The Congress on Monday took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he signed the first file on release of PM Kisan Nidhi installment after assuming office for the third time, and said he has done nobody a great favour by signing this file.

In a post on X, Congress General Secretary in-charge of Communications Jairam Ramesh said, “The one-third Pradhan Mantri has made a great show of signing his first file upon taking office – the granting of the 17th installment of the PM Kisan Nidhi funds.”

He claimed that the 16th installment of PM Kisan Nidhi was due in January, but was delayed by a month for the PM’s “electoral calculus”.

The Congress leader said the 17th installment of PM Kisan Nidhi was due in April/May, but was delayed by the enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).

Attacking the Prime Minister, Ramesh said, “The one-third Pradhan Mantri has done nobody a great favour by signing this file. These are legitimate entitlements due to farmers according to his Government’s own policy. He has made a habit of converting routine administrative decisions into some great bonanza that he is bestowing upon the people. Clearly, he still thinks of himself as not biological, but divine.”

“If he was genuinely concerned about farmer welfare, the five things he would do legal status to MSP, according to the Swaminathan Commission’s formula, farm loan waiver, guaranteed insurance payment straight to the bank account within 30 days of crop loss, no more GST on essential inputs for farming and farmers will be consulted to set up a new import-export policy,” he added.

After being sworn in as Prime Minister for the third time, Modi on Monday signed his first file authorising release of 17th instalment of PM Kisan Nidhi. This will benefit 9.3 crore farmers and distribute around Rs 20,000 crore.

“Ours is a Government fully committed to Kisan Kalyan. It is therefore fitting that the first file signed on taking charge is related to farmer welfare. We want to keep working even more for the farmers and the agriculture sector in the times to come,” the Prime Minister said after signing the file.