By IANS,
Bhopal : A controversial Madhya Pradesh minister made a bizarre statement in the state assembly Wednesday, asserting that promises made in election manifestos are by a party and not the government and hence, there was no need for a government to implement them.
State Cooperatives Minister Gauri Shankar Bisen’s statement was in response to a question by Congress legislator Arif Aqueel on the issue of loan waiver. Aqueel asked as to when loans up to Rs.50,000 to small farmers would be waived off as promised by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in its election manifesto.
To this, Bisen replied that it was a matter of the party and added that since he represented the government, he could not answer it.
However, speaker Ishawardas Rohahi made it clear to Bisen that it is the party which fights elections and not the government.
But after hearing the minister’s reply, the opposition Congress walked out of the assembly and said the BJP-led government was anti-farmer.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s cabinet minister Bisen has been in the news on several occasions but for all the wrong reasons. Recently, he had got his shoe-lace tied by a minor tribal boy during a public function in Chhindwara, which was widely criticized.