FARIDKOT: The latest in pre-election promises, the Punjab state Congress issued the Kisan Mang Patr, promising people their loans will be waived of they fill the paper. While the math on how they intend to fulfill it remains unsolved, what they did accomplish, is building a strong army of voters for the upcoming assembly elections.
It was Congress poll strategist Prashant Kishor who came up with the idea. "We will be using phone numbers to update those who have filled the form on the loan-waiver plan, and it will help us identigy our voters better," said a party volunteer. The A-2 sized paper written in Gurmukhi, shows a green and yellow farm on one side with the words 'Karza Kurki Khatam (End of loan, mortgage), and Fasal ki Poori Rakm (Remuneration for Crop) written on it. Also on the sheet are photos of Amarinder Singh and party leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandi.
All those filling the form are signing up not just for a loan waiver, but a declaration of support for the party's "policy of loan and mortgage waivers, and full price for crop". "Eight lakh forms have been filled so far, out of which we are in the process of collecting hardcopies for 3 lakh," another volunteer said. Form-fillers are also asked to give a "missed call" to a number, returned by a recorded message frm Amarinder assuring their loans will be waived and they will recieve the entire Minimum Support Price for their crop.
"According to a reply in Parliament, Rs 1.2 lakh is the average debt per agricultural household. But we have been recieving cases at the lowest end of Rs 2 lakh... at the highest, there has been one case of Rs 8 lakh," said a volunteer. He claimed that the Congress would form the next government and waive loans up to Punjab's total estimated farm debt of Rs 37,000 Crore.
