Not Just Pawar But UPA Cabinet Responsible For Inflation: BJP

BJP President Nitin Gadkari on Monday  held the "wrong economic policies of the government" responsible for price rise and asserted that not just the Agriculture Minister but the entire cabinet of the Manmohan Singh government is to be blamed for food inflation. "The origin of inflation and price rise is the wrong economic policies of the Congress and the UPA government," Gadkari said in a press conference on price rise in New Delhi. 

Gadkari, who many felt was soft on Agriculture and Food Minister Sharad Pawar as he hails from his native state of Maharashtra, was more vocal against him on price rise. 

"UPA is fully responsible for price rise. This is the total failure of the UPA, including Sharad Pawar. Pawar is responsible but not solely responsible....The Prime Minister, the Group of Ministers, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi are also responsible. Others cannot escape by blaming Pawar," he said. The BJP has launched a nation-wide three-phase agitation against price rise which will culminate in the gherao of Parliament in March. 

Gadkari stated that Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj was in touch with the NDA partners and like-minded opposition parties for chalking out a strategy to take on the government during the forthcoming budget session of Parliament. "Through the media, I would also like to invite the Left parties to build a consensus on cornering the government on the issue of price rise," he said.

Expressing his ire against the government's "clearcut failure" to control food inflation, Gadkari said its wrong policies were only leading to profits for speculators, corporates, multinationals and black-marketeers. However, when asked if politicians in power were hand-in-glove with these beneficiaries, Gadkari said he knew who all were profiteering but would not name them now. 

"You check out the commodities exchange where some companies have made upto 300 per cent profit," he said. The BJP President insisted that lack of co-ordination between the Commerce, Food and Civil Supplies and the Finance Ministries was also contributing to the present crisis. 

After the second consecutive Lok Sabha poll defeat, a down-and-out BJP smells an opportunity in the agitation against price rise - which affects its core votebank of middle class and traders - to rejuvenate its party cadre.

Taking a dig at the Congress slogan, Gadkari said, "It is very unfortunate that Congress' hand is not with the poor. It is now reaching for their neck." He maintained that the BJP had started the agitation against inflation as "renowned economist Manmohan Singh" had failed all expectations. He said while Singh had promised that the GDP will grow at double digits, it is food inflation that has grown at double digits and the "credit" for this goes to the PM. 

Using cricket analogy, Gadkari said, "Sugar prices have hit a half century while dal has hit a century. Soon, they will leave Sachin Tendulkar, Virendra Sehwag and M S Dhoni behind."

In his tirade against the UPA regime, Gadkari rattled off RBI data and figures from other government-affiliated agencies and said food inflation has risen by 20 per cent from 12 per cent in the last six months. He named wheat, rice, sugar and pulses as the main essential commodities that have seen a jump in prices recently. 

"This is an incompetent government as far as food economy is concerned...when the sugar prices were less and farmers were burning their crop and there was surplus, the government failed to create a buffer stock and instead exported it," Gadkari said. 

He said despite the end consumer paying three times more for essential commodities, the farmers were not getting their due. "How can the Government say that the farmers are benefitting?" he asked. He accused the government of importing poor quality 'red wheat' and said even it failed to check the rising prices. The BJP president asked the government to study how commodity exchanges are manipulated to jack up food prices.

"The record of last year's transactions on forward exchange in essential commodities clearly establishes that it is 99 per cent speculation and one per cent deliveries," he added. PTI