Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje waives loans of SC, ST entrepreneurs

Ahead of assembly elections, BJP is showering sops to woo dalits and tribals ahead of assembly elections. Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje waived off loans up to Rs 2 lakh benefitting over 20,000 dalit and tribal entrepreneurs who have taken credit from state owned Rajasthan SC/ST Development Finance Corporation.

The chief minister has also recently waived off farm loans for more than 12,000 farmers living in tribal districts of Southern Rajasthan.

Apart from that the BJP government has created 21,500 jobs for safai karamcharis (sweepers) benefitting mostly the dalit community. “Such initiatives may pay off well for the ruling party.


Dalits are said to be not happy with the BJP government. There had been several cases of atrocities against them in past few years. But one can’t say how much these translate into votes,” says Randheer Singh, a political observer.

Meanwhile, upper caste organizations in Rajasthan have called a day long state wide bandh on Thursday protesting against the amendments in the SC/ST (Prevention & Atrocities) Act.

The BJP is keeping a tight vigil on the development as its leaders and ministers are facing fierce protest from upper castes in another poll bound state Madhya Pradesh.

In few places there, ministers have been reportedly attacked and were not allowed to conduct public meetings and rallies “We are against the amendment which is being introduced in the SC/ST Act. Government should not have bias for a particular class just for political gains,” said Girraj Singh Lotwara of Rajput Sabha, which is supporting the bandh.

There are 59 reserved seats in Rajasthan out of which 34 are for Scheduled Caste (SC). In last elections, BJP did exceedingly well in all these reserved seats.