Was Rahul Gandhi behind CM's surprise decision to waive farm loan?

The CM Siddaramaiah had decided to waive farm loans only in December, despite pressure from all quarters. But all of a sudden he declared it now National level agitations taken up by Congress, led by Rahul Gandhi in BJP-led states to waive farm loan had put enormous pressure on Siddaramaiah too The BJP states declaring farm loan waiver and the Karnataka State BJP threatening Vidhana Soudha Gherao also pushed the CM to take the decision.

It was a great expectation during presenting the State budget that farm loan waiver would be announced. It didn’t happen. It was also expected that Siddaramaiah would opt to waive farm loans only closer to elections, lest the public forget the favour. It was a curious wait and watch if the CM would buckle under the pressure and “threat” by BJP that it would get 10 lakh farmers to Gherao Vidhana Soudha on July 10.

None of that but certain incidences at the national level made Siddaramaiah change his stand. Especially the agitation forcing BJP governments in the North to announce farm loan waiver led by Rahul Gandhi did the trick, reports Kannada Prabha.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had held onto his stand of withholding farm loan despite tremendous pressure. According to reliable sources, CM wanted to wait till December to make the announcement. The two reasons cited for this are: waiving farm loan would adversely affect, by eating into the budget of the Congress government’s proposed pro-people schemes like Ksheera Bhagya under Matru Poorna, of providing milk for 5 days of a week too pregnant women and distributing 7 kg rice under Anna Bhagya. Hence CM decided to delay it.

Secondly, it was too early to do the favour as the elections are after one year and the beneficiaries would have forgotten the loan waiver. Hence, he wanted to announce it closer to election campaign. However, Rahul Gandhi leading agitations in the North, pressuring States with BJP governments to waive farm loans and their subsequent waiver made Siddaramaiah also to announce the waiver at the earliest, reports Kannada Prabha.