Will probe Fadnavis videos, says Pawar

Mumbai: NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar on Wednesday said the state government will probe the authenticity of the video clips submitted by BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis.

A day earlier, the opposition leader had submitted a pen drive containing the videos to deputy speaker Narhari Zirwal. Fadnavis had alleged that videos were proof of a conspiracy being hatched against Maharashtra BJP leaders by the ruling coalition, adding there was an attempt to frame BJP leaders, including himself and Girish Mahajan in false cases.

“It first needs to be proved whether it (the recording) is authentic or not. The state government will definitely probe. The veracity needs to be confirmed. My name also seems to have been dragged directly or indirectly. There is no reason, I am not related to it,” Pawar said. He insisted the MVA (Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress) was not misusing power.

Without naming the BJP, Pawar said efforts were being made “to destabilise” the MVA government but insisted that the alliance “cannot be troubled” as it enjoys a clear majority. He also hoped that PM Modi will order a probe into a complaint raised by Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut regarding the alleged misuse of central agencies.

“So, it seems there is also some comic information in it (the material submitted by Fadnavis). One cannot get finished like this,” he said. It is “praiseworthy” that Fadnavis or any of his colleagues succeeded in capturing the nearly 125-hour video footage, Pawar said sarcastically. “One thing has to be noted though that all the power of the Centre and all its agencies are in the hands of the people who follow the same ideology as Devendra Fadnavis,” he said.

Pawar, however, said it was true that he had asked Fadnavis to look into a serious complaint he had received about one of the colleagues of the BJP leader sometime in the past six months or a year. “Later, I was told by him (Fadnavis) that he was looking into the complaint I had sent to him and care will be taken to see that such things will not happen.

The issue was over for me then and there. Except this, I am nowhere personally related to this,” he said. He said central agencies were being “misused on a big scale” in West Bengal “to discourage” BJP’s opponents. Pawar said former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh, arrested by the ED, is an example of how unfair probes. Pawar also dismissed BJP’s demand for the resignation of NCP minister Nawab Malik, arrested for alleged money laundering.

“He is a leader who got elected to the state legislature for the past 25-30 years. You never levelled allegations against him then…if there is a Muslim functionary, you link him to (gangster) Dawood. This is deplorable. The party stands firmly with him,” Pawar said.