Amar Singh defends Pawar on price rise issue

Amidst reports that he may join NCP, Amar Singh, who has resigned from all SP posts, today came out in defence of Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, saying the issue of price rise was the collective responsibility of the Cabinet including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"Life for the aam admi (common man) is becoming increasingly difficult because of all-round price rise across the country. Now the Congress is also getting skeptical on the issue and is trying to put the entire blame on Sharad Pawar," Singh said in his latest blog entry.

He said the entire government has to take joint responsibility for both good and bad things. "The responsibility of the price rise goes to the Cabinet along with the Prime Minister".

Blaming the government for its policies, Singh wrote that "government's policies are horribly going wrong and are totally anti-farmer. Without thinking of the plight of farmers, the government has allowed multinationals to do business in the retail sectors. It did a free trade agreement with ASEAN countries without thinking about its repercussions".

Taking a dig at Congress, Singh said that recently somebody from the government had claimed that due to price rise farmers will get more cost for their products, which will benefit them.

"I want to ask this government to come out from the ivory tower and examine the real statistics. Please don't befool the citizens," he wrote.