'Maharashtra Governor has time for Kangana, but not farmers': Sharad Pawar at Mumbai rally

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Monday lashed out at Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari for not meeting the farmers who are protesting in Mumbai in solidarity with their counterparts in Delhi. These farmers are against the three central farm laws passed by Parliament in September last year.

"You are going to Raj Bhavan to meet the Governor. Maharashtra has never seen such a Governor before. He has the time to meet Kangana (Ranaut) but not the farmers. It was the moral responsibility of the Governor to come here and meet you," Pawar said at Azad Maidan in south Mumbai where he attended the gathering of the farmers, according to news agency A.

Koshiyari, who also holds the additional charge of Goa, is currently in Panaji.

Training his guns at the Centre, Pawar further said, "Braving cold weather, farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are agitating for the last 60 days. Has the PM enquired about them? Do these farmers belong to Pakistan?"

The NCP patriarch also said that the farm laws were passed without detailed discussion in Parliament despite opposition parties demanding deliberations on the bills concerned.

Maharashtra revenue minister and state Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat, All India Kisan Sabha general secretary Hannan Mollah and others also addressed the rally in Mumbai where thousands of farmers have gathered.

The farmers from various parts of Maharashtra gathered at Azad Maidan in Mumbai and also started a march towards the Governor's House (Raj Bhavan) but were stopped by the police.

The three farm laws, enacted in September last year, have been touted by the central government as the biggest reform in the agriculture sector. They seek to encourage private trade, contract farming and remove stock limit on foodgrains.

But the protesting farmers have expressed apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of Minimum Support Price (MSP) and do away with the mandis, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.