In Punjab, PM Narendra Modi attacks congress for failing to keep farm loan promise

Gurdaspur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has alleged that Congress has not only shielded its leaders involved in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots but also rewarded them with chief ministership, an oblique reference to Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath.


Addressing a joint rally of BJP and ally Shiromani Akali Dal here, the Prime Minister also hit out at the Congress over the issue of farm loan waivers, saying the party failed to keep its promises made to the farmers.


In his first open attack against Kamal Nath after the recent BJP defeat in Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, Modi said: “Their history has been the massacre of innocent Sikhs. They have rewarded one accused with Chief Minister’s chair. The whole country wanted that Congress leaders should be punished for the killings of Sikhs in Delhi. Our government formed the SIT (special investigation team) and the result is before you all.”

Nath was named an accused in the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi in 1984 in the wake of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination. He was given the benefit of doubt by the court as there was no conclusive evidence against him.

“On one family’s direction, the files of those involved in the riots were put under wraps, but the NDA dug out these and set up a SIT and results are before you,” Modi said.

BJP contests three seats in Punjab while SAD fights the remaining ten. Vinod Khanna had won Gurdaspur in 2014 on a BJP ticket but Congress wrested it in the byelection held after his death.

At the rally, Modi also mentioned his government’s “historic decision” to build the Kartarpur Corridor, which will link Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur in Pakistan, the final resting place of Sikhism’s founder Guru Nanak Dev.

The Prime Minister also raised the farm loan waiver promise made by Congress during Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. He alleged that Congress has misled the people on this issue. The Congress promise during the elections is said to be one of the reasons for its good performance in the three states.

“The Congress earlier cheated the country in the name of “garibi hatao” for years and is now cheating farmers in the name of loan waivers,” he said.

“The Congress is doing the politics of lies and cheating. It has done nothing for farmers. It is misleading farmers in the name of waiving farmer loans,” Modi said.

He said that in Karnataka, loans of farmers were not being waived and police were raiding their homes to arrest them, forcing the farmers to be on the run.

Modi maintained that in Punjab too the Congress promised to waive massive loans of farmers but that was far from the truth.

“The truth is something else. As per their own documents and admission, only loans worth ?3,400 crore were waived in one and a half years.

“Is loan waiver a five-year plan for Congress? Will they (give loan waivers) after the farmer dies?”

Modi said that the central government was working hard to bring around development in rural India.

“We are working to doubling farmers” income by 2022. We want to empower the farmers and make them self-reliant," he said.

Accusing the Congress of messing up on issues of national security, the Prime Minister said that the NDA government at the centre "is constantly working to make the country secure".

“The Congress leadership has messed with national security.

They are spreading lies for the benefit of one family,” he said, in an obvious reference to the Congress raking up irregularities and corruption in the Rafale fighter jet deal.