Stung by the Congress’s attack over the food riots in West Bengal, the CPI(M) today sought to blame the Opposition parties including the Congress and the Trinamool Congress for the trouble.Terming the Congress’s criticism of the Left Front Government as “intemperate” and “ill-informed”, the CPI(M) Politburo said in a statement today: “There are no food riots in West Bengal although some elements who want a mahajot are doing everything possible to incite violence on the issue of ration distribution so as to disrupt the entire system.”The mahajot, in terms of West Bengal political parlance, refers to a likely alliance of the Congress and the Trinamool against the Left Front.While the West Bengal government has taken stringent measures to end corruption in the system, as evident by the large number of raids and arrests over the last year, the major problem is the huge cuts in allocations to the APL sections by the Central Government bringing it down to just over three per cent of the initial allocation, said the Politburo.Referring to the Congress statement that it is an anachronism to even talk of food riots in a country which proudly flaunts a booming economy, the CPI(M) said: “It is an indication of the total disconnect between the Congress perceptions and the reality of widespread poverty.”Unfortunately, in the “booming economy”, 3,500 tribal children in five districts of Maharashtra have died due to malnutrition in the last year, said the Politburo statement “The Congress would do well to also study the recent report of the National Family Health Service which shows that malnutrition has increased in the last few years. Indeed, India has the highest number of malnourished people in the whole world. This is the reason why the CPI(M) has been demanding a reversal of food policies from the targeted system to a universal system of PDS as recommended by the official committee,” the statement added.
