Dismissing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s farmer loan waiver promise to Uttar Pradesh farmers as a “poll gimmick” with an eye on the votes of the large farming community in the State, Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday lashed out at him for making a mockery of the plight of India’s debt-ridden farmers.
Capt Amarinder, questioning the timing of Modi’s promise of farm loan waiver in UP if his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in the State, accused him of indulging in “electoral politics at the cost of the lives of hundreds of farmers”.
“Had the Modi-led Central Government been sincere in its concern over the plight of the farmers reeling under debt burdens, it would have by now waived off the loans of farmers across the country, including Punjab,” said the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee
(PPCC) chief.
Modi could easily have announced farm loan waiver on behalf of the Central Government, as was done by Dr Manmohan Singh under the UPA regime, pointed Capt Amarinder while recalling that the Congress had waived off `70,000 crore of farmers’ loans when it was in power.
He said the issue of farm loans was not a political matter to be exploited for electoral gains but was a humanitarian crisis which needed to be addressed on priority by the Centre on priority basis, he stressed, urging the Prime Minister to rise above petty political considerations and behave like a statesman in the interest of the country’s farming community.