A day after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar said he was against a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into short-selling firm Hindenburg’s report on the Adani Group, party leader Ajit Pawar, who is the Opposition Leader in the State Assembly, backed his party chief, saying that the party stood by his stand.
“I have seen the NDTV interview of our party chief. Pawar saheb is our supreme leader. When the top leader of our party takes a stand, we cannot discuss about…We cannot take a separate stand from what he takes. Therefore, the stand taken by Pawarsaheb is also our party’s stand and also of our rank and file,” Ajit Pawar told reporters in the Kharadi area of Pune city.
Ajit Pawar, who had remained incommunicado through the day on Friday, said he was taking rest at his residence after he felt uneasy in the morning. “I was suffering from acidity problem due to constant tours and lack of sleep. And therefore I went to a doctor, took some pills and was resting at home. However, the media indulged in speculations, repeatedly saying that I was unreachable…I am also a human being, I suffer from the problem of acidity…but I felt bad that the media was indulging in wild speculations and trying to defame me,” Pawar said.
The NCP leader, who was supposed to attend a New English School students’ function in Chinchwad on Saturday, did not turn up for the event. Over 1,000 students waited for him but for two hours, there was no word from his office. However, the organisers said they were told that Ajit Pawar would not be able to make it. “We will have to cancel the cultural event and will have to hold it on another day. Over 1,000 students and their parents had assembled for the event,” the organisers said. A secretary in Ajit Pawar’s office said he was not feeling well and hence cancelled the Chinchwad function.
On Friday, breaking ranks with the Opposition, Sharad Pawar had said that he believes the Adani Group is being “targeted” by unknown entities whose motives he questioned.
In an interview to NDTV, a channel in which the Gautam Adani-led Adani Group is the majority shareholder, Pawar distanced himself from the Congress’s demand of a JPC probe into the report by Hindenburg and said he did not agree with stalling of Parliament by the Congress-led Opposition on the matter.
“…This time out-of-proportion importance was given to the issue. The issues that were raised, who raised them, we had never heard of these people (Hindenburg) who gave the statement, what is their background? When they raise issues that cause a ruckus across the country, the cost is borne by the country’s economy. We cannot disregard these things. It seems this was targeted,” Pawar had said.
