Mumbai: In a direct attack on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party government, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar said the government does not have any right to stay in power when it can’t protect the country’s soldiers.Speaking at a farmers’ congregation at Purandar taluka in Maharashtra’s Pune district, Pawar referred to former Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik’s interview with The Wire’s Karan Thapar. In the interview, Malik candidly admitted to the mistakes that led to the Pulwama attack of 2019, including instructions by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and NSA Ajit Doval for him to keep quiet on the matter.Pawar was addressing the farmers of Pune, one of the NCP’s strongholds in Maharashtra. In his speech, Pawar pointed out, “Although many things have happened in the country, the fact of these incidents has not come to the fore. There is an area called Pulwama where 40 soldiers had been killed. The story behind this was brought forward by former Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik, a BJP appointee to the position,” he said.Repeating Malik’s lines, Pawar said that the revelations were of a serious nature. “At that time (Pulwama attack), the necessary equipment and planes were not provided to soldiers, so they had to face death. When Malik told this to a very important person in the country, he was told not to talk about it,” Pawar added.पुरंदर तालुक्यातील सासवड इथे आयोजित शेतकरी मेळाव्यास उपस्थित राहून शेतकरी बांधवांशी संवाद साधला. या शेतकरी मेळाव्याला अचानकपणे येण्याची संधी मला मिळाली. हा सोहळा अत्यंत महत्त्वाचा आहे. संपूर्ण देशात कोणता वर्ग अस्वस्थ आहे हा प्रश्न विचारला तर अनेक लोक पुढे येतात. पण देशाच्या… pic.twitter.com/2C44DFRvuJ— Sharad Pawar (@PawarSpeaks) April 17, 2023Less than a fortnight ago, Pawar made a headline with his stand on the Hindenburg report on the Adani Group. Pawar first claimed the US short-seller had singled out Adani. “Such statements were given by other individuals too earlier and there was a ruckus in parliament for a few days but this time out of proportion importance was given to the issue,” he said in one of his interviews with NDTV, a media company in which the Adani group holds sizeable shares. Later, he also said that he was only opposed to the Joint Parliamentary Committee against Adani as he felt that it won’t be a balanced committee. He suggested that a Supreme Court-led committee will be more useful and effective in the matter.At the public speech, Pawar also touched upon the drought situation and the government’s poor attitude towards farmers and failing crops year after year. Pawar accused the BJP government of showing “no sympathy for the suffering of farmers” and for not protecting the interests of the majority of the people in the country. “We should wake up and take a decision now,” the NCP chief said.Pawar, recalling his recent visit to Madhya Pradesh said, “When I went to Madhya Pradesh, I visited the farmers’ meeting there. While growing soybeans, cotton and other crops there, there was unseasonal rain, hailstorm and the crop were destroyed. Due to this, two farmers committed suicide. The vagaries of nature are not in your hands. But in case of natural calamity, it is the responsibility of the government to rescue the affected people from such situations.” He further added that the farmers continue to die by suicide both in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and the government in both states, he alleges, have failed to pay adequate attention to the issue.Pawar was accompanied by his daughter and member of parliament Supriya Sule at the event. Asked about speculations in political circles about NCP leader and cousin Ajit Pawar jumping over to BJP, Sule said, “I think media should form a separate unit to track Ajit Pawar’s whereabouts.”