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This is an archive article published on April 25, 2024

‘Shah’s knowledge of farming limited’: Sharad Pawar takes a jibe at union minister’s farmer suicides remark

Shah had said Pawar should seek forgiveness from the families of farmers in Vidarbha who ended their lives due to farm distress when he was the agriculture minister.

Sharad Pawar Amit Shah NCP manifesto Lok Sabha elections''Amit Shah's knowledge of farming is limited...I won't reply to those whose knowledge of farming was limited,'' Sharad Pawar said, during the release of NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) manifesto in Pune. (File)

A day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that Sharad Pawar should apologise for his alleged inaction as agriculture minister in the previous Congress-led UPA Government, the Nationalist Congress Party founder on Thursday hit back saying he won’t reply to those whose knowledge of farming was limited.

Amit Shah’s knowledge of farming is limited…I won’t reply to those whose knowledge of farming was limited,” Pawar said, during the release of NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) manifesto in Pune.

Addressing an election rally in Amravati on Wednesday seeking votes for sitting MP Navneet Rana who recently joined BJP, the Union Minister attacked Sharad Pawar who had said he committed a mistake by supporting Rana in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and “sought forgiveness from the people of Amravati for his wrong decision”.

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“In fact, Pawar should seek forgiveness from the families of thousands of farmers in Vidarbha who ended their lives due to farm distress when he was the agriculture minister,” Shah reminded.

Pawar said the BJP was targeting him because they are sensing defeat in the Lok Sabha elections. ”They know they are losing,” he said.

NCP (SP) president Jayant Patil said that during the tenure of Modi Government, farmer suicides have increased drastically compared to the UPA regime where Sharad Pawar was the agriculture minister.

”Pawar saheb was the Agriculture Minister from 2001 to 2013. During this period, 168 farmers had ended their lives in Amravati. And now, during an eight-year period of PM Modi’s governance from 2014 to 2022, 363 farmers had ended their lives. Similarly, in Akola, Yevatmal and other Vidarbha districts, more number of farmers have died by suicide during Modi’s regime than the UPA regime…So who should apologise?” Patil asked.

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Meanwhile, the NCP (SP) which released its manifesto on Thursday has laid emphasis on farmers, women and children. The manifesto promises 30 lakh central government jobs in existing vacant posts, promises to increase the reservation ceiling from 52 per cent and to do away with Agniveer plan.

The election holds significance for BJP as it has never won the Lok Sabha elections from Maharashtra’s Amravati. In 2019, incumbent MP and actor-turned politician Navneet Rana contested as an Independent with support from Congress and NCP (then undivided) against the BJP and Shiv Sena (then undivided) candidate Anand Adsul.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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