Address by Shri Sharad Pawar, President Nationalist Congress Party at the National Convention

New Delhi, 20th December 2009

Honourable guests, delegates, ladies and gentlemen,

I am delighted in welcoming you all to this 4th National Convention of the Nationalist Congress Party.  We are meeting in the historic city of Delhi, which is the national capital of our county. This great city represents the values of composite culture, memories of our great freedom struggle and rainbow of secular India. You have traveled from different parts of the country and converged here to deliberate on the national and international issues and the challenges before the country and our party.  

As we meet here, the Nationalist Congress Party has entered the second decade of its existence. The NCP is recognized by the election commission as the national party since its inception and it gives me great pleasure in sharing the fact that we have made significant strides in establishing our political presence in different parts of the country.  With the dedicated effort of all of you the NCP has been able to establish its legislative presence in11 states of the Indian Union along with our Parliamentary presence. With the commitment of our members and workers we hope to March in the future from strength to strength and build a liberal, democratic and modern political party devoted to the cause of youth, women, minorities, backward classes, dalits and tribals.

Since we last met in Delhi in May 2008 there have been major political developments in the country in the last one and half years. After our last National Committee meeting the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government under the Prime Ministership of Dr. Manmohan Singh faced a major challenge in July 2008, on the Indo- US nuclear deal because our leftist friends were oppose to it. I personally tried to persuade the left leadership to see reason and not to withdraw outside support to the government. I was assisted in my effort by the Party General Secretary D.P Tripathi, but it is unfortunate that our communist friends failed to understand the gravity of situation and the advantages in the Indo- US nuclear cooperation. As you all know that Indo-US nuclear deal has not merely enhanced our standing in comity of nations but ensures great benefits in the energy sector in future. The government secured the vote of confidence in Lok Sabha and succeeded in putting across our viewpoint before the Parliament and Countrymen.

The country was marching ahead towards a new economic and social development when the biggest terrorist attack hit Mumbai on 26th November 2008. The well planned heinous attack was designed and executed from across the border was virtually a war on India in a new form. It not merely led to the killing of 100s of innocent people but also shook the nation and the world. We pay our heartfelt homage to the innocent citizens and brave security men who lost their life in this gruesome and unprecedented terrorist attack. Our sympathy goes to the bereaved families who lost their dear and near ones.  The UPA and Maharashtra government faced this challenge with fortitude, and maturity. We were able to convince the international community about the dangers of fanatic terrorism and collectively develop the strategy of counter-terrorism to ensure peace, and order in our societies.  The whole country stood by Mumbai and the international community extended its immediate and valuable support in our continuous fight against terrorism. We want the government of Pakistan to punish the perpetrators of terrorist attack of 26/11 and dismantle the terrorist training camps.

Dear friends, the Lok Sabha election in April- May 2009 gave a historic second term to the UPA under the leadership of Dr. Manmohan Singh. The Indian electorates reposed their faith in the policies and programmes of our government. This election not only increased the numbers of the members of the UPA in Lok Sabha but struck a decisive blow to the communal and divisive forces. The hopes of the Bhartiya Janta Party and its allies to come to power were smashed into smithereens by the people of India.  Our pro-people policies specially the waiving of loans of Rs. 71 thousand corers of the farmers and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) had a positive response from our electorate. The young women and men participated with great enthusiasm in this election and many of them from different walks of life are the new faces in the Lok Sabha. A very healthy trend is noticeable in this election because the voters rejected the leaders with criminal records. The verdict also shows the triumph of moderation and middle path against all forms of extremism. As the UPA government began its second tenure we faced a grave problem of drought due to Monsoon failure. 312 districts in 12 States of India are hit by drought. Our government made all possible efforts and brought down the inflation to single digit inspite of global recession, but the unprecedented increase in the prices of essential commodities has created severe difficulties for our people. Although the soaring price is a global phenomenon the government is making determined effort to contain the prices of food grains and essential commodities.  

