Vidarbha and Sharad Pawar

That the credit of architecting the farm exit policy for Vidarbha cotton farmers would decisively go to Shri Sharad Pawar was surely difficult to predict. However it now seems that one of the most discredited Agriculture Ministers of India should belong to Maharashtra is a comment on the rapid rise in politics, of Shri Pawar from the days of the sugarcane cooperatives of Western Maharashtra.

The sugarcane cooperatives of Western Maharashtra have been the traditional power brokers in Mumbai, and often at the expense of Vidarbha interests.

The media images of Vidarbha, show that each additional suicide in Vidarbha is seen as an albatross hanging on the neck of Shri Pawar. Even the mistakes committed by other ministers, somehow get blamed upon Shri Pawar.

The political fallout of his image in Vidarbha, as a cricket glory seeking and tough talking, politically shrewd, Agriculture Minister of India, in stark contrast to the mockery of Indian farm suicides going on unabated under his jurisdiction, will be deep standing.

Maybe it will require consummate political manouevres to retain his clout in Vidarbha after the widespread dismay, his name and image arouses amongst the cotton farmers of Maharashtra.
The Congress political bigwigs may have some reasons for keeping silent. However, how many days before the murmurs of discontent and political stock taking begins in Congress, remains to be seen. Vidarbha is electorally very important for Congress.

Vidarbha is surely an important electoral battle ground and a bell weather for Congress central government prospects, not just the state prospects. If Congress begins to get discredited here, in rural areas, for reasons of apathy to suicidal farmers, due to the cricketing pursuits of Shri Pawar and his defense of pesticide levels in Indian mother's milk, it will mean sweeping changes in the way Agriculture Ministry, and how it is seen in terms of relative political weight in Indian political circles.

Shri Sharad Pawar is of course, no Chaudhary Charan Singh though he may sometimes try to put on that mantle.

I have often pointed out that there is an inherent contradiction in the roles assigned to Shri Pawar as Agriculture Minister and as Food Minister. At some point this contradiction will need to be decisively resolved within Congress at the highest levels, before India submits to European and American pressures on WTO.

I am amazed at the amount of spontaneous distrust, that Shri Sharad Pawar evokes amongst Vidarbha farmers, and yet manages to cling to his ministry as an important Central government constituent and political heavy weight.