The political melodrama war over farm loan waivers has escalated as the by-election for 28 assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh draw closer. This has led to personal attacks among the political leaders with new cash scheme being introduced by the Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Mukhya Mantri Kisan Kalyan Yojana

Recently, the CM of Madhya Pradesh has announced a new cash benefit scheme for the farmers. This Mukhya Mantri Kisan Kalyan Yojana aims at providing the farmers with two annual installments worth Rs. 2,000. The overall cost of this scheme is expected to be Rs. 3,000 crores as there are around 77 lakh such farmers in the state.

This scheme is a venture which is additional to the existing PM-Kisan income support scheme. As a combination of two schemes, the farmers will now receive Rs. 6,000 from the Union Government and Rs. 4,000 from the State.

Escalating political battle over the farmer loan waiver schemes

Heated words have been exchanged between the ministers of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Indian National Congress over the loan waiver schemes for farmers. Congress claims that the current CM of MP, Shivraj Singh Chouhan should apologize to the citizens for the alleged falsification of information, to which the BJP has replied that Congress should not make such accusations based on incomplete evidence and partial knowledge over the topic.

The allegation was made by Congress with regards to the BJP government with the former stating that 26 lakh farmers were provided with Rs.11,646 crores under the farm loan waiver scheme introduced by the former government led by Kamal Nath. Applications for waiving loans of Rs. 7,492 crores from almost 5.9 lakh farmers are still pending which are expected  to be cleared by the current BJP government.

Kamal Nath demanded that the BJP government should start the process of waiving loans for the pending applicants, slamming Chouhan’s panel of ministers for not keeping up with the scheme. He said that Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Jyotiraditya Scindia were always peddling lies on the loan waiver. Kamal Nath added that Chouhan government has itself exposed the politics of lies of BJP by its admission in the assembly. He asked assertively that both Chouhan and Scindia should apologize to people.

In addition to this, in the same context, Rahul Gandhi, the former Congress president tweeted earlier yesterday that Congress has kept its promises and BJP had given false hopes to the people.

Personal attacks and exchange of statements between BJP and Congress ministers

Suresh Raje, all set to contest in the upcoming elections representing Congress in MP’s Gwalior-Chambal region from Dabra constituency is standing up against Imrati Devi, the State Minister for Woman and Child Development (WCD).  Raje has been accused of making personal comments against the state minister and her family members.

BJP and Devi had filed a complaint against Suresh Raje from which he backed off and has denied all allegations of ever making such a statement.

Usha Thakur, the State Minister for culture, tourism, and Adhyatam called out at the Jay Adivasi Yuva Shakti (JAYS) describing them as an anti-national outfit in her assembly constituency on Saturday. She later regretted making this statement as the JAYS organisation demanded her resignation from the post of a state minister.

Thakur made a statement apologising to the people stating that she respects all such organizations that are working for the upliftment of the tribal people. She asserted that her statement stemmed from her pain and anguish that she claims to have undergone. She explained in her apology statement that her anguish was due to certain elements making attempts to mislead tribals and convert them to other faiths while creating hurdles in the way of her public welfare work. It clearly seems that BJP is trying to play the religious victimization card prior to the bypolls.

In addition to this, Kamal Nath and Shivraj Singh Chouhan are involved in a continuous politically heated spat over waiving off the farmer loans in MP.

At an election rally few days back in Gwalior, Kamal Nath made a statement accusing the CM of being incapable of handling this issue of farmer’s loans. He said that the CM says Congress did not waive farmers’ loans in 10 days without knowing or trying to know the details.  Kamal Nath asked the CM to look up in the state records for the loan waiver action taken by the congress government. Nath added that it was for the first time in the state that not only the current loans but also those of the defaulters were waived off by the then congress government.

The current CM replied to this in a rally to the public. In the rally he stated that it would be the public who would ultimately decide who is incapable and who is not. Throwing an open challenge to Nath, the CM said that he has no objection if Kamal Nath wants to indulge in mudslinging. He said that it would be the public that would decide who is capable and who is not. The CM added that Nath should think about the capability quotient. The CM in his challenge stated that his government had done better work for poor, framed better laws for farmers and ensured upliftment of the girl child.

The author is a student member of Amity Center of Happiness.