With the political spat over farm loan waiver intensifying after the three newly elected Congress governments announced loan waivers, Assam’s Finance minister and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday accused Congress president Rahul Gandhi of spreading “false propaganda” for “petty politics”.
Taking strong exception to Rahul’s comments that the BJP-led government in Assam “woke up” after the Congress’s thrust on agricultural issues and announced schemes for farmers, Sarma, who spearheads the BJP in the Northeast, said Rahul will soon seek credit even for sunlight that follows rains.
“The Congress party has managed to wake the CMs of Assam & Gujarat from their deep slumber. PM is still asleep. We will wake him up too,” Rahul tweeted on Thursday afternoon.
In reply, Sarma said the Assam government’s schemes were announced long before to commemorate farmers’ uprising at Patharughat in the state against the British rule in 1894. These schemes have nothing to do with any loan waiver, he asserted, adding that they aim to give 25 per cent subsidy to farmers on loan, and also to make it interest-free.