Latest news with #NCP-SP
The Hindu
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Sharad Pawar puts a full stop to speculation on reunion with Ajit Pawar's NCP
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP-SP) supremo Sharad Pawar on Tuesday (June 17, 2025) put the brakes on speculation about a possible merger between the two factions of the NCP in Maharashtra, saying his party would not align with anyone who had joined hands with the BJP for power. Also Read | Sharad Pawar downplays meetings with nephew Ajit, says nothing wrong in discussing people's issues 'We won't come together with those who joined hands with the BJP. We can only be with people who believe in the ideology of Gandhi, Shahu, Phule and Ambedkar,' said the former Chief Minister, addressing party workers in Pimpri-Chinchwad in Pune district. His statement comes amid growing speculation of NCP-SP and his nephew Ajit Pawar's NCP reunion, ahead of the upcoming local polls in the State. Mr. Pawar and Ajit Pawar were seen sharing the stage on several occasions, fuelling the rumours. Without taking the name of Mr. Ajit Pawar, he said, 'I don't want to encourage the politics of opportunism.' Those who partner with the BJP cannot have the thought process of the NCP, he said. Mr. Ajit Pawar, along with a few leaders, had joined the BJP-led government in Maharashtra, causing a split in the NCP in July 2023. In the Lok Sabha election held in June 2024, the NCP-SP was ahead in the race but suffered a setback in the Assembly election held in November 2024. Now, with the upcoming local polls, party functionaries and former corporators are shuffling between parties. Several former corporators — including Ajit Gavhane, an NCP-SP candidate who contested the Maharashtra Assembly election from Bhosari, Pune — are set to join the NCP. Mr. Pawar told party workers 'not to worry'. 'Don't worry about who is leaving, focus on preparation and winning elections, we will take everyone who follows the thought process of Shahu-Ambedkar-Phule-Gandhi,' he said. Giving an example of how a comeback can be made, Mr. Pawar said, 'I remember becoming the Chief Minister of Maharashtra in 1978, only to see our government dismissed in 1980. In the next election, our party won 70 seats. However, during my trip to England for ten days, all 70 MLAs, except six, defected from the party. I was surprised to see mass defection as our workers worked hard for these MLAs. Still, I did not lose hope, and I increased my contact with people,' he said. He said the party's MLAs later won and the party became one of the important in the Maharashtra Assembly.
Indian Express
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
State forms committee to look into demand for farm loan waiver
With local body polls set to be held within three to four months, the Maharashtra government has announced setting up of a committee to look into the demands of farm loan waiver. The move comes after former independent MLA Bachchu Kadu threatened to intensify his ongoing fast from June 16 by deciding to drop water intake. Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Saturday wrote to Kadu informing him the same. 'A high-level committee will be set up on the issue of farm loan waiver within 15 days. A decision on the farm loan waiver will be taken based on the report. And a decision on staying the loan recovery from a defaulter and providing new loan will be taken by holding a special meeting,' said the letter, which was submitted to Kadu by Industries Minister Uday Samant. Kadu has been on fast for the past seven days in Amravati district demanding farm loan waiver, scholarship for their children, monthly honorarium of Rs 6,000 for disabled persons etc. All political parties had extended support to Kadu's agitation with NCP-SP chief Sharad Pawar calling him. A state-wide roadblock agitation was planned on June 15 as Kadu had announced to give up water from Monday. Bawankule on Friday had met Kadu and dialled CM Devendra Fadnavis from the protest site. The revenue minister had said that the decision on farm loan waiver will be taken in consultation with the cabinet. The letter mentioned that a decision on budgetary provision for honorarium for Divyang people will be taken in the upcoming monsoon session of the legislature and other demands will be addressed by holding a meeting of chief minister and ministers concerned. Earlier in the day, workers of Kadu created ruckus at the programme of Deputy CM Ajit Pawar demanding farm loan waiver. Pawar informed them that a decision has been taken to form a committee on all the demands raised by Kadu. As the protesters continued sloganeering, police used force and removed them from the auditorium. Meanwhile, opposition Congress slammed the state government over the decision to announce a committee on farm loan waiver. 'Why was no committee mentioned when Mahayuti promised farm loan waiver in its campaign during Assembly elections? The government has no intent to extend the waiver but wants to merely survive the day. The Rs 2,100 promised under Ladki Bahin scheme have not yet been given. This government is misleading people,' said state Congress chief Harshavardhan Sapkal. Senior Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat questioned the need to form a committee. 'The government has lakhs of crore to construct highways but has no money for farm loan waiver. The government in the past has used this trick of forming committee to sideline the issue,' said Thorat.
