Jobs, agrarian crisis are real issues: Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel played a crucial role in delivering a two-thirds majority for the Congress party in the 2018 Assembly elections. He remains assured that the party will make a clean sweep in the Lok Sabha election as well. Excerpts from an interview with Sandeep Kumar where he discusses various issues — from politics to Left Wing extremism and the future road map for the mineral rich state’s development

The Congress secured a tremendous victory in the recent Assembly polls, but in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 10 of the 11 seats in Chhattisgarh. Can the Congress overturn the losing trend this time?

We are going to win all the 11 seats in the state. People who voted for the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 are feeling deceived. Not only in Chhattisgarh but across the country, people have suffered immensely from steps such as demonetisation and the introduction of the goods and service tax. That’s the reason the BJP has denied tickets to all its sitting MPs in the state, including Abhishek Singh, the son of former CM Raman Singh. If you consider the trend of Assembly elections, the Congress is going to attain a sweeping victory across the state. 

Whenever you address a public rally, you target only the PM. 

That’s because he pretends to be omnipresent. He displays a peculiar trouper talent depending on the places he is visiting. He pretends to be a tea vendor, a chowkidar, a bullet train driver and whatnot. In Chhattisgarh, he announced that he belonged to Sahu community. Elsewhere, he becomes someone from a backward caste. I have sent him a mirror to help him identify the real Modi, even getting an acknowledgment receipt for that. 

Recently you campaigned for Digvijaya Singh in Bhopal. What do you feel is the reason behind Pragya Thakur's candidature from the BJP? Do you buy their claim that they want to prove there is no such thing such as saffron terrorism? 

This is a doomed experiment. You must remember how they fielded Kiran Bedi in Delhi and she lost. Similarly, Pragya Thakur will face a heavy defeat. In the Sunil Joshi murder case, the then BJP government of Shivraj Singh Chouhan lodged the FIR against her. She is a habitual offender. Her brother lives in Chhattisgarh and she was arrested here for a knife attack. Even for a moment, if we believe the argument that she has been framed in the Malegaon blast case, my question is: Who framed her? The BJP was ruling in Madhya Pradesh for 15 years, the party is at the Centre for the past five years now. The accountability should have been fixed against the officers who framed her. As far as saffron terrorism is concerned, the term was coined by former home secretary R K Singh. He was given a ticket by the BJP and was even made a Cabinet minister later. 

Like in Madhya Pradesh, the Chhattisgarh government has also announced a farm loan waiver. What is the model? Is the government waiving the loan with its budgetary provision or banks are also writing off some of the amounts? 

See, till date, we have waived off the loan with the help of the exchequer. We have initiated the process but due to the model code of conduct, it had to be stopped for the time being. We will talk to nationalised banks. In Madhya Pradesh, the process was rather easy as cooperative banks were involved. Now we will look for all available options. We will negotiate with the banks. In nationalised banks, the per acre KCC (Kisan credit card) loan amount is more than cooperative banks. We will waive at the rate of cooperative banks loan per acre. Rest of the amount will be waived by the banks. One more thing, only crop loan will be waived. 

When the Congress formed the government in Madhya Pradesh, the central government under Modi was not very cooperative. What has been your experience with regard to Centre-state relations so far?

Yes, they did this to us as well. For example, the Centre provides racks for picking rice. Earlier, it used to provide about 100 racks. Now, they hardly provide 40 racks. If rice rots in open, it’s a national loss. They should understand this. They have stopped funds related to toilets and MNREGA as well. Even government officials have been brainwashed by the BJP and RSS people. Like MP, they also tried to create a fake electricity crisis during the election. We have started an inquiry against them. We are doing our bit to solve the problem. 

When the Congress was in the Opposition, it sought dismissal of controversial senior IPS officer S R P Kalluri. But when it came to power, he was put in-charge of the Economic Offence Wing? 

The reason is very clear. He is considered to be a close aide of Raman Singh, who made him meet Prime Minister Modi defying all protocols. I thought let him investigate the scams that took place during Singhs' era. Now, he has been transferred to the post of additional transport commissioner. He has not been given any field posting. 

Chhatisgarh is a Maoist-affected state. What is your road map to tackle the situation? 

If the previous government had taken the right steps, this problem would not have increased this much. The Maoists, once limited to four districts, are now operating in 14. Confidence building is the only measure that can solve this problem. We want to build confidence in the tribal people of Naxalite-affected areas. The western model of development can’t win their trust. We returned them the land acquired by Tata group. Distribution of forest rights and better price for tendu leaves are some other steps we are taking. As far as dialogue with Maoists is concerned, let me make it clear that, under the current circumstances, it's not possible to talk to them. If they want to come to the table, they have to put faith in the Constitution and drop the gun. 

Employment is a big issue in Chhatisgarh. What model are you adopting to address this and for the development of the state?

Not only in Chhattisgarh but all over India, unemployment is one of the biggest issues. This is in our priority. We want to focus on agricultural produce and small forest produce sector. This will generate thousands of jobs and also help in value addition of local resources. It will also boost the state’s economy. Other than employment, price rise and agrarian crisis are the real issues that we have to tackle.