Days after the arrest of NCP Minister Nawab Malik by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with money laundering case, the verbal duel between the Maha Vikas Aghadi and BJP leaders continued unabated.
State BJP president Chandrakant Patil sought to know why Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was not asking him to step down. He said that in the past, some other ministers in the MVA government had resigned after facing allegations, so Malik should follow suit.
‘’Malik has been booked under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and has been arrested. If a government employee faces criminal charges and is arrested, then that person is not only suspended, but also loses their job. So why doesn't the same rule apply to Malik and why his boss is not seeking his resignation?" he asked.
‘’By not taking his resignation, the government is protecting an accused and the BJP will never tolerate it, he said.
On the other hand, state NCP Chief and Water Resources Minister Jayant Patil reiterated that Malik will not resign from the council of ministers till an offence is established against him. ‘’The basis on which the ED had registered a case against Malik is completely wrong. Bypassing legal provisions, BJP wants the MVA leaders targeted over various charges to be jailed. Malik should have been given a chance to argue his case before arresting him directly. However, he was not given a chance by ED,’’ he noted.
Patil reiterated that the BJP-led government was deploying central probe agencies against opponents.
Further, the Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar downplayed state BJP chief’s statement saying that the opposition has been levelling charges repeatedly and for which the NCP and MVA have already replied. He claimed that Malik’s arrest took place after a tweet by (Niraj Gunde, who is reportedly close to the former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis) and thereby raised questions over the functioning of the central probe agencies.
Pawar also lashed out at BJP and Patil in general for giving new deadlines for the fall of the MVA government. ‘’Since the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray-led government has taken charge, the BJP has been predicting the collapse of the state government. It is now two years and three months. The government is functioning and busy in pursuing slew of development works,’’ he said.
