Sharad Pawar a 'sargana' who institutionalised corruption in country: Amit Shah
Pune, Jul 21: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday termed NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar as the "sargana" (ringleader) who institutionalised corruption in the country and accused Rahul Gandhi of being "arrogant" despite Congress losing elections on three occasions.
Addressing the BJP's state convention in Pune, Shah dubbed Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray "the head of the Aurangzeb fan club" who was sitting with people who sought pardon for 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon.
He said Rahul Gandhi's arrogance will be crushed after BJP wins upcoming assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand.
"If there is the biggest 'sargana' of corruption in Indian politics, it is Sharad Pawar. There is no confusion in my mind about this. I am saying it openly that Pawar has institutionalised corruption in the country," Shah said as he accused the veteran politician of doing nothing for the country's welfare and Maharashtra when he was in power.
Taking a swipe, Shah said the BJP allotted reservation to Marathas when it helmed Maharashtra (under Devendra Fadnavis) whereas whenever Sharad Pawar's government comes to power, the Maratha quota disappears.
He said the Mahayuti government must come to power to ensure the reservation for Marathas stays.
This is Shah's first visit to Maharashtra after the BJP suffered severe drubbing in the recent Lok Sabha elections where the party's tally tumbled to 9 from 23 seats it had won in 2019.
Attacking the Shiv Sena (UBT) chief, Shah said, "Uddhav Thackeray is sitting with those who sought clemency for 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon."
"Who is the Aurangzeb fan club? Those who serve biryani to (26/11 terror attack convict) Kasab, those who seek pardon for Yakub Memon, those who give (controversial Islamic preacher) Zakir Naik a messenger of peace award and those who support the (banned Islamist outfit) PFI. Uddhav Thackeray should be ashamed of sitting with these people," Shah said.
In a scathing speech, Shah also targeted Rahul Gandhi for his "arrogance" despite the Congress party's consecutive losses in the Lok Sabha elections.
"Once we win the Maharashtra, Haryana, and Jharkhand assembly polls later this year, Rahul Gandhi's arrogance will be crushed," Shah said.
He also challenged the Congress to implement its Lok Sabha election promise of providing Rs 8500 monthly to women in states ruled by the party. "I want to tell women of Karnataka, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh to start demanding it," Shah said.
Despite the BJP securing 240 seats in the general elections, surpassing the INDIA alliance tally, Shah urged party workers in Maharashtra to improve their position in the upcoming state assembly elections.
"Mark my words, the BJP-led alliance will win Maharashtra massively," he asserted.
Shah emphasised the importance of the 2024 Lok Sabha mandate, noting that no Prime Minister in the last 60 years has secured three consecutive terms.
"This is not a small victory. In Maharashtra, we will better our performances of 2014 and 2019 this time," he said.
Shah urged the party workers not to get disheartened over the Lok Sabha results and said the lost ground could be recovered in the assembly elections as he highlighted the welfare measures taken by the Mahayuti government.
Shah appealed to the BJP cadres to ensure the victory of the alliance partners (Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and NCP led by Deputy CM Ajit Pawar) in the elections.
"We will form a government of the BJP-led alliance," he added.
He said the BJP has been holding extended working committee meetings across the country to review the outcome of Parliamentary elections.
"We have to do two things in Maharashtra: To review the Lok Sabha poll results and also win the state elections,"' Shah said.
Reiterating the BJP's commitment to its ideology, Shah cited the abrogation of Article 370, the construction of the Ram temple, and the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code in Uttarakhand.
"The entire country is waiting for the Uniform Civil Code," he said and praised PM Narendra Modi for ending terrorism in the country through air strikes and surgical strikes.
Shah recalled his 2014 remarks when he had said the BJP would rule the country for 30 years. "Just ten years have passed so far," he added.
Shah also accused the Opposition of spreading a false narrative about changing the Constitution.
"Congress insulted Babasaheb Ambedkar which even Britishers didn't do. Sharad Pawar creates new illusions every day," Shah said, adding that only the BJP can work for the welfare of the poor and not Congress.
Shah said Maharashtra received funds of only Rs 1.97 lakh crore in ten years when the UPA government was in power (2004-14), whereas this amount rose to Rs 10 lakh crore in the last decade under the Modi government.
The NCP (SP) hit back at Shah, saying it is the BJP which has "legitimised" corruption by incorporating tainted leaders in the saffron fold.
"They accuse political leaders of corruption, and then once those who they accuse join BJP, they are all given a clean chit. This is the BJP's washing machine process of legitimising corruption," NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) national spokesperson Clyde Crasto stated.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Modi govt rattled by Rahul’s Great Nicobar visit; project concerns need Parliament debate: Cong
New Delhi (PTI): The Congress on Sunday flagged in detail concerns related to ecology, tribal rights, transparency and security, over the Great Nicobar project, and asserted that these considerations must be debated in a parliamentary forum.
