Pawar under attack from Congress, BJP

Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar found himself caught in a pincer between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which attacked him over rising food prices and the Congress, (that shares power with his party, the Nationalist Congress Party ) which decided to sharpen its knife on him for his supplication before Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray on the issue of Australian cricketers being allowed to play matches in Mumbai.

A day after Pawar’s sudden visit to Thackeray’s residence Matoshri, the Congress today spoke about how “three ministries” (agriculture, food and public distribution) were primarily responsible for controlling the price situation of food articles.

In a clear dig at Pawar, Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari also pointed out, “There is collective as well as differentiated responsibility in the Cabinet to tackle the price rise.” According to Congress sources, “differentiated responsibility” was to suggest that Pawar cannot shift the blame entirely on the collective responsibility of the cabinet as he heads three key ministries related to food prices.

Recently, Pawar had remarked that it was the collective responsibility of the entire Cabinet to control inflation. His remarks were seen as an attempt to shrug off his responsibility in the matter.

Officially, the Congress refused to react about Pawar’s visit to Bal Thackeray’s house soon even as it came after its star general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s political duel with the Thackerays. The Congress maintained that if Pawar had gone to discuss cricket with Thackeray no one could question him. In his capacity as a former cricket administrator, Pawar was free to meet anyone to ensure smooth show of the IPL.

Privately, however, the Congress leadership was not amused at this move. It asked why Pawar needed to run to Matoshri to ensure Sena didn’t play mischief during the IPL that involves a large number of Australian players. “If he had gone to Thackeray to ensure safety and security of foreign players of IPL, then the obvious question is: doesn’t he have any faith in the Home Minister of Maharashtra, who is his own party nominee?” questioned a Congress leader.

Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan too made it clear today that Pawar’s visit to Thackeray over IPL was unwarranted.