Election to the Orissa assembly was held with the Lok Sabha election and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) fought these elections with electoral understanding and seat adjustment with the Biju Janta Dal (BJD). We contested eight seats and won four of them. As you all know that the Maharashtra,  Haryana and Arunanchal Pradesh Assembly elections were held recently. The NCP in alliance with the Congress got the resounding victory and was voted to power for third consecutive term in Maharashtra. The democratic front partners were successful to convince the people about the progressive policies of the State and the Central government. This resulted into the unprecedented defeat of the Shiv Sena- BJP alliance. The people of Maharashtra reiterated their faith in secular and democratic values and therefore the fanatic and parochial forces were deceivably marginalized.  NCP is the only political party which won 54 percent seats that it contested in the Maharashtra assembly elections. We contested in 114 seats and emerged victorious in 62 assembly segments.  I am happy to inform you that in Arunanchal Pradesh Assembly elections our party got 19 percent of the popular vote and we have five MLAs’.

The international situation has seen significant changes in the last one and half years. The election of Mr. Barack Obama as the President of the United States of America has reinstated the principle of racial equality and opportunity by ensuring the entry of the coloured man in the White House.  This is very important visible change in the World politics. The Indo-US relations are growing stronger and the multi-faceted strategic partnership between the two democracies of the world has entered a new era. The recent visit of our Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to the USA is the first state visit hosted by the administration, the highest honour extended to a foreign dignitary. As the first state guest of the President Obama Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh signed various MoUs’ regarding education and development, health, economic trade, and agriculture, as well as one on “Advancing Global Security and Countering Terrorism.”   The visit also demonstrated the growing influence and affluence of the members of the Indian-American community, who were a significant presence throughout the activities surrounding the Prime Minister’s trip. During the PMs’ visit the new Administration reconfirmed its commitment to the Indo-US civil nuclear accord.  

Our increasing economic, cultural and diplomatic tie with European countries has made significant contribution to the new World order.  Our traditional friendly relationship with Russia has reached a new height with the singing of Indo-Russian nuclear agreement during the just concluded visit of Dr. Manmohan Singh.  The NCP whole heartedly welcomes the effort of the UPA government in remoulding India’s external relations in the fast changing international politics. We have greatly succeeded in improving our relations with the European Union (EU), China and Japan.  Today, our country is being courted not only as a value trading partner but also a collaborator in the field of high tech scientific research. Along with this India has paid special attention towards other Asian, African and Latin American countries.  India stands for peace in Palestine and entire Middle East. We believe that strife must end immediately in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) believes in strong friendly relations amongst the countries of South Asian region. Inspite of problem of cross border terrorism we have taken many initiatives to normalize our relations with Pakistan. The defeat of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka has been welcomed by India and the international community. We also hope that the rehabilitation of the Tamils of Sri Lanka would be taken up seriously by the Sri Lankan government. India has welcomed the restoration of democracy in Nepal, Bhutan and Pakistan.  We wish that the constituent assembly in Nepal would be able to draft the new constitution and complete the peace process.

The Nationalist Congress party has three ministers in the Union government headed by Dr. Manmohan Singh. I am happy to place this before you that the Agriculture and Food Ministry has made significant achievements in the last few years.

Keeping in view the decisions taken in the 53rd meeting of the National Development Council, a Centrally Sponsored Scheme “National Food Security Mission (NFSM)” was launched from Rabi 2007-08 with an aim to increase the additional production of 20 million tonnes of foodgrains, comprising of 10 million tonnes of rice, 8 million tonnes of wheat and 2 million tonnes of pulses by the end of Eleventh Plan (2011-12).  The National Food Security Mission (NFSM) has three components viz. National Food Security Mission-Rice (NFSM-Rice), National Food Security Mission-Wheat (NFSM-Wheat) and National Food Security Mission-Pulses (NFSM-Pulses). Under NFSM, about 20 million hectares of rice, 13 million hectares of wheat and 4.05 million hectares of pulses areas are included. Specific strategies for improving productivity of rice, wheat, pulses, sugarcane and oil seed are put in place for implementation during Eleventh Plan. Presently the scheme is in operation in 312 identified districts in 17 States.

