Centre should have acted; NDA regime lacks tolerance: Sharad Pawar

Mumbai, Oct 14: NCP president Sharad Pawar today said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement on the Dadri lynching incident had come too late, and his government was bereft of "tolerance".

"Tolerance is nowhere to be seen in the current regime. Serious crimes like murder take place only upon rumours. This presents our (country's) image very negatively. Modi's statement has come so many days after the incident.

I agree that law and order is a state subject, but in sensitive matters such as these, action should have been taken by the Centre," Pawar told reporters here.

After facing flak from several quarters for his silence on Dadri incident and cancellation of Pakistani ghazal singer Ghulam Ali's concert in Mumbai, Modi in an interview termed the developments as "unfortunate", but said the Union Government had nothing to do with them.

Referring to the large-scale Dalit-caste Hindu riots in Marathwada of Maharashtra in the 1970s (when the NCP chief was the Chief Minister) after the state legislature unanimously resolved to rename Marathwada University after Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, Pawar said the Centre had taken immediate cognisance and extended all possible help to the state government.

"When riots broke out in Marathwada, the then Prime Minister (Rajiv) Gandhi immediately called me up and asked what help I needed from the Centre to control the situation.

This is how the Centre should work," he said. "Modi cannot ignore what is happening. I do not see any ground results of the various decisions taken by his government. Farmers are committing suicide because they do not have any reassurance from the government," Pawar said.

PTI