NCP chief Sharad Pawar's said that untouchability should not be practiced in politics, at a function organised by the BJP leader Nitin Gadkari . Though Pawar's remark assumes greater significance in the light of his recent tiffs with Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and Congress' vice president Rahul Gandhi's advice to state party leaders to work harder so that no ally is needed.
BJP said Pawar's statement is an endorsement of what the saffron party has always stood for. BJP spokesperson Prakash Javdekar said, "BJP has always believed in untouchability in politics and in the social order. Our senior leader Advaniji has been saying there is no political untouchability for BJP, but Congress practises it. We (BJP) feel it is undemocratic to practise untouchability." But Javdekar said that in case of Pawar's statement, "much should not be read into it".
Even CPM said it would not like to comment on one statement of Pawar.CPI leader D Raja said, "Sharad Pawar is a senior and seasoned politician. His party is part of the coalition government in Maharashtra. He is himself a senior Cabinet minister at the Centre. It is too early to say which way he will go." Raja said this is not the right time to jump into conclusion.
CPI said not too much should be read into the NCP leader's statement ; but when many of the fence sitters like one time allies of NDA :,the TDP of Chndrababu Naidu, the BJD of Naveen Patnayak,the MKMD or AIDMK of Tamilnadu or the National Conference of J&K will start singing similar song, it will be a definite reason to worry for the so called secular parties like Congress or SP, because there only hope in 2014 election, is to divide the nation or the parties on this communal platform of untouchability.
Bapu (Gandhi ) of Indian Congress fought his whole life to remove this untouchability among the people of India, but the same Congress of today's leader Sonia Gandhi failed to remove this from the political parties, representing the same "people" of India.The politics of power grabbing by any means has overtaken the interest of nation,stability of democracy and need of the people.