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More relief for farmers in the offing

	March 24, 2008

Both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi have indicated that the scope of the Rs.60,000 crore farm loan waiver package announced in the Union Budget may be extended.



Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of Parliament, on Thursday, March 20, before the House adjourned for the mid-budget session recess, the Prime Minister said the Government would not be found wanting in doing more for farmers, if need be. He was responding to the concern expressed by several retiring members of the Rajya Sabha in their farewell speeches in the House. Fifty-seven members from 17 states are completing their six-year term in April-May.



About reservation for women, Dr. Manmohan Singh said the government would continue efforts to evolve a broad-based consen¬sus to bring for consideration of Parliament the Women’s Reserva¬tion Bill.





Sonia Gandhi talks of bigger loan waiver



Addressing a rally of farmers in Maharashtra’s Osmanabad area on March 17, Congress president Sonia Gandhi said the land ceiling cap for beneficiaries of the debt waiver package ought to be increased. Echoing her son Rahul Gandhi’s suggestion, she said regions such as Vidarbha and Marathwada (of which Osmanabad is a part) had larger land holdings along with poor rainfall and noted that “benefits” of the waiver, which is capped at two hectares for small farmers now, ought to be “extended” to those in this farm distress zone.



“This issue (of extending the benefits) was raised in Par¬liament by some MPs, including Rahul Gandhi, and I hope that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram will take the appropriate steps,” Sonia Gandhi said.



Rahul Gandhi, talking on the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha, had said that the land ceiling of two hectares did not “account for land productivity” and “excluded deserving farmers in poorly-irrigated areas.”



Significantly, Sonia Gandhi’s comments on the subject come about 10 days after NCP chief and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar made similar demands at a farmer’s rally in Beed district.



Observers say a clear competition is on between the Con¬gress and the NCP to claim credit for the loan waiver in Mahar¬ashtra at the level of state units of the respective parties.



The Congress’ bid to reach out to farmers which began in full earnest before the budget is set to continue over the next two months as the party organises meetings and rallies at the district and the state level to spread the word about gover¬nment’s policies for the ‘aam aadmi’, especially the farmer.





Loan waiver a gimmick : Advani



While the Congress has been going to town on the loan waiv¬er, senior BJP leader L.K. Advani has described it as a gimmick, if viewed in its totality. Addressing a rally at Jind in Haryana on March 16, he said, “who made the farmers so debt-ridden that thousands of them in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and elsewhere were driven to suicide ?” He said 52 per cent of the rural families are still untouched by the banking sector and had to depend on private money-lenders to meet their credit needs.





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Changes in BJP organisation in poll-bound states



BJP president Rajnath Singh has announced several changes in the party to streamline it for the coming Assembly elections in various states. M. Venkaiah Naidu has been made election in¬charge of the poll-bound states of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. He has also been designated the convener of the seven-member core group of the election management committee. Anantha Kumar has been appointed secretary of the election management committee and the core group committee.



Arun Jaitley has been made incharge of Karnataka and Ravi Shankar Prasad election-in-charge of Chhattisgarh.



The core group includes Murli Manohar Joshi, Jaswant Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Ram Lal and Ananth Kumar.



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Price rise back on political centre stage



With Assembly elections approaching in several states, price rise has again come back to the political centre-stage with par¬ties finding it a handy issue to sway the people.



With the lessons of 1996 and 2004, when incumbent govern¬ments lost because of failure to check prices, still in public memory, the UPA Government at the Centre has come under attack from both within and outside over inflation. On Monday, March 17, the Left parties, whose support keeps the Government in power, took their protests to the streets. The BJP is also planning a countrywide campaign to target what it calls the failure of the Government to check the price rise.



The Congress itself, recognising the dangerous potential of the issue of price rise in swaying people, has asked the Govern¬ment to take steps to bring down prices of essential commodities. The party remembers that the Narasimha Rao government in 1996 and the Vajpayee Government in 2004 lost the elections despite high growth rates.



Addressing a demonstration outside parliament on March 17, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said price rise is the biggest problem before the country and accused the government of not taking effective steps to deal with the matter. CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan said if the Government did not take action on the Left demand for checking the price rise, there would be what he called “militant action.”



The Left Parties, which raised the issue in both Houses of Parliament, petitioned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, seeking restoration of 139 lakh tonne cut in foodgrains allocation to the states under PDS, reversing price rise in petrol and diesel by cutting excise and customs duties, ban on futures trading in all agricultural commodities and making the Essential Commodities Act more stringent. In a letter, the Left Front Committee said relaxation of the Act has given rise to rampant hoarding and black marketing.



The issue figured prominently in the BJP parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday, March 18, with Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha LK Advani asking his party colleagues to go back to their constituencies during the recess and build public opinion against the Manmohan Singh government for its failure to rein in prices of essential commodities.



“Post-budget, prices of all essential commodities, including steel, aluminium, food items, cooking oil and cement have hit the roof. The common man is facing a tough time,” BJP spokesman VK Malhotra told newspersons.



The Congress expressed concern about the increasing prices, but noted that it was influenced by several developments, includ¬ing the international market scenario. It said the Finance Min¬ister has said that every action will be taken to cap price rise of essential commodities. “However, state governments too should take responsibility and not all blame should go to the central government alone,” party spokesman Shakeel Ahmed said.





Government responsible for price rise : UNPA



The United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) has said that the Manmohan Singh Government is responsible for rising prices. UNPA convener and TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu said at a news conference in New Delhi on March 19, “the prices of essen¬tial commodities like foodgrains, fuel, construction materials have reached an alarming level. This is hurting the common man across the country. The Government’s defective policies are responsible for this situation.” Naidu said that the UNPA would be holding rallies in different parts of the country to highlight the Government’s complete failure in checking the rise in prices.



In a related development, UNPA chairman and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, has blamed the Congress for the plight of farmers in the country. Addressing a rally at Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, he said the farmers would not benefit from the loan waiver proposal in the Union Budget. He said if the Centre is sincere in resoling the problems of farmers, it should imple¬ment the Swaminathan Committee recommendation for giving farmers fifty per cent over and above the production cost for their produce.