Hans India
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Hans India
Don't worry about split, focus on revival of NCP-SP: Sharad Pawar tells party workers
Pune: NCP-SP chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday ruled out the possibility of merger or an alliance with Ajit Pawar faction saying that even though the party split in July 2023 it will be revived by fielding in new faces and youth. In his speech on the occasion of the party's foundation day and to celebrate 26 years, Pawar senior told the party workers to be prepared for hard work to rebuild the party and not to worry about split. He has thereby asked the party workers to simply neglect news about merger or an alliance with the NCP led by Ajit Pawar especially ahead of the upcoming local and civic body elections. 'There was a split in our party, we didn't think there would be a split, but split took place in July 2023. There was a difference in some basic ideas and a split occurred. Those who are in the party they are committed to the party ideology. When the elections are held tomorrow, we will see a different picture. I was in power in 1980. At that time, elections were held and 50 to 52 MLAs were elected. In the next six months, only 6 MLAs remained with me. All the other 50 to 52 MLAs had left. When the elections were held after that, the number of legislators increased. After NCP was formed in 1999, the party once won 72. We were able to work in the state government. So don't worry about the split. If we remain united and maintain our commitment to the people, nothing will matter,' he said amid slogans raised by the party workers. Pawar showered praise over the state unit chief Jayant Patil for his work. He was responding to Jayant Patil's request to relieve him from his post for giving an opportunity to new faces. 'We will discuss with everyone and take a decision on this. While taking this decision, party workers from a new generation and new faces should be seen in every taluka and district. Thousands of capable workers are in our party. It is our responsibility to give them a chance, give them prestige and create a leadership that will run the state,' he remarked. Pawar has asked the party workers to focus on the ensuing local and civic body elections and gear up preparations. 'Your focus should be on that for the next three months. Give a chance to capable people. We will meet again after the elections to be held in the next three months,' he said. He declared that the party will give 50 per cent seats to women in the upcoming local and civic body elections. He also recalled and narrated that when he was the defence minister, he decided to recruit women in the armed forces. 'After girls got a chance, they worked to build trust among the people. This was seen even in the army. "During Operation Sindoor, two women from armed forces proved this. If sisters get a chance, they can also show their talent. The Nationalist Congress Party has taken a strategic decision to give 50 per cent seats to women in the elections. The local body elections are in two-three months. Let 50 per cent women be elected in these bodies,' he shared. Pawar senior also gave a roadmap to the party workers for its revival asking them to increase their outreach with voters and every section of society. He stressed that even as the party is in opposition, it must be active in taking up issues faced by various sections. Meanwhile, NCP-SP leader from Patan constituency Satyajit Patankar, who is the son of veteran party leader Vikramsinh Patankar, joined the BJP.
The Wire
06-06-2025
- Politics
- The Wire
The Opposition's Silence Has Let the BJP Diminish India's Political Discourse
Menu हिंदी తెలుగు اردو Home Politics Economy World Security Law Science Society Culture Editor's Pick Opinion Support independent journalism. Donate Now Politics The Opposition's Silence Has Let the BJP Diminish India's Political Discourse Sarayu Pani 38 minutes ago Today, the opposition faces a choice – they can either continue to allow the boundaries of political engagement in the country to be decided by the ruling party or they can ground their opposition in democratic principles. A multi-party delegation of India led by NCP-SP MP Supriya Sule. Photo: PTI Real journalism holds power accountable Since 2015, The Wire has done just that. But we can continue only with your support. Contribute now The rhetoric being employed by the multi-party delegations sent by India to other countries – ostensibly to shape the global narrative around Operation Sindoor – is puzzling. Far from offering any fresh geopolitical perspectives, opposition members of these delegations have limited themselves to enthusiastically endorsing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government's foreign policy on Pakistan. While it is unclear as to why a foreign audience is expected to find the same arguments more compelling when endorsed by members of Indian opposition, this endorsement has been portrayed as a matter of national duty. Two weeks in, it would appear that far from influencing international opinion, this outreach has barely been noticed. Certainly, there have been no groundbreaking shifts in the way in which Pakistan is viewed globally. They have, in this period, secured further funding from the ADB and also been appointed to chair the UNSC's Taliban Sanctions Committee as well as sit as the vice-chair of the UNSC counter-terrorism committee. The political compulsion felt by the opposition to perform in this seemingly fruitless public charade is interesting. It is unlikely that seasoned politicians in the opposition could not foresee this outcome. Their participation was therefore likely driven by what they imagine their own