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In Marathwada, a bank’s humiliating ‘Gandhigiri’ tactics tighten the squeeze on desperate farmers

Mon, 19 Dec 2016 07:26:14 +0000

As demonetisation woes deepen, an Osmanabad bank is doing little to recover Rs 352 crores owed by two sugar factories, but is threatening 20,000 farmers.

Image: P Sainath

The bank has “decided to use Gandhigiri to try and recover the loans [from you]. For this the bank has decided to do one of the following:

1) Put up a tent opposite your house to protest
2) Make use of a band
3) ring bells.

Due to these actions, your standing and image in society are likely to be in danger.”

That is the Osmanabad District Central Cooperative Bank promising 20,000 of its clients public humiliation and ridicule. Those clients, mostly farmers, have seen many years of distress. Sometimes from crop failure, sometimes from a glut or price crash. A crippling drought and water crisis have further hit their loan repayments. On top of that, the government’s recent scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes has left them unable to pay their labourers’ daily wages. “Farm workers have not been paid a single paisa in cash since November 9,” says SM Gavale, a small farmer from Khed village. “All are hungry.”

The bank’s letter (see translated excerpts at the end of this story) tells farmers they are to blame for its depositors being unable to withdraw cash. And warns them: “You should be aware that if any depositors commit suicide for such reasons, you will be held responsible…”

In this situation, village visits by bank recovery teams that threaten farmers and their families spur mounting tension and despair. Oddly, the 20,000 farmers together owe the Osmanabad District Central Cooperative Bank some Rs 180 crores. Just two sugar factories, Terna and Thuljabhavani, together owe the same bank Rs 352 crores. But the tactics the bank plans to use on small peasants vanish when it comes to companies controlled by the powerful. “The factories are shut,” says the bank’s executive director Vijay Ghonse Patil. So no ‘Gandhigiri’ there. Nor has the valuable land these outfits own been seized or auctioned by the bank.

“This Gandhigiri plan was inspired by Shri Arun Jaitley’s speech.” So says Ghonse Patil, author of the letter that has sparked outrage in the villages. Speaking to us at the bank’s headquarters in Osmanabad town, he defends his action: “It draws on the Union finance minister’s warning of action against defaulters during Parliament’s budget session.”

Left: Vijay Ghonse Patil, executive director of the Osmanabad District Central Cooperative Bank, at the bank’s headquarters in Osmanabad town. Right: A farmer in Lohara block explains the problems they face.

“I drafted the letter,” says Ghonse Patil. “And I am serious about it. We need to bring non-performing assets below 15% [of total advances] by March 2017. I have to pursue this strongly. I have no other way.” He admits it was drafted without legal advice and “submitted to the Bank’s Board of Directors, which okayed it”.

Several of the letters bear an October date but the farmers scoff at this. “They were delivered at our homes after November 15.” In other words, these letters came out after demonetisation was announced on November 8. Ironically, one of those sent the letter on December 2 was Manohar Yelore. He was a small farmer in Lohara village who committed suicide in 2014, unable to repay the Rs 68,000 he had borrowed from the bank.

In Nagur village of Lohara block in Osmanabad, farmers gathered from many villages tell us they are shaken: “We will have no option but to take our lives if subjected to such humiliation.” In the state government’s own count, Osmanabad and Yavatmal rank as the worst districts for farmer suicides in Maharashtra. And the state itself has suffered more farm suicides than any other in the country – at least 63,000 between 1995 and 2014, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.

Video: Farmers from Nagur, Khed, Kasti and other villages display the letter from the Osmanabad District Central Cooperative Bank threatening to humiliate them with ‘Gandhigiri’ tactics; November 29, 2016.

Here, demonetisation has hit both the bank and its clients alike. The cash crunch has squeezed both. Cooperative banks were allowed to accept the banned notes and exchange them for new ones for only three days. All other banks could do this till November 29. The Osmanabad District Central Cooperative Bank was already in big trouble with its giant defaulters repaying not a paisa of the Rs 352 crores they owe. “And they’re taking it out on us,” say farmers here. “We are people who’ve tried to repay something.”

