Trailing Rahul’s yatra: Cane farmers hope loans waived off

From Sourav Roy Barman Kushinagar (UP), Sept 7 (PTI) The blinding neon flashesfollowed by deafening thunder cracking across the night skyand the subsequent torrent on Monday brought smiles to thefaces of 73-year-old Raman Yadav and 21-year-old Pawan Sharmain eastern Uttar Pradesh’s floundering ‘sugar bowl’Kushinagar. The morning after farmers of Kushinagar and its adjoiningDeoria districts, reeling under scanty rains for "threeconsecutive years", have warmed up, albeit with a healthy doseof scepticism, to Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi’spromise on the first day of his 2,500-long kisan padyatra thatfarm loans will be waived off. On a leisurely stroll near Rahul’s second ‘khaat sabha’on Monday, Yadav, who is mulling to give Congress a shot inthe next polls, speaks on politics with a careless abandon,providing pithy insights. His family owns 3 bigha land, whichhe says provide just about sustenance. "Munde munde matir bhinna (perspectives differ from oneperson to another)," he says, when asked why a group of youth,huddled across the road, are rather willing to give "Modijiand Yogi Adityanath" a chance, "mainly" to bring down crime inthe region. But despite his personal liking for Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, Sharma, who is in BSc third year, is somewhatreceptive to Rahul’s repeated assertions, in meeting aftermeeting, that Congress will ensure that farm loans are waivedoff like the UPA government had done in the fag-end of itsfirst term. "My father is a sugarcane farmer so I know the plight oftheir lot. But such promises (RahulÂ’s) more often than notring hollow. Modiji’s promise on black money has also come outa cropper till now but at least we can see attempts beingmade," Pawan says. But the concern over "rising cases of crime" cuts acrossage groups as Ambika Chaudhary, in his early sixties, echoesPawan’s view that there indeed has been an "alarming spurt",especially of lootings and snatchings. Rahul’s ‘kisan padyatra’ outreach, which will meanderacross the eastern UP districts in its first leg, is aimed atgaining the support of these distressed farmers, whichCongress believes will boost the party’s prospects in the 2017assembly election in the state. No wonder, the Congress scion’s chopper landed on amakeshift helipad at Pachladi Kritpura village, that houses alarge number of sainthwar community people (OBC) battling badcrop fallout, of Deoria’s Rudrapur constituency. Rahul visited five houses in the village that lacks apucca road and power supply is as elusive as the rains. Heinteracted with the familes of Hanskumar Singh, PradyumanSingh, Sadasya Singh (brothers) and Om Prakash Singh, who inturn apprised him of the amount they owe in form ofoutstanding loan dues. Kushinagar and Deoria were among the 50 districts thatwere declared as drought-hit by the Uttar Pradesh governmentlast year. MORE PTI SBRDV