Mongolia luckier than Maharashtra: Shiv Sena's Saamna

NEW DELHI: In a no-holds-barred attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna has slammed him for giving $1 billion credit to Mongolia while ‘ignoring’ drought-hit farmers of Maharashtra.

"Mongolia’s citizens are luckier than those in Maharashtra. They have been given $1 billion by India’s prime minister, showing India’s financial clout. If the PM had shown the same eagerness in giving the same treatment to the farmers in Maharashtra or to the residents of Konkan suffering due to the Jaitapur nuclear project, then it would have been better," the Saamna editorial said.

"$1 billion is not a small amount. If you convert this amount into Indian rupees, then the figure would tie up in knots the souls of thousands of farmers who have committed suicide in the state." While farmers in the state were waiting for aid from the Centre, it is Mongolia’s citizens who were getting aid, Saamna said.

While it is important for India to project its power and help its neighbours, the prime minister should also look at the ‘plight’ of its farmers. "With folded hands we pray to the PM and the agriculture minister to solve the farmers’ suicide and pay the pending aid to farmers," the editorial said.

Wednesday’s Saamna editorial is the latest in a long series of attacks that the Sena has made against the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre of which it is a partner. Recently, it had criticised Modi for his bonhomie with the Chinese, saying that Beijing could not be trusted as it had pursued a "policy of hugging and backstabbing."