Rahul Gandhi promises farm loan waiver in Gujarat
Congress Vice-President (VP) Rahul Gandhi on Thursday promised a loan waiver to farmers of Gujarat and free education in government-aided colleges if the Congress party were to form the government. He said a policy to waive farm debt would be made within 10 days of the Congress forming the government. He also promised a 80 per cent reduction in fees of unaided colleges.
Campaigning in the Patidar-dominated Amreli constituency, the Congress leader accused the Prime Minister of waiving loans worth ~1.25 lakh crore “of his five-ten industrialist friends", but was unwilling to waive debt of farmers. In its election campaign in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh earlier this year, the Congress party had promised farm-loan waiver in the two states.
The Congress VP tweeted that the debt on Gujarat was ~9,183 crore in 1995, which increased to ~2.41 crore in 2017. “This means each Gujarati is under the debt of ~37,000,” he said. This was the second of his ‘a question a day’ to the PM. The Congress also presented a critique of the Gujarat’s power sector.
In a counter to Rahul Gandhi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao said the Gujarat state gross domestic product (GDP) was ~71,886 crore in 1995, which increases to ~10.35 lakh crore in 2016-17. “This is productive investment generating great returns on investment. As an NPA (nonperforming asset) of the Congress you won’t understand,” Rao said.
During an interaction with traders in the evening, Rahul Gandhi responded to the controversy around his religious persuasion. He said his family, his grandmother as well as he, were worshippers of Lord Shiva, but religion for them was a private matter. The Congress leader said his family didn’t believe in doing politics over religion.
In Amreli, Rahul Gandhi spoke about the “plight” of farmers. He said Narmada waters were being diverted to benefit industrialists. He said Chief Minister Vijay Rupani runs on remote control, and BJP chief Amit Shah can change the channel whenever he wishes.
In a related development, Tata Motors countered Rahul Gandhi’s allegation that the Gujarat government extended undue favours of ~33,000 crore to the company for its car manufacturing facility at Sanand. Tata Motors said it got ~584.8 crore as loan, and not grant.
In a series of tweets, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram responded to the PM on goods and services tax (GST) rates. Modi had on Wednesday described the Congress suggestion to cap GST rates at 18 per cent as “grand stupid thought”. “If it is a ‘Grand Stupid Thought’ to argue for a cap of the tax rate at 18 per cent, then Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian and many other economists are stupid. Is that what PM is saying?" Chidambaram tweeted.
The Congress also held a press conference in New Delhi to claim the Modi government had written off ~1.88 lakh crore of debt of those who had willfully defaulted. Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the Centre waived ~49,018 crore in 2014-15, ~57,586 crore in 2015-16 and another ~81,683 crore in 2016-17, totalling ~1.88 lakh crore. The Congress leader said he was sceptical of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s claim that “recovery from 12 largest defaulters, who account for non-performing assets totalling ~1.75 lakh crore, is underway".