People's Democracy

Sitaram Yechury

PRIME MINISTER Vajpayee's speech at Bhuj recently would put the notorious Queen of France Marie Antonniete to shame. Like the French Queen who, when faced with starving protestors, exclaimed "if they don't have bread, why don't they eat cakes", Mr Vajpayee was exhorting a numbed audience, still recovering from the shocks of the devastating earthquake, that India, under his leadership, has not only achieved self-sufficiency in foodgrains but is facing problems of excess production! He thundered that India, which at one time had to import foodgrains, today is feeding the world by exporting. Nothing could be more absurd.

Clearly, the Prime minister is living in a make-believe world of his own. With reports of starvation deaths increasing; large tracts of the country being afflicted by a severe drought (which is no longer confined to certain pockets

but has assumed a national character) and distress suicides of the peasantry clearly point to the growing misery in rural India.

The stockpiling of massive quantities of foodgrains is not the result of overproduction. On the contrary, it is direct consequence of unaffordable high prices at which this government seeks to sell this grain. Food stocks were 44.7 million tonnes before the wheat procurement season began on April 1. Since then, it is reported that more than 15 million tonnes of wheat has been procured mainly in the states ruled by NDA allies like Punjab. Thus, more than 60 million tonnes of foodgrains are at the disposal of the government. Under these circumstances, the widespread starvation deaths are a criminal expression of the gross inhumanity of the system and government policies.

That the prices fixed by the government are high has been endorsed by the recent proposal of the Ministry of Food and Civil Supplies to reduce the Public Distribution System (PDS) prices of wheat and rice. The Vajpayee government has, however, not accepted this proposal so far. Instead, it seeks to export and earn foreign exchange at the expense of death and misery of the Indian people. Even with this suggested reduction, the prices for those above the poverty line (APL) would not be much lower than the market prices. In the 1999-2000 budget, the prices of rice and wheat for below the poverty line (BPL) families were increased by 68 per cent. This led to a severe short fall in the off-take of foodgrains from the accumulated stocks.

The recent protest march by starving tribals in Udaipur to storm the FCI godown is an indicator of the things to come. The protest action led by the CPI(M) and other Left and secular forces highlighted the inhuman callousness of government policy where people were allowed to die because of the lack of food while stocks rot in the godowns.

Despite consistent demands to introduce a `food for work' programme, where unemployed youth could be mobilised to build the much needed rural infrastructure in return for a certain amount of foodgrains, this Vajpayee government displays a criminal apathy by refusing to implement such a scheme as a national policy.

In this background, the decision of the Vajpayee government to virtually dismantle the PDS is worse than a criminal offence against the people. The government's decision to virtually abandon the procurement of foodgrains at a minimum support price not only makes the peasantry vulnerable and the country's food security fragile but it also signals the abdication of the government's responsibility to ensure the minimum livelihood of the people.

It needs to be reiterated that both the PDS and the procurement of foodgrains were not mere economic decisions or an expression of charity. They were commitments to the Indian people during the freedom struggle. An independent India would, it was hoped, banish the chronic conditions of famine and malnutrition. It is this fundamental premise, which moved millions of Indians in the struggle for freedom, that is being reneged.

Further, the mockery of the much tom-tomed targetted PDS needs to be exposed. The current policy to provide 20 kg of foodgrains for a family (irrespective of its size) is far from adequate. The required level of cereal in-take, as recommended by the Indian Council for Medical Research, is 11.25 kg a month for an individual. For an average family of five members, 20 kg a month would be just a third of the required in-take.

Making matters worse, the estimates of BPL category vary vastly. Studies have shown that in the Dharavi slums of Mumbai, with a population of over five lakhs, only 151 families have been categorised as BPL! Even if the all-India figure of the BPL is taken, then less than 37 per cent of our population would be considered. The Surveys of the National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau, however, show that 48.5 per cent of Indian adults are malnourished. With one half of the population malnourished and an additional 20 per cent at the risk of under nutrition, 70 per cent of Indian people are food in -secured.

Given the government's policies, however, worse appears to be in store for the Indian people. As a result of the government's unbriddled liberalisation drive, agricultural growth has been on the decline for the second consecutive year -- -0.9 and -3.5 per cent respectively. Foodgrain production has fallen below the rate of population growth. In 1989-91, the per capita annual output of foodgrains was 209.39 kg while in 1998-2000, this declined to 207.08 kg.

During the decade of the nineties, the growth rate of foodgrain production was a mere half of what it was during the decade of the eighties -- 1.8 per cent against 3.54 per cent. The non-foodgrain agrarian economy reflects stagnation with growth rates having fallen from 4 per cent in the eighties to 3.17 per cent in the nineties. That such a trend is bound to intensify in the future, is clear from the fact that investment in agriculture is on the decline. This means that India's food security is in jeopardy. This grim reality for the vast majority of the Indian people is being compounded by the strangulating impact of freeing all agricultural imports and the growing rural unemployment (which fell from an annual compound rate of 2.03 per cent between 1987-88 to 1993-94 to 0.67 per cent between 1993-94 to 1999-2000, according to the latest NSS data). The misery of the Indian people, thus is slated to grow in alarming proportions.

The prime minister's speech at Bhuj is clearly the expression of a fascistic demagogue who seeks to deny ground realities and mislead the people. In a democracy, such leaders cannot be allowed to survive. In the interests of India and the people, this Vajpayee government must be forced to reverse its policies or else quit.