GUWAHATI: On 18th December, Congress President Rahul Gandhi took to social media and had tweeted, “The Congress party has managed to wake the CM’s of Assam & Gujarat from their deep slumber. PM is still asleep. We will wake him up, too.”
This tweet was about the news of Gujarat and Assam governments waiving off loans to farmers.
The Chief Minister of Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal in a series of tweets rebutted Rahul Gandhi's comment.
"Mr Gandhi, this attempt to take credit on an issue that is related to the livelihood & development of farmers is quite frivolous. You have no moral right to talk about Assam or its farmers. Everyone knows how your successive Govts in Assam looted the resources meant for farmers."
The CM twitter handle went on to tell Congress to take blame for all corruption that happened under their rule.
"As you seem to be interested in claiming credit for some of Assam Govt's decision, I request you to take credit for all misdeeds, corruption and loot that had perpetuated all these decades under Congress rule, thus depriving the people of Assam in general & farmers in particular."
"Also, PM @narendramodi ji doesn't need a certificate from you and your party. The enormous development that Modi ji has brought to the lives of the common people in just 4 yrs is something your family didn't care to achieve in the last 6 decades."
The Assam government also came out with a clarification that its announcement was not about loan waivers but farmers’ schemes.
Next day, on 19th December, Assam Finance Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma came up with a press conference where he explained the Assam government's decision to help the farmers. He later used twitter to tell Rahul Gandhi that the Congress President had misunderstood the Assam government's decision on farm loans.
“Rahul Ji, Assam Govt. has not announced any debt waiver scheme. We are offering 25% subsidy on short-term agricultural loan along with full interests subvention. These schemes will continue unlike a one-time loan waiver. Completely opposite to your idea,” tweeted Dr. Sarma.
He further slammed the Congress President with another tweet, “And we are announcing these schemes to commemorate 125 years of the agrarian uprising against the British in Pathorughat in 1894 (I announced these in my budget 10 months ago). You have failed to respect our sentiments by linking it to petty politics.”