Price rise: 'Need to keep cool,' says Sharad Pawar

Facing flak over spiralling prices, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar today accepted that prices of three or four items were "going high" but said there is need to "keep cool".

The BJP meanwhile used the price rice issue to attack prime minister Manmohan Singh.

"The entire food economy is mismanaged and for this I will not only blame Sharad Pawar but Manmohan Singh who is an economist. Why is it so that during the tenure of an economist PM, our agricultural economy is in a mess?" asked the BJP spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad.

A day after he came under attack for his "I am not an Astrolger" remark to a query as to by when the prices could come down, Pawar also clarified that the comment had been seen in the wrong context. His party general secretary DP Tripathy also said the minister was quoted out of context.

Asked for his latest assessment about price rise, Pawar told NDTV," We have to keep cool because I can understand if the common man is affected because of that (price rise) and if suppose some anger is there, in democratic set up one has to digest that anger too."

Pawar said one should not forget that the prices of three to four items were going high.

"I have to accept it," he said. At the same time, the NCP supremo claimed that prices of potatos and onions were coming down and that there is marginal decline in pulse prices though it is not much.

Pawar also said he is working hard to control the prices.