Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: Launching a scathing attack on the Congress over the issue of loan waivers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday accused the ‘Grand Old Party’ of duping farmers by making hollow promises during elections in Karanataka to win votes with least concern for the issues plaguing them.

Addressing a public rally in Ghazipur, an eastern UP district, PM Modi ridiculed the Congress by calling it a ‘lollipop company’ which couldn’t be trusted. “In Karnataka, they offered lollipops to voters with assurances of waiving off loans of lakhs of farmers at the time of elections. After forming the government through the back door with the JD(S) [Janata Dal (Secular)], they waived the loan of only 800 farmers,” claimed the PM asking how such “lollipop companies” could be believed.

“The promise was made to waive of loans worth `6 lakh crore for farmers. But only `60,000 crore were released,” he asserted. The PM continued his tirade by referring to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report which, he claimed, had pointed that those who were benefitted by the loan waiver scheme in Karnataka were not even the farmers.

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Training his guns at newly-formed Congress governments in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the PM claimed farmers in those states were already harried. “The respective Congress governments have shied away from implementing Swaminathan Commission report on agricultural reforms. Had they fixed the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of crops earlier, the farmers would not have fallen into the debt trap at all,” said Modi adding that his government had taken initiatives including fixing MSP for 22 crops to double farmers’ income in the days to come.

Counting the achievements of his government, Modi said: “We don’t make programmes to garner votes. Neither do we make announcement with an eye on elections. In fact, we have changed the tradition of ribbon-cutting,” he maintained.

The PM took an indirect jibe again on Congress saying as the Chowkidaar (watchman) of the people of this country, he was working for their welfare.“Aapke bhavishya ko sawarne ke liye, appka yeh chowkidaar, bahut imandari aur lagan se din-raat ek kar raha hai (To make your future this watchman of yours is slogging day in and day out with all honesty and sincerity),” said the PM adding that though a lot of looters had lost their sleep.

en the small industries of UP,” he claimed. Rajbhar, which is an OBC community, constitutes a significant population in Purvanchal and during 2017 Assembly elections in the state, BJP had roped in SBSP to win Rajbhars of the region and had even made its chief Om Prakash Rajbhar a cabinet minister in the state government.