As the political drama of the Lok Sabha polls reaches its peak in Madhya Pradesh, one issue has taken centrestage: Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s 2018 Assembly poll promise of waiving farm loans up to ₹2 lakh. A war of words has erupted between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, with the latter accusing the Congress of “lying” about its promise while the Congress claims it’s fulfilled it.

Beyond the political squabbling, the ground reality is that farmers who voted for the Congress during the Assembly elections are furious over the party’s failure to waive their loans. Newslaundry visited villages in the Lok Sabha constituencies of Rajgarh and Guna—believed to be Congress strongholds—and farmers across the area declared their anger with the Congress state government and their reluctance to see it in the Centre. They also openly said they would never vote for the Congress again, and want to see leaders like Narendra Modi and Shivraj Singh Chouhan in power.  

One of them is 61-year-old Parwat Singh from Puraina village. Singh has a farm loan of ₹2.5 lakh. If the Congress had waived ₹2 lakh as they promised, he would only have to pay back ₹50,000 to the bank. “I could have used the money which I pay in installments for some other purpose. Now I don’t have a single rupee of trust in the Congress.” What angers him, he says, is the party’s Lok Sabha campaign promise of giving ₹72,000 to the poor. “I am 100 per cent sure they will not fulfil this promise too, and will cheat people. Hum to thok ke Modi ko vote denge iss chunav main (We are going to vote for Modi in this election).

Jagmohan Singh, 30, from the same village says he filled up the form and completed all formalities to avail of the loan waiver, since the Congress said the waivers would happen within 10 days of the government being formed in the state. “But we were duped. None of the farmers in the state forced the Congress to make any promises about loan waivers—they announced it themselves before the Assembly elections to lure us into their trap.”

Farmers displaying the receipts issued after they filled up the forms to receive the loan waivers.

He says Shivraj Singh Chauhan was a good chief minister. “During his tenure, we used to get crop insurance. But now we haven’t even received that. Shivraj Singh used to help farmers, he never announced any policy which he can’t implement.” Like Parwat Singh, he also has a loan of ₹2.5 lakh.

Ramesh Yadav, 50, of Puraina planned to repair his house if he received the loan waiver. Unsurprisingly, that plan is now on hold. He says, “We always used to vote for Congress earlier but after this betrayal, we will not vote for them again. Most of the farmers voted for them because of the loan waiver promise, but now we are going to vote for Modi. Congress is a dhokebaaz (treacherous) party.” Prem Yadav, 32, agrees. “The Congress cheated us. We’re going to teach them a lesson. Modi is better than the Congress, at least he thinks about the country and taught Pakistan a lesson. We want Modi to be our prime minister again.”

Twenty-eight-year-old Sangram Singh shows Newslaundry an automated message on his phone. Sent in the name of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath, it says: “Sangram Singhji, Jai Kisan fasal rin maafi yojna mei aapka aavedan mila. Loksabha Chunav achaar sanhita ke kaaran aapki rin maafi abhi swikrit nahi ho paayi hai. Chunav ke baad sheeghra sweekriti ki jaavegi. Shubhkamnayein , aapka Kamal Nath (Mukhya Mantri) (Sangram Singh, we have received your loan waiver application under the Jai Kisan Crop Loan Waiver Scheme. Your application to waive off the loan has not received permission due to the Model Code of Conduct during the Lok Sabha elections. After the elections, your application will immediately receive permission. Yours, Kamal Nath).”

Singh received the message in March. “Were they sleeping before that? The Congress promised to waive our loans within 10 days of their government formation, but they didn’t do it for two or three months. And they are using the Model Code of Conduct as an their armour. I am sure they’ll never waive our loans. It was just a trick to get our votes in the Assembly elections. I’m not going to fall for their trap again. I will vote for Modi.”

Komal Singh of Puraina village.

The story is the same in Dhirdeh village in Guna. Fifty-two-year-old Gulab Singh Banjara has a loan of ₹3.5 lakh, and was happy that more than half of it could be waived. He was looking forward to using the money instead to better his farm. “Congress ne sab kisanon ko chutiya banaya. The loan waiver was a lie, and the Congress used to it deceive farmers across the state and lure them to vote for them in the Assembly elections. However, in the Lok Sabha elections, none of their tricks will work on us.”

He’s also all praise for former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan. “During Shivraj’s rule, the farmers were in a better condition. He used to regularly provide us with crop insurance, and often introduced schemes for the benefit of the farmers. Forget loan waivers, we’re not even getting crop insurance from this government. I’m going to vote for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections, there’s no chance for the Congress.”

Forty-eight-year-old Laxman Singh from Dhirdeh says the Congress failed to fulfil other promises in its manifesto too, and is scornful of its NYAY scheme. “They’ve announced they will give ₹72,000 annually to economically poor people. I’m sure they will not even give 72 paise. We voted for the Congress just because of their promise to waive farm loans. But they cheated us. We are going to vote for Modi, come what may, we will do our bit to get him elected prime minister of this country again. No vote for Congress.”

