Karnataka on Wednesday, June 21, followed in the footsteps of Maharashtra, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, waiving loans to the tune of Rs 8,165 crore for more than 22 lakh marginal farmers across the state.
While there had indeed been a demand for farm loan waiver in the state, it had nowhere near been as high-pitched as in some of the other states.
As a result, political rivals of the Congress will possibly see this as a move by Karnataka Chief minister Siddaramaiah to cash in on the farmer vote bank ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.
What Siddaramaiah said
The Karnataka chief minister took to Twitter on Wednesday to reveal the loan waiver decision. Siddaramaiah wrote on the social networking platform: "Our Govt is committed to empower farmers thru our policies, innovations &support, especially during acute drought towards #EmpoweringKtaka [sic]."
He then went on to quantify the terms of the loan waiver, saying: "In these critical times, our govt will waive farmer loans upto Rs. 50000, availed till 20/06/2017 from cooperative banks. #EmpoweringKtaka [sic]."
Siddaramaiah added: "Loans worth Rs. 8165 crores will be waived, benefitting 22,27,506 farmers across state. We know that empowering farmers is #EmpoweringKtaka [sic]."
He also urged the Central government to tell banks to waive farmer loans in Karnataka. He wrote on Twitter: "On behalf of our farmers, I request @PMOIndia to consider the acute drought & waive farmer loans from commercial banks. #EmpoweringKtaka [sic]."
The political push
A loan waiver just before election year should paint the Congress in good light in the state. The move is definitely populist, and has the potential to earn Siddaramaiah and his party quite some electoral mileage. After all, he is the chief ministerial candidate of his party.
Meanwhile, it is the last part of what he said on Twitter that could paint political rivals — especially the BJP — in bad light. Siddaramaiah, by urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to tell big banks to waive farmer loans in Karnataka, has put the saffron party in a quandary.
If the Central government does indeed accept the proposal and tell banks to waive farmer loans, it would mean a bigger financial burden for the Central government, which would have to foot the bill. And if Modi refuses, he and the BJP will be portrayed as "anti-poor" and "anti-farmer" by the Congress.
