Friends turn foes over inflation, blame Pawar

After all the hullaballoo over the "pet food" Budget, Congressmen and their allies like the Rashtriya Janata Dal are training their guns on agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, who has been escaping any blame over rising cost of food grains so far.

A senior Congress minister said an impression had been gaining ground that finance minister P Chidambaram had received his share of criticism but the fact remains that Pawar should have brought in an ordinance on ban on forward trading.

"Instead it was left to Congress President Sonia Gandhi and RJD Chief Lalu Prasad to force the issue," he said.

The Union Cabinet was amazed to find that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had to insist that Pawar attend the budget speech.

Pawar left for South Africa immediately after the speech, leaving the PMO and the other UPA allies to hammer out an order banning future trading in wheat and rice.

"In fact, he is off to Malaysia later and of course will be visiting the West Indies during the World Cup. Word has it that Pawar is also lobbying for becoming chairman of the International Cricket Council and is busy with that," said the senior Congress minister.

It is a mainly due to the tension in Congress circles over the rise in prices of essential food grains that they have started needling Pawar, an ally whom they left strictly alone much like the DMK.

"The recent local elections in Maharashtra, and the discord between the Congress and the Pawar-led NCP has not made relations any better between Pawar and the Prime Minister," said a senior minister.