Bengaluru: Tara Gandhi Bhattacharjee, granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi, has urged the BJP-led NDA government to waive crop loans borrowed by farmers in view of drought.
Addressing a farmers’ rally here on Friday, she said farmers were facing a tough situation owing to poor rainfall in the past three years. The state and Union governments were hardly concerned about their plight. The need of the hour was to consider the situation as a national calamity and waive loans borrowed by farmers.
Ms Tara Gandhi, who is also vice-chairperson of Gandhi Smriti and Kasturba Gandhi National Memorial Trust, said she had not come here to engage in politics but only to understanding the travails of peasants. Farmers could give their list of demands to their leader, Mr Kodihalli Chandrashekar, so that he could convey them to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Mr Basavaraj, a farmer leader lambasted the government for turning a blind eye to the problems of farmers. More than 1,200 farmers have committed suicide in Karnataka alone due to failure of crops, and this was going on unabated despite several measures announced by the government.
Mr Kodihalli Chandrashekar, president, Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha and Haseeru Sene, Mr Kadidal Shamanna and others also spoke.
