Fact-Check: Are Rahul Gandhi’s claims of farmer loans being waived in Karnataka completely true?

Congress President, Rahul Gandhi (left), Karnataka CM and JD(S) supremo, HD Kumaraswamy (right)

Congress President Rahul Gandhi may have mastered the art of deceiving the media but he has been exposed yet again to the public after his claim concerning the loan waiver in the state of Karnataka has been proved to be a lie. It has now been discovered that farmers in the state have been slapped with recovery notices by banks.

Nearly twenty farmers of Ganajalkhed village, Kalaburgi district have received recovery notice from Andhra Bank on November 28 for the repayment of farm loans.

However, speaking at an election rally in Jaisalmer district’s Pokhran constituency, Rahul Gandhi had made tall claims. He said, “You may call and ask any farmer in Punjab and Karnataka and check whether their loans have been waived or not by the Congress party. I do not make false promises.”

Similarly, Congress party had tweeted claims that they had fulfilled the promise in Punjab and Karnataka and will also waive off farm loans in Chhattisgarh within 10 days of forming the government.

https://twitter.com/INCIndia/status/1064903695157088257?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Shockingly, it has been found that the claim of the Congress is yet another lie as the farmers from Kalaburgi, one of the poorest regions of the state, have been now asked to appear before Permanent Lok Adalat on Saturday for final disposal of the petition filed by the bank.

The farmers had taken crop loans from Andhra Bank in 2011 of about Rs 2 lakh by mortgaging their land. They had repaid the loan and were granted fresh loans in 2013. Then, the farmers could not repay their loans since there was a severe drought in the state for the last few years.

While farmers are being sent recovery notices on one hand, on the other, in an unfortunate incident as reported by News9, a 56-year old farmer named Hampanna Hoogar belonging to the district Bagalkot has been found dead after the debt-ridden farmer committed suicide.

Recently, it was reported that Karnataka state government itself had admitted that Rs 44,000 crore loan waiver had helped only 800 farmers in the state. They had confirmed that only a few of the farmers had benefited from the so-called ‘loan-waiver’. This shatters the claims that have been touted by Congress President Rahul Gandhi repeatedly.

OpIndia Staff: Staff reporter at OpIndia