With no cash at all, the farmers, labourers and shopkeepers here have worked out a fragile survival strategy after November 9. SM Gavale of Khed explains it: “If the labourers don’t have cash, they cannot eat. But we stand guarantee for them with the shopkeepers. They pick up provisions on credit.”

The local shop owners themselves are bringing in their stocks on credit from wholesalers based elsewhere. So the labourer, the farmer and the shopkeeper could all be locked into a disaster waiting to happen.

In Nagur village, agitated farmers explain that the loan amounts have been inflated.

There’s another huge problem. A few years ago, the bank started collapsing “crop loans” and “term loans” and rewriting the figure of what was owed by the farmer. The Osmanabad District Central Cooperative Bank seems to have done this repeatedly over several years. The result is an explosion in the size of the amounts owed by farmers. It is these inflated loan figures the letter asks the farmers to repay. Indeed, the Rs 180-crore sum the 20,000 farmers together owe is a post-”re-phasement” figure. The original amount borrowed by them was Rs 80 crores.

A crop loan is a short-term borrowing by farmers in the form of cash credit. This is directly tied to their immediate agricultural activity or season. They might buy their seeds, fertiliser, pesticide and other inputs, and pay labourers, from of this sum. They withdraw cash against this loan as and when required, within the limit of the sanctioned sum. Interest rates on crop loans normally don’t exceed 7% (of which 4% is to be borne by the state government). These loans have to be renewed each year.

Term loans are those taken for capital investment – for purchase of machinery, irrigation, and other such expenses. These loans can be repaid over a period of three-seven years. They are given at (compounded) rates of interest that could be double of what crop loans attract.

Dhananjay Kulkarni, general secretary of the Bank of Maharashtra Employees Union, Aurangabad, is with us and has studied the Osmanabad District Central Cooperative Bank’s letters and notices. “What the ODCC [and other banks] have done,” he says, “is to collapse or club together the crop and term loans of these villagers and convert them into new term loans. Under the title of re-phasement. The ODCC, like other banks, struck an interest rate of 14% on these. However, an additional 2%-4% interest was added on at the level of the coop societies through whom the loans were delivered. Finally, the borrower pays 18% [compounded] interest.”

Shivajiraosaheb Patil from Khed village had borrowed Rs 1.78 lakh in 2004 to pay for an electric motor and installation of a pipeline. He paid back Rs 60,000 in the early years. But this was then clubbed with his crop loan and “re-phased”, in the jargon of the bank, more than once. And “now they tell me I owe over Rs. 13 lakhs”, he says angrily. Suddenly, dozens of farmers are on their feet, speaking at the same time. They’ve all brought along the notices the Osmanabad District Central Cooperative Bank has sent them.

A farmer in Nagur holds up an extract of his loan account from the credit cooperative society; further interest of 2-4 per cent gets added at the level of the societies.

“We accept we owe the bank money,” says Babasaheb Vithalrao Jadhav, a farmer of many decades in Nagur. “And indeed we must pay. But we are unable to right now. Because of good rains this year [after many bad seasons], farmers here have had a decent kharif crop and expect a good rabi crop too. So we could pay in instalments from next year. Paying this year would kill us. ‘Re-phasement’ was a fraud that violates even bank rules. It has doubled, even quadrupled our loans. The government is giving waivers to corporations and the super-rich but cracking down on distressed farmers.”

Many of these loans and their “re-phasing” were also badly timed. They seem to chart the course of the agrarian crisis in Maharashtra, starting around 1998, making a huge leap in 2003-’04 and exploding after 2011. “For four years,” says Shivajirao, “I had 300-400 tons of excess sugarcane crop I was unable to sell.The factories were flooded with cane and declined to lift it. I went bankrupt.Now I’m faced with this demand. I have sold 15 acres of our family’s [un-irrigated] land. But I still can’t handle the burden.”

