Farm loans not waived fully: Jyotiraditya Scindia

His comments come on the heels of remarks by former chief minister Digvijaya Singh’s younger brother Laxman Singh, who recently said that then Congress president Rahul Gandhi should apologise for making the “impossible promise of waiving farm loans within 10 days”.

“You can’t keep the voters guessing. Even the banks are not sure when will they get money and are charging interest,” Singh had said.

The farm loan waiver was one of the main poll planks of the Congress ahead of the Assembly elections last year. Rahul Gandhi had repeatedly said that he would change the chief minister within 10 days if the waiver promise was not fulfilled.

This is not the first time Scindia has taken a shot at the government. Last month, he threw his weight behind Forests Minister Umang Singhar, who had accused Digvijaya Singh of interfering in the government. “We have toiled for 15 years to form a Congress government. It’s not even six months. The government should work to fulfill people’s aspirations and brook no outside interference,” he had said.

While Chief Minister Kamal Nath has not engaged with Scindia directly, party leaders said the CM had made it clear that in the first phase of the waiver scheme, loans of up to Rs 50,000 had been waived and that the remaining loans would be waived in two more phases.

Scindia’s comments on Friday incited a reaction from the Opposition BJP. “Neither Shivraj, nor people. It’s your (Congress) own people who are showing the mirror to you. Farmers’ tears have dried but they haven’t received money in their accounts,” said former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.