Pawar says Thackeray can't handle power

Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray is incompetent. He cannot handle power. And he is trying to suppress the common people.

So spake senior Congress leader Sharad Pawar at a farmer's morcha in Sangola, Solapur.

"You need ability and competence to run a state. Thackeray can't handle power, so he gives ransack orders, criticises his party's alliance government and tries to suppress the leaders working for the upliftment of common people," Pawar said.

The morcha, organised by Congress MLA Shahaji Bapu Patil, had Opposition leader Madhukar Pichard (whose house was ransacked by Shiv Sainiks after the Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar incident) and state Congress committee president Ranjit Deshmukh nodding to Pawar's sentiments.

"The Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance is working against dalit interests," Pawar continued, "First, they attack Opposition leaders' houses. Then their mouthpiece Saamna justifies the attack! Had they got hold of Chhagan Bhujbal, they would have surely burnt him alive."

The government's policies, Pawar said, was similar to those of the British colonisers. He asked the farmers to unite under the Congress banner to fight the government.

Launching a scathing attack on the government's sugar policy, Pawar predicted the state would fall drastically short of its target -- though it produced 5.4 million tonnes last year, the production will not be more than 2.7 million tonnes this time due to the authorities' negligence and inefficiency.

"Such policies are making Maharashtra a backward state," Pawar said.

Compiled by Prasanna D Zorey from the Marathi press