Traders meet I was to address in Baramati cancelled at last minute over some 'worry': Sharad Pawar

Sharad Pawar. Pic/X@PawarSpeaks

Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Monday said a event of a traders' body in Baramati which he was supposed to attend was called off at the last minute, reported news agency PTI.

Something like this has not happened in the last 50 years, he claimed while addressing a gathering.

"There were three meetings, including a traders' one, lined up in Baramati on Monday evening. The traders' body conveyed to me they have cancelled the event. I do not know the reason but there was some sort of worry among them. Due to such worry, they decided not to have the programme," he said, reported PTI.

Taking a dig at the turn of events, Pawar said he had seen instances of people being afraid to express their views but this was the first time he was seeing a group afraid of listening to someone's views, reported PTI.

Meanwhile, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) president Sharad Pawar on Monday condemned the Centre's decision to notify the rules for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), saying the move just ahead of the Lok Sabha polls amounts to an attack on parliamentary democracy.

The Centre announced the implementation of the CAA 2019, a move that comes four years after the contentious law was passed by Parliament and paves the way for citizenship to undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. With this, the government will now start granting Indian nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants from the three countries.

Talking to reporters in Mumbai, Pawar hit out at the Centre over the CAA notification which comes just ahead of the announcement of the schedule for Lok Sabha polls, likely to be held in April-May, reported PTI.

"Such a decision days ahead of the announcement of the Lok Sabha polls by the Election Commission of India (ECI) is an attack on parliamentary democracy. We condemn it," the former Union minister said, reported PTI.

The opposition NCP (SP) separately said the CAA decision has been taken to divert people's attention from the controversy over electoral bonds.

"The CAA notification is a spin by the @BJP4India led government to take the attention away from the Electoral bonds issue," claimed Clyde Crasto, national spokesperson the Sharad Pawar-led NCP.

(With inputs from PTI)