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Journalism of Courage
Hunger moves mountains. The hunger for power that is. The BJP, in anticipation of the elections in Rajasthan next year, has decided to despatch a team to inquire into the reported starvation deaths in the state. Of course, there are starvation deaths occurring in the tribal belt of Orissa, too, but since it is not politically expedient to inquire into them, there are no fact-finding teams being despatched to that region for the moment. But that8217;s just the trouble. While Opposition parties feed selectively on hunger tales in order to come to power, state governments try to cloak their own very conspicuous failures in order to save themselves.
Neither of the two approaches help those in the throes of acute human distress. Take the Rajasthan instance. A state that is experiencing drought for the seventh consecutive year seems to be saddled with a government that has become barren of ideas or even the will to fight it. The chronic shortages of food, fodder and water in many pockets indicates that not only are programmes like the National Nutrition Mission not working where they are most needed but that there is a serious breakdown in the public distribution system. It is only when the authorities clearly recognise that something is going seriously wrong somewhere that corrective action can be taken. The problem is most chief ministers resist reading the crucial writing on the wall.
