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Taking a dig at the Modi government over its handing of the farmers issue and the following agitation , Nationalist Congress Party president and Maratha stalwart Sharad Pawar has said that the Centre cannot not run agriculture while “sitting in Delhi” since it concerned hardworking farmers in the villages, PTI reported. He added that the government “bulldozed” the three agricultural laws by not consulting the states.
The former Agriculture minister in Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh UPA government’s Pawar told PTI in an interview that he took the opinion of state governments before initiating farm reforms during his tenure as the agriculture minister in former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Cabinet. “I and Manmohan Singh also wanted to bring some reforms in the agriculture sector but not in the same way as the current dispensation did,” Pawar said. “That time the Agriculture Ministry held long deliberations on the proposed reforms with agriculture ministers of all states and experts of the sector.”
The NCP chief added that some states expressed their reservation about the reforms, so he tried to address their concerns before moving ahead with it. “Agriculture can’t be run by sitting in Delhi as it involves hard-working farmers in villages and a bigger responsibility for this subject lies with state governments,” he said. “So, when a majority of agriculture ministers had some reservations, it was the duty of the central government and mine to take them in confidence and resolve their issues before moving ahead.”