Most of the rabi crop was sown in these villages before November 8. But transactions thereafter have taken a hit. Kharif crop prices have tumbled with traders “offering us the right amount only if we accept old notes”, farmers say.

Back at the bank, the atmosphere is now much more sober, even sombre, as we discuss the possible consequences of the ODCC acting on its letter.

Executive director Ghonse Patil himself faces a notice for un-refunded advances from a cooperative bank in another district. He and some of his senior officers only now seem to grasp that things can go very wrong from here. What if there was a spurt in farm suicides? What if those are blamed on the bank and its letter? But, says Ghonse Patil, as we part, “We have no other way out but to go for this recovery abhiyan.”

Translated excerpts from the ODCC’sletter in Marathi to nearly 20,000 farmers in Osmanabad district

All the above images were taken by P. Sainath.

This article was originally published in The People’s Archive of Rural India on Dec. 9, 2016.

“Greetings.
You must be aware of the economic situation of the Osmanabad District Bank. Since the bank is in financial difficulties, the bank depositors have their full focus on the bank. Due to the increase in overdue unpaid loans there is the fear of loss of liquidity for the bank which is now caught in this quagmire. At least at this time, the only option the bank has to improve its situation is to recover the overdue loans. Naturally, due to the pending loans with you, the bank is unable to pay its depositors the amounts they want to withdraw whenever they want to withdraw. As a result, the depositors are very disappointed with the bank operations.

Similarly, many depositors, when they are faced with the prospect of being unable to withdraw their own money from their accounts are sending us statements that if they cannot withdraw their money, they will be forced to commit suicide and you should be aware that if any depositors commit suicide for such reasons, you will be held responsible and you should understand this.

…Because of your overdue loan, the bank is facing a cash crunch and the bank cannot conduct its operations effectively. The bank’s management committee, senior officers and employee association have decided to use Gandhigiri to try and recover the loans.For this, the bank has decided to do one of the following: 1) Put up a tent opposite your house to protest, 2) Make use of a band, 3) Ring bells.

Due to these actions, your standing and image in society islikely to be in danger. Therefore, to avoid such a situation, you should immediately repay your overdue loans with interest in the concerned bank within 30 days and take a receipt for such payment else, the recovery team will take action as explained above.

We are deliberately writing this to you so that you are aware of the situation.

We are in no doubt that you will repay your loan and avoid any unpleasant events from happening.

Expecting your cooperation,
Details ofOverdue Loans:
Type of loan, Principal: 136300 Interest:348930 . Total : 485230
[loan details for each farmer follow in the originalletter]
Yours faithfully,
Sd-
Vijay S. Ghonse
Executive Director”

This article was first published on Scroll.in

The post In Marathwada, a bank’s humiliating ‘Gandhigiri’ tactics tighten the squeeze on desperate farmers appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Almost All TV Channels are controlled by Mukesh Ambani threatening Independent Journalism: P. Sainath

Thu, 21 Apr 2016 10:51:10 +0000

Image: Rediff.com, Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat and Mukesh Ambani

Larger Processes At Work Destroying Journalism Today: P. Sainath

The commercial interests of these (business-controlled) channels represent the commercial interests of the largest corporations of the country.

“One problem with the fourth estate of democracy i.e. the media, is that of the four it’s the only one that is profit seeking. And in this city (Mumbai) it is very difficult to tell the difference between the fourth estate and real estate. India has a society that is incredibly diverse, heterogeneous and complex, reported by a media that is shrinking to narrower control.

The more your society is heterogeneous, the more your media is getting homogeneous. That is an incredible, irreconcilable contradiction. Look at the nature of panels and debates on Television.

What is their social composition? Who are the columnists in newspapers? It’s an extremely small, incestuous circle. The most sympathetic response to farmer suicides I have received, have come from institutions associated with the armed forces.

