Hours after BJP threatened state-wide protests in Karnataka if the HD Kumaraswamy did not waive off loan to farmers, the chief minister said that promise made to citizens will be kept.”The real action will start now, whatever promises I have made to the citizens of Karnataka, I am going to fulfil them. I am not going to care about this threat,” he said on BJP’s call to state-wide bandh on May 28 on the issue of farmers’ loans waiver.
The BJP today announced that it would hold state-wide bandh in Karnataka on May 28, if the HD Kumaraswamy government did not waive off loans to farmers. The saffron party announced this while staging a walkout of the Assembly during the floor test of Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy today. “We walked out on the issue on farmers’ loan waivers. We will hold state-wide bandh May 28. We will be aggressive now,” BJP leader R Ashoka told reporters outside Karnataka Assembly after the party walked out.
Slamming the BJP for threatening a state-wide Bandh on May 28, Congress leader DK Shivakumar said: “They cannot waste public money, if a law and order problem is created it’ll be because of them. They cannot force and blackmail us, we are a responsible government and cannot act to wishes of BJP.”
Last week, BJP leader B S Yeddyurappa, who lasted as chief minister for two days, announced that he would waive loans of Rs 1 lakh for farmers in Karnataka. However, the move could not be implemented as senior bureaucrats wanted time to work out the financial modalities of such a loan waiver scheme. The party had also announced in its manifesto that it would waive off farmers’ loans within 24 hours of forming government in the state.
On Wednesday, soon after being sworn in as state chief minister, Kumaraswamy had promised to waive off farmers’ loans too. “I am going to waive off farmers’ loans,” he told reporters in Bengaluru after the swearing in ceremony. The JD(S), in its manifesto promised to implement a farm-loan waiver scheme soon after coming to power. The waiver would include horticulture and crop loans, and medium-term loans, the poll document had said. In its manifesto, the party had also promised free seeds and fertilisers to farmers.
The JD(S) had earlier challenged Yeddyurappa’s decision on farm loan waiver as he was still to prove his government’s majority on the floor of the house. His predecessor Siddaramaiah had waived farm loans of about Rs 50,000 obtained from co-operative banks but did not waive loans from nationalised banks, saying this would lead to serious implications on the state if it was not supported by the Centre.