By Liz Mathew and Prashant K. Nanda, IANS
New Delhi : Sharad Pawar is much in the news. Not for his concerns as agriculture minister on bird flu that has created so much panic across the country or for failing to deliver on his promises to drought-hit farmers, but as chief of India’s cash-flush cricket board.
Since the bird flu outbreak on Jan 15 in West Bengal, Pawar has publicly demonstrated only a few expressions of concern – a statement on Jan 20 when he ordered culling of poultry birds without waiting for confirmation of the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal and again on Jan 23 when he said the H5N1 strain of bird flu had entered India from Bangladesh.
The avian influenza has been confirmed in 13 of the 19 districts of West Bengal and alert has been sounded in many states – Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Manipur and Bihar. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the situation in West Bengal as “very serious and different” than the earlier outbreaks.
Deflecting criticism, the animal husbandry department that has been handling the crisis says that the minister was taking “quick decisions”.
“The decision-making is not affected. There have been no pending decisions in the department. The minister takes quick decisions,” Pradeep Kumar, secretary, animal husbandry, told IANS.
Ministry sources said Pawar – who also oversees consumer affairs, food and public distribution system – had held internal meetings with the officials to discuss the issue. However, sources indicated that the minister was not monitoring the situation closely even though the spread of the virus was a matter of grave concern.
Pawar, 67, who was once seen as a prime ministerial candidate, had drawn severe criticism for his apathy towards the agriculture crisis in western parts of the country. Congress ministers in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s cabinet had privately blamed Pawar’s indifference when the country failed to meet the target for wheat procurement, following which India had to import wheat from Australia at a higher price.
Pawar’s apparent detachment has irked many of his cabinet colleagues, who have often made cryptic remarks about the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader’s “obsession” with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and its affairs.
“He was too busy with cricket board elections and its affairs. What to do?” a senior minister in the cabinet once asked.
“Where does he get time to look after the ministries? He is hopping from one country to another to resolve the crisis that Indian cricket is facing,” was the sarcastic comment from another minister.
The opposition attack was sharper.
“Pawar is least interested in the affairs of agriculture or food. He has become the minister for cricket,” Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.
“He has failed miserably – be it providing relief to the farmers, who were committing suicides, or reviving the Public Distribution System (PDS) which has collapsed,” the BJP leader said.
According to Javadekar, Pawar was not “applying his mind” in his ministerial affairs.
A blog dedicated to farmers in drought-hit Vidarbha region criticised Pawar for not delivering the promises given to the farmers there. “Pitching agriculture into cricket and playing cricket into agriculture is something nothing less of Nero was playing fiddle when Rome was burning.”