Millions of tonnes of food grains are shown rotting in open, it is a criminal negligence. It is shocking that they didn’t anticipate these. It is incompetence at the highest level of policy making. You don’t necessarily bring down prices by economic jargons and fiscal measures. After all people don’t eat numbers they eat food. Millions of children are undernourished and malnourished, it is worst than poorest of countries in the world. One in three of the world's malnourished c
hildren live in India, says the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), a number more than in sub-Saharan Africa. Consider that India also has steadily increasing millionaires and billionaires. It is astounding the negligence. When they could make such swanky malls, why is that food grain storage not in place? Building these infrastructures is I guess much more important and urgent than making, say big dams (a fraction of money is enough). And these don’t need high technology. Whooping $12 billion in losses of agricultural produce owing to the absence or shortage of post-harvesting infrastructure. Shame on the government. We haven’t even start to discuss food security (I feel sorry for people like Swaminathan, they have been suggesting the policy makers for decades now). Consider this statistics: an astonishingly low 2% of fruit and vegetable production is processed annually in India, compared with 30% in Thailand, 70% in Brazil, 78% in the Philippines and 80% in Malaysia.
ions of tonnes of rotting grains and asked to “distribute food grain free to the poor, instead of letting millions of tonnes of it rot”. An usually reticent Manmohan Singh found it necessary to say "It is not possible in this country to give free food to all the poor people" and that “Supreme Court should not go into the realm of policy formulation”. Lack of sensitivity is astounding. It is shocking that he couldn’t get the drift of the matter.
The other aspect that affects common people is criminal justice system. It is one of the slowest and corrupt. This blogger wants to know what has been done by the government on these matters. Why is investigation still under political authority?. What has government to do with Central Bureau of Investigation and other investigating agencies? Why shouldn’t these be autonomous? What has Manmohan Singh government done on this matter?
Take the high profile case of riots that killed hundreds of people in Gujarat. Even after seven odd years we don’t even know who were behind all these (same with 84’ riots, and many more crimes that kill and maim people). It seems to be working on political exigencies and perception that need be created for the same. It is about fixers and lickers (the Delhi Superbugs!). Somewhere some sections of the media and others have passed a verdict against Modi. Why should we believe them? Who are they to decide? And we are goaded to take stand against these ‘communal’ people. Indeed I would like to ask for an apology from Mr.Modi for early utterings and accusations (so should many in media and otherwise…the rules against defamation should be made strong). We have the right to condemn someone only once the verdict is passed by the judiciary
on the basis of investigation. As long as the investigation is tardy and lackadaisical we need to blame the system. Which means the Union Government, which means the head of council of ministers and that is the Prime Minister. If they can’t get these basic systemic issues rectified then THEY SHOULD QUIT. I guess we had enough of this. Being nice is good, being knowledgeable is great but it is time to be competent. It is high time for delivering to the basic expectations and rectifying flaws in the system, we expect sterner response (for the same reason I think MS Gill is amazingly incompetent. I am shocked by his statement in parliament taking the example of ‘marriage’. It is condoning the systemic lacunae. Means and ways of achieving is important indicator of competence. This blogger even question the basic criteria under which he was appointed as Union Minister of Sport. He seems to be the product of years of bureaucratic mediocrity and chaltha hai attitude at the expense of the common people).Look at what happened with Bhopal…they delayed it so much that it was made subjective and so manipulated by powerful people. So much so that they can even claim that it never happened!. Manmohan Singh government should be able to take policy decision on these matters that seriously plague the society and cause misery to millions. It might give less political leverage to ruling party (and the fixers within) but is a step towards better and healthier society.
An attempted poem!
That is a good point*
Blame not the Government
for the rotting foodgrain
children going hungry
Malnourished they survive
It is in our fate dear
that rain falls on the grains and it rots
and price too rise.
That they couldn’t even build storage
for tonnes of produce that go waste
in the land of despairing millions
is only a matter of debate
that can be refuted, reflected, rechallenged
and retalked.
What kind of people are these
who run the government?
Oh I mean blame not the government,
it's in the stars, planetary positions
and feeding the black cat on a rainy night
under the banyan tree
and wait for it to add up next birth
om bheeem creeem
*title courtesy: TV channels
