Advani's Emergency remarks should be taken seriously: Pawar

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)  patriarch L K Advani’s remarks that Emergency-like situation could emerge should be taken seriously, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar said here on Sunday.

“When a person of the stature of Advani, who was at the helm of the BJP once, makes such a statement (then) there is a need to take it seriously,” Pawar told reporters in Sangli district of western Maharashtra.

“When the person like Advani says something about Emergency, it means he has apprehensions about it,” the former Union minister said.

In his interview to a national English daily, Advani had said: “Forces that can crush democracy are stronger... I don’t have the confidence it (Emergency) cannot happen again.”

Advani's remarks drew support from the opposition parties with Congress saying that they were aimed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had felt that the statement of the former deputy prime minister was the "first indictment" of Modi's politics, while the JD(U) said it should be considered seriously.