Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy told his party workers during a celebratory ceremony in Bengaluru’s Seshadripuram on Saturday, 14 July, that he was “not happy being the chief minister”.
He said, "I have swallowed poison like Lord Vishakantha. You all are happy that I became the CM. But I'm not.”
Kumaraswamy was speaking at the party programme organised to felicitate him for waiving off farm loans.
“It is true that I wished to become the Chief Minister of this state before the elections and promised people so many things. The people are now happy but I'm not happy being the CM,” Kumaraswamy said.
If I want, I can step down any minute. Wherever I go, people come to greet me and tell me how they are happy about the farm loan waiver. What makes me sad is that they did not vote for my party to be able to form a majority. No state had the will to waive farm loans. There was so much opposition in the government but I kept my promise.H D Kumaraswamy
Kumaraswamy announced a conditional waiver on farmer loans, setting aside Rs 34,000 crore in the first Budget presented by the JD(S)-Congress coalition government at the Vidhana Soudha on Thursday, 12 July.
However, the loan waiver comes with a few conditions. The CM said that only loans up to Rs 2 lakh per farming family will be waived.
Also, the waiver is only on institutional credit and loans taken from private money lenders will not be waived.
The reason behind this, he explained, was that after speaking to the people concerned in the agricultural sector, he found out that large landholding farmers had taken loans as high as Rs 40 lakh.
“In this background, as per the opinion of the farming community, it is not right to waive higher-value crop loan; I have decided to limit the loan amount to Rs 2 lakh. Due to this crop loan waiver scheme, farmers will get benefit of Rs 34,000 crore,” the Budget text read.
Deputy CM Responds
Responding to Kumaraswamy’s emotional statement, the Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka, G Parameshwara told ANI: “How can he say that? He must be definitely happy; CM has to be always happy. If he's happy, we'll all be happy.”
Senior Congress member Mallikarjun Kharge also gave a response.
“You have to face problems. Simply expressing won't give a good message to people who supported secular parties. Kumaraswamy should be courageous in facing such circumstances.” he told ANI.
Karnataka BJP Reacts
The BJP Karnataka unit also reacted to Kumaraswamy’s tearful statement. In a tweet tagging Kumaraswamy’s emotional moment, the party said:
“ & the best acting award goes to..
Our country has produced talented actors. Actors who have mesmerised the audience with their brilliant performance, here we have another legendary actor Mr Kumaraswamy, an actor who has constantly fooled common man with his amazing acting skills.”
(With inputs from The News Minute)
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