An editorial on the Indian Union Budget 2008 written by me.

New Delhi: Finance Minister P. Chidambaram announced a Rs. 60,000 crore package for farmers in the Union Budget presented on Feb. 29. Marginal farmers with land holdings upto 1 hectare and small farmers with holdings of 1-2 hectares will have a complete waiver of their loans. Loans overdue upto December 31st, 2007 which have remained unpaid till Feb 29, 2007 will be covered under the package. Chidambaram has ignored the needs of the farmers with three or more hectares of land. Already by distinguishing between the marginal and small farmers the Finance Minister has stirred up a controversy, with farmers feeling the creamy layer (farmers with lesser land) among them is reaping all the benefits.

But waiving loans is not the solution to end the farmers’ crisis for good and it cannot continue for long. Besides this waiver does not apply to large number of farmers who have taken loans from private money lenders. The decision might end up attracting more farmers into the vicious cycle of ‘credit.’ According to government statistics the agricultural credit industry is worth Rs 2, 40, 000 crores in 2007-08. Hence the decision might just increase the profits of the bank at the loss of the farmers. On the other hand the budget does not provide any benefit to farmers who have paid off their loans on time.

A report by the Radhakrishnan panel on Debt in 1991 had stated several reasons opposing the waiver of loans. One of the reasons was around 51% of the country’s farmers do not have access to institutional credit. With the general elections scheduled for next year the Finance Minister has tried to appease the agrarian community. In reaction to the news PSU (Public Sector Undertaking) banks stocks dipped but recovered later. The banks will mostly be reimbursed by the government for their losses in the form of bonds and greater liquidity. However, Mr. Chidambaram did not specify the source of funding for this debt-waiver.

The Finance Minister hopes to finish implementing the relief package by June 30th of this year. But given the numerous paperwork involved, it’s unlikely that the farmers will be able to keep up with the deadlines. The agriculture sector saw a growth of 2.6% this year against last year’s 3.8%. Hence the Finance Minister’s prediction that the sector would row at 4% for the year 2008-2009 looks unlikely given the increasing rate of farmer suicides especially in Vidarbha.

Former Finance Minister and BJP Leader Yashwant Sinha termed the budget as a ‘disaster’ and criticised the relief package. Ironically On Jan. 10 at Wardha, Maharashtra a Kisan Sankalp Rath Yatra was organised by his party colleague Rajnath Singh. At the rally his party workers chanted slogans like “BJP in favour of farmer loans waiver.”

The budget does not talk much about the Public Distribution System except for the use of Smart Cards to distribute food on a trial basis in Haryana and Chandigarh. The Finance Minister also announced the allocation of Rs 31,549 crores for food subsidy under the scheme which will be used next year. The point is whether these funds will reach the needy people and not be pocketed by government officials.

Over the years, many schemes have been introduced by the government. It remains to be seen how much of these new schemes will see the light of the day.

(Vidarbha inputs by Swati Roy/Digantik)

Couple of weeks back I saw the Hindi movie Jodhaa Akbar. Directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar the movie talks about the romance between King Akbar a Muslim and his Hindu wife Jodha.

Many communities in India especially the Rajputs had objection to certain facts in the movie. Several controversies exist over the origins of Jodhaa and her being the wife of Akbar. Many religious groups in the country felt that the movie hurt their sentiments and called for a ‘ban’ on the movie.

 When the ban was not enforced, they resorted to physical violence. Theatres and halls screening the movie were vandalised, people were not allowed to see the movie. Thus in this process many harmless people got injured. Finally the Uttar Pradesh and couple of more states banned the movie.

I fail to understand why do people in our country have to resort to physical violence at the smallest of things? Its not the first time that certain people have had objections to a movie. Few years back when Deepa Mehta released her film ‘Fire’, it had to stop screening in theatres across Mumbai. The Shiv Sena termed that the film was against ‘Indian culture’ since it dealt with lesbianism.

If people have opposition to a movie, book they are free to voice their opinions in a peaceful manner. Our country is a democracy wherein everybody has a right to freedom of expression. Resorting to violence is not the solution. Such incidents only harm the reputation of our country.

 Because of the ban many film lovers have been denied an opportunity to see the movie. Hence, many of them will now rent out a pirated CD or DVD of the movie and catch it at home. Ultimately it is also the film producer’s loss.

Wonder when some people in our country will change?

go this forward is my mailbox , thought i would share it with you guys

 a man  hated his wife’s cat and he decided to get rid of it. He
>drove 20 blocks away from home and dropped the cat there.  However, the
>cat was already walking up the driveway when he approached his home.
>
>The next day, he decided to drop the cat 40 blocks away but the
>same thing happened.
>
>He kept increasing the number of blocks but the cat kept coming
>home before him.
>
>At last he decided to drive a few miles away, turn right, then
>left, past the bridge, then right again and another right and so on
>until
>he reached what he thought was a perfect spot and dropped the cat there.
>
>An hour later…. The man calls his wife at home and asks her,
>”Jen is the cat there?”
>
>”Yes, why do you ask?” asked his wife.
>
>Frustrated the man said,” Put that  cat on the phone, I am
>lost and I need directions to reach home!!!
>
>Moral: How much ever we dislike somebody, someday we might need their
>assistance.

I’m glad India won the CB cricket Series but i thought Harbhajan Singh went overboard in expressing his joy to the camerapersons after the match. Harbhajan was seen hitting his chest and yelling out to the cameras.

After any Australian bastmen got out, the Indian players were literally jumping and pouncing over each other in joy!

And as usual the Indian media went overbaod over the team’s win. You had programmes on news channels in India like ‘Chak De India..’. Even the crickt commentators came up with such cliche lines like, ‘It’s such an amazing victory….Young team India..’

Give me a break guys, they have won a series in Australia, not the World Cup! and our commentators should come up with new lines!!

I am jst soooo busy with my college dissertation, that i’m not getting the time to blog. This is so irritating. Here i’m writing some 5000-8000 words on Chess in Chennai! the deadline is friday and theres still soo much left. Wonder what’s going to happen?