‘We won’t let Narendra Modi sleep at night till he waives farm loans all over India’: Rahul Gandhi
A complete farm loan waiver will be part of the Congress’ manifesto in 2019 elections, he said.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday warned that his party and others in the Opposition will “not let Prime Minister Narendra Modi sleep at night” until he waives loans of farmers all over the country. His remark came a day after two Congress chief ministers announced loan waivers for farmers within hours of taking oath, as the party had promised.
Addressing reporters outside Parliament, Gandhi said a complete farm loan waiver would be part of the Congress’ manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He said Modi had not waived “even a rupee of farm debt” in the last four years, and attacked the Centre for “crony capitalism”. Gandhi alleged that the government had turned a blind eye to the loans of top industrialists in India but had not tried to reduce the sufferings of farmers.
“We have said that the main fight in India is between farmers and the segregated sections on the one hand and rich industrialists on the other,” Gandhi said, according to Mint. “Modi in the last four years has taken Rs 3.5 lakh crore and has put it in the pockets of a few rich people. We will not let Modi sleep until loans of all farmers are waived.”
After Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, which waived farm loans on Monday, Rajasthan will follow suit, Gandhi said. The Congress had won the three states in the Assembly elections.
Reacting to Gandhi’s remarks, Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters, according to PTI: “Friends, I am given to understand that Rahul Gandhi today said that he will not allow Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sleep. This is a new low in the public discourse of the country.”
Prasad said nothing better can be expected from Gandhi, whose party ensured that Indians did not sleep during its 60 years of rule due to rampant corruption. He also asked Gandhi to come to Parliament and debate the Rafale deal.