FOOD for thought for Indian politics

I am proud to be in Indian especially when the country has such a wonderful Government and a compassionate political leadership.

Did you just have a frown on your face upon reading this? I’m sure you think I am sadly mistaken?

Well, you can’t be more wrong on this. The government is genuinely compassionate. Had it not been so, it would not have offered Food Security--an incentive to stay poor.

I would now set the tone right. Your initial response to my textual assault at your sanity was absolutely right. It was merely my attempt at being sarcastic.

As an Indian with an opinion I am appalled to notice the state of affairs in India.  

The country NEEDS to get rid of poverty but the government WANTS it to stay as poverty gives politicians enough fire to bake their collective bread of politics. Food security to almost 70 per cent of the population in a country of almost 125 crore people, is nothing but an incentive to stay poor and a brutal assault on the economy. The long-term implication of food security is scary. It is not just seemingly scary, it is bound to hit people like you and me and it is bound to adversely affect even those who would “benefit” from this political sham.

But the government justifies its decision saying, “We do not want the poor to stay hungry. We do not want a hungry India”. Will anybody tell them that it is poverty that leads to hunger and not hunger that makes one poor. The need is to throw POVERTY out of India, hunger will automatically follow suit. But the government is sadly busy fire-fighting instead of eliminating the cause of fire that’s slowly gutting India.

It is estimated that food security would cost us approximately Rs 1.3 lakh crore. But that's just the cost of procuring the grain and doesn’t include the cost of setting up the system and infrastructure to deliver the promise. Industry estimates say if you factor in costs like those involved in hiring manpower, ensuring storage and transportation, and other relevant costs, it will cost you more than Rs 2 lakh crore per year.

With such a state of affairs of the Indian economy, is the country ready to bear this recurring cost?

Also, it is an open secret that the country suffers a leakage of almost 40 per cent when it comes to disbursement of any sort of subsidies or benefits or entitlements. This means almost Rs 80,000 crore of the estimated Rs 2 lakh crore would go fake beneficiaries. This would obviously lead to more corruption.

To the lay, this government initiative of distributing benefits of economic development among the poor seems laudable. However, the government fails to explain how it plans to ensure proper and legal distribution of these fruits of economic development.

It is a fact that India’s supply chains famously suffer inadequate infrastructure and the distribution channels are peppered with corruption. Food grain production happens in surplus but food grains are left to rot for want of proper storage. The Food Security poll plank of the Congress-led government will only worsen the problem of food wastage as millions continue to starve.

Also, absurdly, the Government says food security would benefit the rural poor but it would instead hurt this particular section of India the most by reducing the market prices of food crops by increasing the supply of subsidized grain. Food Security may very soon prove to be a bane for the very target population it aimed to “benefit”.

The poor need to get rid of poverty, for the poor knows hunger is an effect of poverty. But a hungry man would first grab a piece of bread then think about getting rid of poverty. It is this very knee-jerk reaction of the poor towards hunger that the government is trying to play with. Instead of spending money on creating opportunities for the poor to get rid of his poverty, the government is incentivising the state of being poor. Stay poor as then you at least have Food Security.

We need legislations, which allows the farmers to profit economically and grow autonomous, we need legislations that give job opportunities to the poor, we need legislations that aim at capacity building and skill development of the jobless population and lastly, we need more jobs.

The government would have done a better job by providing market incentives, not charitable hand-outs like this.