Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Saturday said minimum support prices (MSP) of various crops were raised and the MSPs of some crops were increased manifold during his tenure as Union agriculture minister.

The NCP chief was responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s jibe over the former’s tenure as the Union agriculture minister in the UPA government.

In a veiled attack on Pawar, Modi had said while his government was actively empowering farmers, some individuals in Maharashtra were engaged in political activities under the guise of representing farmers.

Pawar served as the agriculture minister when the Congress-led UPA government was in office at the Centre (2004-14).

Responding to the prime minister’s jibe, Pawar, while speaking at a press briefing in Mumbai, said Modi should give statements keeping his constitutional stature in mind.

“The prime minister’s post is an important post. A PM should give a statement keeping his constitutional stature in mind. I don’t know why he targeted me. But I think whatever he said is because of the fact that he was not briefed rightly. Whatever statement the PM had made on me, I will respond to that by keeping the importance and dignity of the PM post,” Pawar said at the press briefing.

He also contended that the fear of losing power might have pushed the PM to make such comments. “He (the PM) was there to seek Darshan of Sai Baba in Shirdi, what was the need to take Darshan of Sharad Pawar there. If you see the nationwide picture, there are a lot of states where the BJP is not in power or their government has come after some sabotage in other parties. And wherever there is a BJP government, they are on weak foot. This weakness and fear of losing power may have forced him (the PM) to make such statements,” Pawar added.

The NCP supremo recalled the crisis situation he faced during his 10-year tenure as the agriculture minister under the Congress regime. “I want to make my stand clear on the statements made by PM Modi in Shirdi about my tenure as Agriculture Minister. I was Agriculture Minister for 10 years from 2004 to 2014. I had a crisis on the very first day of my tenure as Agri minister,” Pawar said.

He further said, “I had to sign a document for import of food grains for the public distribution system if that was not done on time our PDS distribution would have been stopped. Subsequently, I decided to increase the minimum support price (MSP) of various crops, MSPs of some crops were increased manifold.”

On the upcoming state assembly elections in various states, the NCP chief said the situation was not in favour of the BJP. “In the assembly polls, I am seeing such a picture that BJP is not getting the desired support. I have not assessed for Lok Sabha polls yet. In the five assembly elections, I am seeing a picture against BJP. I can’t say that everywhere governments will change,” he said.