"Take 27-year-old Pushpendra Singh, who completed his master's degree in commerce in 2016, but was unable to find a decent job. Singh now toils on the family farm so that his younger brother can finish his studies and find a teaching job. His family has a debt of Rs 6 lakh, but that has not stopped them from spending about Rs 12,000 each month to educate the younger son," wrote S Bera. About 1,400 km away in Rampura, 19-year-old Sharad Markad has built a shed to care for 80 cows and buffaloes because they are having to sell pomegranates at Rs 10 per kg despite a poor harvest. In Nashik, farmers are selling onions at Rs 1-2 per kg while it is retailing for Rs 30 in cities. Mathurabai Barade spent 36 hours getting from Sangamner in Maharashtra to Parliament Street in Delhi, wrote R Mohan. In March, she walked 200 km barefoot with over 35,000 adivasis (tribal people) from Nashik to Mumbai, demanding titles to land they had cultivated for generations." Farmers in India are marching because they are hurting, desperate and angry. Normally, waiving farm loans is a very productive election gimmick. In 2017, Prime Minister Modi's party the BJP promised loan waiver to win assembly elections in UP, after the Congress won general elections in 2009 by announcing loan waiver in 2008. In the recent assembly elections in MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh the Congress won all 3 states by announcing loan waiver before the BJP could. Following the results there were fears that Modi will announce waiver for the whole of India, at a cost of Rs 4 trillion, before general elections next May. But, Congress President Rahul Gandhi pre-empted Modi by promising not to let Modi "sleep" unless he implements farm loan waiver for the whole country. Competitive populism will not help farmers or the government budget say experts but farmers are pleased that suddenly politicians have woken up to their strength. Subsidies may actually be responsible for the suffering of farmers because they have prevented investment in infrastructure, suggests a study by Prof A Gulati and colleagues. When production is plentiful prices drop so low that they are unable to realise their costs. While deflation in food prices is decimating incomes, core inflation remains high in rural areas. That is why nominal income is more important to farmers than real income, wrote R Kishore. Since Gandhi will claim victory if Modi announces loan waiver he is having to think of other ways to buy farmers' votes. Throwing taxpayer money is so much easier. Instead, government employees like managers of public sector banks have expressed worries at the adverse effects of loan waivers and vice chairman of NITI Aayog Rajiv Kumar advised agro processing rather than loan waiver. "Well, he would, wouldn't he?" as Mandy Rice-Davies famously said.
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