BJP said party chief Rajnath Singh had already denied that there was any political meeting between Modi and Pawar, but did not deny that the two had met.
"Political untouchability is the worst possible thing. It is obvious that as a Union minister, Pawar will meet chief ministers. So, he would have met the Gujarat chief minister (Modi) just as he meets other chief ministers. But Rajnathji has already clarified that there has been no political meeting between the two," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javdekar said.
Party MP Kirti Azad welcomed Pawar's admission of meeting Modi and said, "It is a good thing. There should be no problem in anyone meeting anyone."
Stating that he kept meeting chief ministers of various states in his capacity as agriculture minister, Pawar on Saturday sought to know what was wrong in doing so. Pawar was referring to recent reports in the media about his "secret" meeting with Modi in New Delhi on January 17.
"As the Union agriculture minister, I have the responsibility of increasing the country's food production and the implementation of the Food Security Act and for that purpose, I have to visit various states. I visit West Bengal and meet chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Similarly, I meet Naveen Patnaik in Odisha, Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh and Narendra Modi when I go to Ahmedabad," the NCP chief said in Thane on Saturday.
"However, suddenly one day, newspapers published news about my meeting with Modi... What is wrong in meeting the chief ministers? Have I met anyone from Pakistan or China? What is wrong in it," he said, adding that hype was created out of nothing.
On January 31, Pawar had slammed as "completely mischievous" and "baseless" a media report about his meeting with Modi.
"News of my meeting with Narendra Modi in New Delhi on January 17 appeared in a newspaper. (It) is completely mischievous, baseless and false," the agriculture minister said on micro-blogging site Twitter.
Pawar's tweets followed a front page report in a Marathi newspaper that he was understood to have secretly met Modi in New Delhi on that day.
0 comments:
Post a Comment