The opposition party claimed that the Modi government is "rattled" and in damage control mode after Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi's visit to Great Nicobar last week.
In a statement, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, "The Modi Government, clearly in damage control mode after the hugely impactful visit of the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, to Great Nicobar on April 28 2026, issued a press note on the Great Nicobar Island Development Project three days later."
This press note does not address any of the serious concerns that have been raised on it by local affected communities, environmentalists, anthropologists, academics, civil society experts and other professionals, Ramesh said.
"These concerns had already been conveyed in detail by me to the Union Minister of Environment, Forests & Climate Change on September 10, 2024 and in a follow-up on September 27, 2024," the former environment minister said.
During his visit to Great Nicobar, Gandhi last week alleged that the Great Nicobar project at Campbell Bay in Andaman and Nicobar Islands was "one of the biggest scams and gravest crimes against the natural and tribal heritage of the country".
The government on May 1 released a detailed statement with answers to FAQs (frequently asked questions).
"The Great Nicobar Project is a strategic initiative to strengthen India's presence in the Andaman Sea. It seeks to balance port-led growth with calibrated environmental safeguards. Protection of indigenous communities remains central to its planning," the government statement had said.
"The project combines strategic, economic, and ecological priorities. This ensures that development is sustainable, inclusive, and aligned with national interests," it had said.
In his four-page detailed statement, Ramesh spelt out the key concerns over the Great Nicobar project.
Flagging ecological concerns, Ramesh said the Great Nicobar is unique and distinctly different from all other islands in the Andaman and Nicobar group.
"The Government's claim that only 1.82% of the total land of the island group is being used for the project is irrelevant and misleading. It ignores the ecological and biological richness of the Great Nicobar ecosystem, which is unique both in the island group and in the world," he said.
"Galathea Bay, the site of the port, is unequivocally a Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) is a site where port construction is not allowed. As per records of the Zoological Survey of India, Galathea Bay is home to more than 20,000 coral colonies, a key marker of a CRZ-1a categorisation. Similarly, the beach here is the most important nesting site of the Giant Leatherback turtle in the Northern Indian Ocean," Ramesh said.
The recently concluded turtle nesting season saw record turtle nesting at Galathea Bay, he pointed out.
Ramesh alleged that institutions like the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) were literally coerced to play a key role in the environmental clearance and related process for the project.
"These very institutions have now been awarded projects for biodiversity research and monitoring in Great Nicobar. There is a clear conflict of interest here," he argued.
In addition, a couple of reputed and independent-minded institutions that have been very critical of the project have been blacklisted by the Modi government, he said.
Similar is the case with the high-powered committee (HPC) constituted by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in the matter of the challenge to the project's environmental clearance granted, he said.
All the HPC's members either represented the project proponents or agencies which granted the clearances, Ramesh said.
He said the proposal for compensatory afforestation in Haryana is a travesty of ecological principles.
Flagging tribal rights concerns, Ramesh said the Nicobarese Tribal community has expressed concerns multiple times about the project and its impact on their forests, rights, and way of life.
"In November 2022, they withdrew the NoC they had granted for forest diversion saying that they were rushed to sign by concealing the extent of tribal areas to be affected by the project. Representatives of the Nicobarese community also stated in a recent press conference that they were being forced to voluntarily surrender their land for the project," he pointed out.
The claims stand even more exposed in the matter of the Shompen, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG), that lives a life of hunting and gathering in the deep forests of Great Nicobar, Ramesh said.
The Shompen are a primarily uncontacted community and there are no non-Shompen speakers of their language, he pointed out.
"It is not clear then how the project authorities have taken their informed consent, which is both ethically appropriate and legally mandated," Ramesh said.
Pointing out that government release has claimed that the airport in Great Nicobar will eventually handle 10 million passengers annually, Ramesh said this appears prima facie to be a huge over-estimation given that the current airport at Port Blair handles 1.8 million passengers annually.
"The deliberations of the Forest Advisory Committee for granting the project's forest clearance were not made public. The report submitted by the High-Powered Committee that examined the clearance granted to the project was kept confidential. The field report prepared by the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM) that pronounced the status of the site of the port from CRZ-1A to CRZ-1B overnight, remains confidential," he pointed out.
Ramesh also flagged security concerns about the project, saying no less a person than the courageous former Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd) himself has argued in an article that "the security capabilities of ANC (Andaman & Nicobar Command) need to be addressed separately and must have no linkage with the developments contemplated for GNI (Great Nicobar Island)."
"There is thus no need to link India's legitimate security imperatives with the so-called 'development project' - complete with a township, high-end tourist infrastructure, and large transshipment terminal - that the Modi Government is intent on bulldozing through and on which it is now trying to muzzle genuine and much-needed debate hiding behind "security considerations", he said.
"These considerations must, at the very least, be discussed and debated in a Parliamentary forum," Ramesh said.
