Jaitley mocks Gandhi's poll promise of waiving farmers' loan
November 27, 2018 18:03
Mocking Rahul Gandhi's poll promise to waive farmers' loans within 10 days of the Congress being voted to power in Rajasthan, finance minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said the party is resorting to such slogans as it knows it is not going to come to power.
Jaitley said they had made this promise both in Karnataka and Punjab, but reduced the waiving of loans to a "make-believe formality", when they found that they cannot do it in Punjab.
The Union finance minister was apparently referring to the partial waiving of farm loans of up to Rs 2 lakh, taken from cooperative banks only.
But waiving the loans even partially resulted in a huge shortfall of funds for developments, he said.
"Those, who do not have the knowledge of a subject, tend to seek cheap publicity. It needs vision, and not slogans, to run the country," he said.
It has become a trend to give slogans to hide ignorance, said Jaitley, adding the slogan-giving custom was started in 1971 with 'Garibi Hatao' but the country is still grappling with the problem.
The time of politics through sloganeering is over now as people's expectations from political leaders are high, he added.
In an election campaign rally in Jaisalmer district Monday, Gandhi had said, You are going to make the Congress party's government in the state. Within ten days of the government's formation, the Congress will waive farmers' loans in the state.
Gandhi said he had made the same promise during Punjab and Karnataka elections and the Congress governments there have waived farmers' loan. -- PTI
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