Why? Because many of our jawans are kisans in uniform. A senior officer at a training institute for soldiers once told me that he was worried about the boys from Maharashtra. They fear a call from village. When they call their families they are happy but not if they get a call from home. They don’t’ want to know what happened to whom. There is such a close relationship between a jawan and kisan.. they are practically the same class.

Where does the national vs. anti-national debate come from? From people whose ideological forebears never participated in national struggle, who gave whining apology to the British to be let out of prison while others died.

People who assassinated the father of the nation will now teach you nationalism. Today you have an entire generation robbed of its history. They have no clue what happened in the national struggle, who did what, who were the nationalists and who were the collaborators of British imperialism. Major changes have taken place.

Angry though I am at individual editors and anchors, I think there are much larger processes at work destroying journalism. Without addressing these, just changing anchors won’t help. These anchors are there because they are allowed to be there.

In the last 20 odd years we have reduced journalism to a revenue stream. This has happened because of the corporatisation of media. Entities controlling the media today are larger, more powerful than we have ever known.

In the last 25-30 years the concentration of media ownership has taken place rapidly and massively. Take the case of the largest network: Network 18. It is owned by Mukesh Ambani. All of you know the many channels of the ETV network. How many of you know that except the Telugu channel, all others are also owned by Mukesh Ambani just as he owns many other channels across the country?

If we all remain in journalism for five more years, we could all be owned by him. He does not know the names of all the channels he owns. Yet he could issue a fatwa stating that Aam Aadmi Party will not be covered during elections and it will be done. The commercial interests of these channels represent the commercial interests of the largest corporations of the country. So you are going to have extreme tightening and control of content.

In the last 20 odd years, the owners of the corporations that own and control media have been the biggest beneficiaries of neoliberalism and privatisation of public resources. Everyone seems to forget that Manmohan Singh was treated like a god for the first five years.

All those great anchors in 2009 had said this victory was not of the Congress party but is Manmohan Singh’s victory, that it is the victory of economic reforms. Now keep watch, the next round of privatisation is on the anvil. And who would gain from these?

If mining is being privatised – the Tatas, Birlas, Ambanis, Adanis all of them will be the big beneficiaries. When natural gas is privatised, Essar and Ambanis will benefit. And from the Spectrum – Tatas, Ambanis, Birlas.

Your media owners are poised to be the biggest beneficiaries of policies of the privatisation of public resources. They will get into the banks as well when those are privatised. Now here’s the bite.

They invested a few years in building up a fuehrer like figure called Narendra Modi, reducing all his rivals to dust consigned to the dustbin of Gujarat and Delhi. But he has not been able to deliver. And they don’t know what to do. He has not been able to push his land acquisition bill. He has not been able to do a lot of things you have been salivating for. They are angry with Modi but they don’t have a replacement.

What do they do? So finally we are seeing some amount of leeway in the media, a little bit of whining now and then. I say again that the Indian media is politically free but imprisoned by profit. That is the character of Indian media. I am not so impressed by the turnaround of the media on Kanhaiya. Remember they got millions of eyeballs by carrying his speech. Their viewership went up fabulously.

Despite the turn, many of them accepted the terms of debate of the BJP where they would claim that what was done to Kanhaiya was wrong but you have to begin it by saying that they are against the antinational slogans. You apologise in advance and you have accepted that framework and slotted yourself into that framework.

Corporatisation of media is not new though it is faster in India than in many other countries. In USA and Australia it has already reached saturation point. Look at journalism in the last 10 years. Of the three greatest expose that impacted journalism, shaken it to its core, not one has come from mainstream professional journalism. These three are Assange and Wikileaks, Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning.

Why did none of them come out of the so called professional news organisation? Because they are not pro establishment or pro big business they are big business they are the establishment. They are too heavily invested in the market to tell you the truth about it.

Their shares will suffer in value if they start examining the share bazaar in any critical way. So don’t ever invest your money based on tips of newspapers. They have got millions of shares out there and they are never going to tell you the truth about it. Because of revenue becoming the chief criteria of journalism, you have private treaties whereby if you are a mid-sized corporation wanting to make the big leap and you come to me who is the biggest English newspaper in the planet, I will tell you to sign a private treaty. This will give me 10% shares in your company. But if I do that, there can be no negative reporting of your company in my newspaper.

