New Delhi, July 28: In what has clearly created discomfort within the Congress and its partners, a presidential aide has credited UPA’s flagship farm loan waiver scheme to President Pratibha Patil.
Secretary to the President Christy Fernandez, while speaking at a function in Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday, said that Patil was keenly interested in the welfare of farmers and that she was one of the prime movers of the idea of waving off farm loans.
Clearly, the president taking credit for one of the government’s most successful program will raise hackles of the Congress top brass as the party’s entire ‘aam aadmi’ pro-poor campaign centres around this ambitious and hugely successful scheme.
However, the Congress appears reluctant to take a definitive stand on the issue, at least in public.
Congress spokes-person Manish Tiwari’s was quoted as saying, “A large number of people who operate in public spaces were distressed about the plight of farmers.
At some level, the expression of distress found congruence in the thinking of various constitutional and executive functionaries of government. It is an expression of the collective sensitivity which constitutional authorities and the political class have for farmers of India.”
–Agencies