Sharing stage with Sharad Pawar, PM Modi slams renaming rows | India News – Times of India
Modi was speaking in the context of iconic national leaders such as Sardar Patel standing their ground amid stiff opposition by then British rulers to the installation of Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s statue at Ahmedabad’s Victoria Garden — set up in 1897 — to commemorate the Queen’s diamond jubilee.
Holding forth from a stage where he was conferred the Lokmanya Tilak National Award in Pune in the presence of NCP chief Sharad Pawar on the 103rd death anniversary of Tilak, the PM mentioned no recent renaming controversies. But such tiffs have long shadowed BJP and its governments.
In Maharashtra, where Modi vented his feelings, the current coalition comprising BJP has defended the renaming of Aurangabad as Sambhaji Nagar and Osmanabad as Dharashiv. Aurangabad was earlier named after Aurangzeb and Osmanabad after Mir Osman Ali Khan, the last ruler of the erstwhile Hyderabad state.
Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde, deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, and former Congress Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde — a trustee of the trust that gives the annual Tilak award — were present when Modi was honoured.
Attention, though, was riveted to Modi and Pawar, who exchanged smiles and pleasantries soon after the PM stepped on the dais. Pawar shared stage with Modi the first time after the split in his NCP when nephew Ajit joined the Shinde-Fadnavis government in the state.