voters expect of them. These expectations are the product of a domestic public discourse where foreign policy has increasingly been taken out of the realm of political contestation and elevated to the realm of security, where the act of criticism is in itself seen as 'anti-national'. Securitisation in international relations refers to a practice whereby issues are presented as existential threats, taking them beyond the realm of ordinary politics. The securitisation of an issue generally requires it to be framed as an existential threat to what is called a referent object, and for the audience to accept it as such. Once the audience accepts an issue to be an existential threat, it legitimises the breaking of previously accepted rules (whether international or domestic) to guard the referent object. This referent object can be a population, or even a broader principle or idea. The American 'war on terror' for example was framed as combatting a global existential threat and that was used to deviate from both established international legal principles – including on the use of force, criminal jurisdiction and the treatment of prisoners – and to curb individual rights within countries in the West (including through the mass surveillance infrastructure created pursuant to the PATRIOT Act). The securitisation discourse is not limited to international issues. Globally, the immigration discourse serves as perhaps the most tragic example of the securitisation of a domestic concern. Some of the most vulnerable and persecuted people in the world – asylum seekers – are repeatedly framed as existential threats to an imagined 'western' way of life generating cross party consent for their violent removal, often through means of questionable legality. In India, similar rhetoric has been targeted at 'illegal' immigrants from Bangladesh and against Rohingya refugees, and has been widely employed by the government as well as by several opposition parties. This has contributed to the legitimisation of practices like Assam 'pushing' people made stateless by the draconian NRC over the border into Bangladesh. There have also been extremely serious allegations raised with respect to Rohingya refugees being pushed off navy vessels with life jackets in the sea near Myanmar. Tellingly, the Indian Supreme Court refused to expedite the hearings on the matter stating the 'nation is going through difficult times'– a classic case of a security framing being used to dismiss serious human rights concerns. Theorists generally agree on two things with respect to securitisation. First, securitisation does not automatically follow from a grave threat. It is a language act where rhetoric is used deliberately to create this perception of an existential threat. For example, not all wars or terrorist attacks, become removed from the political discourse. In 1962, during the war with China, Francine Frankel points out that Nehru was severely criticised both by capitalists who insisted that the state should have focused on defence and left heavy industry under private control, and others who blamed defence minister V.K. Menon's perceived communist leanings, and Nehru himself, for what they saw as the failure of non-alignment and the collapse of the Panchsheel agreement. Similarly, the 26/11 terrorist attacks, and the UPA government's handling of it were subjected to near continuous scrutiny and political debate. Second, an issue being framed by the state as an existential threat does not by itself elevate it to the status of a security issue – for an issue to become securitised, this framing must be broadly accepted by the audience. This is where the absence of the opposition in recent years in India has really been felt. The securitisation of political issues has been a defining feature of the BJP years in India. Domestically, this has been accomplished by invoking anti-terror statutes against members of civil society, student leaders and to punish minorities for communal violence. A vast majority of these instances have not been rhetorically resisted by the political opposition to the BJP. In 2019, for example, the Congress voted in favour of amendments that dangerously broadened the scope of the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act in the Rajya Sabha. Few opposition political parties have stood in clear solidarity with the detainees of either the Bhima Koregaon case or the Delhi riots conspiracy case. Some of the biggest beneficiaries of this relentless push towards the securitisation of political issues have been the Indian television news and entertainment media. The framing of every issue as an existential threat, especially to the majority Hindu population, has been profitable for them. Popular news channels have seen massive spikes in TRPs around such framings. Films like Kashmir Files and Kerela Story that have been used to create the perception that the Hindus in India are under serious threat have also done extremely well at the box office. This means that in addition to any state imperative to avoid scrutiny by turning political issues into security issues, there is also a strong commercial imperative to keep the audience in this perpetual state of existential anxiety. Once an audience is brought to this state of existential anxiety, it is very difficult to reverse. This traps both the audience and the government into a framework where the only acceptable solution to any problem is increasing militiarisation in the sphere of foreign policy and the rolling back of rights domestically. It is telling that the Congress' only consistent criticism of Operation Sindoor today is that a ceasefire was agreed upon too easily. Their criticism of the BJP government's handling