BENGALURU: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi lambasted the BJP for its anti-farmer policies saying that while it took the Congress governments in Karnataka and Punjab all of five minutes to waive loans of distressed farmers, the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh mulled over it for a month.
Addressing a Congress rally named ‘Sarthaka Samavesha’ held in the city on Wednesday to celebrate the party’s implementation of its budget promises, Rahul said, “Sometime back, I had a conversation with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah about the problems of farmers in the state and it lasted all of five minutes. In 48 hours the loans taken by farmers from state cooperative banks were waived. Unlike the BJP, there was no drama, no tamasha, no dancing and no PR,” he mocked.
He added that the process was repeated with the Punjab chief minister. “But to get the Uttar Pradesh government to waive loans, I had to travel for 30 days around UP and hold meetings with officials. I met lakhs of farmers and discussed their problems. Finally, they grudgingly waived of the loans,” he said.
He also criticised Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for saying that waiving farm loans was not the Union government’s policy.After eating food at the Indira Canteen, Rahul said that the food was so good that soon BJP leaders would line up outside the canteen to eat.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah took a jibe at BJP national president Amit Shah saying that he was a criminal. He also said that with the long list of corrupt people in BJP, including B S Yeddyurappa, Shah had no moral right to accuse the Congress government of corruption. “This Amit Shah, who has gone to jail, and keeps the company of Yeddyurappa, who has also gone to jail, calls us corrupt. Shah also says that we are not spending the money given by the Centre. I am answerable to the people of Karnataka, not to him,” he said. Calling BJP ‘vachana brashta sarkara’ (a government which flouts its promises), he called Congress ‘vachana baddha sarkara’ (a government which keeps its promises).
Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was behaving on the lines of Hitler, who was more interested in controlling his own partymen and added that Modi had no achievement to speak of in his three years as PM.
A round of applause for D K Shivakumar
Amidst all the noise about Rahul Gandhi’s visit, the most popular person on the dias turned out to be Energy Minister D K Shivakumar. If the whistles and claps of the 12,000 people were anything to go by, Shivakumar, who has been the cynosure of all eyes following the recent-IT raids on his residences and offices, seemed to be enjoying popularity easily surpassing even that of CM Siddaramaiah. Shivakumar went a step ahead and stood up and waved to the crowd when everyone else was seated, bringing a fresh round of deafening applause to him.
RaGa pays D10 for a meal, other Cong leaders get it free
KPCC president G Parameshwara took A10 from his pocket and gave it to Rahul Gandhi to buy a meal coupon at the Indira Canteen in Kanakanapalya in Bengaluru. Promptly, Rahul took the money and bought vangi bhath. Later, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah again offered to give `10 but Rahul refused. But what was rather amusing was that food was served free of cost to all, so where was the need to pay `10? BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad said the coupons that were given to Siddaramaiah and Rahul will be framed.
Waning interest for RaGa’s speech
As Rahul started hitting the high notes with his attack on Modi with regard to China and Kashmir, the interest of the crowd started waning. When he started his speech by talking about Indira Canteen and the state government, the crowd kept cheering, but once the topic changed, their attention waned and many began to go out.
Mayor’s English speech
Mayor G Padmavathi started her welcome speech in English and gradually switched to Hindi. She even delivered a dialogue saying: “Indira amma said garibi hatao, Siddaramaiah said bhook hatao.”