Waiver Mirage

Congress President Rahul Gandhi is touting the ‘immediate’ loan waiver for farmers by the MP Government as a ‘great achievement’. He has asked why the BJP State Governments had not done this during their rule. He has expressed his resolve to pressure the Union Government to waive farmers’ loans in the entire country. This is despite having conceded that the reasons for the ‘agrarian crisis’ are many and have a complex solution.
Obviously, Rahul has reasons to believe that the promised loan waiver brought him the winning votes in the recently conducted assembly elections, so he wishes to extend his ‘generosity’ to the rest of the country. However, this populism comes at a heavy price. It is only a matter of time before his party governments that deliver on the promise will begin to feel the pinch. He has not been asked, as yet, where the money will come from and it will be interesting to see what answer is concocted by his spin masters. But, the fact is simple and harsh, it is the taxpayers who will have to pay for it! The money for the waivers will be diverted from other heads and the people will pay through reduced availability of necessary services and infrastructure. Sadly, the farmers will not benefit, at all, as the basic problem will not have been addressed.
All those economists and environmentalists that go on about the ‘agrarian crisis’ should be the first to protest if they really understand the reasons for it. The NDA Government at the Centre has worked for the past four and a half years to correct the deficiencies in the system in the attempt to build up the rural economy. It is important that farmers make the right choices and adopt the right practices, even if it involves some radical changes. Subsidies and other kinds of support have to shore up these efforts, not encourage bad practices and push them further into dependency.
Rahul’s comparison of the loan waivers with the measures taken to resolve public sector banks’ NPAs merely reveals, either a lack of understanding, or a deliberate attempt to mislead the people. He is merely feeding off the hate for the business class that the many years of parasitic Socialism has instilled in the Indian psyche. Prime Minister Modi has worked hard to introduce sound economic principles so that India’s growth matches its potential. India cannot afford to be the third world country that the Congress seems determined to reverse it into.