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Journalism of Courage
The controversy over the decision of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to discontinue sale of wheat and rice to state governments — barring in the Northeast — escalated on Thursday as Congress and BJP leaders sparred over the issue. The FCI has stopped the sale of grains under the Open Market Sale Scheme (Domestic) (OMSS-D) from June 13, based on directions of the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah accused the Central government on Thursday of “trying to snatch food away from poor people” as the state was counting on FCI stocks to fulfill its Anna Bhagya guarantee scheme, of 10 kg food grains per month to every BPL family. With the Congress government saying the Centre would be responsible if its scheme collapsed, the BJP threatened to launch a statewide stir if its guarantee failed.
A day after accusing the BJP-led Union government of attempting to scuttle the scheme by taking “a political decision”, Siddaramaiah trained his guns at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking why the PM and the BJP were against giving 10 kg of free rice to deserving people. “Why do they want to snatch the food away from poor people? The BJP is anti-Karnataka and we have been saying this since 2014,” he said.
“BJP leaders had openly threatened the Kannadigas during elections, saying that all schemes would be stopped if the BJP was not voted to power. Is this letter to the FCI an outcome of that?” he said. He was referring to BJP national president J P Nadda’s remarks at a poll rally in April, where he urged voters to elect the BJP so that “Karnataka is not devoid of Modi’s blessings”.
BJP leader and former CM Basavaraj Bommai said the Congress government was continuing its “dhokha (cheating)” in the name of guarantees. “If you were serious about implementing the Anna Bhagya scheme, you could have spoken directly with the Central government. But you wasted a month on publicity. The Centre takes a call based on future situations. Since there is no rainfall yet, the Centre has taken the decision (of stopping rice and wheat sales to state governments) as a precaution to ensure that there is no food shortage in the future,” he said.
The state government should purchase the rice from other agencies and give it to the beneficiaries, Bommai said. “Or else, you should transfer the amount directly to beneficiaries.”
AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala asked why the “FCI [was being] permitted to sell rice in the ‘Open Market’ to traders, but is prohibited from selling to states at the economic price after due payment”. “Isn’t it too much of a coincidence that Congress Govt asked the FCI to sell it rice for the poor on payment and the very next day, the Modi Govt directed that FCI should not sell rice to States but only to traders in the ‘Open Market’?” he asked in a tweet, adding that the Congress will find a way to implement the scheme.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh accused the Central government of hurting the weaker sections of society. “Is this what BJP president Naddaji meant, when he proclaimed that Karnataka would not get Modiji’s ‘ashirwaad’ if it didn’t vote for the BJP?” he said.
BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, in a tweet, said that the decision to stop the sale of grains to state governments would affect BJP-ruled states too. “This is definitely not a case of discrimination against Karnataka,” he argued.
Like the BJP government in UP, the Karnataka government should buy grains from the open market and fulfill the assurances made to the people, the MP said.
