Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday blamed him for the ‘wrong economic policies that led to the current financial crisis’. He, however, said there was no fear of India going the Sri Lanka way because of the robust democratic structure given by Dr BR Ambedkar.“It’s true our country is facing a severe financial crisis at present. Decisions such as demonetisation made without people’s participation are mainly responsible for it. During the outbreak of Covid-19, people were asked to bang plates and utensils, which was not the solution. Many such things have happened; it’s unfortunate,” Pawar said.
On the economic crisis in Sri Lanka, the former Union agriculture minister said the advantage for India was its strong constitution written by Dr Ambedkar. “The constitution has kept us independent. It was Babasaheb [Ambedkar], who helped us unite the country and this has to be admitted. In Sri Lanka, political leaders have almost lost power; people are on roads. In Pakistan, the prime minister was removed last month. In the past, the then prime minister [Zulfikar Ali] Bhutto was assassinated. There are many such examples. In the absence of a strong constitution, democracy is often in crisis in our neighborhood, but India is in a better position because of our robust democratic structure,” the NCP chief said.
Pawar said the country had been saved from plunging into crisis by the clever decisions made by people.
“When the then prime minister Indira Gandhi imposed emergency in 1975, people realised that democracy was in danger and they defeated her. Again, Morarji Desai and others, who came to power by defeating Indira Gandhi, were removed after people understood that they could not run the government. It means people are clever. We [the United Progressive Alliance-led Congress government in which the NCP was one of the alliance partners] made a mistake and are being punished. Those who come forward to take corrective measures, they will be given the opportunity,” he said.
