(Reporting by Ravish Tiwari, Maneesh Chibber, Rakshit Sonawane, Sreenivas Janyala)

The UPA’s announcement of the Rs 60,000-crore loan waiver was perhaps its worst-kept Budget secret.

Not only was the Congress apprised of it, several state units had begun work to hardsell it in an election year prompting even allies to compete for credit. Even Opposition parties, like the TDP in Andhra Pradesh and the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, held roadshows across states demanding the waiver and assuring farmers that they would extract it from the Centre.

In fact, the first official suggestion of a loan waiver had come from Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar way back on October 20, 2007, when he spoke at the closing ceremony of an agricultural technology week organised at the Dr Punjabrao Deshmukh Agriculture University, Akola. He said there was a need to waive loans to provide relief to distressed farmers and to usher in a “second green revolution.” Until then, the Maharashtra government was opposed to a waiver saying it would set a bad precedent and hurt the credit system.

Subsequently, on January 26, 2008, Pawar told a farmers’ rally in Amravati, “We have decided to pull farmers out of the debt crisis. The Government of India and Finance ministry is considering it.”

On Budget Day, the Congress mobilised farmers to gather at party president Sonia Gandhi’s residence within hours of the announcement and hoardings thanking the Congress and the NCP for making the farmers “kar-mukt” (debt-free) were splashed all across the city two hours after the announcement.

... contd.