This Article is From Oct 13, 2014

NCP is "Naturally Corrupt Party", Says PM; Sharad Pawar Hits Back

NCP is 'Naturally Corrupt Party', Says PM; Sharad Pawar Hits Back

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing an election rally in Maharashtra on Sunday. (Press Trust of India)

Mumbai: On the penultimate day of canvassing for the October 15 Maharashtra elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi escalated his attack on Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party, or NCP. The abbreviation, he said, stood for "Naturally Corrupt Party," bringing huge guffaws from the audience at his rallies in Pandharpur and Loha.

The NCP was not a Rashtravadi (Nationalist) party, but a "bhrashtacharvadi" (corrupt) party and if voted to power again, it would further increase its "corrupt practices," he said.

NCP chief Mr Pawar said the Prime Minister was undermining the dignity of his post by making "personal attacks".

But the attacks and the counterattacks merely got shriller.

"Do you know what their clock (NCP party symbol) means? It shows 10 minutes past 10, which means in 10 years they have increased their corrupt activities 10 times," Mr Modi said.

In Osmanabad's Tuljapur, he said the timing in the clock indicates that the "Congress and the NCP will not be able to win more than 10 seats each in the upcoming polls".

The Prime Minister did not spare the Congress either. He said he was keeping a watchful eye on the country's coffers at the Centre, and would not let any "panja" (Congress' symbol) touch the treasury.

But more than Congress, it has been the NCP which has been the PM's chosen target in Maharashtra. At an election rally earlier this week in NCP's pocket borough of Baramati, a constituency the Pawars have represented for decades, he had alleged that Pawar Senior and his nephew Ajit Pawar had enslaved the people of Baramati with their domination in all spheres of life.

Today, in an oblique reference to NCP leader RR Patil, he said, "We all know the kind of language is used by NCP leaders. It's a pity that there are such people in Chhatrapati Shivaji's Maharashtra". The former minister had lately stoked a major controversy, saying an MNS leader jailed for rape could have waited for the assembly elections to get over before committing the crime.

The NCP chief said the prime minister was not only compromising the prestige of his post but also lowering the standard of public debate with personal attacks. "Prime Ministership is an institution and maintaining its dignity and prestige is the duty of one and all. Personal attacks are given priority in speeches. It is sad that the prestige is not being maintained," Mr Pawar said during a said at an interaction with the media in Mumbai.
 
.