- Saturday, March 01, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Sharad Pawar, the chief of India’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) who recently met top leaders of the Indian National Congress in a bid to cement opposition unity against prime minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said the government has no right to remain in power if it is taking a stand not to protect soldiers.
Pawar has also served as India’s defence minister between 1991 and 1993.
The veteran leader’s remarks came in view of the recent “revelations” made by Satya Pal Malik, former governor of the erstwhile Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir on the Pulwama terror attack in the now-converted Union Territory in February 2019 that killed 40 Indian soldiers.
Pawar said this while addressing a farmers’ meet in Pune district of the western state of Maharashtra from where he hails.
“Although many things have happened in the country, the fact of these incidents have not come to the fore. There is an area called Pulwama where 40 soldiers had been killed. The story behind this was brought forward by former Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik, a BJP appointee to the position.
“At that time (Pulwama attack), the necessary equipment and planes were not provided to soldiers, so they had to face death. When Malik told this to a very important person in the country, he was told not to talk about it,” the 82-year-old Pawar said.
He said the responsibility of protecting soldiers of the country lies with the government, “and if the government is taking a stand not to protect soldiers, then we all have to take a stand that the government does not have the right to remain in power, and for that, the next elections are important”.
Malik had made certain claims about the Pulwama terror attack in an interview to a news portal. Though the Indian government has not reacted, the BJP has said there are serious questions about Malik’s credibility and cited various statements made by him in recent years.
(With PTI inputs)