Pursuant to the resolution adopted on 29 May, 2007 by the National Development Council(NDC) to re-orient the current agricultural development strategies to meet the needs of the farmers and for fresh efforts by the Central and State Governments to rejuvenate agriculture, so as to achieve 4% annual growth during the Eleventh Five Year Plan, a new State Plan scheme of Additional Central Assistance(ACA) for Agriculture & Allied Sectors namely Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana(RKVY) has been launched during 2007-08 with an envisaged outlay of Rs.25,000 crore for the 11th Five Year Plan.

The broad objective of the scheme is to incentivize the States to increase public investment to achieve 4% growth rate in Agriculture and allied sectors in the 11th Five Year Plan.  The new scheme requires the States to prepare District and State Agriculture Plans to increase or at least maintain the percentage share of expenditure in the agriculture and allied sectors in the State Plan.  The allocation of the funds to the States is based on the unirrigated area, gross state domestic product in agriculture and allied sectors to be attained by the end of the 11th Five Year Plan and increase in the State Plan expenditure in agriculture and allied sectors. The ACA is made available to the States as 100% grant.  The States have been provided flexibility and autonomy in the process of selection, planning, approval and execution of schemes.  

The National Horticulture Mission is being implemented since the year 2005 for ensuring a holistic development of the horticulture sector having backward and forward linkages with an end-to-end approach covering research, production, post harvest management, processing and marketing, with active participation of all stakeholders. The thrust of the NHM is on an area-based regionally differentiated cluster approach for the development of horticultural crops, having comparative advantage.  Since inception of the Scheme about 8.25 lakh hectares area has been brought under new garden and 1.17 lakh hectares of old senile plantations have been rejuvenated.  During this period, 1710 new nurseries have been set up to meet the rising demand of quality planting material.  Besides organic farming has been adopted in 1.04 lakh hectares area.  In all, 340 districts have been covered under cluster approach in 18 States and 2 UTs under NHM. 

Seeds are a basic and critical input for agricultural production. The Indian Seeds Programme recognizes third generation seeds namely, breeder, foundation and certified seeds.     For the Seed Development Programmes, an outlay of Rs.114.57 crore was approved at the time of Budget Estimates(B.E.) for the year 2007-08 which was subsequently increased to Rs.413.98 crore at the time of Revised Estimates(R.E.) against which an actual expenditure of Rs.432.04 crore was incurred,  for the year 2008-09 an amount of Rs.178.00 crore has been approved out of which 108.43 crore has been released upto 5th August, 2008 and Rs.21.00 crore has been proposed to be surrendered as Rs.21.21 crore has been released to SFCI in March, 2008 for payment of liabilities Employees Provident Fund Organisation. 

Improving access of institutional credit for farmers has been a priority for Central Government. A comprehensive credit policy was announced by the Government on 18th June, 2004 containing measures for doubling of agriculture credit flow in next three years and provision of debt relief to the farmers affected by natural calamities.  In pursuance to this policy, credit flow to agriculture has been increased from about Rs. 87,000 crore in the year 2003-04 to Rs. 243570 crore during the year 2007-08. For the year 2008-09 as against the target of Rs. 280,000 crore an amount of Rs. 33975 crore has been disbursed till 30.06. 2008. The progress in the issuance of KCC is quite impressive and 745 lakh farmers throughout the country have been provided with KCC till 30th April, 2008.

The Cooperative credit system, which are the main financial institution for  catering to the credit needs of the farmers more particularly the small and marginal farmers, have become sick due to financial, structural and managerial weaknesses.  In order to revive the short-term rural cooperative credit institutions, a package of measures as recommended by the Vaidyanathan Committee with estimated financial outlay of Rs 13596 crore, is under implementation.  So far, 22 States, have executed the MoUs with Government of India and NABARD for implementation of the revival package. 

