Sharad Pawar appeals to NCP workers to maintain peace

Refusing to blame the BJP for the attack on him, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar sought to downplay the incident and asked NCP workers not to take law into their hands and maintain peace.

"I don't think it is appropriate for me to blame any political party for the incident. I should not go to that level of blaming anyone," he told reporters outside his residence, hours after a young man slapped him at a literary function.

The NCP chief was responding to a question on Congress blaming BJP leader Yashwant Sinha's statement on price rise for the attack on him.

Asserting that nobody would support such incidents, Pawar said he intially thought the attacker was a journalist as he suddenly emerged from a group of scribes with whom he was interacting outside the auditorium. 

"I would appeal to cadres of NCP that they should not disturb public and should not take law into their hands. They should maintain peace," he said in reply to a volley of questions on the attack against him.

Asked about Anna Hazare's comments wondering whether he was slapped only once, Pawar sarcastically said: "It must be some kind of Gandhiism. I too heard about this new Gandhiism."

Pawar maintained that he never had any personal enemies in his 50 years of public life though he might have picked up political fights during his career.

"I never had any enemies in the past and will not have in the future too," he said.

"I cannot understand the intentions behind this incident, but whatever it is, I should not talk much on this," he said.

Asked whether he would forgive the attacker, he shot back: "Who am I to forgive? I am not a judge."