By announcing the Debt Redemption Scheme for farmers, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu may have proved his critics wrong a bit and claim that he had accomplished what looked like a seemingly impossible task.
But he has left many questions unanswered. Is the Rs. 5,000 crore bail out package adequate, even if it is phase one, when the initial estimates by bankers way back in June put the requirement at over Rs. 80,000 crore? Was Aadhaar/ration card condition used to eliminate many of the eligible farmers? Was the coverage tweaked from the initial all- encompassing agriculture to mere crop loans? Is it justified to stretch the scheme to four years when the promise was of providing instant relief ?
Mr. Naidu’s team of spin doctors may come up with jugglery of statistics to explain away what essentially looks like a token gesture for now – a well-crafted political move – that would help him take credit for redeeming a pledge despite challenges. The challenges of deficit budget of Rs. 16,000 crore and a non-cooperative RBI and the banks. The Centre too was equally unhelpful but he did not blame it apparently for political reasons.
What cannot be hidden is the fact that it took Mr. Naidu, a seasoned politician, able administrator and a staunch believer in e-governance a full six months to roll out a scheme from its conceptual stage. For yet another time it showed how difficult it is to fulfil a promise made to win a do-or-die election battle. He kept dodging and looked like tying himself in knots as his handpicked team of advisors brainstormed endlessly to put together a package that would not only appear good for farmers, even if it meant a modicum of relief, but silence his political rivals.
The scheme’s journey in a way punctuated Mr. Naidu’s six months in office, leaving one wondering if his announcement was to beat the 180-day deadline. The farm loan waiver was just one challenge he could partially conquer and he has many of these coming his way the foremost being the rising farmers’ resistance in villages straddling Guntur and Krishna districts identified for his dream capital.
Land pooling for capitalLike in the case of waiver, he is finding it difficult to answer pointed questions. River-front capital with skyscrapers all around may give that international city look but how about farmers who stand to lose precious fertile land where they raised three crops? For them the promise of 200 to 1200 square yards per acre in a complex land pooling development process is like parting with family silver for pea nuts. The knotty compensation issue apart, the basic question being asked is should a capital be necessarily spread over 30,000 acres displacing thousands of farmers?
It would be interesting to see Mr. Naidu settle this tricky development versus displacement issue though he is credited with having acquired 5000 acres for Hyderabad’s international airport. Comparison may look odd because of the fact that land around Hyderabad is bone dry where raising one crop is often a difficult task. Here too, land acquisition for airport was accomplished about 12 years ago.
Bifurcation promisesEqually challenging is getting his friendly NDA government at Centre to fulfil the string of bifurcation promises, including special category status, funds for building the capital and mopping up the budget deficit. Mr. Naidu made half a dozen trips to New Delhi but success on this score remains elusive. Attracting investments from Japan and Singapore and from domestic industry become meaningless minus the promised incentives. Chief Minister may have to use all his persuasive skills to make the Centre to fulfil them.
Politically Mr. Naidu looks steady with YSRC not yet opening its fangs to fully play out its role as the main Opposition both inside and outside the Assembly. Riven by dissensions, the party is yet to come up with a sound political strategy that could effectively pin down and embarrass the Naidu government. Congress continues to look jaded but BJP appears subtly playing a dual role of being friendly to the government and yet working independently at the ground level bringing into its fold various caste groups and formidable Congress leaders to gear up to fill the possible political vacuum in future.
