Farmers Movement Archive

Sharad Pawar wants Congress leaders on Pegasus probe committee

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief and former Union defence minister Sharad Pawar on Monday said that issues such as the alleged Pegasus snooping case are dealt with by the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the home ministry or the security advisor and not by the defence ministry, which had given a clarification on it. Pawar also called for the inclusion of one of three senior Congress leaders in the committee being constituted to probe the alleged Pegasus snooping, so that the investigation gets credibility.While addressing a press conference in NCP’s Mumbai office, Pawar said that if a committee is being constituted under the observation of the Apex court, one of the members should be from among senior Congress leaders P Chidambaram, Abhishek Manu Singhvi or Kapil Sibal. “I cannot interfere in the Supreme Court’s matter, but the inclusion of one of these leaders will help in making the probe credible as they have thoroughly studied the entire issue. I have been told that such a committee is being constituted to probe the snooping,” he said.Pawar said that the though the Centre has been claiming that it had no role to play in alleged Pegasus snooping episode and though the defence minister has said that they did not deal with any Israeli agency in this issue, such types of deals are done by other agencies. “Such deals are not done by the defence ministry, but RAW, ministry of home affairs or security advisors generally handle such things. I am not suggesting they have done it,” he added.He was referring to the alleged surveillance against politicians, activists and journalist using spyware Pegasus, disruption in the Parliament during the recent monsoon session over the issue and the latest developments in the Apex court during hearing over the case.Pawar also termed the disruption in the Parliament and the treatment meted out to the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha as “unprecedented”. “The Opposition, during its meeting with the government ahead of the monsoon session, had clearly said that it wanted to debate on the Pegasus issue, farm laws and the rising fuel prices. The government was non-committal over the timing of debate on these issues, which led to disruption of the houses. What happened on August 11 was unprecedented, which I had never witnessed in 54 years of my life as a parliamentarian. Force was used by security personnel against parliamentarians in an attempt to indirectly attack them inside Rajya Sabha,” he said.Pawar rubbished reports that stated that he had tried to avoid West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee during the latter’s New Delhi visit during the monsoon session of the Parliament. “I had to rush back to Mumbai on the day Mamatadidi asked for an appointment. I told her that I will meet her in Kolkata. It is true that Opposition parties are trying to come together against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but nothing concrete has happened yet,” he said.Pawar slammed the Narendra Modi government for the 127th constitutional amendment saying it was just hogwash and the Centre has cheated people in the guise of giving powers to state to give reservation to backward classes. “Ninety percent of the states have crossed the limit of 50% in reservation imposed by 1992-SC ruling in Indra Sawhney case. All the states are facing the difficulty of maintaining the reservations given to the backward classes. Instead of doing away with the ceiling on the percentage of reservation, the Centre brought the amendment to give powers to the states. It is not going help any of the states, including Maharashtra, due to ceiling on the reservation. Had Centre’s intend been to give reservation to communities such as the Marathas, it should have done away with the ceiling in the same constitutional amendment,” Pawar said.He also stated that there was a need to build consensus to build pressure on the Centre for the constitutional amendment to remove the cap of 50%. “Even many leaders from NDA (National Democratic Alliance) want caste-based census and the empirical data to be released as it’s necessary for reservation to backward classes. Union minister Anupriya Patel said this in the Parliament. I am sure more leaders will start pushing for it. The Modi government is scared to release the data as it does not want the real picture on the backwardness of people to come to fore,” he said.Reacting to Pawar’s remarks related to the 127th amendment, Maharashtra BJP said that he was misleading the people to cover up the state government’s failure to protect the Maratha reservation. The party said that they will organise meetings to expose NCP on its “attempts to spread lies”. “Pawar has been batting for the removal of the 50% cap on reservations. Our question is why did he not try for it during his tenure as Union minister even after the Nachiappan Committee report in 2005. Maratha reservation was struck down after raising questions over the Gaikwad Commission report, which was on the backwardness of the Maratha community. This means even if the ceiling is removed, it would be difficult to restore the Maratha reservation unless a new report is prepared by the backward commission. The state government is doing nothing for it,” said Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrakant Patil, adding that his party leaders were ready to openly debate on the reasons over which the Maratha reservation was struck down by SC.

Hindustan Times

17-08-2021

Mumbai