MUMBAI: NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar has said that there is a growing 'fashion' of labelling someone as a 'Naxal' if their work or ideology is not accepted.
Pawar was responding to Shiv Sena's Manisha Kayande, who claimed in the legislative council on Wednesday that 'urban Naxals' have infiltrated the annual 'wari' pilgrimage to Pandharpur and are attempting to mislead 'warkaris', or devotees of Lord Vitthal.
"I do not have full information about it. But one of the two organisations whose names have been reported in the media is Lokayat. I have seen the work of Lokayat.
The outfit is modern in its outlook and has been trying to create a general consensus against orthodoxy for the last several years. They are not Naxals. There is a growing fashion of labelling someone as a Naxal if their work or ideology is not accepted," Pawar asserted on Thursday.
Pawar said several people were arrested and lodged in jails after being accused of having links with Maoists following the Elgar Parishad in Pune (on December 31, 2017) and caste violence in Khoregaon Bhima (on January 1, 2018).
"The same could be happening here (referring to wari). Today, the state government is labelling people as Naxals for ideologies they do not accept," he claimed.
Pawar also said his party would take part in the July 5 event being organised by Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS to celebrate victory on the issue of Hindi "imposition" and three language policy in schools.