Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi virtually launched the Congress party's election campaign here on Sunday with a frontal attack on the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), blaming it directly for the distress in the agrarian sector. Accusing the NDA of neglect of farmers, the Prime Minister repeatedly "promised' that funds would be made available for the Rs. 60,000 crore farm loan waiver scheme announced in the Union budget this year. "I don't consider this a burden but as a duty of the government. I assure you that the programme would be implemented by June 2008, ' he told a rally of farmers, mostly from Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Jointly addressing a "Thanksgiving-Felicitation' rally at the Ramlila grounds here, Dr. Singh detailed the "historic' steps taken by the government for farmers and claimed that this would give a "new direction' to the agriculture sector. In his 20-minute address, he addressed doubts about the availability of resources for the loan waiver scheme. In a sharp criticism of the previous NDA government, Dr. Singh said that in 2004, despite being in distress and not getting remunerative prices for their produce, farmers produced grains in surplus. But the government wanted to empty the godowns and sold off the grains in the international markets at subsidised rates. "This was called India Shining.' However, Dr. Singh, Ms. Gandhi and convener of the UPA-Left joint committee on the India-U.S. nuclear deal, Pranab Mukherjee, refrained from any mention of the nuclear deal. Ms. Gandhi's brief but hard-hitting speech set the agenda for the election campaign. She said the only reason for farmers' unhappiness and distress was the policies of the NDA government. "What have they done for farmers that they are now shedding crocodile tears for them?' Hitting out at the Bharatiya Janata Party for charging the Prime Minister with being soft on terrorism, Ms. Gandhi declared that the UPA did not need a certificate from a Home Minister [L.K. Advani] during whose tenure there were numerous terrorist attacks from Kandahar, to Red Fort, Parliament, Raghunath temple and Akshardham. Stressing the need for national and social integration, she said efforts to divide the nation on regional, religious lines should be dealt with firmly.