The Hindu : National : BJP continues to criticise loan waiver

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BJP continues to criticise loan waiver

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The loan waiver scheme for small and marginal farmers continued to be the target of attack by the BJP leaders despite the clarifications by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in his reply to the debate on the budget in the Lok Sabha on Friday.

At a rally here on Saturday, BJP president Rajnath Singh held the Congress responsible for the economic plight of rural India while the party’s prime ministerial hopeful L.K. Advani expressed doubts about the United Progressive Alliance government’s claim that its Rs.60,000 crore relief package for farmers would solve the problems of India’s crisis-ridden agriculture.

Mr. Advani said the government’s package would be of no use to farmers in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region, from where a large number of suicides have been reported.

Although the Minister has made it clear that the government can only do what is “doable” and it cannot take on the debt owed to private moneylenders, the BJP has continued to criticise the government on this point.

However, Mr. Singh exercised some caution when he said that “if the Congress were to reach the needy farmers and free them from debt, the BJP would cooperate.” It would seem that Mr. Chidambaram’s promise of releasing Rs.25,000 crore in the next four months to institutions for debt write-off had made the party somewhat wary.

The BJP leaders also tried to counter the Congress charge that the National Democratic Alliance government had followed wrong agriculture policies that led to a crisis in the sector. The party which ruled the country for 50 years should take the blame for the sorry state of agriculture, they said.

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