Page 25 - English Tehelka Issue 12 - June 30, 2018

CoverStory FARM LOAN WAIVERS

arnataka that has seen four successive more of a pattern that the bureaucracy and the sys- only can help the farmers increase their incomes. by the CACP. Several of his other recommendations
years of drought has also seen suicides tems in place see to it that promises made by politi- He is still hopeful that the government will come out continue to be ignored.
by 3515 farmers between 2013 and 2017. cians remain that – lofty but empty promises. with a new agriculture product pricing policy and Just consider what Swaminathan’s suggestion,
K Farmers in the state have been demand- But politics over the farmer continue unabated as help the farmers double their income. creation of special agricultural zones to conserve
ing waiver of all loans as they had lost all crops in this is a huge vote bank every political party is eyeing Swaminathan has a plan that he asserts can dou- prime farm land, could have done to prevent the
the past four years. Even when crops were not lost, in elections. ble the farmers’ income by 2022 and has made pres- agricultural lands from being handed over to un-
crash in prices led them into deeper debt. The crop So, it is not a surprise that the BJP’s chief minis- entations on this several times. scrupulous industrialists and possible fly-by-night
loans alone stand at a whopping 53,000 crore and terial candidate Yeddyurappa wooed the farming The farmers across the country may not have met operators. Why, some lands allotted to industrial-
the sum total of all borrowings by farmers (for per- community with his own loan waiver promise. It was him or heard him speak. But everyone knows the ists lie vacant many years after they took possession,
sonal and family expenses) is well over double this bettered by Kumaraswamy, who eventually became Swaminathan formula, made a household word by fuelling rumours that the lands were being hoarded
amount. the CM with Congress help and promised waiver of the BJP in the last general elections of 2014. with an eye on speculative real estate market.
Janata Dal (S) had promised waiver of loans dur- all loans of the farmers, even those taken from na- The government has done precious little to im- The only reason for treating industry and indus-
ing electioneering as did the Congress and the BJP tionalised banks. plement the Swaminathan formula for fixing agri- trialists with kid gloves when compared with the
too. In fact, last year, the then Chief Minister S Sid- With drought and farmers suicides the major farmers is that the farmers
daramaiah waived crop loans of up to 50,000 bor- issue in rural Karnataka, loan waiver politics had are neither organised nor
rowed by farmers from government run cooperative heated up during the elections and even after the articulate enough like in-
banks. But many farmers were left out as they took elections. dustry and their lobbying
loans from the nationalised banks and the RRBs. But for the farmers, there is no respite whether bodies and chambers.
Naturally, now the farmers in Karnataka are seek- in Karnataka or in states ruled by the BJP. The agrar- Often this aspect plays
ing a full loan waiver from the new government of ian distress continues and farmers are committing out in real life when a bank-
Kumaraswamy and apply same procedure for loans suicides, unable to fight anymore given the adverse er who does not even dare
taken from all financial institutions. The Chief Min- terms of trade they suffer vis-à-vis other sectors of to call up an industrialist
ister is yet to implement his promise, though he said the economy. Every political party makes promises would confiscate a tractor
he was keen to waive off loans as he had promised. only to break them. of a farmer even though he
Meanwhile, Kumaraswamy’s predecessor, the The farmers were swayed when as PM candidate may have fallen behind just
two-day Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa, demanded Narendra Modi had promised profitable MSP to the a single instalment. There
the immediate loan waiver as promised by Kumar- farm produce on the basis of the Swaminathan Com- are surely many farmers
aswamy or else face action. The BJP did act — spon- mittee report. But four years into his term, the prime who defaulted on loans,
sored a state-wide bandh on May 28 that evoked tep- minister is yet to come good on this promise, by and but the issue is why are the
id response in the state, barring in its strong holds. large. There could be in some instances where this banks and financial institu-
But can Kumaraswamy afford to waive off loans promise was kept, but not many seem to have ben- tions have dual standards to
and more important who will bear the burden? In efitted going by the nation-wide anger of the farming deal with loan applicants on
the Congress led Punjab, as CM candidate Captain community. the basis of their profession?
Amrinder Singh promised loan waivers during elec- Tamil Nadu farmers, who agitated for few months So, the farmer eventually
tioneering but found out that the Centre abandoned in Delhi and could not get even a minute of the is dependent on the infor-
the state and refused to foot the bill for this subsidy. Prime Minister’s time more to draw attention to mal banking channels — the
Regardless, the BJP goes to town on loan waiv- their plight, question this gross neglect of the An- money lender — where the
ers itself when it comes to campaigns for elections nadata by the leaders when in government. Out of processes are not cumber-
anywhere — like in Uttar Pradesh last year when government, like Rahul Gandhi now, they speak a some but the cost of loans is
the party swept the state and made Yogi Adityanath different language is the lament of the farmers. very high. Gradually a mar-
the Chief Minister. As CM he signed the loan waiver It is not that all these leaders, advised by respec- ginal farmer find himself in
scheme with much fanfare, but the ground reality, tive party experts and a battery of agronomists and cultural produce price — largely through the mini- a financial mess from which he cannot get out and
the beneficiaries found was in sharp contrast – it policy makers, don’t know the answers. But it seems mum support price (MSP) mechanism, which is 50 many farmers have taken their lives due to growing
turned into a poor joke with few farmers getting a as if they don’t care and that farmers anger was just per cent more than the comprehensive cost of cul- indebtedness.
loan waiver of few Rupees and even less. another occupational hazard for politicians. tivation as determined the Commission for Agricul- What the Swaminathan Committee suggestions
There was this farmer in the state who got Paise 19 Otherwise, nothing can explain as to why a well- ture Costs and Prices (CACP). This was first suggested do is to improve the income of the farmer by turning
as loan waiver, that exemplifies loan waiver scheme documented, well-argued and well-presented report by the National Commission for Farmers constituted the terms of trade in his favour and also addressing
of a government, this time of Uttar Pradesh gov- on doubling farmers’ income by agricultural scien- under the previous UPA government in 2007. Swa- the issue of cost of finance.
ernment. Yogi and his ministers and a host of BJP tist MS Swaminathan continues to gather dust, all minathan headed the panel. One must admit that the governments have tried
spokespersons on television dodged the question through the regimes of the two principal political The ruling Bharatiya Janata party had in its 2014 to implement the committee report in bits and piec-
but the farmer on the field knows, “even god was not parties of the country — the Congress and now the election manifesto promised to implement Swami- es but for a worthwhile result, there has to be a holis-
helping them.” BJP. nathan formula but has so far failed to do that. tic approach to achieve the goal of making the life of
Why, even in other governments led by differ- Meanwhile the father of the Green Revolution The MSP for rabi crops to be grown in 2017-19 the farmer better.
ent political parties, had similarly doled out pittance and the author of the report, Swaminathan himself announced last month was less than 40 per cent of
as farm loan waivers for individual farmers. So, it is laments that a prudent agriculture pricing policy their average comprehensive cost as determined letters@tehelka.com

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