Pots and kettles

As the Enforcement Directorate targets NCP ministers, the ruling coalition in Maharashtra is planning a counterattack

- DNYANESH JATHAR

SOON AFTER MAHARASHTRA minister Nawab Malik was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on charges of money laundering and terror funding on February 23, the top leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (the ruling alliance of the Shiv Sena, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party) went into a huddle. The first meeting was at the residence of NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, and the second at Varsha, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray’s official residence. They decided not to ask Malik to resign as it was felt that the charges against him were politically motivated.

Malik is from the NCP. He has been accused of buying a property in Kurla in suburban Mumbai in 2005 at a throwaway price from an aide of the underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s sister Haseena Parkar and another accused in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts. Minister Chhagan Bhujbal said the government had decided to back Malik and pointed out that Union minister Narayan Rane was not asked to resign when he was arrested a year ago for making a remark against Thackeray. “This is an attempt to destabilise the MVA government and we will fight this together,” said Bhujbal.