LOKMAT NEWS NETWORK
Nashik, Mar 15
With the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the opposition is trying to heat up the issue of the onion export ban because of onion growers in Nashik and Dindori constituencies. Sharad Pawar, the founder of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), who is known as a knowledgeable farmer leader, raised the issue of the onion export ban in Chandwad's meeting as well. Against this background, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, taking favour of the union government, asked that since Sharad Pawar was the agriculture minister at the centre for a long time, why did he not give the guaranteed price for onion then?
Bhujbal raised this question while talking to the media on Friday, March 15. Since farmers of the district are upset over the onion export ban, various agitations have been going on for the last three months. The possibility that the candidates of Nashik and Dindori will have to bear the brunt of it to some extent cannot be ruled out. Meanwhile, a farmers' meeting during the Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra was held in Chandwad on Thursday in the presence of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. At that time, the farmers expressed their angry reaction to the onion export ban and targeted the ruling party. Senior leader Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut also raised the same issue.
During the meeting, Sharad Pawar said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is anti-farmer. He had made a statement that the government had consistently taken an anti-farmer stance on the onion issue. In this background, Chhagan Bhujbal, while talking to media, has questioned Pawar on those statements. Chhagan Bhujbal said Sharad Pawar was the agriculture minister at the Centre. Why did he not give a guaranteed price to onions at that time? Bhujbal also claimed that if Pawar had taken such a decision in the last decade, the question of guaranteed price would not have arisen today.