Sharad Pawar, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president, is a worried man. Cause of his concern is non-acceptance of his party by Muslims.
Sharad Pawar, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president, is a worried man. Cause of his concern is non-acceptance of his party by Muslims.
Since the launch of the party in mid-1999, party has grown by leaps and bounds in almost all parts of Maharashtra but one thing that was very strongly noticed and felt in the state politics was that the minorities never looked at NCP as an option to Congress.
Taking this fact into account, Pawar has during the last three days, held two meetings with the leaders of the minorities in Mumbai. Tariq Anwar, national general secretary, has been invited to Mumbai only for these meetings.
No non-minorities leader of the party was allowed to participate in the meetings in which Pawar held exclusive talks with the community leaders. The leaders of the minorities have reportedly expressed reservations about the party quite openly. Muslim leaders were reportedly critical of the home department headed by a NCP minister.
According to them, it was the responsibility of the Department to implement Shrikrishna Commission report that was only partly accepted by the earlier government of Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party and NCP had promised to implement the same if it gets the power which it got twice in 1999 and 2004.
Another strong grudge of minority leaders was against the Maharashtra Police in general and Mumbai Police in particular. According to them, police had been consistent in harassing them after every terrorist attack in the country in general and Maharashtra in particular.
“They have a grievance that the police have played a big role in creating a perception that all terrorists come from Muslim community only,” said a senior party leader while talking to DNA.
An interesting thing about this series of meeting is that all the state leaders have been clearly instructed by Pawar not to talk to media about this before Anwar briefs media on Monday afternoon.
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