Mumbai: Reacting over Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis' Twitter attack on NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil on Friday slammed the former Chief Minister Fadnavis and labelled allegation as a "favourite trend".
While talking to mediapersons in Mumbai, Walse said, "It has become a favourite trend of people to give statements against Sharad Pawar. Everyone knows his role in politics, I don't think tweeting against him would benefit anyone in any way."
"Devendra Fadnavis' allegations are baseless, there is no truth in them. BJP has linked Sharad Pawar's name to Dawood Ibrahim earlier too. They have distorted facts and linked Nawab Malik and Sharad Pawar to Dawood Ibrahim, which is not correct," he added.
Earlier on Thursday, Fadnavis tweeted an article in which the NCP chief denied allegations that his party colleague Nawab Malik had links with Dawood Ibrahim. Pawar in the article accused Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of deliberately attempting to connect Malik to fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim because he is a Muslim.
Fadnavis further tweeted, "Here's a recent example of what was said by him when his own Minister Nawab Malik got arrested for money-laundering linked with the activities of underworld criminal Dawood Ibrahim." In a series of 14 tweets, Fadnavis on Thursday accused Pawar of indulging in appeasement politics and slammed the latter for his statements on various communal issues. The former Chief Minister charged Pawar for raising his statements on communal issues ranging from the Bollywood movie 'The Kashmir Files' to Mumbai 1992 terror attacks.
He further alleged that the party's statements had been "in line with NCP's decades-old track record of appeasement policy & politics and polarising the society on a communal basis".
Attacking Pawar on his statements on 'The Kashmir Files', Fadnavis said, "The Kashmir Files movie is not against any religion but it is against those who chose to look the other way when people were suffering, because they felt that it suits their political agenda of appeasement, thereby achieving a communal divide".
He further added that such acts and approaches to disturbing harmony of the society cannot be accepted in Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar's India.
Accusing Pawar of showing "double standards", Fadnavis questioned why the film based on real testimonials of the sufferings of Kashmiri Pandits disturbed him as it did not suit his "pseudo-secular agenda".
