Team Sharad Pawar Leader Receives Threats From Lawrence Bishnoi's Gang

Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Jitendra Awhad received threats from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang on Monday.

Jitendra Awhad reacted to the question of receiving a threat call and refused to comment.

"All these things go on, received many threat calls like this. I won't comment on that," Mr Awhad told news agency ANI

A person named Rohit Godara made a threatening call from Australia and the gang is said to have demanded lakhs of rupees from the NCP (SP) leader.

Reacting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks on minority and said that there are Sikhs, Jews, Buddhists, and several other religions and this kind of statement from the Prime Minister is not acceptable.

"Such a statement does not suit the Prime Minister of the country. There are Sikhs, Jews, Buddhists, and several other religions. If the Prime Minister of this country targets only one religion, he degrades the dignity of his position. This is the pressure of the first phase of elections," he said.

Addressing an election rally here, PM Modi took several jibes at Congress and said the "royal family" of the party will not be in a position to vote for the party as Congress is not contesting the New Delhi Lok Sabha seat.

"These days those who left Congress tell one thing very seriously, they are all saying that Congress is no longer Congress, it has gone into the grasp of urban Naxals. Congress is now in the grab of Communists. One of our friends asked them how can you say this, they said look at their (Congress) manifesto. See the Congress manifesto of this election. What Congress has said in its manifesto is serious and worrying. And it is their attempt to implement the Maoist thinking. They have said that if Congress government is formed, there will be survey of property belonging to each person. How much gold our sisters have, that will be found out, calculated," PM Modi said.

"Our tribal families have silver, that will be evaluated,...how much property government employees have, money, job that will be probed. Not only this, they have said that the gold that the sisters have, and other property, that will be distributed equally. Is it acceptable to you? Does the government have a right to snatch your property? Does the government have the right to take the wealth built by you with your hard work?" PM Modi asked.

He said the gold that mothers and sisters have is not for show only, it is linked to their self-respect.

"Their Mangalsutra, the question is not of the cost of gold in it, it is linked to her dreams of her life. You are talking of snatching it in your manifesto...will distribute gold and redistribute. When it was their government, they had said that Muslims have the first right over the country's wealth. Who will you distribute after collecting the wealth, distribute it to those who have more children, distribute to infiltrators. Will the money of your hard labour be given to infiltrators, is this acceptable to you? Congress manifesto is saying that they will calculate the gold of mothers, sisters and then redistribute the wealth to those whom the Manmohan Singh government had said that the first right to resources is of Muslims. Brothers, sisters, this thinking of urban Naxals, my mothers, sisters, they will not allow even your Mangalsutra remain in your possession, they will go to this extent," PM Modi said.

PM Modi was referring to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remarks made in December 2006 that the minorities, particularly Muslim minorities, should have first claim on the country's resources.

"We will have to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development. They must have the first claim on resources," Dr Manmohan Singh had said.

Jairam Ramesh said the party is for caste census combined with a survey of national assets and governance systems, which is updated from time to time.

"This survey of caste groups, national assets, and representation in governance systems - collectively called a comprehensive socio-economic Caste Census - is the only solution to ensure an India with equal opportunity for all. Equal opportunity is the objective," he had said in a post on X.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)