In order to address the problem of indebtedness of farmers, a scheme of debt waiver and debt relief for farmers announced by the Government in the Union Budget 2008-09 is under implementation. Under the Scheme, all agricultural loans disbursed by scheduled commercial banks, regional rural banks and cooperative credit institutions up to March 31, 2007 and overdue as on December 31, 2007 which remained unpaid until February, 29 2008 have been covered.  For marginal farmers (i.e., holding upto 1 hectare) and small farmers (1-2 hectare), there will be a complete waiver of all loans that were overdue on December 31, 2007 and which remained unpaid until February 29, 2008. In respect of other farmers, there will be a one time settlement (OTS) scheme for all loans that were overdue on December 31, 2007 and which remained unpaid until February 29, 2008. Under the OTS, a rebate of 25 per cent will be given against payment of the balance of 75 per cent. The scheme has been modified subsequently to improve the rebate on OTS to 25 per cent or Rs.20,000 whichever is higher for the farmers in the revenue districts covered under Drought Prone Area Programme, Desert Development Project and Prime Minister’s Special Relief  Package.  The total value of loan waived and OTS relief is estimated around Rs. 71000 crore benefiting about four crore farmers in the country.

As announced in the Union Budget for 2007-08, A Pilot Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS) was implemented in selected areas of Karnataka State during Kharif 2007 season.  WBCIS intended to provide insurance protection to the farmers against adverse incidence, such as deficit and excess rainfall which are deemed to impact adversely the crop production.  The scheme was implemented as an alternative to NAIS

The Government’s price policy for agricultural commodities seeks to ensure remunerative prices to the growers for their produce with a view to encourage higher investment and production, and to safeguard the interest of consumers by making available supplies at reasonable prices. The price policy also seeks to evolve a balanced and integrated price structure in the perspective of the overall needs of the economy. It may be stated that Government has substantially increased the MSP of various commodities.  For instance, the increase given in MSP of wheat and paddy during 2004-05 to 2007-08 was of the order of Rs.360 per quintal and Rs.185 per quintal respectively against an increase of only Rs.20 per quintal for wheat and Rs.30 per quintal for paddy during 2001-02 to 2004-05.  The ad-hoc increase in MSP of paddy in June 2008 has resulted in increase of Rs.290/- per quintal during 2004-05 to 2007-08.  During 2008-09 the MSP for Paddy has been increased to Rs. 850.00 per quintal compared to Rs. 645.00 per quintal in 2007-08. 

Friends, you will be pleased to note that inspite of errant monsoon and vagaries of nature our farmers have made a record production of 234 million tones of food grains last year. I am sure that all of you would join me in expressing our gratitude to the farmers of India. As a Kisan myself I am very proud of this achievement. It will be relevant to mention here that we have been able to withstand the global recession and economic meltdown because of the Indian farmers. The villagers of India have ensured the significant economic growth rate in our country.
Our dynamic colleague Shri Praful Patel has yet again made his mark as minister of State for Civil Aviation (Independent Charge). Many new cities and towns have been brought on the aviation map. Air travel has been brought within the reach of the common man and the new Civil Aviation policy has inaugurated the era of freedom of the Skies. The world class infrastructure in the aviation sector is the notable contribution of Shri Patel.  The Minister of State of Rural Development Ms. Agatha Sangma has the distinction of being the youngest Woman Minister in the World. She is looking after the problem of drinking water and sanitation in rural India.

Ladies and Gentlemen, as we are meeting here the various heads of States and representatives of various international organizations of the World have just concluded their Summit in Copenhagen to discuss the issue of global warming and climate change.  If we don’t limit global warning by 2 degrees by 2050 this world would be unlivable. There is a need for a consensus on this issue. The developed countries have greater responsibilities and the solution of problem depends on them to a substantial extent. The emission of Green House Gases (GHG) needs to be curtailed for survival of the mankind. If we miss the boat, there won’t be winners and losers, there will only be losers. I quote from the UNDP Report on climate change – 2008, “prudence and care about the future of our children and their children requires that we act now. This is form of insurance against the possibly very large losses. The fact that we do not know the probability of such losses and their likely exact timing is not an argument for not taking insurance. We know danger exists. We know the damage caused by greenhouse gas emission is irreversible for a long time. We know it is growing with every day of inaction”.

I thank you all from the core of my heart for your participation in this national convention. I am hopeful that our discussion here would deceivably contribute to the future growth and expansion of the Nationalist Congress Party let us continue our triumphal march to create a vibrant, stable and peaceful India and the world. We should go from here with the determination to transform the challenges of the present into the accomplishments of the future. I am grateful to all of you.

Jai Hind