Not his brother-in-law, it's his grandmother's policies.

Here we go again. "State-run banks will conduct the second round of the so-called loan melas to boost credit flows to retail borrowers and small businesses during the festive season, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said," Mint. "Sitharaman first nudged lenders to reach out to customers and signal their willingness to lend during the festive season in September 2019." This was well before the first wave of the coronavirus. Loan melas were conceived by B Janardhan Poojary of the Congress Party. "Retired bankers, still bitter about Poojary, recall how as a junior finance minister, he and his men, forced them to squander money in loan melas of the early 80s to anyone who flashed the ration card," Economic Times (ET). "Applicants promptly made xerox copies of their ration cards and attached them with their applications, spending on an average Rs 10," indiatoday.in. Today, Xerox company no longer exists, britannica.com, and it costs Rs 2 to photocopy a document. Rs 10 would have had some value in 1984, so it is not surprising that mobs "thronged many of the city's (Bangalore) 464 banks, threatening and abusing bank officials, damaging parked vehicles and finally forcing the officials to pull down their shutters". "The losses incurred as a result of the melas go into still uncounted thousands of crores," wrote MB Chande in his book 'Betrayal of Democracy', theprint.in. "Is Narendra Modi's new Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana -- providing two bank accounts each to 75 million poor families, an overdraft of Rs 5,000, accident insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh and a life cover of Rs 30,000 -- a breakthrough in financial inclusion? Or is it a Rs 75,000-crore (Rs 750 billion) loan mela, as suggested by columnist Debashish Basu?" asked SA Anklesaria Aiyar. "PM Modi said when his government came to power in 2014 it noticed that public-sector banks had been plundered," ET. "Much before Internet Banking, Congress Party invented phone banking and this caused the NPA mess. A phone call would get loans for their cronies and the nation suffered," Modi said. Surely, loan melas are no different? In the absence of credit demand from industry, banks are already concentrating on retail loans to grow their lending. In April, "Latest data from the Reserve Bank of India shows that outstanding retail loans stood at Rs 27.74 lakh crore (Rs 27.74 trillion) as in February, just a few notches below industrial credit outstanding at Rs 27.86 lakh crore," newindiaexpress.com. Instead of forcing banks to dish out loans to increase consumer spending the government should reduce taxes which will put real money in the hands of consumers. Indians use a lot of oil for cooking. "India levies 32.5% duty on palm oil imports, while crude soya bean and soya oil are taxed at 35%," scroll.in. "In the last couple of weeks, global crude oil prices have fallen steadily reaching a level close to $65 a barrel from the high of $77 it had reached early last month. But this has yet to have any impact on petrol and diesel prices in India," ET. To raise money for spending, "The government on Monday unveiled a four-year National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) worth an estimated Rs 6 lakh crore (Rs 6 trillion). It aims to unlock value in brownfield projects by engaging the private sector, transferring to them revenue rights and not ownership in the projects, and using the funds so generated for infrastruture creation across the country," indianexpress.com. "However, to maximize their profit over a limited time frame, investors would want to raise prices, limit competition or cut back on upkeep. Singapore had to nationalize its suburban trains and signalling systems because their main private operator had underinvested in maintenance, leading to breakdowns and stranded passengers," wrote Andy Mukherjee. When Rahul Gandhi criticised the plan Sitharaman asked him if the New Delhi Railway Station belonged to his brother-in-law. The answer is no. But then, it doesn't belong to you or your boss either. Such is the arrogance of our politicians they think the nation belongs to them. Congress/BJP, mirror images.