Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Nov 8: The veteran politician and the chief of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar Faction) Sharad Pawar on Saturday favoured a thorough probe into the alleged land scam involving his grandnephew Parth Pawar and made the findings public instead of pushing the allegation under the carpet.
Breaking his silence two days after the land-grab allegations surfaced, Mr Pawar said, the matter should be investigated fully. “The Chief Minister has publicly said that the matter is serious. So he must conduct an inquiry and place the facts before the people,” Pawar said on Saturday even while claiming that political issues did not impact the family relations among the PA wars.
Mr Pawar, whose nephew and current Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar split the NCP and joined the Eknath Shinde-led government in 2023, admitted that he and his nephew may hold different ideological positions but remain one as a family. Mr Pawar pointed out that his grandson contested against Ajit Pawar and Ajit Pawar’s wife contested against his daughter Supriya Sule, highlighting that political battles do not affect personal relationships within the family.
On Supriya Sule’s earlier defence of Parth, Sharad Pawar distanced himself, saying that was her personal opinion. Asked whether he felt Ajit Pawar was being targeted within the ruling Mahayuti, he said he did not know. The BJP, Shiv Sena, and NCP are constituents of the ruling Mahayuti alliance.
Ajit Pawar’s son, Parth, has been accused of involvement in a land scam. The allegation is that Amadea Enterprises LLP, in which Parth is a partner, “bought” 43 acres of government land, which cannot be sold, in Pune worth over Rs 1,800 crore for just Rs 300 crore.
The land allegedly fell under the ‘Watan’ category awarded to the Mahar community and, under the Bombay Inferior Village Watans Abolition Act, 1958, it could not be sold without government permission. A stamp duty waiver was also reportedly ordered two days after the deal, with Parth Pawar’s firm paying just Rs 500 as stamp duty on the Rs 300 crore transaction.
Two cases have been filed in connection with the land deal, but Parth Pawar has not been named, triggering criticism from the Opposition. Ambadas Danve from the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and Congress leaders Vijay Wadettiwar and Harshwardan Sapkal have questioned why Parth’s name is missing in the FIRs failed in connection with the scam.
Sharad Pawar’s other grandnephew, Rohit Pawar, who has been one of the sharpest critics of the government over the past year, on issues ranging from Minister Manikrao Kokate playing rummy in the Assembly to alleged PWD irregularities, has so far remained silent. His silence has been noted by the ruling side, with minister Sanjay Shirsat taunting him on X, asking why the “dear parrot” had gone silent, referring to Rohit’s previous aggressive stance on corruption.
The case also entered the national discourse when Rahul Gandhi called it “land theft” and linked it to “vote theft,” marking one of his first direct attacks on the Pawar family.
Ajit Pawar met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday and defending his son claimed that Parth did not know it was government land. “The concerned land is government land, which cannot be sold. Parth and his partner Digvijay Patil were not aware of this fact. How the registration (of its sale) was done and who is responsible will come out in the probe,” Ajit Pawar had said. The case named three people, including Patil, but not Parth, because those three people had gone to the registrar’s office to sign the documents, the deputy chief minister said.
“Neither I nor my office made any phone calls, gave any help, or had any role or knowledge about this transaction at any stage… this was only an agreement to buy land, and no payment was made by Parth, his company Amadea, or by any member of my family to the seller, and the possession of the land has not been taken. Therefore, the transaction has not been completed,” he had said.
The controversial land deal linking his son, however, has given a new handle to Mr Ajit Pawar’s traditional political rivals to target him over his response to allegations and the BJP leader and his political ally Narayan Rane, did not miss the opportunity to brush him on the wrong side though he avoided inflicting any serious injury.
Responding to Ajit Pawar’s earlier remark that “when your children grow up, they do their own business,” BJP MP Narayan Rane on Saturday quipped, “Children can grow up, but they should be obedient. What more can I say about it?” Once a vocal critic of Ajit Pawar in the past, Rane refrained from making further comments on the issue.
Maharashtra minister and BJP leader Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil has said Ajit Pawar’s “busy schedule” may have delayed his response to the controversy. “If Ajit Pawar had acted when he first got wind of the Pune land issue, this situation might not have arisen. But considering his busy schedule, sometimes a few decisions happen automatically,” Vikhe Patil told reporters on Friday.
Vikhe Patil, a former Congressman, and the Pawars have been political rivals in western Maharashtra for decades. Mr Ajit Pawar has said earlier that he had heard of the matter a few months ago and made it clear that he would not tolerate any wrongdoing.