BENGALURU: JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy on Friday demanded that the government also waive short-term loans of farmers who had paid their dues instead of helping only those who had outstanding loans.
Kumaraswamy said he had received a lot of calls from farmers who said that they had repaid the loans before June 20 by borrowing money from private lenders at a high interest rate. “Now these people have not got fresh loans and they have repaid the money. This concerns less than 5 per cent of farmers. Let government extend `50,000 waiver to these farmers too.”
While commending the government for finally coming forward to waive some amount of the loans, he said it was not pressure mounted by BJP that forced the government to announce the waiver, but AICC Vice President Rahul Gandhi. “As far as I know, he is the only person Siddaramaiah listens to. Only if the instructions come from him will Siddaramaiah listen.”
He also railed at BJP state president Yeddyurappa saying he had no right to even discuss the loan waiver or defend Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu, who had commented that loan waiver for farmers had become a ‘fashion’.
“He (Yeddyurappa) never wanted to consider loan waiver and the only reason BJP announced it later was to win elections,” he said. Criticising Naidu, Kumaraswamy asked, “If farmers get a waiver, then it is fashion, but if corporate loans are restructured, then what would you call it? So according to them, corporate loan write off is socialism, while farmer loan waiver is capitalism.”
‘Will hang myself in public’
Asked about the SIT investigations in the Janthakal mining case, Kumaraswamy challenged them to prove their case against him. “I will hang myself in public if they can prove a case against me. Someone is leaking information from the SIT. I don’t know who is doing it, but it is being done to spoil my name. All these games are being played with an eye on elections,” he contended.