Centre, Maha Govt Insensitive Towards Women, Says Supriya Sule, Refers to Wrestlers' Protest

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) working president Supriya Sule on Friday accused the Centre as well as the Maharashtra government of being insensitive towards women while referring to the Delhi police’s crackdown on a protest by women wrestlers and the crime situation in the state. Speaking to reporters after visiting the NCP office here for the first time after assuming her new party post, she also dubbed her cousin and senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar as the “Amitabh Bachchan of Maharashtra politics”.

The manner in which the Delhi police handled the protest by women wrestlers (who have accused BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh of sexual harassment) and rising incidence of crime against women in Maharashtra were proof of the “insensitivity”, the Baramati MP said.

She blamed the state home department for failing to ensure safety and security of women. She met the relatives of the 18-year-old student who was raped and murdered in her room at a government hostel in south Mumbai earlier this month and will appeal to the Centre to expedite justice in the case, Sule said.

Earlier, she was welcomed by party activists with a shower of flowers and the beating of drums as she arrived at the NCP office. She believed in democracy and decentralisation of power but the prevailing political situation reflected something different, the MP said.

One minister holds 10 to 15 portfolios and local bodies and civic bodies have been functioning without elections being held, she said. “I fail to understand who is running the affairs of the state,” Sule said. In an apparent reference to a newspaper advertisement that projected Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as being more popular than his deputy Devendra Fadnavis, Sule said she and Ajit Pawar were trying to find out who was this “well-wisher” who spent crores of rupees to publish advertisements. “We believe in policies and not (projecting) faces while going to polls. The NCP has begun its preparations for the next Lok Sabha election. (Leaders of) The Maha Vikas Aghadi will also meet soon,” she said.

The NCP believes in teamwork and responsibilities are shared, Sule added. Asked about speculation that Ajit Pawar was upset over her elevation in the party, Sule said he was the “Amitabh Bachchan of state politics”.