The editorial in the latest issue of RSS mouthpiece Organiser ,titled We are sweet to our tormentors! Food price is no issue. What if sugar is sold at Rs 50? says: WHO made our sugar bitter? And our food dearer? Manmohan Singh? Sharad Pawar? Mayawati? Or all the chief ministers collectively conspiring to give the UPA a bad name and a free run for hoarders,black marketeers and petty traders to make astronomical profit at the cost of the common man? It is easy to shift the blame on anybodys door and get away. Has not bitter sugar now become a cliché? Is it not a fact that food prices were high for almost the entire tenure of Manmohan Singh and yet he returned with a renewed mandate? The opposition parties find it difficult to collect a respectable crowd to protest the price rise even though the number of starvation deaths as reported in the media has only been increasing by the day despite India sitting on the high table of developed countries at the international economic submits.
It adds: Everybody knows this is Indias peak production season for sugar. The arrival of sugar in the market should have been high,which should have reduced the price. Reports say that both stock level and arrival were inadequate in recent months,though there was no fall in production. For over two months imported raw sugar is held up in the port for want of a release order. The ten days time Sharad Pawar is now saying for the price to come down is sufficient for the profiteers to make a killing. In the season time if the prices are so high is there any hope of the price falling off-season? It is easy to blame Mayawati and opposition-ruled states for the price rise. Who does not know that the PM and his food minister are talking for the sake of saying something? The UPA has not shown a desire to dump faulty rules set for the sugar industry. The sugar price in the international market is lower than the Indian market. By the time imported sugar reaches the Indian market that too becomes costlier because of the deliberate mess Sharad Pawar has created.
Back to the farm
A news item titled Food prices are high because of neglect of farm sector says: The new president of the Bharatiya Janata party,Nitin Gadkari,has taken several innovative measures aimed at revitalising the party. Being a man of the masses one suggests he pays very special attention to agriculture which is actually in a dire strait in the country today in spite of claims of launching of a second Green Revolution. It is not generally realised how precarious is Indias food grains situation today in the aftermath of the drought during the monsoon season in 2009. Actually,statistically speaking,one can state without fear of contradiction that the production of foodgrains in India at the end of the current agricultural year in June 2010 (agricultural year is from July 1 to June 30) will not be very different from the total production of 209.8 million tonnes (mt) in the year 1999-2000. One will come to the disturbing conclusion that India had not advanced even one step in the production of foodgrains in the last ten years.
It adds: It is necessary in this context for the BJP to keep track of agriculture because if production and productivity of crops do not increase with time,the number of Indians already going to bed hungry every night which is now 27 million according to FAO figures,will increase. A BJP cell for Agriculture can keep track of these developments and take suitable actions on them. Besides,agriculture is a state subject according to the Constitution and there are more than half a dozen states in which the BJP is in power by itself or in alliance. Such a cell can keep under its watch the development of agriculture in such states and keep a tab on the performance of these governments in question. Several years ago,a proposal was made in the BJP to set up a cell on agriculture. The idea was opposed on the ground that there was already a Kisan Morcha in the party. This is an erroneous concept. One hopes Nitin Gadkari will agree to this proposal and take necessary action in this regard.
Compiled by Suman K. Jha
