Congress loan waiver promises a sham: BJP

New Delhi [India], Jan 24 (ANI): The Centre on Wednesday dubbed Congress' farmer loan waivers promise as a "lie" and said that farmers who did not take any debt have been listed as beneficiaries of the farm loan waiver.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath had announced farm loan waiver on the day of his taking charge. The scheme is aimed to benefit 55 lakh farmers and would entail an expenditure of Rs 50,000 crore.

Addressing a press conference, Union Minister of Communications Manoj Sinha said, “The farm loan waiver is a lie. Farmers in Karnataka are committing suicide those who haven’t taken any loans have been included in lists of farm loan waiver. The whole thing is a joke and I am sure if the Lok Sabha elections weren’t coming up, the Congress would have been straightforward in saying that they didn’t make any such announcement”.

He further alleged that a number of Congress leaders’ family members have had their loans waived off and the norms of waiving off loans have been violated.

“There are examples from Punjab and Rajasthan and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has himself admitted it a matter of concern and needs to be investigated. Many senior Congress leaders and workers have also had loans up to Rs 3 lakhs waived off,” Sinha said.

He said that during the term of the UPA-I government, the total loans were around Rs 6 lakh crore but a mere Rs 60,000 crore were waived.

“Deceiving people is ….especially a trait of the current Congress president. Today he was in Amethi and while breaking all democratic norms, was abusing the Prime Minister when farms were demonstrating against their fake loan waiver promises. This is an old Congress trait, and people the states, where they emerged victorious based on these lies, are starting to realise this,” Sinha said.

In reply to questions about Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh blaming the Centre for the farmer suicides, Sinha said, “Those are just allegations, I think the steps the central government has taken in the past five years to double the income of farmers has definitely helped them a lot”.

He also said that the central government does not believe in waiving off farmer loans, but believes in increasing their incomes by raising the MSP for crops and other means, so that farmers can contribute to the country’s economy in a better way and can tackle their issues on their own. (ANI)