BHOPAL : Surprise of surprises. Dr. Vinay Sahastrabuddhe, BJP national vice-president and in-charge of the Madhya Pradesh unit of the party will be the co-chairman of the two-day ‘National Conference on Crop Insurance’ to be organised by the Agriculture Department of the state government here on June 15-16.
What qualification Sahastrabuddhe has to deserve the co-chairmanship of a meet on a highly technical subject can only be guessed. He will speak on “Securing the future of farmers: Insurance and beyond” immediately after Principal Secretary Rajesh Rajora’s introductory remarks on the first day of the meet.
Rajora, however, insists that Sahastrabuddhe has not been invited in his capacity as a BJP leader. “He is an agricultural expert and also heads ‘Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini’, a Mumbai-based NGO”, Rajora said.
Incidentally, a couple of months back, Rajora had drawn considerable flak for making a presentation on the agricultural scene in the state at the meeting of the state executive committee of the BJP at the party headquarters. The move had kicked up a big row with the Congress questioning the propriety of a top government officer briefing leaders of a political party at the office of the party. The state Congress had lodged a formal complaint against Rajora with the Chief Secretary and had also invited Rajora to make a similar presentation at the PCC. Of course, the invitation was not accepted.
The meet would be chaired by AK Shrivastava, Additional Secretary in the Union Agriculture Ministry. Key experts who are slated to join the discussions include Dr. Ashok Vishandas, Chairman, Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, Dr. Ramesh Chand, Director, National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, RN Kulkarni, Chief General Manager, NABARD and representatives of ICICI Lombard and HDFC.
Experts from the US, Argentina, Singapore, Germany will also be attending the meet. Chief Minister and Union Agriculture Minister will conclude the event.
