Shiv Sena mellows down its stand on farmer debts

Mumbai: After a series of uproar in the Maharashtra assembly, the Shiv Sena took a rather lighter stand on the farmer loan waiver issue on Thursday. The saffron party, which has taken a strong stand against the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) despite sharing power with it in the state, toned down its attack. “We are satisfied with the statement made by the chief minister. We only need to know the exact amount of waived off loans for the farmers,” said Sena MLA Anil Kadam while speaking on behalf of the party in the assembly. “We are satisfied that state government has spent almost Rs 30,000 crore on improving agriculture in state. But now farmers are in crisis.

The CM should talk to centre and let us know through budget that how the government is going to help farmers,” said Mr Kadam after CM Devendra Fadnavis made his statement in the assembly. The Uddhav Thackeray-led party has taken a strong stand on farmer loan waiver issue. It has threatened the BJP saying that it will not let the house function if the government doesn’t write off the loans. But after Wednesday’s meeting of party MLAs at Matoshree, Sena softened its attack on government. This stand of the party reflected on the floor. Unlike earlier, Sena MLAs did not go to the well protesting while Mr Fadnavis made a statement over the issue.

Meanwhile talking to The Asian Age Sena Minister Eknath Shinde denied these charges over Sena’s softened stand. “We are firm on our demand. Uddhavji has asked us to prepare for the demands. Chief minister has to take concrete decisions before the budget,” Mr Shinde said.

However, Congress and NCP put a strong word on the issue in both houses. Opposition leader Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil called the CM’s statement “a bunch of hollow words”. “We will not believe these words as time and again the CM has repeated this but never gave relief to farmers. This time we will not allow the house to function if government didn’t write off the loans,” said Mr Vikhe Patil.

Due to continuous ruckus by members and slogans against each other from both sides, house got adjourned on the seventh consecutive day.

Despite CM’s questions, Sena did not put up any protest as strong as it did in the past few days.