Those who believe in democracy, secularism must come together: Pawar

Those who believe in democracy and secularism must come together and draw up a "time-bound action program", NCP supremo Sharad Pawar said after taking part in a virtual meeting of opposition leaders convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday.

He appreciated the initiative to organize a meeting of like-minded parties in view of the present circumstances in the country, the former Union minister said on Twitter. "The current scenario in India appears very gloomy. Farmers are protesting for many months, it's an anguishing picture for a democratic country like India. The nation is facing many issues like inflation, economic slowdown, Covid mitigation, unemployment, border disputes, issue of the minority communities etc," he tweeted. The present government has failed to address these issues, he said.

"Those who believe in democracy and secularism, those who like to work together for saving the democratic principles and ethos of our country must come together," Pawar said. "A time-bound action program needs to be taken up collectively, and I strongly suggest that instead of dealing with all these issues together, we must collectively prioritize each issue and solve them one by one to give our country a good present and future," he said.

A total of 19 parties including the NCP and Shiv Sena participated in the meeting.