Narendra Modi's speech broke tradition of decent speeches by PMs: Sharad Pawar

Speaking during reply to the motion of thanks to the President's address, Modi, in his speech in the last session of Parliament before the elections, tore into Opposition.

"I had the opportunity to listen to the last speeches in Parliament of former prime ministers such as Manmohan Singh, PV Narasimha Rao....In their speeches, there was `sabhyata' (decency) and there was respect for Parliament, political parties and their representatives," Pawar said, speaking to the media here.

NEW DELHI: NCP chief Sharad Pawar said on Friday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech in Parliament went against the tradition of making "decent, cultured speeches". Speaking during reply to the motion of thanks to the President's address, Modi, in his speech in the last session of Parliament before the elections, tore into Opposition. "I had the opportunity to listen to the last speeches in Parliament of former prime ministers such as Manmohan Singh, PV Narasimha Rao....In their speeches, there was `sabhyata' (decency) and there was respect for Parliament, political parties and their representatives," Pawar said, speaking to the media here. "The reason for it was they had certain 'sanskar' (values)," said the former Union minister. He did not listen to Modi's speech as it was made in the Lok Sabha, Pawar, a Rajya Sabha member, said. "(From) Whatever I read in the newspapers about the speech, I could only tell that it has dented the tradition of making decent and cultured speech...," he said. "If a person has a certain ideology and 'sanskar', he will make a speech accordingly and here the same thing has happened. So I would not like to comment on it," Pawar added. Asked about the possibility of simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Pawar said if that happened, the state would be freed from "the clutches of this (BJP-led state) government seven to eight months early" and people will be happy. The prime minister in the Lok Sabha Thursday mocked Opposition's proposed grand alliance as "maha-milawat", while blasting the Congress for "intimidating" judiciary, targeting the EC and "betraying" the nation by neglecting the armed forces.