Will do a Punjab in C’garh to waive loans, promises Rahul

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 10

As campaigning for the first phase of Chhattisgarh elections drew to a close this evening, a ballistic Rahul Gandhi projected his party as “truthful” vis-à-vis the ruling BJP and said he will deliver what he has promised.

Referring to PM Narendra Modi as someone who “lied to the people and betrayed his poll promises”, Gandhi said from Kanker today, “I have been in politics for 14 years. Tell me one instance where I have made a false promise to anyone or not delivered what I have said. Whether it was land acquisition Bill or concern of farmers or MNREGA or right to food, I have always done what I have said. Unlike Modi who has only made lofty promises, including jobs for 2 crore youth, but never kept any.”

Addressing tribal belts of the state where 18 constituencies go to polls in the first phase on November 12, Gandhi asked the voters to call up anyone in Congress-ruled Punjab to find out how long the government there took to waive farmers’ loans.

“We just took 10 days to grant a farm loan waiver in Punjab and also in Karnataka. You can call up anyone in Punjab to check. But while PM Narendra Modi can grant loan waivers to his rich friends, he has no time for farmers. We are not like him. We do what we say. So when I say we will waive farm loans when the Congress is elected to power in Chhattisgarh, we will do it in 10 days,” Gandhi said.

Of the 18 constituencies that go to the polls a day after, 10 are Naxal-infested. Gandhi again accused PM Modi and the BJP of corruption. “PM Modi speaks of anti-corruption wherever he goes but he does not tell you that his colleague and the CM of BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh is corrupt. In Pakistan, a former PM is sent to jail for being named in Panama Papers but in Chhattisgarh, no action is taken,” Gandhi said.