Despite PM Modi's 'guarantees', farmers are committing suicide: Sharad Pawar

Sharad Pawar. Pic/X@PawarSpeaks

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) founder Sharad Pawar on Wednesday said on one hand Prime Minister Narendra Modi is giving various "guarantees" to cultivators, but on the other farmers are committing suicide due to growing debt, reported news agency PTI.

Addressing NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) workers at a conclave at Manchar in Ambegaon tehsil, the home turf of Maharashtra Cabinet minister Dilip Walse Patil in Pune district, the former Union agriculture minister painted a grim picture of the farm sector.

"Today, farmers are facing hardships in the country. He toils hard but despite that he does not get remunerative price for his products. If input cost is high and output is low, then it leads to farmers getting debt-ridden and due to this situation, farmers are committing suicide. Such a scenario is currently prevalent in the country," said the veteran politician, reported PTI.

Newspapers and television channels are full of advertisements where the PM is seen offering various "guarantees" to farmers such as good price and market for their produce, said the Rajya Sabha member.

"On one side, there is 'Modi Ki Guarantee' but on the other side, somewhere someone (referring to farmers) is committing suicide," said the senior politician while slamming the Centre for its policies, reported PTI.

Targeting Walse Patil, his one-time confidant who was among the rebel NCP MLAs, Pawar said earlier generations of leaders from the area were loyal to their party and did not compromise on ideology, but that is no longer the case now.

"These present leaders do not show any loyalty to their own party, then how can we expect them to be loyal to their voters," he said, reported PTI.

Walse Patil is a key member of the NCP led by Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, who joined the Shinde government in July last year.

Meanwhile, former Union minister Sharad Pawar on Wednesday claimed the mention of Adarsh housing scam in a white paper tabled in Parliament was kind of a "threat", prompting Ashok Chavan's exit from the Congress, reported PTI.

Chavan, who joined the BJP last week, has denied such claims.

He is an accused in the Adarsh housing society scam wherein a 31-storey posh building in south Mumbai was constructed allegedly on land owned by the Defence Ministry without getting the requisite permissions and clearances.

The scandal led to Chavan's resignation as the Maharashtra's chief minister in 2010.

Asked about Chavan's exit from the Congress, Pawar told reporters in Kolhapur that though the development was surprising for everyone, he was not surprised personally.

"The reason is that the BJP had tabled a white paper on their last 10 years of performance and their opinions about the opposition. In that white paper, there was a mention of the Adarsh society and Ashok Chavan. After that mention, we assumed that it could be one kind of a threat, and (Chavan's exit) was a result of that threat," the NCP-Sharadchandra Pawar chief said, reported PTI.

Pawar debunked reports of his camp's merger with the Congress and said, "We both, Congress and NCP, work together. We, Shiv Sena (UBT) head Uddhav Thackeray, and Congress are not separate now. Most of the time, we sit together and discuss, but it does not mean that there is need for a merger," reported PTI.

(With inputs from PTI)