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Sharad Pawar’s meeting with Bal Thackeray on Sunday, 7th February, has raised questions in the minds of many.
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) justified the meeting by saying it was purely to resolve the IPL (Indian Premier League) issue and had “no political meaning”. They said it was only meant to talk to Bal Thackeray about taking back his stand on not letting Australian Players play on Indian soil.
The NCP spokesman D.P Tripathi said that it was only to tell Thackeray that politics should not interfere in sports and nothing else. He said, “It was about the IPL.”
NCP MP Supriya Sule, Shared Pawar's daughter, said that the meeting was "more of a personal call" since the two families have been well acquainted for many years now. She added, “Do not read too much into it.” She said that the Maharashtra government was in no way incapable of providing complete security to players, “but some issues can be solved at a personal level”.
Pawar was accompanied by BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) president Shashank Manohar.
Praful Patel, the union minister and NCP leader also gave a hand in justifying the meeting by saying that the objective of the meeting was to ensure that “cricket could be played in a congenial environment”.
