Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he has immense respect for Sharad Pawar despite the NCP (SP) leader criticising and equating him with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“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,” he said in an exclusive interview to News18 Group Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi, News18 Kannada Editor, Hariprasad, and News18 Lokmat Anchor Vilas Bade.
However, pointing out a big contradiction, PM Modi said that Sharad Pawar is proud of being honoured with the country’s second-highest civilian from a government headed by ‘Putin’. The Modi government conferred upon the NCP (SP) leader the Padma Vibhushan in 2017.
“He is proud of receiving the Padma Vibhushan from a government headed by someone he sees as Putin. This is a big contradiction,” the Prime Minister said responding to the NCP (SP) leader’s ‘Putin in the making’ remark against him.
During an election rally in Maharashtra’s Amravati, Pawar alleged that PM Modi was trying to create fear in the country and compared his actions to those of Putin. “We fear that a new Putin is in the making in India,” the veteran leader said last week.
The Prime Minister stressed that Padma awards have changed in the country now and the BJP government should not be questioned about its choice of recipients.
“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. We (BJP government) should be lauded for the thought behind such decisions, not questioned about the choice of recipients,” he told the News18 Group.
PM Modi also emphasised how the BJP government has conferred upon several opposition leaders the prestigious Bharat Ratna (India’s highest civilian award) despite facing criticism from them. “We gave the Bharat Ratna to former President late Pranab Mukherjee, ex-PM Narasimha Rao, former CM of Bihar 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 criticized us in the past, but our decision was not based on such things,” he added.
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