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Fight for debt waiver credit |
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Political parties have started fighting over who is to take the credit for the massive loan waiver for farmers announced in the Union Budget.
The Congress was the first to get off the mark with a farm¬ers’ rally in New Delhi on March 9 where both party president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh projected the relief measure as a demonstration of the UPA regime’s commitment to the farming community. They said that the debt waiver is the Congress-led government’s way of undoing what they called the damage done to the farm sector by the erstwhile BJP-led NDA government’s policies. Sonia Gandhi alleged that the BJP was now shedding ‘crocodile tears’ over farmers’ issues and claimed that the only reason for the distress of the farming community is the policy framework pursued by the previous NDA government. Dr. Manmohan Singh said, the NDA regime treated the farmers as a burden and did not do anything for their welfare.
On the BJP campaign against the UPA regime on terror at¬tacks, Sonia Gandhi said that the BJP criticism is like the pot calling the kettle black. Referring to the Kandahar episode, she said, “We know under which government and under which Home Min¬ister the episode took place. The UPA Government does not need a certificate from the NDA on this front.”
Carrying forward the Congress criticism of the NDA role in increasing the difficulties faced by the farmers, Finance Min¬ister P. Chidambaram pointed out in Parliament on Friday, March 14, that prices of farm produce were kept very low during the NDA regime and this contributed massively to the agrarian crisis. where a large number of farmers committed suicide when they were unable to repay their debts.
Rahul Gandhi for flexibility in loan waiver norms
Speaking in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, March 13, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi called for flexibility in the norms for farm loan waiver announced in the Union Budget. He said the Government could consider making the land ceiling for debt relief a variable based upon land productivity. He sought a more liberal dispensation for dry land areas such as Vidharb¬ha, region of Maharashtra, where productivity is low because of lack of irrigation.
While the Congress sought to project the Union Budget as an indication of its pro-common man orientation, the BJP and the Left parties competed with each other to dub the UPA Government’s policies and the Budget as anti-people.
While the government came under fire from the BJP over price-rise, the Left parties warned that it will have to pay a heavy political price for its economic policies.
The CPI, which based its argument on the lack of inclusive growth during a debate on the budget in the Lok Sabha, said the growing billionaires club contrasted with the condition of the common man. Pointing at the ruling benches, CPI member C K Chan¬drappan tried to drive home the point that the government was surviving on the Left support which was based on promises in CMP.
Even as the Congress has been patting itself on the back on the waiver of farmers’ loans, Chandrappan said the budget had not taken enough measures to overcome the agrarian crisis. He said the government has not implemented 4% rate of interest on farm loans, a proposal which has also been made by the M S Swami¬nathan Commission.
At a press conference, his party colleagues, Gurudas Dasgup¬ta, D Raja and Sudhakar Reddy said the budget has not been able to contain inflation and that prices of essential commodities were on the rise.
The BJP too charged the government with complete failure to rein in prices of essential commodities, which, it claimed, had sky-rocketed after the presentation of the general budget. It felt that the escalating prices, and their impact on the aam aadmi, would form an important plank in the coming round of elections, and drew plans to capitalise on the “growing disaffec¬tion” among the people because of it.
“Post-budget, prices have shown an upward climb. Essential commodities, especially food items and cooking oil, had become costlier by as much as 25% since then,” alleged BJP parliamentary party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra.
On its part, the CPI(M) said that it will strongly oppose any move to disinvest public sector companies to generate funds to pay for the farm loan waiver. CPI(M) politburo member Brinda Karat, speaking during a debate on the budget in the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of Parliament, said that the Left will strongly oppose any Government move to use PSU funds for the loan waiver. Attacking the Government for failing to check rising prices, she described most of the provisions in the budget as half-hearted and tokenist.
The BJP said that it will organise Kisan rallies nationwide from this month to highlight what it called “the UPA Government’s anti-farmer polices and “cheating” of the farming community in the form of the Rs.60,000 crore debt waiver package. BJP leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra, initiating a discussion on the general budget in the Lok Sabha on March 12 said that 85 per cent of the small and marginal farmers would be outside the ambit of the debt waiver.
The United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) has said that the debt waiver package should be extended to all farmers. Four former Chief Ministers belonging to constituent parties of the UNPA, speaking in Jaipur on March 9, described the loan waiver as a “fraud perpetrated on farmers who they said were facing a crisis because of what they called the UPA government’s pro-rich policies.” The UNPA leaders led by its chairperson, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, demanded that the debt relief package be extended to all farmers and steps taken to make farming profitable. Besides Mulayam Singh Yadav, former Chief Ministers Om Prakash Chautala of Haryana, Chandraba¬bu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh and Babu Lal Marandi of Jharkhand addressed the rally.
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