Under pressure from BJP to immediately declare a loan waiver for farmers, CM HD Kumaraswamy emphatically said on Sunday, “I am not obligated to the 6.5 crore people of Karnataka, but I am obligated to Congress.”
H D Kumaraswamy today said he was at the ‘mercy’ of Congress and not the 6.5 crore people of Karnataka as his government had not received the full mandate which his party had sought in the assembly elections.
The CM also sought a week’s time to convince his alliance partner, Congress, to announce a waiver of farm loans, as promised by JD(S) in its manifesto, or else he would quit. JD(S) had promised to waive all farm loans taken from cooperative, private and commercial banks, within 24 hours of coming to office.
Ahead of his Delhi visit to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other union ministers, he reiterated that farm loan waiver was his priority as he had promised and he would resign if he failed to fulfil it. However, he reminded people that JD(S) did not get an absolute majority, which meant he and his party were rejected by the electorate.
“There is no question of going back on the farm loan waiver. I need a week’s time to understand the financial situation before taking such a call. This can happen only after cabinet expansion. I will do it in a week or quit the CM’s post,” he told reporters.
Kumaraswamy urged farmers not to take the extreme step of committing suicide and to wait for a week as he was in the process of finding a way out to waive loans, not just of cooperative societies, but also nationalised banks.
The CM’s response comes in the wake of BJP’s call for a statewide bandh on Monday, as HDK failed to announce the loan waiver within 24 hours of coming to office.
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