Do stones have ears?

Lutyens8217; Delhi is so beautiful. But its landscaped gardens, well manicured lawns, smooth roads and imposing government buildings only r...

Lutyens8217; Delhi is so beautiful. But its landscaped gardens, well manicured lawns, smooth roads and imposing government buildings only remind the visitor of New Delhi8217;s enormous power.

Yet New Delhi this time played host to a unique jansunwai public hearing, in which numerous people 8212; poor and illiterate for the most part 8212; boldly held on to microphones and passionately challenged its callousness.

The venue was the Ekta Vihar slums in South Delhi8217;s RK Puram, fringed as it is by the bungalows of New Delhi8217;s babus. The slums are peopled by about a 10,000, most living below the poverty line. They have migrated largely from Rajasthan and play band baja during the weddings of the rich. They all have ration cards and there are three ration shops in the area.

Obviously, they also form a substantial vote bank and must surely be a force to reckon with during election time. But that8217;s only once in a while. Each day for them has become a struggle to acquire the 25 kilos of wheat and 10 kilo of rice per month per family that is their due.

Fed up with the mental harassment perpetrated by ration shop owners, the residents of Ekta Vihar have been buying grain in the open market, although they find it hard to put together the money for one square meal per day.

Then the Right To Information Act came along and provoked Arvind Kejriwal 8212; a revenue officer now heading an NGO working on the issue of right to information 8212; to put a question to the food commissioner8217;s office, seeking details of the daily sales register of the ration shops in the area. The results brought into focus the rampant corruption. Not only did the move have the potential to put more food on the table it made people realise that silence isn8217;t wisdom.

So they came out in the open that day. Thanks to the National Convention on the Right to Information, Basanti Devi, with her pallu over her head, could pour out her woes. Her ration card number is 1069. Her card for the month of April, like other months, is blank 8212; meaning it has no entries of the 20 kg of wheat and 10 kg of rice that she was entitled to. However, the daily sales register of the food commissioner8217;s office, where such records are maintained, shows that 25 kg of rice were issued to her on April 19, 22 and 23. Which means she has taken home 75 kg of rice. But only on paper!

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Basanti8217;s story is not unique. It is repeated in other pockets in Delhi, as the basti dwellers from Sonia Vihar, for example, testified to. What8217;s shameful is that out of the 41 ration cards verified in Ekta Vihar, the quantity of wheat and rice siphoned off was more than 90 per cent.

When the matter was taken to the Food Commissioner8217;s Office, Kejriwal received a simple reply: 8220;the country does not run by law8221;. Did this reply echo through the beautiful lawns and gardens of New Delhi?