The recently concluded Kisan Yatra of the Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has made the RSS and the Bharataiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) sit up and take note. The Kisan Maang Patras, which the Congress workers distributed to farmers during his rallies, have attributed to the unease.
Now, both the RSS and the BKS have asked BJP president Amit Shah to lay special emphasis on farmers in the BJP manifesto for the upcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.
The Congress has promised a complete farm-loan waiver in UP and Punjab if it comes to power. In UP, the party has promised to halve the electricity bills of the farmers. Distributing Kisan Maang Patras, each farmer was asked to mention the amount of loan taken by him/her. A counterfoil is given to the farmer while the main copy is kept with the Congress state unit. The party even announced that to get a Congress ticket, a prospective candidate should fill maximum number of these forms.
Sources say that the issue was raised in the recently concluded meeting of the RSS in Hyderabad. The apprehension is the farmers may wean away from the BJP if the BJP-led government does not do something constructive in this regard. The most important aspect is the “form”, distributed by the Congress in both the poll-bound states.
Interestingly, the last time the Congress vice-president was able to rattle the BJP-led government was on the issue of Land Acquisition bill. The government had to back off as the slogan “suit boot ki sarkar” started gaining currency.
The Congress also claims that it has in the past also waived off farm loans in 2008 when the UPA-1 was in power. Needless to add that the Congress increased its tally substantially in the Lok Sabha elections in 2009.
The RSS and the BKS feel that the BJP will have to intervene to address the current agrarian stress prevailing in the poll bound states. Issues of nationalistic fervour and surgical strikes can take a party only so far at the hustings. Even the Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalitha, after winning her second term, waived off farm loans of small and marginal farmers.
