Having been denied an opportunity by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to exploit the growing divide between the ruling BJP and Shiv Sena, a somewhat disheartened Opposition Congress and NCP will now try to corner the saffron alliance Government in Maharashtra over its vociferous demands for waiver of farm loans during the Budget session of the State legislature, beginning here on Monday.
The Opposition Congress and NCP, which were earlier contemplating taking advantage of the rift between the ruling saffron alliance partners to bring in a no-confidence motion against the Devendra Fadnavis Government, dropped their plans after the ruling BJP announced that it would not contest the Mumbai mayoral polls, and prepared themselves for a regular budget session of the State legislature.
leaders of various Opposition parties, led by the Opposition in the Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil of the Congress and his counterpart from the Upper House Dhananjay Munde of the NCP, gave a foretaste of their aggression by boycotting the customary-eve tea hosted by the Chief Minister in protest against lack of relief to drought-affected farmers and among other things to demand compensation for the losses suffered by demonetisation-affected cotton growers.
In their effort to mount pressure on the BJP-led saffron alliance Government to announce farm loan waiver, a delegation of the Congress and NCP legislators met Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao and submitted a memorandum to the latter in this regard.
In their memorandum, the Congress and NCP legislators stated that the farmers across the State were in distress owing to the drought prevailing in the State for the third consecutive year and suicides by debt-trapped were continuing unabated. The only way to prevent the continuing spiral of farmers’ suicides was to waive their agricultural loans. They urged the Governor to prevail upon the State Government to announce loan waiver for drought-affected farmers.
In the just-concluded electioneering to the local body polls, the Opposition parties had slammed the State Government for its failure to check the recurring farmers’ suicides and to announce waiver of farm loans. They had demanded that the ruling BJP should waive the loans of farmers as it had promised the people in the poll-bound UP.
On his part, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis said that his Government would consider waiving the farmers’ loans “at an appropriate” time.
Talking to mediapersons ahead of the Budget session of the State legislature, Fadnavis said in the evening, “We are not per se opposed to farm loan waiver. But we have apprehensions that if the loan waiver is not implemented in a proper manner then the money will be misappropriated. That’s why we will take a call on the farmers’ loan waiver at an appropriate time”.
On the issue of the BJP’s alliance with the Shiv Sena, Fadnavis said, “We (BJP and Sena) may be having differences between us, but we are together as an alliance. The Shiv Sena continues to support our Government”
Fadnavis, who had in the past expressed serious reservations about farm loan waiver, appears to have changed his stand in view that in addition to the Opposition which had all along been demanding loan waiver for farmers, the Sena had also joined the Opposition in its demand in the recent local-body elections.
Among the issues that that Opposition parties will raise during the Budget session will include compensation for demonetisation-hit cotton growers who, according t6o the, have suffered losses to the tune of Rs1,800 per quintal of the produce, immediate solution to the issues like reservati on to Marathas, Musilim and Dhangar community members, recurring malnutrition deaths, sexual atrocities in the state-run ashram schools and lack of arrests in the Narendra Dabholkar murder case.
Castigating the Chief Minister for his statement that the State Government would take a decision regarding farm loan waiver at an appropriate time, leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil said: “Given that already 8,000 farmers have committed suicides in the State, why is the chief minister waiting for an appropriate time to announce loan waiver. Even the Supreme Court has directed the Centre and state Government to take steps to prevent recurring farmers’ suicides. Still the Government has done precious little to arrest the spare of farmers’ suicides”.