Economist Manmohan to politician Manmohan

The Finance Minister, Mr. P. Chidambaram, has, in consultation with the Agricultural Minister (plus cricket mal-administrator) Mr. Sharad Pawar, decided to waive of Rs. 60,000 crore of bad farm loans. This is applicable for those who have borrowed from government banking institutions. This move is absolutely acceptable considering the amount of distress farmers are facing. Some of this distress is because of the government's own policies. Changes in such policies are time-to-time scuttled by powerful lobbies, thus depriving the farmer of any reform. For e.g. the Agricultural Market Produce Committee (APMC) act says that the farmers can sell their produce only through the APMC of the city. This virtually creates a monopoly and hence denies farmers a fair price that gets decided by open competition.

Coming back to the loan waiver. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh said that the loan waiver was necessitated by the distress created due to the previous government's anti-farmer policies. Did the government notice the effect of the anti-farmer policies in the last year of its term? If yes, it is guilty of sleeping over such an important issue and should be promptly punished for doing so. If no, then the farm-loan waiver is nothing short of a political gimmick. But then why did Dr. Manmohan Singh have to say this? Most of the country (and this includes those who are anti-Congress and the mass voters) respects him because of his honesty. Why did he have to stoop to such low-level accusations? Even the farmers who are really going to benefit from the loan waiver are intelligent enough to realise that Dr. Singh's statement is nothing but pure politics. The question that should be asked to the UPA government is why did they take around four years to announce the waiver of farmers' loans, if they feel that this was necessitated because of the flawed policies of the previous regime. The UPA government did know the NDA government's policies, so there arises no question of ignorance. For the sake of a few votes, a person of the PM's stature should not make statements which can be doubted by even an 18-year old person.

Dr. Singh, India would be more happy if you can achieve more inclusive growth without getting involved in any kind of mud slinging. Also, please do something for those farmers who were honest enough to repay their loans in time. Please do not falsify the adage- "Honesty is the best policy".