‘My Brain Worth Rs 200 Crore A Month’: Gadkari Defends Ethanol Programme, Rejects Profit Motive

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday (13 September) defended himself amid criticism of the government’s ethanol programme, asserting both his financial independence and integrity, reported The Times Of India.

Speaking at an event organised by Agricos Welfare Society in Nagpur, he said, “My brain is worth 200 crore a month. I am not at all short of money and I don’t stoop low.”

He dismissed the criticism of the E20 programme as politically motivated.

“Paid campaign,” he said, calling the allegations against him an attempt to tarnish his image.

“You think I am doing this for money? I know how to earn with honesty. I am not a wheel-dealer," he said.

Gadkari stressed that his work is guided by ideas and a sense of purpose for farmers, not by profit.

“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,” he said.

The Union minister argued that backwardness had become a political tool, exploited by some leaders for their own gains.

He underlined his commitment to finding solutions that could improve rural livelihoods.

Gadkari also spoke about his son’s entrepreneurial ventures to highlight how business innovation can create agricultural opportunities.

“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,” Gadkari said.

He added that his son exported fish to Serbia, set up a milk powder factory in Australia, and runs 26 rice mills with ITC.

“I need five lakh tonnes of rice flour, so he runs the mills and I buy the flour,” he explained.

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