM of Assam late Tarun Gogoi, former Lok Sabha Speaker late PA Sangma, ex-CM of Karnataka late SM Krishna… were all from other parties but we gave them Padma awards for their contributions to their respective fields. It is the country’s award to give, not a party’s. It’s not Modi’s personal property. BJP doesn’t have a copyright on it,” the Prime Minister further said.
“If you are interested, a story to look at is how Padma awards have changed in the country. We have transformed it. We should be lauded for the thought behind such decisions, not questioned about the choice of recipients,” the Prime Minister said.
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