A post featuring the Chhattisgarh BJP election manifesto for the 2023 assembly elections is being circulated with the claim that the BJP has made a promise to waive loans of up to Rs. 2 lakhs for farmers and self-help groups in the state. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: BJP has promised to waive loans of up to Rs. 2 lakhs for farmers and self-help groups in Chhattisgarh
Fact: The BJP’s manifesto for the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections does not incorporate a loan waiver scheme for farmers or self-help groups. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On conducting a keyword search related to the claim made in the post, it was found that news reports (here and here) indicate that the BJP had not announced a loan waiver for farmers or self-help groups in its Chhattisgarh manifesto, in contrast to the Congress, which included these provisions in its manifesto (here) for the state’s 2023 assembly elections.
Further, after careful study of the manifesto released by BJP in Chhattisgarh in the name of “Modi ki guarantee” and also “Chhattisgarh Vision document 2023″, we confirmed that the BJP neither announced a farmer loan waiver nor a self-help group loan waiver. Instead, major promises in the manifesto include paddy procurement at Rs. 3100 per quintal, complete payment of farmers’ money in one installment, financial assistance to married women and landless agricultural laborers, and cooking gas cylinders at Rs. 500 to poor families among others.
Subsequent research uncovered a Facebook post of the Indian National Congress, Chhattisgarh, which identified the viral post as a fake poster.
To sum up, the BJP’s manifesto for the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections does not incorporate a loan waiver scheme for farmers or self-help groups.
