M.P ( mehenga- Pada!)

The recent slapping of a Grameen Bank Manager by an elected Member of Parliament has drawn much criticism and condemnation by one and all. This unruly behaviour of the elected MP is nothing new to our democracy. this has been happening ever since the period of nationalisation of Banks by the then Prime Minister Smt Indira Gandhi who in her enthusiasm to uplift the poor started this gimmick of loan Mela, celebrated with equal enthusiasm by all the 19 nationalised banks in chorus! There used to be one Janardhan Poojary who was a minister in her cabinet and it was his direcive to the chief executives of the nationalised banks to disburse a loan amount of Rs 5000/- to all those applicants who had to buy the application forms from the local/district political head of the particular political party. This form was not printed by the banks. The application forms used to be forwarded by the social welfare board to respective branches and this used to be voulumnous as the manager used to struggle with his deputy or the concerned clerk to expedite the loans as he was answerable to his boss who was, in turn, answerable to his higher ups and ultimately the chairman and the M D of the bank had to face the wrath of Mr Poojary who will pull up the chairman of any bank in front of all the other heads of banks, if they had not met the target set for them in such disbursements! The heads of banks, in order to avoid such embarassments used to push those working down the line to disburse the Poojary Loans(as it came to be known)even without verifying the bonafide and other details about the applicant. The pressure was s much on each and every manager of the branch that he had to disburse as many as 5000 loans within a specified period failing which he will earn the wrath and face transfers to those remote hilly, tribal areas which will be something short of near Death!! The local panchayat heads or the political heads will also knock on your doors early in the morning as soon as the bank opens and hand over a bunch of applications to be disbursed immediately and would often flex his muscles and threaten a transfer if the bank manager asked any queries relatng to the loans. The local political secretary would often comment that the money was the nation's property and why make a fuss giving it to those who did not have any means to earn money! We as bank managers used to insist there would be no cash disbursals and the loan could be disbursed only by way of banker's cheque for which a pro-forma invoice was required. The compliance was immediate and the loans disbursed and people vanished!! It was learnt that out of the total loan of Rs 5000/- disbursed, the beneficiary got only a mere Rs 500/- and the rest was all cornered by the local heads of the political party!! and thus, the loans were never recovered and got written off! In one of the meetings of Poojary held at Bangalore, my colleague chief manager raised his hands to say that his branch has only one loan officer and disbursing 5000 applications within a fortnight may not be possible. This invited the minister's ire and he immediatly asked for the name of the bank and the branch in-charge and told him to look for his transfer orders to a remote place from Bangalore!! within minutes, frantic calls were made from our head office and the poor manager had to earn the wrath of all our executives, left and right. The next day saw about a dozen officers descending on the branch from different parts of the country to process and disburse those 5000 applications within the stipulated time fixed by Mr Poojary, the minister. Poor Manager was transferred to a remote place and made to repent for venting out his honest feelings. The interference of politicians in day to day working of the bank and its branches is not welcome and instead allow the banks to function on its own independently. Let me ask one question to the politicians or the finance ministry as to how many people below the poverty line were uplifted with the Poojary loans given by the nationalised banks in the mid 80s? The answer may not be encouraging as the fruits of the loans never reached the needy. These sort of loans were also given to farmers for agriculture and to various others but the essence is that the loans never reached the deserving poor due to interference by he politicians. The nation should condemn such behaviour of politicians who go to the extent of using muscle power to enrich themselves depriving the poor of their legitimate rights to earn and live. The congress high command should pull up this MP and even ask for his resignation. Let people live with honour and dignity and not fall a prey to the hungry and greedy politicians who are a scar to this society. Being an Ex- Banker, i am unable to digest this inhuman treatment meted out to a fellow Grameen bank manager who is subject to so much of humilation??