BJP raising Emergency to hide governance failure: Pawar

NCP chief Sharad Pawar today said the BJP was raising the issue of Emergency in a bid to divert attention of the people from the "failures" of the party government in the last four years.

"They (ruling party) are raking up the issue of Emergency after 44 years as they are trying to divert the attention to hide their failures of the last four years.

"Even during the five years of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, the issue of emergency did not come up," Pawar told reporters on the sidelines of a function in Pune.

The BJP has launched a frontal attack on the Congress on the occasion of the 43rd anniversary of the Emergency today, known as the darkest chapter in Indian democracy, imposed by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi.

Meanwhile, Pawar also slammed the Pune Police for arresting Bank of Maharashtra MD and CEO Ravindra Marathe in connection with a cheating case registered against city-based developer D S Kulkarni aka DSK.

"The RBI has the ultimate power to monitor the banking system of the country and there was no example of any authority interfering with the RBI's powers," Pawar said referring to the arrest of Marathe.

He said, "this is the fine example of how Pune police misused their powers by arresting Marathe in a haste. Some firm stand has to be taken in this matter".

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Pune Police had arrested Marathe and some top officials of the nationalised bank last week on charges of misusing their powers and authority while sanctioning and disbursing the loan to DSK's firm DSKDL (D S Kulkarni Developers Ltd).

Marathe, through his lawyer, had said that his arrest was illegal because the police failed to take prior permission of the RBI which he said was necessary since he "holds the rank of a secretary" by virtue of his position as CMD.