Sharad Pawar slapped: Parties unanimously condemn attack

NEW DELHI: Political parties joined hands to criticize the slapping of Sharad Pawar, but the chorus of concern was marked by an angry exchange between Congress and BJP and a warning by Team Anna member Kiran Bedi that more violence was likely if their version of Lokpal bill was not passed.
Congress spokesperson Rashid Alvi fired the first shot when he suggested the assailant may have been incited by BJP leader Yashwant Sinha’s statement on Tuesday when he said that price spiral could spark violence.
Congress did not withdraw the charge despite protests from Sinha and BJP against Alvi’s comment. Alvi’s colleague Manish Tewari said while he would not venture to allege Sinha’s statement incited Harvinder Singh, the BJP leader had a motive in making the statement warning of violence. “That is the job of agencies to see the link but when a responsible person gives such a statement, its objective stands exposed,” Tewari said.
"They can't connect this incident to my statement. This is just politics," Sinha retaliated.
His colleague, leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, joined the attack on Alvi. “We strongly condemn the attack on Sharad Pawar. This cannot be justified in any manner. But the Congress spokesperson is stretching this too far with his comment. BJP has never supported violence and will never support it,” she said, adding, “Pawar is a decent and nice person. His age also demands that he should be respected."
BJP spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad came down heavily on Congress. “If Congress thinks it is because of opposition's statements, we pity them for not being concerned about the public apathy and pain due to price rise. People are today helpless and are feeling the pain of price rise for the last three-and-a-half years even when an economist prime minister is running the nation," he said.
He warned the government that such incidents may increase if it did not take adequate steps to curb rising prices
Speaking later, Pawar maintained that he did not see any political design in the attack, saying not much should be read into the incident. However, he was critical of anti-corruption campaigner Anna Hazare, his old tormentor. Hazare was quoted as reacting to the manhandling of Pawar by asking whether he was slapped just once. Later, he clarified his purported statement by saying that he was misquoted and he was actually concerned whether Pawar had been injured seriously.
However, Pawar was unforgiving. Asked about Hazare's comments wondering whether he was slapped only once, Pawar sarcastically said, "It must be some kind of Gandhiism. I too heard about this new Gandhiism."
Congress also slammed Hazare’s statement, although Tewari was more critical of Kiran Bedi for stating that violence could not be ruled out if a stronger Lokpal was not created. Terming the remark as encouraging violence, the Congress spokesperson said, “There is nothing Gandhian about violence. It is a contradiction in terms. The first premise of being Gandhian is your commitment to non-violence.”
“People who profess to be Gandhians condone violence and argue if their demand was not met, there would be violence. Are you going to hold a gun to the head of the temple of democracy to have your demand fulfilled,” he asked
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee too condemned the incident. "PM regrets the increasing tendency to take recourse to violent means to express disagreement," said a PMO statement. Mukherjee said the attack on Pawar was "totally condemnable".
West Bengal CM and UPA ally Mamata Banerjee said, "People may want to protest against anything they want but this is no way to express their grievances. This is absolutely condemnable."
After the incident, Pawar sought to downplay it and asked NCP workers not to take the law into their hands and maintain peace. "I don't think it is appropriate for me to blame any political party for the incident. I should not go to that level of blaming anyone," he told reporters.