‘Farmer-friendly’ order backfires on minister

The minister ordered a crackdown on private moneylenders on November 20, booking 500 sahukars under the Money-Lending act.

Incidentally, farmer leaders like Vijay Jawandhia from Wardha and noted Vidarbha economist Srinivas Khandewale had warned that the crackdown could prove counter-productive if the government did not come out with a more effective rural credit alternative to the one that is currently forcing the farmers to go to private moneylenders.

‘‘The government is not doing anything for them and is also choking the farmers’ last source of funds,’’ they had reasoned, adding, ‘‘this will further increase their farmers’ desperation and hasten the suicide spree.’’

Patil’s infamous exhortation to ‘‘peel off the moneylenders’ skin from knee to elbow’’ had also attracted criticism.

While it’s difficult to say if the suicide tally has gone up due to the ‘‘last source’’ being plugged, there is little doubt that it has hardly come closer to solving the problem.

The Opposition, meanwhile, has got its teeth into the order, with BJP state unit president Nitin Gadkari even questioning the Home Ministry’s right to take action against the moneylenders, as the Act comes under the cooperative ministry.

Gadkari has also alleged that Patil had set targets for the district police chiefs for arrests in the matter. Some top police officials this paper spoke to confirmed that Patil—he earlier hit the headlines for his crackdown on Mumbai dance-bars—had asked them to deliver, though not exactly in terms of ‘‘targets’’.

Questions are also being raised over the validity of Patil’s offer to waive the moneylenders’ loans to farmers in the Maharashtra Legislature. ‘‘If the moneylenders have done anything illegal, you can take action against them. But you can’t give such a blanket waiver. It’s legally untenable,’’ a top High Court lawyer told The Indian Express.

Patil has also attracted widespread criticism for his reported observation in a Marathi daily that farmers are suffering from ‘‘mental imbalance’’.

Surprisingly, state Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has also called for determining the ‘‘mental’’ reasons behind the cotton farmers’ suicides. ‘‘The same situation prevails in Marathwada. Why are the farmers there not coming suicides?’’ he asked in an interview to another local daily.

Meanwhile, the government has decided to come out with a long-term package for farmers instead of any immediate measures. Basically, it means that until those measures are realised, farmers can well fend for themselves.

Suicide notes

• Over 1,000 farmers in the state, more than 95 per cent of them cotton farmers, have committed suicide in the past five years, mostly due to repeated crop failures and indebtedness.

• Instead of addressing the situation, the government has chosen to aggravate it by reducing the cotton price by Rs 500 per quintal this year.

• TISS and the Indira Gandhi Institute for Development Research have, in their reports, clearly cited agricultural failure for the farmers’ plight.