With the Congress riding high on its pre-poll promise to waive farm loans in Chhattisgarh in a year of insufficient rainfall, some BJP candidates in the State have been pushed off-script and are promising loan waivers as well, even without official backing from their party.
Sitting in front of a shop at Ganjenar village in Dantewada, 36-year-old Guddu Markam says he does not have the money to hire workers to cut his crop. “What’s the point anyway? There is barely any crop to cut. The crop has dried up; most of it we have already fed to the cattle, and the rest, whatever we cut, we will barely make anything. I have a farm loan of ₹50,000 from the co-operative bank, on which I will have to pay 16% interest if I don’t return the principal amount by April 2024. I need the loan to be waived off,” Mr. Markam tells The Hindu. He adds: “Will the BJP waive it? I certainly don’t think so.”
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Expecting loan waivers
His story is echoed in villages across Sukma, Keshkal, Chitrakot, and across the plains of Rajnandgaon district, where farmers who have taken on loans from ₹20,000 up to ₹1 lakh this year are worried because of the rains failing them. In fact, Sukhchain Sahu of Rajnandgaon district — who had a ₹1 lakh farm loan waived when the Congress came to power in 2018 — says that the reason he took out a loan this year was because he trusted that if the crop went bad, there was a chance of it being waived again in an election year.
Just as it did in 2018 after the last Assembly election, the Congress has promised that this time round as well, if it wins, it will waive off farm loans within hours of taking the oath, hoping to once again woo more than 37 lakh farm families across the State in both the tribal and non-tribal belts. Twenty Assembly constituencies in southern Chhattisgarh, including the entire Bastar belt, are set to go to polls on November 7. As campaign fever reaches a peak, Congress candidates and leaders are amplifying its promises to waive loans and further increase the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy.
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Pushed off-script
As the BJP drags its feet on an official announcement of its election manifesto for the State, the Congress campaign is pushing candidates from the saffron party into a corner on this issue.
While some BJP candidates, such as Soyam Mukka in Sukma, are publicly promising farm loan waivers in small villages like Jhaliaras, the party’s candidates in Dantewada and other areas have told The Hindu that they “definitely believe loans should be waived off given the season this year”, but stopped short of making a promise on behalf of the party. Dantewada candidate Chaitram Atami said: “The party will decide it but I will surely want to push for a waiver.” He added that increased MSP for paddy will definitely be a poll promise from the BJP this year, if not the loan waiver.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has scheduled a poll rally in Chhattisgarh’s Pandariya area for Friday after which he is scheduled to release the BJP’s Sankalp Patra or manifesto at an event in Raipur.
Beyond MSPs
Though most farmers who spoke to The Hindu across the plains and plateaus said that they were more than happy with the already increased MSP on paddy, coming with a bonus from the State government, some insisted that the ₹2,500 to ₹2,600 per quintal price being offered for their crop is still not enough to turn a profit. They need at least ₹3,000 per quintal, they said.
The main problem farmers across the region have raised is the delayed release of the bonus amount promised by the State government. In addition to the ₹2,040 per quintal MSP for paddy announced by the Union government, the State provides about ₹500 to ₹600 as a bonus, disbursed to the farmer in four instalments. However, farmers like Bhaktchand Sethia in Chitrakot’s Raikot block say that the final instalment of payments from last year’s paddy sale are yet to come into their accounts.
In the neighbouring Dukhanpal village, farmers say they need more than the MSP, bonus, and the promise of a loan waiver. “In the absence of rain, there is no provision for irrigation. Even if we install a borewell, electricity is not regular and it does not work,” Vijay Shankar Bhowriya said, pointing to his fields full of ruined paddy crops.
“No matter who comes to power, they should waive loans this year,” he added, standing in front of his home, with its walls covered in campaign posters for BJP candidate Vinayak Goyal.
