Pune, Apr 7 (ANI): Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra Ajit Pawar on Sunday mocked at the two-month-long protest by a farmer saying ”should we urinate” to fill the dams in the state. He uttered these words at a function hosted at Pune on Sunday (April 07). Incidentally, Pawar was scheduled to hold a rally of his Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Pune today, but it had been cancelled without giving any reasons. A farmer has been staging a protest-demo at Azad Maidan in Mumbai demanding the release of water from a dam for his parched field. Ajit Pawar in his derogatory statement further said, “There is this person from Sholapur, sitting on hunger strike for 55 days demanding water be released from the dam. But where are we going to get water? Should we urinate to fill it? And when we are not getting water to drink even urine is not coming easily.” Commenting on the shortage of electricity, Pawar passed another controversial remark by saying “I have also come to know that since there is a shortage of electricity in Maharashtra, the population is increasing!” As the audience at the event broke out in laughter, he paused and then added to say, “All of you must be thinking that I have drunk (liquor) in the day itself.” The crowd again laughed out. Meanwhile, the NCP leadership is tight-lipped on the issue, but speaking on condition of anonymity, party leaders are themselves shocked by Mr Pawar”s statement. “Even as a joke, this is just unacceptable,” a senior leader opined. Reacting to Pawar”s utterances, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shaina assailed Pawar by saying, “Making an ill-informed comment is a different thing but making such crude and arrogant comments instead of saying that I stand by the public he makes comments like this. This is the lowest of low in Maharashtra politics.” The state has been reeling under drought for a long time now, the political parties are busy playing blame game over the issue. While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has blamed the central and the state governments for the poor handling of the drought, the Congress government in the state has claimed that it is doing its best to handle the situation. (ANI)
