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Pawar: premature to speculate on polls

MUMBAI: Union Agriculture Minister and Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar on Thursday said it was premature to speculate on elections now.

“I cannot say anything for, the October 22 meeting [with the Left parties on the nuclear deal] is yet to take place,” he told reporters replying to a question on the possibility of mid-term elections.

Replying the Bharatiya Janata Party’s criticism on wheat import, Mr. Pawar blamed, at the press conference here, the National Democratic Alliance government and the present BJP-ruled States for creating the need for import.

When the wheat stock in the country was good, the NDA government made it available at a low price to private traders for export “and emptied the godowns,” he said.

Of the 111 lakh tonnes procured by the Centre, 101 lakh tonnes came from the Congress-ruled Punjab and Haryana.

The BJP-ruled States contributed a mere 3-4 per cent, he said.

Mr. Pawar said the UPA government’s move to import about 50 lakh tonnes of wheat was a conscious and transparent decision, taken on the recommendation of a Cabinet sub-committee headed by Pranab Mukherjee.

He said wheat output started falling during the NDA regime because it did not take into account the production cost while determining the minimum support price.

Maharashtra BJP president Nitin Gadkari immediately issued a statement, accusing Mr. Pawar of targeting the BJP “for, now the truth is out about the wheat imports.”

Had the UPA government offered a remunerative price to farmers, it would not have been necessary to import wheat, he said. It paid only Rs. 8 a kg to the country’s farmers but Rs.16 to foreign farmers.

“Not only the Agriculture Minister, but the entire Cabinet, including the Prime Minister, is responsible for the wheat import matter,” Mr. Gadkari said.

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