Now when a newspaper develops shares in 200 companies, is that a newspaper or an equity firm. Good journalism is a society in conversation with itself, a nation in debate and argument with itself. It’s a public service and when we talk of monetising this sort of a public service, you pay a terrible price for it. Let me give you a glimpse into the size of rural India – 833 million people, 784 languages, 6 of them spoken by more than 50 million, 3 of them spoken by more than 80 million.

Now according to latest report of Delhi based Centre for Media Studies, rural India gets only 0.18% of space on the front pages of the top 6 newspapers in the country and only 0.16 percent of space on the prime time of six major news channels in the country.

I started the People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) to try and capture some of the gigantic transitions that is on in this rural India where one third of us who live in urban India have our roots. But everywhere I go, people ask: what is your revenue model? I say I don’t have one but what work of art or literature would be in existence today if the creator had to have a revenue model.

What if Valmiki had to get an approval for his revenue model before writing the Ramayana, or Shakespeare before writing his plays? To those who ask for my revenue model, I say that I know one guy who had a very good revenue model and it worked for 40 years, his name was Veerappan. There were attendant risks in his work, but what is entrepreneurism without risks?

High risk, high reward. To this day, the media has done a very poor job of covering the fallout of the beef ban in this state with one or two great exceptions and I must say Times of India of all papers, was a fabulous exception. The beef ban has not just destroyed Muslims who it is supposed to destroy, it has destroyed the Dalits and the Kolhapur chappal industry, it has smashed the hell out of the OBCs who control the cattle markets, it has just about smashed everything in the countryside.

You have a bunch of urban, lower middle class or upper middle class people who know nothing about agriculture or centrality of the cow to the rural economy but have taken decisions. Has the media done any serious, hard-hitting investigation on the murder of the three rationalists – Comrade Govind Pansare or Narendra Dhabolkar or Kalburgi? The courts are scolding the police and the government for dragging their feet but there is no serious investigation. All the three were killed by the same method by the same young men in a motorcycle. By the way, Haren Pandya in Gujarat was killed the same way as well.

What is the difference between this rule of BJP and the previous time? I believe this political situation is unique in our history and for the first time in our history an RSS pracharak is PM with a majority. The earlier pracharak was quite jaded and there had been 40 years of softening between him being an active pracharak and being prime minister and he did not have a majority.

A lot changes when you have a pracharak with a majority. And the media is negotiating space with this. I believe this country is ruled by a coalition of social-religious fundamentalist and market-economic fundamentalist and they need each other. So what are the things that you can do?

There is a very strong case for fighting for democratisation of media; by law, by legislation and by popular movement. Literature, journalism, storytelling, these did not come out due to investments of corporations. They have come out of communities, of people, of societies. Let’s try and take it back to them.

When Bal Gangadhar Tilak was imprisoned for Sedition, people came out on the street and died to defend his freedom as a journalist. That was the working class of Mumbai. Some of them were people who could not even read. But they came out to defend an Indian’s right to freedom of expression. There was once a great organic link between the Indian media and the Indian masses.

You need to fight for the democratisation of the media, for strengthening of the public broadcaster; you need to be able to break monopoly – monopoly se azaadi – over media ownership. You need to increase diversity in ownership of media, increase the public space in private forum that the media has become and believe me we need to fight for that space. It won’t be easy but it can be done.

(Video Recording by Satyen Bordoloi at the Mumbai Collective, March 5, 2016 This is a version of the speech delivered by Senior journalist P Sainath on the March 5, 2016, Mumbai Collective. The full version can be heard on the Video Below)

See also:
1. Gandhi, Ambedkar and Lenin would be dubbed as left wing loonies today: P. Sainath
2.P. Sainath's Interview in Hindi with Teesta Setalvad Part I and II

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