Promises, Promises...

In the run-up to the October 21 assembly election in Haryana and Maharashtra, political parties are outdoing each other to offer voters the most sops. In Haryana, the Congress has already promised to waive farmers’ loans within 24 hours of coming to power and promised several thousand rupees per acre in compensation for crop failure. In response, the BJP is promoting its own sops as “pragmatic, workable, doable” alternatives, in the words of its working president J.P. Nadda, to the spendthrift commitments of the Congress. While not countenancing loan waivers, the BJP is promising easy access to collateral-free loans and interest-free credit. Meanwhile, parties in Maharashtra are passing the buck on rural distress, with the BJP and Shiv Sena trying to blame Sharad Pawar’s NCP for the farmer suicides between 2015 and 2018. Earlier this month, a farmer in the Buldhana district allegedly hanged himself, clad in a BJP T-shirt, after running up debts.

`12,000

per acre compensation promised by the Congress to farmers in Haryana in case of crop failure. The party says it will waive farmers’ loans 24 hours after coming to power

63.3%

(or Rs 149,790 crore) of promised loan waivers of Rs 2,36,460 crore budgeted for by 10 states since 2014, says a Sep. 2019 RBI report

`5,000

per month to women until children are 5, says Congress; Rs 3,500 to pregnant women; Rs 7,000 for unemployed graduates, Rs 10,000 for post-graduates

`1.26 LAKH CRORE

cost of Congress promises, says Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar of the BJP, as he promised up to Rs 3 lakh in collateral-free loans to Dalits

3,036

farmer suicides in Maharashtra since 2015 (when Devendra Fadnavis became CM) officially caused by the agrarian crisis; about 41% of 7,462 suicides since 2001

$1 TRILLION

Size of Maharashtra economy, promises BJP in the next 5 years. Plus the creation of 10 million jobs. And houses for all by 2022

`16,000 CRORE

Cost of drinking water project in Marathwada. The BJP says it will link all 11 dams in the region; Fadnavis promises infrastructure investments worth Rs 5 lakh crore

`4,800 CRORE

Annual cost of Shiv Sena’s promise to reduce power tariffs for domestic consumers of less than 300 units per month—about 90% of people, say experts

`21,000

minimum monthly wage promised by the Congress-NCP alliance if it wins in Maharashtra; Rs 5,000 monthly stipend for unemployed youth