Sack Sharad Pawar

To

Mr. Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister of India

Mrs. Sonia Gandhi
Chairperson, United Progressive Alliance

Mrs. Pratibha Patil
President of India

We, the undersigned, are citizens of India concerned about the spiraling food prices and that of essential household commodities. It is becoming increasingly hard for average citizen and daily wage laborers to buy essential items in the market and many items may soon be out of reach for poor families.

In this situation, least we could expect from your Government and concerned minister is a sincere effort in bringing the situation under control and help ease the price rise. We have so far have not seen any concrete effort from your cabinet colleague and Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Mr. Sharad Pawar in handling the situation.

Even while many Ministers, including Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee1, MPs and other top officials have admitted and criticized the food hoarding among many reasons for the rise, no concrete effort have been taken to tackle these issues. Instead, Pawars irresponsible statements in the media and underplaying the situation only infuriate the problem further2 & 3. His performance as Agriculture minister is even worse as Indian agriculture has plunged into a deeper crisis. As many as 85,620 farmers have committed suicide all over India during his first 5-year term [2004-08] as Union Agriculture minister4. UPA Government came to power promising a better future to the farmers but missed a vital opportunity to make a positive difference by appointing an incompetent minister as Sharad Pawar.

It is common perception that Pawar is more interested in his duties to Indian cricket and IPL5 than to his ministerial work and to the people. Pawar acted as Chairman of BCCI during last three years while handling two most crucial ministries in Indian Government: Agriculture and Food each of which needed individual and full attention from a capable public servant. We have had enough.

Deeply anguished by all these past and present situations, we demand the following:

1. Sharad Pawar must be sacked immediately as Food and Agriculture minister.

2. The Food and Agriculture ministries should be transferred to two individual competent members who will work relentlessly until the issue of spiraling Food prices and issues plaguing agriculture sector are controlled.

3. Government immediately announce time-bound action plan to handle these issues.

Finally, we warn that common citizen will lose any small hope and trust on this UPA government if these issues are continued to be ignored and no actions are taken.


Reference:

1. Deeply concerned over rising food prices: Mukherjee ; November 26th 2009
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/business/deeply-concerned-over-rising-food-prices-mukherjee_100280612.html

2. Sharad Pawar Assures Decline In Food Prices Within 8-10 Days; Jan 13th 2010
http://www.india-server.com/news/sharad-pawar-assures-decline-in-food-19405.html

3. Food prices to ease next fiscal: Pawar; Jan 29th 2010
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/food-prices-to-ease-next-fiscal-pawar/573091/

4. Farm suicides: A 12-year saga; Feb 3rd 2010
http://www.indiatogether.org/2010/feb/psa-suicides.htm

5. Sharad Pawar meets Bal Thackeray on IPL; Feb 8th 2010
http://www.hindu.com/2010/02/08/stories/2010020859530100.htm