Soon after the apex court of the country ordered a CBI probe into the alleged suicide of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who was found dead under mysterious circumstances at his residence in Mumbai on June 14, NCP leader Parth Pawar put out a cryptic tweet: “Satyameva Jayate”(Truth alone triumphs), triggering speculations that the post was meant for the Supreme Court verdict.
सत्यमेव जयते!
— Parth Pawar (@parthajitpawar) August 19, 2020
While Pawar did not specifically add anything to his tweet other than the old Sanskrit adage, the timing of the tweet was a reasonable indicator that it was intended to celebrate the court decision in the Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case.
Parth Pawar is the son of one of the tallest NCP leaders and the current deputy chief minister of Maharashtra-Ajit Pawar. Parth’s opinions have often been at variance with the party and the Maha Vikas Aghadi government’s stance. Parth had been amongst the first proponents of demanding a CBI inquiry into the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
Sharad Pawar raps Parth Pawar publicly for demanding CBI inquiry
Parth had made this demand against the Maha Vikas Aghadi government‘s stand which had contested in the Supreme Court against the transfer of the case to the CBI. Shiv Sena, one of the members of the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance had been particularly apprehensive about the transfer of the case to the country’s premier investigative agency.
Parth’s demand for a CBI inquiry had evidently rattled the NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar, who uncharacteristic to his nature, slammed his nephew’s son openly for his demand in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case. In a public admonition to Parth, the NCP supremo reprimanded him and described him as “immature” and said that he did not give much importance to his “utterances”.
Not just Sharad Pawar, but other NCP leaders had also criticised Parth’s demand for CBI inquiry into the late actor’s death case. Supriya Sule, daughter of Sharad Pawar, too, had criticised Parth’s demand of a CBI inquiry, saying his remarks were made in personal capacity.
Parth had welcomed the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya
Earlier, Parth, who lost the Lok Sabha elections from Maval to the Shiv Sena’s Shrirang Barne, had a made a statement welcoming the construction of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
“Finally, Shri Ram, who embodies the faith and cultural identity of India, will be home in peace. The fight was bitter and long,” Parth had said in a letter, adding “the arguments and claims attached to the Babri structure, which was present at the site before being demolished by kar sevaks in December 1992, had been “defeated thoroughly.”
Parth’s statements, which have been manifestly at variance with the party and the Maharashtra government on more occasions than one fuels speculations that there may exist not just inter-party rift within the alliance partners of the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition but intra-party fissures as well. Sharad Pawar’s brutal and overt rebuke of Parth bears testimony to this assertion.
According to the sources quoted by News 18, there’s already growing friction between the two NCP stalwarts-Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar and Parth being the son of deputy chief minister, he is being regarded as the chip of the old bloc.
Parth’s opposing views might be a part of a wider power-tussle
Contrary to Parth, who is educated in London and speaks stilted Marathi, another Pawar scion, Rohit Pawar, son of Sharad Pawar’s another nephew Rajendra, is more grounded and had won a hard-fought Vidhan Sabha election to enter the state legislature by defeating then minister Ram Shinde from the Karjat-Jamkhed constituency. It is alleged that Rohit enjoys the favourable support of the NCP supremo as compared to Parth.
It is notable here that Ajit Pawar had earlier entered into an understanding with former BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis after the assembly elections last year and the duo had suddenly taken oath as CM and Deputy CM while the power tussle over possible alliances was very much in progress, after Shiv Sena had snubbed the BJP over CM post.
After a couple of days, Ajit Pawar, who had initially claimed the support of a faction of NCP MLAs, had come back to the party fold, eventually becoming a part of the MVA government with Congress and Shiv Sena.
