'My brain is worth Rs 200 crore': Nitin Gadkari amid ethanol row

NAGPUR: In a subtle retort to detractors amidst the ethanol controversy, Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday said, "My brain is worth 200 crore a month. I am not at all short of money and I don't stoop low."He emphasised that his work and experiments are driven by ideas and purpose for farmers, rather than the need to earn more.Speaking at an event organised by Agricos Welfare Society in Nagpur, Gadkari said, "You think I am doing this for money? I know how to earn with honesty. I am not a wheel-dealer."He said politicians know the art to make people fight for their own political gains and warned backwardness has turned into a political interest."I also have a family and home. I am not a saint, I am also a politician. But I have always felt that 10,000 farmer suicides in Vidarbha are a shame. We will not stop till our farmers are prosperous," Gadkari said.Gadkari spoke extensively about his son's ventures, saying he only gives him ideas. "My son has an export-import business. He recently ordered 800 containers of apples from Iran and sent 1,000 containers of bananas from here," he said. He added, "My son took 300 containers of fish from Goa and supplied them to Serbia. He has also set up a factory in Australia that makes milk powder. He sends 150 containers to Abu Dhabi and other places."Gadkari said his son also runs 26 rice mills in association with ITC. "I need five lakh tonnes of rice flour, so he runs the mills and I buy the flour," he said, while citing such ventures as examples of how business intellect can create opportunities in agriculture.