Why Pawar Didn’t Act against Vilasrao Deshmukh...

Perhaps for the first time in last 22 years, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar revealed on Tuesday why he did not take any action against Vilasrao Deshmukh, then a minister in his cabinet, during the famous coup of January 2013. He said he did not touch Deshmukh simply because the latter did not act of his own and was guided from leaders in New Delhi.

Pawar was speaking after releasing a book comprising of reminisces and tributes on late Vilasrao Deshmukh whose first death anniversary was observed on August 14. Deshmukh was one of triumvirate other two being Sushilkumar Shinde and Ramrao Adik. While Shinde, then state Congress president, had to relinquish his job, Adik faded into oblivion in later years.

In that famous coup which lasted for about a week, Deshmukh and others had openly demanded resignation from Pawar, then Chief Minister of Maharashtra, for failing on many fronts and questioning his loyalty to the Congress party.

Pawar lashes out at Maha CM over delay in clearing files

"Rajiv Gandhi called me in New Delhi and said, 'What is going on in Maharashtra?' to which I asked back, 'You ask me this, of all?' Then he said that he had just asked the trio to shake the tree a little and not to uproot it. Then Rajiv Gandhi asked me what action I wanted to take against Deshmukh? I replied none because I thought Deshmukh did not do anything on his own but he was operated by someone else,” he said.

He also said that it was Deshmukh who came to him and submitted his resignation for crossing the limits of cabinet conventions as a minister. “But I assured him that he was not at fault and allowed him to continue as minister in which he excelled as always,” Pawar recalled.

Pawar cited Deshmukh's nack of going through the files and take quick and proper decisions. “It is a mark of good administrator that he does not require to read and go through all that is written in it. He would quickly assess the grievance of person coming to him. And today, there are people who would shake inside out at the mention of signing on the file. It is as though they develop temporary paralysis when signing on the file,” he said.

Pawar's jibe was targeted at Chavan whom he had criticized number of times for his style of functioning. He had in the past said that Chavan sits on the file and does not clear them because of which development work is hampered. In the program on Wednesday, he said, “When the rulers do not take decisions, the common man suffers. There is nothing wrong in deciding on matters which are important for the development and the state.”

While reminiscing Deshmukh's role in building cooperatives in his region, Pawar also said that he was not happy with the state of cooperatives in the state today. “They have become one-man rule and the main purpose is defeated,” he said.