Cong, Pawar call price-rise truce as BJP mounts attack

As the Congress and Sharad Pawar tried to play down differences on the price rise issue, the BJP accused the agriculture minister of “making a mess” of the food economy. 

“Sharad Pawar is shifting blame on the prime minister and the cabinet. It’s very sad that responsibility is being shifted while common people are suffering because of high prices. Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi should respond,” BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

The Congress, meanwhile, said what Pawar “essentially meant was it [prices] was the joint responsibility of the central and state governments and they should together tackle the problem”.

The Congress’ decision to tone down criticism came a day after Pawar told the media that the blame for high prices should be shared by the entire cabinet and even the prime minister.

The issue had threatened to snowball into an ugly spat between the allies, largely because of the terse remarks from Congress leaders in the past few days.

A week ago, Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi had asked the agriculture minister to begin solving the price rise issue rather than highlighting problems.

A few days later, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said since Pawar was in charge of the food and agriculture ministry he should be the one reining in prices. Now, with the opposition going for the kill, Pawar and Congress appear to have decided to keep the powder dry for the moment.

The ‘truce’, however, did not deter the BJP from targeting Pawar.
Party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said though the minister was claiming that government godowns were full, the Centre was importing food grains at a higher cost.

Prasad also took a dig at Pawar’s recent contention that there would be a shortage of milk.

“It is high time that Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi say how long the people of this country are going to suffer. The biggest fraud has been perpetrated on the aam aadmi,” Prasad said.