In Ghungri Pahadi village, 29-year-old Mokham Singh tells Newslaundry his father is struggling with a loan of ₹2 lakh. “My father filled up the form to apply for a loan waiver but we haven’t received a single rupee yet.” Singh says Ghungri Pahadi has traditionally voted for the Congress for years now, but this is the last straw. “They shouldn’t have made big statements about waiving farmer loans. They totally failed their promises. This has changed the minds of even traditional voters. The farmers will not vote for the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls.

Sixty-two-year-old Vijay Singh says, “We are poor people. ₹2 lakh is a big amount for us. We became greedy and fell into the Congress’s trap. This will not happen again. Let them make whatever promises they want, they’re not going to get our votes.”

Mohar Singh, 18, cast his vote for the first time in the 2018 Assembly elections. He thinks Chauhan did a good job during his tenure, and emphasises that the former chief minister had never made announcements of schemes that he didn’t fulfil. “He helped the poor by getting their girls married under government schemes. His Ladki Lakshmi Yojna was very good. Forget loan waivers, the Kamal Nath government hasn’t fulfilled a single promise mentioned in the Congress manifesto.”

He points out that the manifesto had mentioned an unemployment allowance of ₹3,000-4,000 and an increase in pensions to the elder from ₹300 to ₹1,000—but none of these have come to fruition. “Everything is still the same. They promised to provide employment to people having a Bachelors in Education and Diploma in Education, but they failed to do that.” The issue of crop insurance has hit the farmers hard, with all of them unanimously saying it was provided under the Chauhan government.

Villagers of Ghungri Pahadi including Bhagwat Singh, Mohar Singh, Vijay Singh, Mokham Singh and others.

Munna Lal, 45, says, “[Under Chauhan] Women who gave birth would get ₹16,000 in their accounts within 15 days but under Congress rule, they’re not getting it. We have always voted for the Congress but they shouldn’t have made false promises. This shows their intentions. We are not going to vote for them in the Lok Sabha elections.”

When Newslaundry visited Nander village, angry villagers were hurling abuses at the Congress government in the state. All their stories are the same: 46-year-old Malkhan Singh Gurjar who proclaims he’ll vote for Modi, Kamallal Sahariya who’s struggling with his loan of ₹2 lakh, Laxman Singh Gurjar, who has a loan of ₹1.08 lakh and says the Congress has made a “fool” out of the farmers.

In the village of Pureni, Chironjilal, 45, has a loan of ₹80,000. He filled up all the forms and completed all the formalities but his loan hasn’t been waived. He says Shivraj Singh Chauhan used to help the farmers and listen to the poor—but the Congress does no such thing. “Kamal Nath said if the loan isn’t waived within 10 days, the party will change the chief minister. Now how should we take this? They consider farmers to be a bunch of fools.”

Chironjilal (extreme left), who says Shivraj Singh Chauhan used to help farmers.

Newslaundry also met with farmers in Golakhedi, which falls in Bamori area of the Guna Lok Sabha constituency: a stronghold of Jyotiraditya Scindia. Sixty-year-old Bhagwan Singh has a loan of ₹1.40 lakh and voted for the Congress after they announced the loan waiver for farmers. Like the others, he feels cheated. “They took our votes to win the election and then forgot us. Now it’s our turn to forget them while casting our votes.” Similar, Shrikishan, a 62-year-old farmer in Golakhedi, says the Congress made a “mockery” of them, and that they’ll suffer for this.

The anger in this corner of the country, where the Congress has traditionally found favour, is palpable. Rajesh Yadav, 27, of Singhadi village says the BJP will win in polling stations that they’ve never won from in the last 50 years. “The Congress will face the heat in its Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh. They cheated us and now it’s our turn to teach them a lesson. People aren’t concerned about local candidates, they want Modi in the Centre.” In the same village, farmer Ghuman Lal Yadav has a farm loan of ₹70,000. He says the Congress is a “party of liars”. “But now they’ve shown us their true colours.”

On its part, the Congress claims they haven’t broken their poll promise. JP Dhanopia, the Congress spokesperson in Madhya Pradesh, told Newslaundry: “Within two hours of taking the oath of chief minister, the first order given by Kamal Nath was about loan waivers. Execution of this follows the order; you can’t press a button on a computer to waive the loans of all farmers. There’s a provision and a procedure for such things.”

Dhanopia says they asked farmers to fill up forms to estimate the total amount of loans to be waived. Once the data was gathered, he claims the government began releasing money into the farmers’ account by February 22. “The condition of the Madhya Pradesh state treasury was very bad, it was quite empty. So we adopted the formula of distributing lesser amounts to more farmers. We waived the loans of 2 lakh farmers, and banks stopped sending them notices.”

When the Model Code of Conduct came into effect, Dhanopia says the procedure was halted, as per the rules of the Election Commission, but will resume once the elections end.

Crop loan waivers is a lengthy process, so how did the government promise to waive loans within 10 days of its formation? Dhanopia says, “We never said we will waive the loan within days. It’s not possible to waive it within 10 days. Our party said it would take a decision to waive the loan within 10 days.” He says there is no specific timeline by which they expect to waive the loans after polling, but the government will “do it as early as possible”.