Exploding food prices (Editorial)
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18/04/2008
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Kashmir Times (Jammu)
Postponement of meeting of cabinet committee on prices on account of ministerial row is a pointer towards the laid-back approach of the government towards a critical problem which is potentially calamitous. As the food prices explode across the country setting off a chain of violent mass protests, the ruling clique seems to have started feeling the heat in the election year for the reason too obvious. Surging prices have threatened its political stability and have also the potential to faint its prospects to return to power. Despite this, ruefully the helmsmen are handling the situation in a very slipshod manner and are just trying to undermine the gravity of the situation by offhandedly dismissing it just an impact of global phenomenon. When the central leaders try to brush off the genuine hue and cry raised by the teeming millions of the country and of course the media as an overreaction and opposition's conspiracy to dent the image of surging and prosperous India, one is reminded of French Queen Marie Antoinette. More so because the Congress led United Progressive Alliance boasts to have an enviable team of world-class economists led by none other than Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. There is no doubt that rising inflation and food prices have emerged as an international crisis triggering deadly food riots in different parts of the world. According to United Nations' estimates, in 2007, the prices of grain rose by 42 percent and dairy products by 80 percent. Similarly rice prices saw an increase of 50 percent in last two weeks. Surge in food prices is being termed as all-time high in the last 30 years. But the reasons behind were certainly not unanticipated. This is ironical that whereas in India, which is considered to be a surging economy, Gross Domestic Product growth was registered 8.5 percent in 2006-07, agriculture only grew by 2.2 percent. Fall in agriculture growth during the period 2002-2007 has been staggeringly persistent. Given this dismal scenario, where the reports about fatal food riots, violent food-price protests and the soldiers guarding fields and warehouses are pouring from different parts of Africa and some parts of Asia as well, suggest that the spectre of widespread hunger looms large at the global level, superficial measures certainly won't do. Linking the rising prices with increase in oil prices across the globe or in the panic ban on exports and increase in imports reflect just the incompetence of the government. As far as India is concerned, the country's full integration into the world capitalist economy shifting the focus from agrarian economy has hurt the interests of the agriculturists, to the extent that in the past few years around 1,50,000 farmers have committed suicide and even the election lollipop of loan waiver of Rs 60,000 Cr for the farmers in the union budget has failed to bring any respite to them. Obviously the potentially calamitous rising inflation in general and surging food prices in particular have dwarfed the fabled growth story of Indian economy, which, in all probability, would have been the main election plank of Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA). This has also perforated the balloon of bulging prosperous Indian middle class as raised by the government and also a particular section of media, which mainly relies on the overstated statistics fed by the government agencies. Yet the ground realities point out that staggering 77 percent of our population lives on less than Rs 20 per day and among these 41 percent are extremely poor. Majority of the farmers, who constitute the backbone of our agrarian economy, come under this category. What is making the situation really catastrophic is the pace with which the area of land of cultivation has shrunk in the past few years due to faulty policies of the successive governments. In the name of setting up Special Economic Zones (SEZs) across the country, the farmers are being deprived of agricultural land and in place the surging Indian economy is giving preference to big factories for manufacturing cars, automobiles and other luxury products. One wonders if the ghost of Marie Antoinette has charmed the world renowned Indian economists. But they need to spell out - if the people don't have bread to eat, let them eat what?