Constitutional crisis is still not over, change of guard needs to be effected in State: Sharad Pawar

Mumbai: A gathering of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) was organised in Mumbai. Many MVA leaders from the Shiv Sena (UBT), the NCP (SP) and the Congress were present. Many leaders, including Uddhav Thackeray and Jayant Patil, addressed the gathering.

Speaking on the occasion, NCP (SP) President Sharad Pawar said, “The Prime Minister of our country has no respect for Parliament. He neither visited Rajya Sabha nor Lok Sabha during the Parliament session. He is not bothered about the dignity and importance of the House. We frequently experience this.”

Pawar said, “There are democratic institutions such as the ruling party and the opposition. The Prime Minister is an example of a democratic institution. The Leader of Opposition is another institution. The country should respect the Prime Minister and the Opposition too. The opposition leaders were made to sit in the fifth row on Independence Day. I was also the Leader of the Opposition. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister. My seating arrangement was next to the Cabinet Ministers.

“Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister. The Late Sushma Swaraj was the Leader of Opposition then. She was given a seat along with the Cabinet Ministers. Here, a person is not important. The institution is important. Their dignity is important. The democratic institutions are important. They should be respected.” Thus, Pawar hit out at the Central government over the seat offered to Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi.

‘The constitutional crisis is still not over’

He said, “This gathering is held to save Maharashtra from a crisis. Independence Day was celebrated. Now, our gathering is being held. Many leaders delivered their speeches. They guided how a change can be brought in Maharashtra. This is not the time to think only about Maharashtra. We must think about the State. But the country is still facing the crisis. We took a stance during the Lok Sabha elections over preserving the Constitution. I am saying it with full responsibility that we succeeded to a certain extent in the polls. But we cannot come to the conclusion that the crisis is over. The ruling parties do not have faith in democratic institutions, ideology and provisions.

“It is the responsibility of the ruling party first to respect democratic institutions. We expect them to respect Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi. But that is not being done. There are leaders in the government who do not trust democratic institutions.”