(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.

In fact, the first signal that a waiver was in the works came when Sonia spent over two hours with farmers from Rajasthan, Haryana, and Maharashtra led by Congress leaders Ashok Gehlot, Deepender Hooda, Prabha Rau and Mukul Wasnik at her residence a week before the Budget. A farmer delegation from Punjab met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia on the first day of Budget session.

And the PMO issued a press release attacking the Akali Dal, which had planned a farmers rally in the capital the next day: “Akali Dal is taking out rallies, organizing public gatherings to convey that the UPA government is not protecting the Punjab farmers... The rights and interests of the people of Punjab are safe in the hands of the UPA government.”

While the exact details of the loan waiver package were not known, word of mouth had clearly spread after Chidambaram met party leaders at the AICC office over the Budget. The party also widely publicised the fact that Rahul Gandhi led MPs’ delegations to press for the loan waiver and extension of the job guarantee scheme to all districts.

Punjab Congress chief Rajinder Kaur Bhattal personally rang up newspaper offices to request “good media coverage” to a delegation led by her that was scheduled to meet the Prime Minister and Sonia in New Delhi on February 23. Her reasoning: A “major” announcement for farmers was in the offing, credit for which should go to the Congress. And this, almost a week before the Budget.

Such was the rush to claim credit for the “major announcements” that a day before the February 26 Insaaf Rally organised jointly by his party and the BJP, SAD (Badal) chief Sukhbir Badal accused state Congress leaders of trying to take undue credit for impending announcements pertaining to the farmers.

Incidentally, The Indian Express had reported on February 25 that a tussle had erupted between the SAD-BJP combine and the Congress over the issue of who got credit for special concessions to be announced for farmers in the Union Budget.

In Andhra Pradesh, ever since it held its first farmers rally in Vijayawada on November 24 last year where several leaders of the UNPA’s coalition partners also shared stage, TDP leaders were campaigning in rural Andhra for waiver of farm loans. TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu toured all districts assuring farmers that his party had demanded a loan waiver and promised that if the Centre didn’t do it, he would, if elected. On Saturday, at his TDP office, Naidu remarked with a wry smile that the UPA government “stole the TDP’s idea.”

In Maharashtra, the NCP released full-page advertisements in local newspapers today on its “Vachanpurti” (fulfilment of promise) on waiving farmers’ loans. Although the advertisement thanks the UPA government and displays pictures of Sonia and Manmohan Singh, besides Pawar, the punchline stresses that “the NCP is committed towards making the farming nation prosper”.

The Shiv Sena also took credit for the waiver claiming it was a result of “cracking of its whip.” Uddhav Thackeray had organised numerous rallies across the state over the past few months demanding the waiver.

The Congress-NCP alliance in general, and the NCP in particular, was on the lookout for a strong electoral plank ahead of elections scheduled next year, particularly due to the power crisis that has hurt people both in cities and villages. By waiving loans, Pawar in particular, and the Congress-NCP in general, have appeased farmers, bailed out co-operative credit societies (most of which are political hubs like sugar mills).

“We had kept photographs and other printing material ready and the moment the amount was announced in the budget we included it and released the material,” a senior NCP leader told The Sunday Express. “With modern technology, these hoardings can be ready in two hours. So it is no surprise that these hoardings came up so quickly.”

Assuming he would “hijack” credit, Congress leaders alerted state president Prabha Rau, who was in Nagpur, to bring forward her press conference from Sunday to Saturday and it was held almost around the same time as Pawar’s.

At his press conference, Pawar appealed to farmers all over the country to not repay loans borrowed from illegal moneylenders. Although Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil made the same appeal to farmers two years ago, Pawar went a step further and said that he would ask state governments to set up a machinery to support such farmers.

“I will appeal to the state governments and my party members to support farmers who have been caught in the trap of illegal money lenders. There can some machinery set up at the block level through the police or the revenue department to take action against the illegal moneylenders and protect the farmers from their harassment,” he said.