I am a salaried individual employed in the ever-uncertain private sector. Like any other Aam Aadmi, I too depend on my salary to lead a decent life. I pay a whole lot of EMIs out of the salary I get every month and still manage to run a family of four in an expensive city like Bengaluru. If I fail to pay even a month's EMI, the banks will not forget to humiliate me. Yet, as a law-abiding citizen, I do all that I need to do.
But when I see the shameless politics of populism in the domains of public service or agriculture in the form of endless pay hikes even without taking into account how much progress the public sector employees make in their jobs or the frequent waiver of loans to farmers so that the vote-bank remains uninterrupted, it leaves me fuming. Why shouldn't I and people like me too demand that my house, car and education loans of my children are waived as easily? Will the government allow?
The Maharashtra government's latest move to waive farmers' loans with certain conditions to ensure that only the 'genuine' farmers are benefited and that the credit culture and the discipline are not disturbed. A similar decision by the new BJP government in UP led by Yogi Adityanath a few months ago has not delivered on lines of expectations as confusion prevailed among both farmers and banks.
Loan waiver is not economics but low-quality populist politics
There is ample possibility that the same could happen in Maharashtra. For ultimately, loan waiver is no economics but a low-grade populist politics which poses threat to the entire economy in general and the banking system in particular.
Irrespective of the party in power, loan waiver has emerged as an unofficial state policy despite objections from the Reserve Bank of India and it has ruined the habit of our farmers, just like DA hikes over the years have given birth to a sense of entitlement among even the non-performing government employees.
Farmers are willfully defaulting; this is what the loan waiver culture has made them
Reports say that this waiving loans has made farmers wilful defaulters in the hope that the loan will be eventually waived. The banks are facing a massive challenge but the government is afraid to put any monitoring mechanism in place because it would hit its rural vote-banks. Nobody really knows which farmer is actually facing the trauma in a multi-layered socio-economic structure. The parties don't even bother to see into the issue with compassion and conclude many a time that the dead farmer killed himself because of personal reasons.
The Fadnavis government has decided for the loan waiver because the BJP wants to use this opportunity to soothe feelings, call a snap poll and try to get rid of the Shiv Sena, the thorn in its flesh in Maharashtra.
BJP has Modi for me but populism for the rural
vote-bank
Do I then don't matter because I am only an individual who has no political affiliation? For India's well-educated, middle-class urban voters, the BJP has Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his out-of-the-box smartness, but to grab the votes in zones where caste and other divisions play a big role, mass-scale appeasement is what required for the government doesn't really have the time to get into the roots of the problems that are actually plaguing the country's food growers.
The Centre is not game for loan waivers but in today's India when federalism has become a strong entity, if the states ruled by the same party give a damn to economics and continue with the vote-catching tactics at the peril of our survival, then there is something seriously wrong.
The government is taking me for a ride because I am faceless and without a unity which can pose a threat to its existence. I can't burn tyres on the streets and can only cast my vote. But given the character of India's democracy where collectives matter more than individuals, there is virtually no chance of me taking a revenge against the government for not waiving my loans.
Alas! Had I listened to my parents and gone for a government job.
