In what exposes internal dissensions within the Congress, party MLA Laxman Singh and younger brother of senior Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh has reportedly demanded that the former president of the grand old party, Rahul Gandhi must apologise for failure to fulfill his promise of waiving farm loan in Madhya Pradesh within 10 days of the party coming into power in the state. MLA Laxman Singh said, “Since the promise is far from being fulfilled Rahul Gandhiji should apologise for failure to waive-off loans of all farmers within 10 days. Such promise shouldn’t have been made.” He added, “Instead of making further promises, it’s time to tell a proper time frame by when entire loans of farmers will be waived off”.
It must be noted that Rahul Gandhi had promised in the run up to the Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh last year that if the Congress was voted to power in the these three states, outstanding loans of farmers in these states would be waived off within a period of 10 days. However, MLA Singh has claimed, “All Congress MLAs, including me, meet farmers daily and they tell us that while the state government has issued them loan waiver certificates, the concerned bank management has told them the loan hasn’t been waived off at their level.” He also went on to ask, “What will the farmers do in such conditions?”
Laxman Singh has been elected as a legislator from the Chachoda assembly seat. According to NDTV, he is believed to be unhappy on account of being denied a berth in the Kamal Nath led government in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Last month he had crossed party lines while supporting the Modi government’s move of abrogating Article 370 thereby scrapping the special status of Jammu & Kashmir.
It must be noted that the farm loan waiver scheme rolled out by the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh last year, had failed to generate much enthusiasm at the time of its launch itself. The order sanctioning farm loan waiver had fixed the upper limit for waive off at an amount of Rs. 2 lakh. This meant that that any farmer having an outstanding loan of more than Rs. 2 lakh could not take benefit of this scheme. Moreover, the order also made it clear that only the outstanding amount till 31st March 2018 would be waived off.
The farm loan waiver scheme imposed a number of other terms and conditions narrowing down its ambit and scope. The order made it clear that only short term loans would be waived off. Therefore, those reeling under arrears of medium and long term loans were left to fend for themselves. The order waiving off farm loans made it clear that loans of only ‘eligible farmers’ would be waived off. However, with so many terms and conditions, the scheme could be expected to benefit only a miniscule minority of the total farmers’ population in the state. In fact, it was argued that only 10% farmers in the state would fall within the ambit of the scheme.
It is relevant to mention here that as per recent reports, the state of Madhya Pradesh has already emerged as the epicentre of internal dissensions within the Congress with a faction backing Jyotiraditya Scindia for the post of Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee chief, currently held by Chief Minister Kamal Nath. Earlier, it was the narrative over abrogation of Article 370 which was being seen as a point of conflict within the Congress. Now, with Digvijaya Singh’s younger brother demanding an apology from Rahul Gandhi over failure to fulfill farm loan waiver promise, it seems that the Congress might face yet another issue that could expose fissures within the party, especially in the state of Madhya Pradesh.