Addressing a rally in poll-bound Chhattisgarh’s Kanker region, the Congress President Rahul Gandhi once again resorted to spreading lies about the Industrialists’ ‘loans waived’ by the present regime. This time around, he alleged that the Modi government has waived loans worth Rs 3.5 lakh crore of 15 select industrialists since 2014.
“Modiji gave Rs 3.5 lakh crore to the 15 richest people of the country in last 4-5 years. For running MGNREGA scheme in the country, an amount of Rs 35,000 crore is needed yearly but he waived loans worth 10 times that amount of 15 select industrialists,” He was quoted as saying by PTI.
The Gandhi dynasty scion held a massive roadshow in the incumbent Chief Minister Dr. Raman Singh’s constituency Rajnandgaon. Targeting PM Modi, Gandhi alleged that the prime minister did not fulfil the promises he made to people ahead of the 2014 election. Continuing with his habitual tirade against the Modi government, he claimed that the government is helping cronies while ignoring the distressed farmers.
But it appears that evoking ridiculous sophistries about loans being waived off for industrialists is a sinister ploy often employed by Rahul Gandhi while addressing rallies in rural India. In November 2016, addressing a large group of Congress activists in Bhiwandi, Rahul Gandhi claimed that the Modi government had then waived off loans worth Rs 1.1 lakh crores of big industrialists. During campaigning for Gujarat assembly polls in 2017, Rahul Gandhi inexplicably increased this figure by astounding 20000 Crores to Rs 1.3 lakh crores and repeated the same trite. In Karnataka, he went a step ahead and conjured up another grand figure- Rs 2.5 Lakh crores of industrialists’ ‘loans’ being waived off by the Modi Government, again with no proof whatsoever.
In last few yrs BJP govt waived off loan of 2.5 lakh cr of 15 richest people. When farmers talks of loan waiver, PM Modi & FM say it isn’t their policy. Siddharamaih ji & Congress govt in K’taka waived off loan of Rs 8,000 cr of farmers of Karnataka :Rahul Gandhi, Congress Pres pic.twitter.com/f0aisqpc19
— ANI (@ANI) March 20, 2018
With such glaring inconsistencies in figures quoted by Congress president without providing any credible evidence to back his claims, one is left to wonder if Rahul Gandhi is simply using it as a political plank to fool unsuspecting farmers and garner their sympathy votes or is he a victim of hallucinations about imaginary loans being waived off by the government. Or maybe he is simply not intelligent enough to grasp the nitty-gritty of loan waivers. In fact, his lies were exposed when he failed to differentiate between loan waivers and loan write-offs.
The BJP has maintained that it has not waived off a single rupee of loans given to industrialists. BJP President Amit Shah categorically denied waiving off of any loans extended to the industrialists. Yesterday, the BJP held a presser refuting the wild allegations made by Rahul Gandhi. The BJP stated that the Congress party has been in the Dhritarashtra mode for 10 years for the shell companies and has suddenly been weeping for them after demonetisation.
