(PTI)
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday tried to woo farmers during his campaign for Gujarat elections by promising them farm loan waivers if his party forms the government in the state. Calling Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani a “rubber stamp”, he alleged that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah was remote-controlling the government in the western state. “(Prime Minister Narendra) Modiji waived loans worth Rs1.25 trillion of his 5-10 industrialist friends, but Modiji and (finance minister Arun) Jaitleyji say that it is not their policy to waive loans of farmers when they ask for it,” Gandhi claimed.
He was campaigning in Lathi in the Patidar-dominated Amreli district, on the second day of his two-day tour of Gujarat. “Modiji talked for 22 years about farmers, but you have not got anything, your land has been taken away, your water is diverted to industrialists, and you do not get crop insurance,” he said at the election meeting. “We make this promise to you that we will frame a policy within 10 days of forming government in Gujarat to waive your loans,” he said.
