He suggested that the Finance Ministry headed by Pawar was
not implementing quickly enough the state Home Ministry’s proposals for the
modernization of weapons to tackle terrorists.
A senior
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) minister told Arab News that Patil’s remarks
are being viewed seriously especially as the Finance Ministry is headed by
Pawar.
“Patil’s
statement against Ajit Pawar is akin to challenging the leadership of the
deputy chief minister,” the minister said.
Visibly
upset by the war of words between the two senior NCP ministers, NCP supremo and
federal Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar summoned his nephew Ajit and Patil to
Delhi on Saturday.
“I can
understand that Patil might have had issues with senior NCP minister Jayant
Patil or previous Finance Minister Sunil Tatkare, but with Ajit handling the Finance
Minsitry now, Patil’s remarks have polarized his detractors who are also eager
to please Ajit,” Pawar is said to have told senior NCP leaders in Delhi present
during the meeting with the two disputing ministers.
According
to NCP sources, though Patil was Pawar’s protégé, the recent events might
result in some action being taken against the home minister who could be
shunted out of the Home Ministry to another insignificant ministry.
Pawar
also told the two warring ministers that the NCP was not in a mood to take on
the “big brother” Congress and that they should take it easy when attacked by
the party.
Both Ajit
and Patil also conveyed to Pawar the furor among NCP leaders over Chief
Minister Prithviraj Chavan’s remarks that the home and finance ministries
should have been controlled by the Congress.
However,
Chavan later clarified that what he actually meant by his statement was that
when the Congress-NCP wrested power from the Sena-BJP in 1999 it should not
have continued the predecessor government’s formula of power sharing. Chavan
had also praised Patil’s good work as state home minister.
