Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be ashamed of making “wild allegations” against former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, PTI reported. Speaking at the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party’s Jan Akrosh Halla-Bol rally in Nagpur, Pawar said, “Shame on you, prime minister, for making such allegations!”

Pawar was referring to the prime minister’s statement that Singh and other Congress party leaders held a “secret meeting” with Pakistani officials in Delhi ahead of the Gujarat elections. The Nationalist Congress Party chief said “no one in the world could point fingers” at Singh. Pawar added that Modi tried to divert the people’s attention from the government’s failures in addressing the farm crisis, lack of jobs and other issues by invoking Pakistan.

Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad also attended the rally, and said Modi had stooped to a “low level” by making allegations against people of his own country.

‘Don’t pay electricity bills’

Pawar asked farmers in Maharashtra not to repay loans or pay electricity bills to the state government until it deposits the loan waiver amount into their bank accounts. He also accused Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of playing “blackmail politics”.

“The Maharashtra chief minister uses the language of blackmailing the opposition,” the Nationalist Congress Party chief alleged. “If he thinks blackmailing is a part of people’s mandate to his government, then he should remember that people can oust him from power.”