Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray (Express)
Attacking the BJP government at the Centre and the state, the Shiv Sena on Wednesday said that both were insensitive to plight of people, especially farmers, and that retaining power and chair was of utmost importance to them. “The government at the Centre and the state are insensitive. Even if a farmer commits suicide by consuming poison or lighting a pyre and jumping into it, they don’t care. They don’t care about the farmers and their families for their losses, loans and suicides. For them, retaining power and the chair is more important. The government did not even give the work of selling pakodas to Madhav Ravate,” said the editorial in Sena’s mouthpiece Saamana comparing the suicide of Yavatmal farmer Ravate to sati. The editorial said nobody had any regret about it.
It further said that farmers and labourers are unemployed but the government is busy with festivals. “While Modi is on a tour to Sweden, the Maharashtra government has started preparing for polls. Effective implementation of the farm loan waiver was the responsibility of Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar but he hasn’t done it well. Rather than speaking on farmers’ suicides in Vidarbha, the Finance Minister is speaking on future of saffron alliance and Sena’s future,” the editorial added.
It further said that while the ruling party doesn’t do anything, it criticizes others’ works. Referring to a recent programme organized by a political party to distribute 100 auto-rickshaws to unemployed youths, the ruling party asked whether it is going to resolve the employment issue. Then, is it going to be resolved by doctors, engineers and lawyers selling pakodas, as suggested by (PM Narendra) Modi? The government is painting a good picture of how GDP has increased but, in reality, the labourers don’t have any work and farmers are not getting any income,” said the editorial adding that farmers are left with no option but embrace death.