Referring to the ongoing hunger strike undertaken by a drought-affected farmer at Mumbai's Azad Maidan, Pawar said: "He is on fast for the last 55 days. If there is no water in the dam, how can we release it? Should we urinate into it? If there is no water to drink, even urination is not possible."
The NCP leader, who was addressing a public meeting at an interior village in Indapur tehsil of Pune district last night, went on to poke fun at the power load shedding in the state with his own brand of humour when he said, "I have noticed that more children are being born since the lights go off at night. There is no other work left then."
Bhaiyya Deshmukh, the farmer from drought-affected Solapur district who is on fast at Azad Maidan, said Pawar had hurt sentiments of the state with the comment which was "unbecoming" of the Deputy Chief Minister.