Political Diary
New
Delhi, 25 December 2018
Farm
Loan Waivers
IT’S
PEOPLE’S MONEY, NOT MINE, YAAR!
By
Poonam I Kaushish
It was a perfect electoral cake rolled out by
the Congress to the strains of ‘Vote For Me.’ Iced with luscious lip-smacking loan
waiver for the debt-ridden kisan. Wherein,
sound economic sense was surrendered to political gamesmanship with reckless abundant
as a populist sop yields better electoral rewards than reasoned issues and
sustainable programmes. Who cares? After
all in rajniti, public funds
translate into netas spending our money!
Predictably, post victory in Madhya Pradesh,
Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh the Congress with a flourish waived of farmers loans
of Rs 38,000 crores, Rs 18,000 crores and Rs 6,100 crores respectively. BJP-ruled
Assam followed with Rs 600 crores and Jharkhand, as had Maharashtra earlier writing
of Rs 34,500 crores.
Then the blame game started. While Prime
Minister Modi blamed the Congress for the agrarian crisis in the country, Congress’s
Rahul asserted he will not let NaMo sleep until all farms loans have been
waived. It is another matter the Niti Aayog went against the grain giving a
thumbs down to the farm loan waivers as it aids just 10-15% of farmers and the
rest don’t have access to institutional loans. “It is a deadly poison, it’s a
wrong way of addressing the real issue,” added a bank Chief
Raising a moot point: Where do they get
monies to fund these doles? Obviously, by taxing us, the people. Should our
hard-earned tax money be used to boost a Parties electoral votebanks? Shouldn’t leaders or their Parties pay for it
from their pockets or funds? Should loans be waived?
Notably, given the economic logic that there
is no such thing as a free lunch, a populist scheme is invariably paid for
either in the form of higher taxes or increasing inflation. Underscoring that
what ails India and its burgeoning poor is not poverty, which can be corrected,
but the ruthless heartlessness of our netagan
who not only lack humility but also empathy for the garib. Worse, it exposes their sheer ennui and paucity of ideas
along-with accentuating their moral bankruptcy. And a perspective completely
divorced from reality.
True, it can be argued netas are obliged to be seen as populist in the no-holds-barred
free-for-all electoral race, as it would be stupid to wish away political
lollipops to entice the electorate. But do our narcissist leaders need to act
like modern-day feudal maharajas?
Whereby, they expect the aam janata
to prostrate before them and dole out money which doesn’t belong to them.
Certainly it is nobody case that farmers or
rural poverty should be ignored. However, the harsh truth is that political
promises in the economic sphere should not cross the prudence limits, where it
starts hurting the economy as a whole. Notwithstanding, assurances of loan
waivers, or cheap rice, free electricity can be justified on the grounds of farmers
suicide and acute poverty.
Plainly, we pay taxes for the growth and
development of the country, for better educational institutions, health care,
hospitals, infrastructure etc. The only
long-term solution to the farming crisis lies in a good agriculture policy, boosting
labour-intensive industrialisation to absorb excess farm labour and moving to
schemes such as Telangana’s Rythu Bandhu
which provides investment support to farmers up front. Alongside state of art
storage facilities to ensure farmers produce does not rot, cold chains and crop
insurance.
Besides, there is always a question to what
extent this relief measure helps bring farmers out of indebtedness and
suffering. Since waivers are instant temporary relief from debt preventing
suicides, it has largely failed to contribute to farmers’ welfare in the long
term, filled with lack of proper monitoring, transparency and accountability, reducing
the effectiveness of loan waivers. Also, waivers are not a permanent solution
for agriculture until fundamental problems are solved.
Given the level of dishonesty, populism and
irresponsibility which increasingly governs our politics, these waivers are an
invitation to disaster. None sees the danger of economic derailment as the
biggest loser are the farmers, poor, weak and under-privileged in whose name
many freebies are justified.
By providing free candies to the voters the
masses have become dependent on the politicians with the result that there is
no true empowerment. This has resulted in the people not being able to
critically evaluate their own leaders.
Sadly, there is no agency which can stop
public funds from being wasted, despite views expressed by committees. Thus,
given the level of dishonesty, populism and irresponsibility which increasingly
governs our political system along-with a leech-infested environment of the uundata takes it all, our carpetbaggars
refuse to let up.
Making it imperative for us to have a code of
governance and conduct of ethics to minimize our polity’s violations of
regulations including unjustified misuse of public funds. Time now, for our
leaders to realize that populism will only provide immediate succour at the
expense of the future. It is no remedy for neglect, faulty priorities in
industrialization and under-investment in rural areas.
They need to concentrate on the big picture.
Wherein, energies are channelized to address poverty through faster,
broad-based growth, supported by well-functioning delivery mechanisms. The
effort must be to reduce the number of people in need of handouts.
Pertinently, in the Subramaniam Balaji vs Tamil Nadu Government case in May
2013, the Supreme Court directed the Election Commission to frame guidelines to
restrain Parties from promising freebies to voters, so as to maintain a level
playing field during elections. “Distribution of freebies shakes the root of
free and fair elections to a large degree,” it underscored Even as it observed
nothing under Section 123 of The Representation of the People Act barred
Parties from promising voters freebies in their manifestos.
With polls due next year, one way is to make
it obligatory for Parties to inform the EC where the money will come from to
implement the free giveaways and if they will raise taxes, reduce allocation
for these programmes once in power.
Two, it would be more beneficial for Parties
to offer people permanent solutions to their problem in their election
manifestos instead of a slew of seemingly advantageous, but temporary stop-gap
measures. Three, the EC needs to penalize Parties who use the quick
exploitative mechanism to win people’s votes.
Clearly, care should be taken to draw a
distinction between welfarism and populism. Welfarism takes into account the
needs of different sections of society as a part of a large development
framework. Populism is purely guided by vote banks. Albeit, granting
concessions which have no economic rationale and are not part of the larger
economic planning, as enunciated by a Government.
Unfortunately, our policy-makers have been
unable to perceive the reality of the situation. They have consistently failed
to evolve a strategy of development which would take into account our pluralism
and fluctuating economic disparities.
It is time now for the netas to realize that liberalization and populism do not go hand in
hand. The aam aadmi is no fool. Each
populist slogan only accentuates his growing awareness. Public accountability
is indispensable in a democratic set-up. A Government cannot afford to throw
away public money on private populist whims. The time to draw a ‘lakshman rekha’ on vote bank politics
and junk farm loan waivers. What says you? ---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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