Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday hit back at Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent allegations of him being an ineffectual Union Agriculture Minister, remarking instead that while PM Narendra Modi had promised to double the farmers’ income, it was the number of farmer suicides that had increased significantly during the BJP’s ten-year reign at the Centre.
Mr. Pawar, the former Union Agriculture Minister in the erstwhile Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government, was targeted by Mr. Shah at the latter’s rally in Sambhajinagar earlier this week.
The NCP leader, who was holding a rally in Lonavala (part of the Maval Lok Sabha), lambasted the PM’s tall assurances which came to nothing on ground.
“PM Modi promised to increase the farmers’ income by twofold. Has it increased? The only thing that has increased is farmer suicides. Is this Mr. Modi’s guarantee? Last year, farmers from Punjab and Haryana camped near Delhi’s gates for a year, enduring Delhi’s bitter cold and extreme heat….this PM can only give hollow assurances,” Mr. Pawar, whose NCP was split by his nephew Ajit Pawar in July last year, said.
The 83-year-old NCP leader lauded his Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance bloc ally, Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, while censuring PM Modi’s ad hominem attacks on Ms. Banerjee during his Bengal visit.
“During his speech in West Bengal, PM Modi criticised Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was an MP for 25 years and has been a Union Minister for five years. She has been the CM of the State for the last 10 years. She is from a simple family. We worked together in the Central government. You will be surprised that she lives in a small room even today. People have repeatedly voted for her, and give the reins of the state to her with great respect. The PM should be proud of her, but he criticises her instead. This does not fit within the parameters of parliamentary democracy,” Mr. Pawar said.
Pointing out the PM’s double-standards while talking about eradicating corruption, Mr. Pawar’s recalled Mr. Modi’s spewing of vitriol on the undivided NCP.
“Recently in Parliament, a booklet was given to everyone which said what irregularities took place when the BJP was not in power. The booklet mentioned the Adarsh scam and the alleged involvement of [senior Congressman and ex-CM] Ashok Chavan in the scam. But on the seventh day, Chavan joined the BJP and became its Rajya Sabha member on the 15th day...So on the one hand, you (BJP) make allegations, while on the other, you induct that person into your party,” he said.
“He talked about an irrigation scam worth ₹70,000 crore in Maharashtra. He also talked about irregularities in the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank. I had said at the time that nobody from the NCP was involved in any irregularities in the MSC Bank case and dared them to conduct an inquiry by appointing a Supreme Court judge. See where the person is today against whom the allegations were made,” he said, alluding to Deputy CM Ajit Pawar without mentioning his name.
He also ticked off Mr. Modi for repeatedly criticising late Congress PM Jawaharlal Nehru and his ideology.
“If you go through newspapers today, you will find full-page advertisements on ‘Modi Ki Guarantee’. If one considers whose money is being used to publish these advertisements, the answer is that it is the people’s money,” he said.
