Trashing as ‘political theatrics’ the SAD president Sukhbir Badal’s comments on the loan waiver announced by the Congress in Punjab and other states, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Friday urged the Akali leader to give up such theatrics if he wanted his party to remain a serious contender in the political arena.
Lashing out at the Sukhbir for his continued efforts to exploit the sentiments of the farmers to whom the former regime had failed to deliver even an iota of benefits, Capt Amarinder said that the former Deputy Chief Minister was trying to mislead the farming community in a desperate bid to wean it away from the Congress.
Capt Amarinder pointed out that Congress president Rahul Gandhi had already promised waiver of loans for the beleaguered farmers across the country if the party was elected to power in the forthcoming elections. “It is evident that the SAD-BJP combine is scared out of their wits by the Congress leadership’s promise and their track record of delivering on their poll promises in all the states in which the party had been elected to power,” he said.
Chief Minister ridiculed Sukhbir’s “blatant” attempts to divert public attention from the erstwhile Akali-BJP regime’s failure on all counts. “For 10 years, the Badals did not take cognizance of the farmers’ plight, and are now shedding crocodile tears for them,” he added.
Countering Sukhbir’s baseless allegation with hard facts and figures, Capt Amarinder pointed out that his government had delivered on its promise of loan waiver despite severe financial constraints and fiscal mess it had inherited from the Badal regime. “Not just the farmers of Punjab but those of the entire nation have appreciated Punjab Government’s initiative, which has been replicated now by the newly installed Congress regime in three other states,” he added.
Sharing numbers, the Chief Minister pointed out that the Government had, so far, disbursed Rs 3,595.04 crore to 4,28,246 farmers against their debts, with the process for loan waiver to 1,59,632 small farmers also initiated.
Of this, Rs 1,815.78 crore had been disbursed to 3,17,965 marginal farmers against loans taken from the cooperative banks and Rs 1,779.26 crore to 1,10,281 marginal farmers towards loans from commercial banks. These are hard facts that no amount of fabrications by Sukhbir or anyone else can negate, said Capt Amarinder, challenging the SAD president to cite even one example of any benefit provided by their government to the farmers.
Sukhbir’s brazen attempts to lie his way out of the current mess in which his party and leadership is caught at present were nothing more than a sign of frustration and desperation, said the Chief Minister. With SAD completely marginalized in Punjab, and their ally, the BJP, also clearly losing political ground, the Akali chief was looking for a way out of the political alienation which the coalition was facing ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, said Capt Amarinder.