Congress keeps paddy farmers confused with jugglery of words on bonus

When it comes to dissonance, none can beat the Congress. And the controversy over the bonus of Rs.500 per quintal of paddy, promised by the Congress during the recent election campaigns, has led to a classic situation for Congress leaders, from the Chief Minister to his Cabinet colleagues, to prove this.

Contradictory and confusing statements from them are showing that they are masters at the art of confusing the public, in this case farmers.

Whether this is a purposeful jugglery of words to confuse the people, or whether the Congress government is actually not certain on what variety of rice will get the bonus, remains unknown.

It all started with the Congress manifesto ahead of the Assembly elections, when it promised in clear terms, to quote from the manifesto document, “a bonus of Rs.500 for paddy per quintal” as part Rythu Bharosa.

There was no mention of any paddy variety. Then Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, during the Lok Sabha election campaign on April 21 at Nizamabad, asked farmers to produce “unlimited quantities” of paddy and assured that the State government would procure their stocks with a bonus of Rs.500.

Just like in the manifesto, he did not mention that the bonus would be extended to



only one particular variety of paddy.

However, the twist came after reports that the bonus would be only for fine rice varieties, which was confirmed by Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy.

The Minister, briefing media persons after the Cabinet meeting on May 20, categorically stated that the bonus would be only for fine rice varieties from the forthcoming season. The list of fine rice varieties would be announced by the agriculture department, he had said.

Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka, at a press conference here on May 21, claimed that the State government had in fact already initiated the process to pay the “bonus for fine varieties of paddy”.

Matters got complicated further on Thursday, when a fifth statement, after the manifesto, the Chief Minister and the two Ministers, also came from Roads and Buildings Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy. The Minister complicated things by stating that the government had never said that it “would not extend bonus to the coarse varieties of rice”.

The government was extending bonus to fine rice variety as it was planning to supply the variety to poor people, he said, however, without making it clear whether he meant other rice varieties would get the bonus.