Patna: Congress president Rahul Gandhi Sunday said his party would waive farm loans and give a big push to the food processing industry if voted to power in the Lok Sabha elections
Alleging that the Centre’s crop insurance scheme is “aimed at taking away the hard-earned money of farmers to fill up the pockets of big businessmen”, he promised that the Congress would initiate a number of steps to deal with farmers’ distress and unemployment. Gandhi said, his party’s governments in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh waived farm loans within a few days of coming to power.
The Congress president, who was addressing the party’s first rally in the city in about three decades at the Gandhi Maidan here, repeated his slogan ‘chowkidaar hi chor hai’ (the watchman is the thief) in an allusion to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Gandhi said that he had already told the chief ministers of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh that these states should take the lead in ushering in the second Green Revolution.
“We will do what is needed for providing relief to farmers and jobs to youths. We will waive their debts and give a major boost to the food processing industry.”
“I have told the Chief Ministers of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh that these states should take the lead in ushering in the second Green Revolution,” he said.
“We fulfilled our promises in the three states within weeks of coming to power. We will do so across the country once elected at the Centre,” the Congress president said.
He said the Congress would also ensure a minimum income for every poor person unlike the “false promise” of Rs 15 lakh to all made by Modi ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls that was never fulfilled.
“The winds of change are blowing. The Congress will win the next Lok Sabha polls with the help of allies and our alliance will also win the next Assembly polls in Bihar,” Gandhi claimed.
After the rally, in a moving Facebook post in Hindi, he said, “Bihar has been the land of peace but when the time comes, it transforms into a land of revolution. Today, millions lent their voice to the call for change at Gandhi Maidan. We have to strengthen the hope it has roused. We have to build an India of the aspirations of Indians.”