of border disputes with China also revolves around the same theme. Without going into the merits of either position, it is important to note that this is because the only criticism possible of a government in front of an audience under the sway of a securitizing discourse is that they didn't go far enough or act aggressively enough. This discourse becomes a particular handicap in situations where increased military force cannot deliver the desired outcome. If, as Joseph Nye puts it, power is the ability to change the behaviour of states, then a situation where one state is compelled by domestic public opinion to use military force against another, even as such displays of force do not change the behavior sought to be changed, is not an effective demonstration of power. On the contrary, a public discourse that prevents the government from introspecting on its strategies, returning to the drawing board, or exploring alternative pathways, including diplomacy, arguably reduces its power. Theorists generally agree that in any democratic society, national security must never be idealised. And while some issues will need to be securitised from time to time, desecuritisation must always be the long-term goal – to move issues out of this threat defence sequence and into the ordinary public sphere. For the last decade or so, the Indian opposition has preferred to allow the ruling party to set the boundaries of what issues can be debated politically and what issues are elevated to the realm of security. Given the hold the BJP has on the media and consequently, the public imagination, perhaps they believed that to do otherwise would be electorally harmful. It is important to remember that securitisation is not an innocent reflection of an issue being a security threat. To securitise, or to accept a securitisation framing is always a political choice. And this isn't a political choice that requires political power to exercise. It is a battle fought in the realm of rhetoric. And by refusing to challenge any of the state's securitization framings over the last decade, in domestic policy, as well as in foreign affairs, the opposition has contributed to the shrinking of the political discourse in India. Today, the opposition faces a choice – they can either continue to allow the boundaries of political engagement in the country to be decided by the ruling party or they can ground their opposition in democratic principles, and challenge the boundaries themselves, when required. But they would do well to note that to continue along the former path is to contribute to their own growing irrelevance. Sarayu Pani is a lawyer by training and posts on X @sarayupani. Missing Link is her column on the social aspects of the events that move India. The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments. Make a contribution to Independent Journalism Related News The Opposition Owes the Indian public Some Answers 16 Opposition Parties Demand Special Parliament Session in Joint Letter to Prime Minister Rijiju Jumps to Defend Tharoor as MP Faces Congress Ire Over 'LoC Never Breached' Remark INDIA Bloc Pushes for Special Session of Parliament on Pahalgam and Operation Sindoor We Disagree With Modi Govt But Will Cooperate As Its Delegates Abroad: John Brittas, Asad Owaisi Five Questions That Indian MPs May Have to Face Abroad 'Parliament Kept in Dark': How Modi Govt's Multi-Party Global Outreach Differs from The Past India Needs Sustained and Credible Outreach on Terrorism What Could Be Shashi Tharoor's Political Endgame? 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India.com
04-06-2025
- Business
- India.com
Maharashtra Politics: Are Decks Clear For NCP-NCPSP Merger? Chatter Grows About NDA Crossing 300-Mark
Is Maharashtra's political landscape set to witness another twist? There are indications but no concrete answers as of now but the talks of Ajit Pawar-led NCP's merger with Sharad Pawar-led NCP-SP has once against ignited political debates. Ajit Pawar recently shared dias with Sharad Pawar in Pune and those aware of the matter said that the two leaders held separate talks about the reunion. Meanwhile, NCP-SP leader Rohit Pawar also dropped a big hint about the possible reunification of the two warring factions. Speaking to reporters, Rohit Pawar said that senior Pawar has entrusted Supriya Sule with the task and she will take the final call after discussing it with party leaders. He said that while Sharad Pawar has been hinting at a possible alliance with Ajit Pawar, there may be some twist with respect to the BJP. Rohit Pawar said that Sharad Pawar is known for making decisions which are mostly unexpected and totally out of the blue. "What unfolds in the coming days will depend on him, but he will always take a decision in favour of the people," Rohit said. While NCP leaders like Rohit and Anil Deshmukh have maintained that no official talks have been held so far between the two parties, the clamour around the merger has already forced leaders to vie for key party posts. Notably, if the merger happens, Praful Patel and Supriya Sule will be among the top contenders for the Modi cabinet. The chatters have also grown on social media with people claiming that the NCP-NCPSP merger could take place in June itself and thus, the BJP-led NDA's number in the Lok Sabha may go beyond the 300 mark. Notably, the NDA has 293 seats in the Lok Sabha and if the NCPSP joins the alliance, then its tally will go to 301 with the eight seats of Shara Pawar's party. NCP-SP's merger or joining of the NDA will deal a big jolt to the Maha Vikas Aghadi in Maharashtra where the Congress and Shiv Sena-UBT are largely dependent on the NCP-SP in regions like Western Maharashtra and Marathawada.
