Congress young turk Rahul Gandhi kickstarted his five-day yatra atop Biligirangana Hills by blaming the previous BJP-led NDA government for not coming to rescue of the ailing farming community.

“The present Government has put the great effort to maintain the balance and also by extending a succour to farmers in the form of loan waiver which the earlier Government had failed to do. It tilted towards the other side (the rich),” he stated while interacting with dalit youths at Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra on B R Hills.

Rahul was given a warm welcome by Soligas by performing a traditional tribal dance and garlanding him with colourful forest flowers.

He also tried to appease the sentiments of a large section of farmers who do not qualify for the loan waiver scheme. “While framing a policy, its financial implications need to be seriously considered or the whole system will collapse,” he stated. He said he is against extending loan waiver based on uniform acreage system. In agriculture, it is not important as to how much land a farmer owns but the productivity.

Rahul assured that he will stand by the State and will take up its cause in Delhi, while responding to a question by a dalit youth who alleged that Centre is discriminating against the State when it comes to allotment of funds for schemes. Rahul’s tough talk brought big smiles in the face of number of State Congress leaders, Union Minister Prithviraj Chavan, KPCC President Mallikharjuna Kharge, Siddaramaiah, Srinivas Prasad and others. Later at a function organised by VGKK, Rahul hailed the effort by the tribals in protecting the environment. Hundreds of Soligas participating in the function cheered when he said “Tribals never damage forest. In fact they protect.”

He exhorted youth to come forward and take up the leadership. He later took out a road show criss-crossing several taluk headquarters in Chamarajnagar and Mysore districts.

The entire Muttugada Gadde podu (a tribal colony of Soligas) atop B R Hills wore a festive look on Tuesday morning, when Rahul arrived here to have his breakfast.

The Soligas gave him a warm welcome by performing Gorukana Kunitha (a dance normally performed before tribal gods). For breakfast Rahul was served Soligas staple diet : Ragi rotti, honey and sweet potato. He kept all his followers, barring State Youth Congress leader Krishna Byre Gowda, out of the house when he had the breakfast. Rahul asked questions in English and Krishna translated it in Kannada. “He humbly ate whatever we gave. He sat on a plastic mat. He also enquired us about our work and life,” Madamma, Jade Gowda’s wife, said.

An elated Jade Gowda said: “Never in my wildest dream had I thought that Rahul Gandhi would visit my house.” Even as the SPG personnel were shoving away everyone in the way of the convoy, he suddenly stepped out of the car to interact with tribal children.