Even as the world faces an unprecedented shortage in items of staple food and the consequent rise in global prices, President George W Bush has brewed up another storm in a tea-cup by holding India responsible. According to his logic, growing prosperity amongst the Indian middle-class has led to demand on its part for better food, causing prices to sky-rocket. The latest Bushism is just a take-off from what his Secretary of State had asserted earlier. Condoleezza Rice had put "improvement in the diets of people, for instance, in China and India' as a contributing cause to food shortage because of rising demand. But while she had tried to support her postulate with cogent argument, Bush has inserted an almost accusatory tone in his assertion, conveniently dropping China from his ambit. Opposition parties in India, particularly the Left which has no love lost for the US President, have been quick to pounce on the faux pas, retaliating with their own accusation that it was the diversion of land producing food in the US to bio-fuel production which was responsible for spiralling global prices. It is tempting, of course, to join the condemning band-wagon by pointing out that the nation which Bush heads has been a notorious wastrel as far as food is concerned. Reportedly, house hold food waste in America adds up to 43 billion dollars a year, enough to feed millions of people in less fortunate climes. However, the situation is too grave for simply trading accusations and the controversy should not be allowed to distract from exigent realities. The Director of World Food Programme of the UN has described it as a