Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has accused Congress president Rahul Gandhi of being a “habitual liar”, referring to the farm loan waiver promised by the Congress during the recent Assembly election in Madhya Pradesh.
Casting doubts on the sincerity of the Congress in implementing its proposed minimum income scheme, the BJP leader urged people not to fall into Mr. Gandhi’s trap in the Lok Sabha election.
Mr. Chouhan said Mr. Gandhi had claimed during the Assembly election campaign that the Congress would waive farmers’ loans within 10 days of coming to power in the State.
Even after 104 days of Kamal Nath taking over as Chief Minister, this was not fulfilled, he said.
He played two video clips of Mr. Gandhi, first purportedly showing him making the promise and second in which he is heard saying that the State government had fulfilled it.
“Rahul Gandhi speaks lies with confidence and shamelessly. He is a habitual liar,” Mr. Chouhan said.
He showed photocopies of messages purportedly from the State government and received by farmers stating that the loan waiver exercise was put on hold due to the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) that came into effect after the general election announcement.
He added that the MCC was not applicable to ongoing schemes and as such the government could have gone ahead with it if it wanted.
What the State government had actually done was to “cheat” the farmers, he alleged, adding that against the ₹48,000 crore required for the loan waiver, it had only allocated ₹5,000 crore in budget, out of which merely ₹1,300 crore had been given to the cooperative and other banks.
Responding to questions on his political plans, he said it was up to the BJP to decide if he should contest the Lok Sabha election or not. “I had stated that I want to remain active in State politics but it is not up to me to say yes or no, I will follow what the party asks me to do,” he said.
The BJP has not announced candidates for crucial seats in the State such as Bhopal, where the Congress has fielded former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh, and the Indore Lok Sabha seat where Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan is a sitting MP. Candidate for Vidisha, considered a BJP stronghold, has also not been announced.
