How Rahul Gandhi cornered BJP-RSS on farm debt waiver

His outreach to farmers in UP forces RSS to pressure Amit Shah into promising relief in the party's state poll manifesto

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi has put the Narendra Modi government, particularly the larger Sangh Parivar, on the defensive with his aggressive advocacy of farm loan waiver for farmers of poll-bound states of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its affiliate Bharatiya Kisan Sangh have asked Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah to consider promising relief for the farm sector in the party’s poll manifesto for Uttar Pradesh. The issue, according to sources, came up for discussion during an RSS meeting in Hyderabad in the third week of October.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his ministers and BJP leaders have focused their speeches in UP around building a nationalist fervour in the wake of the surgical strikes by the Indian Army, Gandhi has persisted with his outreach to farmers in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.

The larger Sangh Parivar is wary that it could lose its agrarian support base if the Modi government and BJP continues to ignore the lessons from Gandhi’s nearly a month long ‘kisan yatra’ in Uttar Pradesh in September-October. Congress chief ministerial candidate Amarinder Singh in Punjab has also promised a debt waiver within 100 days of forming the government. Those in the Sangh argue that rural wages haven't kept pace with wages in urban areas in recent years. They have said that the Modi government schemes are yet to reach the poor and the Centre's discouraging signals on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) has hurt the party's image. In such a scenario, a debt waiver could be an effective measure to provide succour to the farm sector.

This is the second time in two years that the Congress Vice President has succeeded in rattling the BJP and the Sangh Parivar on an issue that has a direct impact on the lives of farmers. In February 2015, Gandhi had protested the Modi government’s land Bill. He had then termed the Modi government a ‘suit-boot ki sarkar’, a government of moneybags. Sangh affiliates Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, Swadeshi Jagaran Manch and Kisan Sangh had also opposed the land Bill, which the government was eventually forced to drop.

Not that the Modi government is unaware of the need to reach out to the farmers and poor. It doesn't want a repeat of 'India Shining' of 2004. The government is celebrating the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya centenary as the ‘garib kalyan varsh’, year for the welfare of the poor and downtrodden. But its political messaging has been biased towards fanning nationalistic fervour and raising such issues as ‘triple talaq’.

In Punjab, it isn’t just the Congress but also Aam Aadmi Party that has sensed the agrarian distress in the state and reacting positively to the situation on the ground. However, ministers in the Modi government are not positively disposed towards such measures as farm loan waiver.

Opinion is also divided among experts whether debt waivers ease farm distress. They point to the effects on banks reeling from mounting bad debts and the effect on state finances. They also doubt whether the benefits of loan write-offs reach the intended beneficiaries.

Others say loan waivers are the only realistic solution to farmer indebtedness, particularly when returns from farming are low and public investment in the sector is dismal.

But such warnings have not deterred politicians from promising and often delivering debt waivers. In one of her first decisions after being re-elected, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa issued orders to waive Rs 5,780 crore of loans taken by small and marginal farmers from cooperative banks.

Gandhi has pressed the Narendra Modi government at the Centre for a farm loan waiver worth Rs 49,000 crore in Uttar Pradesh, a seventh of the state government’s budget of Rs 3, 46,935 crore in 2016-17.
 
Congress leaders in Punjab have threatened an agitation if the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP government does not announce a Rs  57,000 crore waiver.  Punjab Agriculture University estimates the total farm indebtedness in the state at Rs 69,355 crore. Of the Punjab’s government’s 2016-17 budget of Rs 86,387 crore, Rs 5,600 crore was allocated as a free power subsidy to farmers. The Punjab government’s finances are in a mess and it will be an uphill task for any future governments to deliver on a debt waiver.

During his public meetings in Uttar Pradesh, Gandhi points to the Rs 65,000 crore farm loan waiver announced by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance in 2008. The Congress tally in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections was 145, which increased to 206 in 2009. Gandhi is also telling farmers the Modi government has waived Rs 1.14 lakh crore loans to companies.