Pawar says \'fear of losing\' behind PM\'s attack on him
Mumbai: NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday said that the fear of losing may have forced Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allege that Mr. Pawar has done nothing for farmers. Stating the accusations by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is far away from the reality, the NCP chief said that the Prime Minister is a constitutional post and the dignity of the PM's post must be maintained. Mr. Pawar, who was Union agriculture minister for ten years during the UPA regime, said that MSP (Minimum Support Price) was doubled for food grains including wheat, paddy, cotton and Soybeans between 2004 and 2014.
During his visit to Shirdi in Maharashtra on Thursday, Mr. Modi had said that Mr. Pawar had done nothing for the farmers except doing politics in the name of the farmers.
Rebutting the PM, the veteran Maratha politician said that he would maintain the dignity of the Prime Minister while replying to the accusation. “In 2004, I was Union agriculture minister. There was a shortage of food grains in the country. On the very first day after taking the oath, I had to reluctantly make a bitter decision. The country had to import wheat from America. The stocks in the country were not in a good condition. A file was put up before me. I did not sign it for two days. I was thinking why a country which is called an agricultural country had to import food grains. Then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh told me that if I did not sign the file, the government would fail to give the food grains to the people after three to four weeks. Subsequently, I signed the file,” he said.
Mr. Pawar said he took several decisions to increase the production of the farmers in the country. “We increased the MSP more than double for wheat, paddy, cotton and soybeans between 2004 and 2014,” he said.
“Because of the increase in MSP, the farmers got encouragement. As a result, the country became self-reliant in food grains. It also became the second largest producer of wheat in the world. An import dependent country became an exporter,” Mr. Pawar added.
The NCP chief also said that in order to prevent the farmer’s suicide, they had given Rs 62 thousand crores loan waiver to the farmers.
When asked why Mr. Modi is targeting him, Mr. Pawar said that the unrest in the country has made the PM anxious. “The BJP does not have governments in a majority of states including Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Punjab and West Bengal. In some other states, it formed governments by breaking other parties. This picture is everywhere. They are afraid, which may have forced one (Mr. Modi) to make such a comment,” the NCP chief said.
