NEW DELHI: The BJP's Kisan Morcha head and Lok Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh Virendra Singh Mast has opposed Reserve Bank of India Governor Urijit Patel’s remarks on loan waiver to farmers.Mast said since farmers are the country’s biggest revenue earners, it is the duty and responsibility of the government-run banks to protect them during dire situations or when they are in trouble.The party’s Kisan Morcha chief countered Patel’s opinion that such a move “undermines an honest credit culture” and could “affect the national balance sheet” and also talked about the “need to create a consensus such that loan waiver promises are eschewed.”“Patel heads the government’s business/economic institution and hence he has looked at the issue from a business-economic perspective, but the job of the government is also to take a humanitarian view of things,” he said.“It is a temporary measure and not a permanent move,” the Kisan Morcha head said, adding, “when banks were nationalised in the country one of the purposes was to have 45% of their activity to help development in the country. Hence protecting farmers in need is a duty that banks cannot ignore.”Hailing from a farming background himself, Mast said, “since 82% of the country’s population constitutes of farmers who provide for maximum revenue to the government, it is the duty of the government and nationalised banks to bail them out when they are in trouble.”He also said that for banks the “maximum deposits come from the rural areas and most of the recovery of money also comes from farmers, hence it is some sort of a duty for them to stand by the farmers when they are in dire situations.”