A day after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promised to waive off the entire debt of all farmers with less than five acres of landholdings in Punjab, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab Chief Ministerial candidate and Member of Parliament (MP) Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday termed the saffron party’s poll manifesto as deceptive and full of lies.

Mann said the joint manifesto issued by the three-party alliance, consisting of the BJP, Captain Amarinder Singh-led Punjab Lok Congress, and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa’s Shiromani Akali Dal-Sanyukt, has nothing for the farmers, labourers, traders, industrialists, students, and youth of Punjab.

“From past experiences, we know that BJP leaders don’t deliver on their election promises,” he said.

The AAP leader said Amarinder Singh, who has become an ally of BJP, had come to power as Congress’ chief ministerial candidate in Punjab during the 2017 elections by promising to waive all the debts of farmers (loans of government banks, brokers, and cooperative banks).

“Amarinder Singh and the BJP should tell what action Captain has taken on the promise of farmers’ loan waiver when he was the Chief Minister?” Mann asked.

He said SAD (Sanyukt) leader Dhindsa’s son Parminder Singh Dhindsa had been the finance minister of Punjab and Dhindsa himself had been a long-standing partner in the NDA government at the Center, but the Dhindsa family has no concern about the welfare of Punjabis and they have done nothing for Punjab.

Mann lashed out at the BJP, saying that Narendra Modi had become the Prime Minister in 2014 with promises to implement the Swaminathan Commission report, to double farmers’ income and waive loans, but even after seven years, the PM has not implemented the commission’s report, nor has he waived the debt of farmers and there’s no rise in income of farmers.

On the contrary, the BJP has run away from the guarantee of MSP on all crops and the legal procurement of crops on MSP. He said that the anti-farmer face of BJP had been exposed in front of the country, because they had enacted three anti-farmer laws for the benefit of their ‘corporate friends’, due to which about 700 farmers had to sacrifice their lives in farmers’ agitation against these laws.

Mann said in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, BJP had promised to provide two crore jobs every year. He alleged the BJP-led alliance was showing the same dreams to the youth as Narendra Modi had shown to the country in 2014 and  Amarinder Singh to the youth of Punjab in 2017.