Bengaluru: Have fissures surfaced in the fledgling JD(S)-Congress coalition government over the issue of waiver of farm loans?
A day after the first co-ordination committee meeting held here on Thursday, Chief Minister, H.D. Kumaraswamy tweeted his commitment to write off farm loans. "I have spoken with bank officials. Without deviating from fiscal discipline, we will waive farm loans. We are committed to it," he said in his tweet. Congress leaders, however, are keen to implement programmes and policies announced by the previous government headed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
At the coordination committee meeting, Mr Siddaramaiah reportedly dominated the proceedings, stressing on continuance of populist schemes launched by his government much to the chagrin of Mr Kumaraswamy. Besides,Congress leaders also expressed serious doubts about the fiscal position of the state and whether it could take on a huge burden by waiving loans. Emerging out of the meeting, Mr Siddaramaiah told reporters that all programmes of his government would continue and kept mum about the agenda of JD (S).
In response to Mr Siddaramaiah's statements, Mr Kumaraswamy said: "The Congress feels the financial position is not good. I do not want to discuss what happened in the past. But, I am committed to farm loan waiver" This was aimed at Congress leaders who apparently made indirect statements against loan waiver. Later, inaugurating a conference of Chartered Accountants here, Mr Kumaraswamy said: “Some people are worried that Mr Kumaraswamy may become popular by presenting a good budget.”
The first signs of friction between Mr Siddaramaiah and Mr Kumaraswamy commenced with the latter applying brakes on the free bus pass scheme announced by the previous Congress government. Sources in the government said this proposal would trigger a burden of over Rs 650 crores on the state's exchequer. “So, Mr Kumaraswamy stayed the proposal till presentation of the budget. This might have irked Mr Siddaramaiah,” sources said.
