Mumbai: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) spokesman and minister of minority affairs, Nawab Malik, on Tuesday dared the BJP-led government at the Centre to sack the Maha Vikas Aghadi government. The trigger was the remark by BJP leader and Maharashtra's former finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar that if the state government does not cooperate with the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the investigation of the Bhima-Koregaon violence case, there is a possibility of a Constitutional crisis and in such a situation, the Centre may sack the MVA government.
Malik, in his response said,'' If the BJP government has guts, it should sack the MVA government in Maharashtra.'' He noted that it would be a "murder of democracy", which the people of Maharashtra would never forgive.
Mungantiwar had expressed his view after the refusal of Pune Police to hand over the case to the visiting three-member NIA team on Monday, citing that there were no orders, either from the Centre or the state government.
The NCP and the BJP are currently engaged in a verbal duel after the Centre transferred the investigation into the Bhima-Koregaon violence case to the NIA. NCP chief Sharad Pawar, home minister Anil Deshmukh, Congress leader and public works minister Ashok Chavan and couple of leaders attacked the Centre for its move. Pawar claimed the Centre's decision to transfer the probe to the NIA was motivated by fears that a fresh investigation could have exposed the wrongdoings of the BJP-led government that was in power at the time.
Pawar said the case had been transferred days after he wrote to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, seeking a probe by a special investigation team (SIT). He also hit out against the labelling of people who spoke out against social injustice as "urban Naxals".
Deshmukh termed the Centre's move as being against the Constitution.
However, BJP spokesman Madhav Bhandari alleged, Pawar was playing politics in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case. He reminded that Pawar, in his affidavit submitted to the commission inquiring into the case, had said he did not want to name any person or organisation.
