Sreelatha Menon: Too little, too late

EAR TO THE GROUND

The Rs 60,000 crore farm loan waiver will end up helping only a few, for most farmers take loans from moneylenders rather than banks

Christmas trees bring delight to little children who actually believe that a certain guy comes at night to leave gifts for them. The mothers also don't mind indulging this fancy and fashion a tree of bells and lights before putting in the gifts they can afford to buy.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram has made some efforts to deck the annual Christmas tree for the nation with trinkets and goodies. The 'aam aadmi' is expected to take these and be happy in the belief that his life is being transformed for the better.

The Rs 60,000 crore farm loan waiver is actually a relief that could have come four years earlier and may have prevented deaths of some of the 50,000 farmers who died since then. But only some of them, for most farmers take loans from moneylenders rather than banks whose loans alone have been waived.

The waiver also is not followed by an explanation as to how the government plans to raise the money.

Farmers' organisations add another dimension to what Opposition parties are already calling a scam. The Shetkari Sanghatana of Wardha and its leader Vijay Jaiwanthia point out that the waiver does not take into account the fact that dry land farming for crops like cotton fetches petty loans of Rs 4,000 for an acre, while irrigated crops like sugarcane get loans of up to Rs 50,000 for an acre.

Vandana Shiva of Navdanya says the minister has his foot on the accelerator for the causes of farm distress, even as he pretends to be having the other foot on the brakes.

The agricultural prices commission has asked for a higher Minimum Support Price, while the M S Swaminathan committee has suggested a price stabilisation fund and a farm income guarantee package. The Budget ignores it. Instead, the seed monopoly of the biotech companies, which is throttling farmers, gets a fillip with the minister waiving all taxes on seed companies, rather than trying to promote public seed supply, says Shiva.

Bundelkhand had no rains for the last four years. Chidambaram does not see an emergency here.

Climate change gets a token mention in the Budget as a matter for research, while organic farming, which could face the challenge of the weather, is not mentioned at all.

So what is the solution? Another Rs 60,000 crore waiver at the end of another five years and 50,000 deaths?

As for the 'aam aurat', the 1.8 million women who have served the government in anganwadis in unknown villages have after 30 years got a pittance of Rs 500 from him. The children who they need to identify and attend to, the 'aam bachcha', can continue to remain malnourished as there are no incentives for identifying them and feeding them.

The Budget also skips the UPA government's last chance to fulfil the promises of the Common Minimum Programme regarding allocations for education and health.

The government now pretends to care for the aged. When it announced a tax holiday for all hospitals, it could have demanded that people over 65 be served free of cost in these hospitals. But that would be like a real Christmas gift.