Jaitley, Gadkari silent on loan waivers as those were of businessmen: Rahul

Reminding the gathering that the UPA government had waived farmers’ loans worth around Rs 70,000 crore, Rahul said that Congress leaders including him, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as well as party president Sonia Gandhi had held a big rally to inform the public about loan waivers.

“Agar koi rajneta koi bada kaam karta hai to janata se kehta hai. (When a political leader does big work, they tell the public) If we gave you schemes like NREGA, we talked about it. In past two-and-half years, Narendra Modi has waived Rs 1.1 lakh crore against our Rs 70,000 crore,” said Rahul.

“Arun Jaitley ji kyon nahi bhashan dete ki humne kiya hai? Gadkari ji kyon nahi kehte ki humne ek lakh das hazaar ka karz maaf kiya hai? Kyon shaant hain? Kyon chup hain? (Why are Arun Jaitley and Gadkari ji not giving speeches stating that they have waived loans? Why are they silent?) I will tell you why. Because they have waived loans of only 12 selected people in the country, who are industralists,” he added.

Congress leaders claimed that over the past 15 days, the ‘Kisan Yatra’ had reached out to 38 lakh households as part of its door-to-door campaign, and that 28 lakh farmers had signed the ‘Kisan Mangpatra’.

They also claimed that as many as 30 lakh people had joined their campaign by giving missed calls on their toll free number.

On the last leg of the first phase of his ‘Kisan Yatra’, Rahul will be in Lucknow on Friday, where he will be visiting St Joseph’s cathedral, the Islamic seminary Nadwa and the BR Ambedkar University hostel.

Later in the day, he is scheduled to visit the Yahiyaganj Gurudwara, and finally address a gathering in the old city in the evening.

Rahul will be part of a 6.1 km long road show from Parivartan Chowk, crossing Qaiserbagh bus stand, Jhandewalan park, Maulviganj, Yahiyaanj Gurudrawa, Nakkhas crossing and Akbari gate. The show will end at Chowk crossing, where he will address a gathering.