Agriculture Loan Waiver: BJP Doesn’t Keep The Promises It Makes. Read The Data.

Earlier this week, Union ministers Jual Oram and Dharmendra Pradhan said that farmers’ loans would be waived off if the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) is voted to power in Odisha in 2019 elections. They were speaking at the party’s farmer’s wing meeting.

Eyeing the 2019 elections in the state, Oram said, ”All farm loans will be waived immediately in Odisha if the BJP forms the government in the state after the Assembly elections in 2019.”

Let’s have a closer look at the situation in BJP ruled states where the state governments had announced similar partial or complete waivers of farmers’ loans. 

UTTAR PRADESH

In its manifesto for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the BJP had promised that if voted to power, all farm loans would be waived off and that future farm loans would be provided at 0% interest.

After BJP came to power

Soon after he came to power, U.P. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath reduced the scale of his promise. Now he said he would waive off crop loans of up to Rs 1 lakh of small and marginal farmers in the state. 

The party had also decided to write off Rs.5,630 crore in non-performing assets (NPAs) of 700,000 farmers. These together, would cost the government Rs 36,359 crore.

Ground Reality

The BJP had promised loan waiver to “all’ marginal farmers but after forming the government, it limited the maximum amount that could be waived to Rs 1 lakh, leaving out many marginal farmers.

While it was claimed that these waivers would benefit around 7 million farmers, the number of actual beneficiaries came to be nearly half of the projected figure. 

• Many of the eligible beneficiary farmers received waivers of amounts as petty as Re 1 or Rs 1.50
• According to state figures, out of 11,93,000 farmers whose loans were waived off during the first phase of the scheme, 34,262 received loan waivers worth Rs 1 to Rs 1000. Out of these, 4,814 received Rs 1 to Rs 100.
• More than 9 lakh complaints were registered by farmers claiming that they got a loan waiver certificate but the banks were continuing to deduct the loan amount from their accounts.
• Farmers also complained that banks were taking back the money that was handed out to the farmers under the Uttar Pradesh crop loan waiver scheme.
• In Allahabad district, around 82,000 farmers were reportedly identified as eligible for the loan waiver. However, after three rounds of verification, only 49,600 farmers benefited from a total loan waiver of Rs 275 crore. The remaining 32,300 received no relief.

RAJASTHAN

In September 2017, a massive protest broke out in the state and the farmers put forth various demands.

The Vasundhara Raje government had then acceded to 11 demands including the demand for a complete farm loan waiver.

However, in February this year, the Rajasthan government announced a one-time loan waiver of up to Rs 50,000 for small and marginal farmers. A marginal farmer is one who cultivates agricultural land up to one hectare. Whereas, a small farmer is who cultivates agricultural land between one to two hectares. 

Therefore, this waiver is limited to farmers owning land up to two hectares only. 

The move has angered farmers, who have staged various protests since then and have accused the BJP government of making a U-turn on its promises.

UTTARAKHAND

In February 2017, the BJP had promised to waive loans of small and marginal farmers in its manifesto. The party had also promised to give interest-free loans to small and marginal farmers in the state.

However, in November 2017, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat ruled out any loan waivers for farmers and said that his government would instead give farmers loans at a nominal interest rate.

Rawat had said in a press conference, “We cannot afford to waive farmers’ loans in the state. The government is already reeling under a debt of Rs 45,000 crore. Our government has decided to give loans to farmers at two per cent interest, which they can use for any activities.”

MAHARASHTRA

In June 2017, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had promised to implement by October 31, 2017, the “biggest” farm loan waiver in the state’s history.

The announcement had come after a week-long protest staged by the farmers in the state. 

In March, 2018, Fadnavis government released a list of beneficiaries of the state’s farm loan waiver scheme. Interestingly, this list has not been made public yet and was only shared among government officials via a pen drive. 

FirstPost was able to gain access to the pen drive. The data presented by state co-operation minister Subhash Deshmukh claims that an “amount of Rs 13,580 crore has been disbursed to 35.32 lakh farmers in their respective accounts till date.”

Ajit Navale, general secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha, had told FirstPost, “The farmers were promised a loan waiver package of Rs 34,000 crore by the Fadnavis government. However, in reality, a much smaller amount has been deposited in the farmers’ accounts.” 

Shortly after, farmers in Maharashtra once again staged a protest demanding complete loan waiver from BJP government. This time, around 35,000 distressed farmers walked almost 200 km for nearly 150 hours to meet CM Fadnavis, in a much publicized ‘long march’. 

The protest was called off after Fadnavis government made yet another promise of an unconditional loan waiver for farmers who did not qualify for any financial relief under the scheme last year. There is no information yet, on what has been done on this front. 

It seems that announcing farm loan waivers has become the BJP’s modus operandi for luring farmers. Instead of the loan waivers they need, farmers are handed out generous promises and even more generous betrayals. BJP is incurring a debt of it’s own and come election season, the farmers will pay this one back.