Tariq Anwar quits NCP, LS over Pawar remark on Rafale
PATNA: Katihar Lok Sabha MP Tariq Anwar resigned on Friday both from the Lok Sabha as well as the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) citing unhappiness over party chief Sharad Pawar’s support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the Rafale controversy, causing a flutter within the NCP and its ally, the Congress.
The resignation came a day after Pawar, a former defence minister, gave a clean chit to Modi on the Rafale deal and said the “opposition’s demand to share technical details related to the deal made no sense”. He said that “the people did not doubt Modi’s intentions personally”.
Anwar, who is in Katihar, said that he was upset with Pawar’s statement at a time when the entire Opposition was demanding a probe by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) into the deal. “A public perception has already built over Rafale that there is something fishy and Pawar’s statement appeared to be in support of Modi. So, I decided to quit,” he added.
Anwar, a seven-term MP , said it was for the government to clear its name. He added that he has not “decided on a future course” although there is speculation that he could return to his old party, the Congress.
Meanwhile, NCP leader and Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule said her father’s comments have been “misunderstood”. In a series of tweets, she said it was “disappointing” that the issues raised by Pawar in an interview to a Marathi channel on the Rafale deal were ignored. She said her father raised “three questions”: “What is the justification for a 300% price increase from ₹526 crore to ₹1,670 crore which potentially could be a significant loss to the exchequer?; If such doubts have been raised and the government is so confident, then why are they shying from setting up a JPC?; When the BJP raised both price and specification issues during the Bofors allegations, then why are they hiding behind artificial justification of secrecy of agreements vis-à-vis both commercial price and offset agreements.”
The Congress too came out in defence of Pawar. Congress’ chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala told reporters that party general secretary in-charge of Maharashtra Mallikarjun Kharge had a detailed conversation with Pawar on his remarks in the interview.
“He told Mr Kharge that this is a conspiracy by the BJP to create differences between Congress and the NCP. Mr Pawar also stated that the government must come clean on the pricing of the Rafale aircraft; he also reiterated his demand for a JPC probe into the deal,” Surjewala said.