de facto there is no power subsidy for the farmers;

if true accounts were drawn up it is the MSEB that would be found owing money to the farmers;

the deficiency in services of the MSEB results in huge losses to the equipment and to the crops that are not compensated for by the MSEB and, finally,

the farmers should not be asked to pay any tariff higher than that computed by the CACP into the calculations of costs of production of agricultural produce.

In the last three years, as a consequence of this agitation, the arrears of electricity bills of farmers in Maharashtra have cascaded to over Rs 3,000 crore. Exasperated, the Maharashtra Government inaugurated with much fanfare a scheme called Krishi Sanjeevani, offering to write off half the amounts of electricity dues if the farmers paid the remaining half.

A good number of farmers responded to the scheme favourably and the expiry date of the scheme was extended from time to time, the last extension putting the expiry date at December 31, 2004. Then came the Lok Sabha elections 2004.

During the electoral campaign, the Congress(I) promised farmers in Andhra Pradesh free power, exactly as N. T. Rama Rao had done a score of years earlier. `Free power' was the trump card that gave NTR his election bonanza, and so it did for the Congress party in 2004.

The farmers' organisations that are generally apathetic to politics came to the conclusion that they could not allow the political parties to monopolise this trump card. An all-India Rail Roko agitation was announced, starting from August 9, 2004 demanding free farm power and watering facilities. With the elections to Maharashtra State Legislative Assembly approaching fast, the heat was scorching on the chief minister.

On August 7, 2004 he announced that power for agricultural pumps will be free from July 1, 2004. He also announced that his Cabinet was seriously considering a proposal for across-the-board write off of farm loans/interest charges thereon. So far so good. The Congress party shares power in Maharashtra with the Nationalist Congress Party headed by the present Union Minister for Agriculture, Mr Sharad Pawar. No NCP minister is reported to have raised a dissenting voice in the Cabinet meeting; they had no reason to do so. Ms Sonia Gandhi had herself approved the supply of free farm power in Andhra Pradesh and the newly sworn-in Congress Chief Minister there, Dr Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, had announced free farm power with grand panache immediately after the swearing in.

Ms Sonia Gandhi has recently given her nod to the Congress-NCP alliance in the forthcoming Assembly election in Maharashtra. The Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr Sushilkumar Shinde, had made a master move to stack his cards for the forthcoming battle. Then, suddenly, Mr Sharad Pawar made it public that he was opposed to the whole notion of supplying free power to farmers. He was particularly irked at the across-the-board exemption to all farmers — rich and poor.

"There are farmers who can well afford to pay for electricity at full tariff. I am a farmer. I have 22 acres of land and I earn over Rs 7 lakh per year growing grapes, pomegranates, bananas and apples, and exporting them. Why should I get the advantage of free power?" he asked with disarming naivety. Mr Pawar could not have been ignorant that very few farmers produce crops that are not subject to government procurement prices or export restrictions as he does. Those who do are carrying on agriculture as a losing proposition. Even other horticulturists like Mr Pawar are not as successful as he is.

Let us do a little auditing of Mr Pawar's voluntarily disclosed accounts. Mr Pawar admits to holding 22 acres of irrigated land. Even if that is all he holds, it is above the permissible limits of land ceiling. At the current land prices prevailing around Baramati, his land is worth at least Rs 1 crore. If one took into account the `opportunity cost' of this property, at rates of interest paid on ordinary saving bank accounts, he would have no profit left to show.

Further, any auditor worth the name would point out to Mr Pawar that the margins he makes in exporting, as he claims, will have to be accounted for separately and not clubbed with agricultural accounts. Mr Pawar's ability to export at particularly favourable terms may not be an advantage available to all.

Nobody has talked of freeing power supply to cold storages and other installations and equipment required in the export activity; the free power announced by the Chief Minister is limited to agricultural pumps only. Mr Pawar has also advised farmers in India to have some auxiliary activity in order to make agriculture a paying proposition.

If there are any profits coming from Sharad Pawar's 22 acres, they are from his auxiliary activities and not earned by him, strictly speaking, as a farmer. What could have pushed Mr Pawar to come out against an electoral gimmick so deftly managed by his colleague, Mr Shinde?

Was it that he was trying to placate the 63 Left-wing MPs in the Lok Sabha who have, for decades, advocated land reforms? Why was he silentwhen Ms Sonia Gandhi announced the free power package in Andhra Pradesh during the electoral campaign? The tailpiece comes from the astute Mr Shinde: "The government would be happy to send Mr Sharad Pawar and other rich farmers like him power bills if they so wish," he said.

(The author, a Rajya Sabha MP, is Founder, Shetkari Sanghatana. He can be reached at sharad@mah.nic.in)

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