Tilak Award to PM Modi: Sharad Pawar could have turned his back on event to clear doubts about him, says Shiv Sena (UBT)

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

NCP chief Sharad Pawar, who shared stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Lokmanya Tilak National Award ceremony in Pune, could have turned his back on the event to clear doubts about him among those who have taken a dim view of it. An editorial in the Shiv Sena (UBT) mouthpiece 'Saamana' claimed PM Modi accused the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) of corruption and then engineered a split in the party and muddied the politics in Maharashtra. «Still Sharad Pawar will welcome Modi and this has not gone down well with some people.

This was a good opportunity for Pawar to turn his back on the programme and clear the doubts about him among people,» the Marathi daily said. PM Modi is on a visit to Pune on Tuesday to launch various development projects and also receive the Lokmanya Tilak National Award, constituted by Tilak Smarak Mandir Trust in 1983 to honour the legacy of Lokmanya Tilak. Notably, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar last month led a split in the NCP and joined the Shinde government along with eight other party MLAs.

The editorial said if Sharad Pawar would have stayed away from the event to protest against the engineering of a split in the NCP, then his leadership and courage would have been appreciated. It said the country is fighting against «dictatorship» and the INDIA alliance comprising 26 opposition parties has been formed for the purpose. Sharad Pawar is the «leading general» of the alliance, it claimed.

There are different expectations of people from a senior leader like Sharad Pawar, the Marathi publication said. PM Modi is not ready to speak on the violence in Manipur. It is not in national interest for the country's leader to not speak on the issue, it said.