Note ban saved villages from wasteful expenditure: Virendra Singh

Singh, the Bharatiya Janata Party Kisan Morcha's chief, says note ban is a 'blessing in disguise'

In an interview, VIRENDRA SINGH, Bharatiya Janata Party Kisan Morcha chief and Lok Sabha member from Bhadohi, Uttar Pradesh, tells Archis Mohan how demonetisation had been a blessing in disguise for farmers: Edited Excerpts: 

You said at the BJP national executive meet that demonetisation has helped farmers. How?

People who don’t understand villages and agriculture are claiming that demonetisation has impacted farmers. The facts state otherwise. Pulses had already been sown when note ban was announced, wheat and mustard was sown in subsequent days. The acreage of rabi crop has increased. Villages are already on ‘less cash’ system as they follow a barter system. Demonetisation has been a blessing in disguise for farmers. It has reduced wastage of money.

What kind of wastage?

For example, in the wedding season farmers take loans to organise ostentatious functions. They spend on fireworks, expensive food and on liquor. This stopped. Also, people in villages increasingly use motorbikes and other motorised transport to travel even short distances. Note ban forced them to walk, which also has health benefits. What demonetisation has really done is to put a stop to the splurging by the ‘new rich’, like the Bahjuan Samaj Party supporters who roam about in big cars. It has put a spoke in the speed of their wheels.

But there were protests in several parts of the country and farmers threw their produce, particularly vegetables, on roads.

These were stage managed. These vegetables were from cold storages, and thrown as this time there was a bumper crop of vegetables.

But shouldn’t the government think about a loan waiver for farmers?

We are not in favour of a loan waiver to farmers. The last loan waiver (by the UPA government in 2008) rewarded the dishonest who weren’t repaying their instalments, while sent a wrong message to honest farmers. It dented the prestige associated with putting in a hard day’s work. Do we want to turn our farmers into freeloaders?

Instead of a loan waiver, I would request the government to do away with the concept of minimum support price, replace it with the provision of ‘profitable support price’.