Blanket waiver of all farm loans not sustainable: Rahul

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi disfavoured extending the union budget’s Rs 60,000-crore loan waiver scheme to all farmers.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday disfavoured extending the union budget’s Rs 60,000-crore loan waiver scheme to all farmers saying a blanket waiver all farm loans was not sustainable and “too expensive.”

Addressing a farmers’ meeting at Hulkoti in Gadag district on Thursday, Gandhi said the government arrived at the Rs 60,000 crore figure because it is a sustainable number and “it does not cause damage to other areas.” However, he opposed blanket waiver of all farm loans, saying “it’s too expensive and not a sustainable policy”.

Gandhi said the agriculture sector, which is “crucial to India’s future”, has been neglected until the UPA government took over power.

Prior to the UPA government’s taking over, there was overall neglect of agriculture and there was a feeling that agriculture is the past.”It is completely wrong”, he said.

“Agriculture is central to the country’s future. We should view it as the country’s future”, he said.

He said the UPA government views all sectors of India fairly. “The key word is fairly”, he said.

When the government announced farmer loan waiver in the recent budget, a lot of people made noise, saying it does not make sense and is not economically viable. But they do not make noise over thousands and thousands of crores of non-performing assets in the industrial sector, he said, hitting back at those flaying the loan waiver scheme.

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“When we are looking at sectors of India, we have to look at the sectors fairly”, he said.

Interacting with students of Anjuman Polytechnic at Hubli, Gandhi praised the strides made by Karnataka in several fields and described the state as “progressive”.

He asked the youth from minorities to come forward to build India and enter politics.

Earlier in the day, he interacted with students of NTTF Institute.