The Sound and the Fury
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: August 06 , 2013 -

With the August 20 deadline announced by the UPA Government to roll out the controversial Food Security scheme in at least two of the 14 Congress-ruled States in the country fast approaching, the stage for a showdown between the ruling Congress and the non-Congress opposition parties in the State has been set in Manipur.

While Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam, who is also the President of Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC), has reiterated that the National Food Security Ordinance, which was cleared by the President of India in a rather hurried manner, is to make India hungry free; the non-Congress parties have toughen their stand, swearing to oppose introduction of the ordinance in the State at any cost.

This diametrically opposite stand point between the two parties vis-à-vis an ambitious scheme that would ensure Nation’s two-third population the right to get 5 kgs of food grains every month at highly subsidized rate of Rs 1 to Rs 3 per kg, has once again compelled us to question how informed the public of Manipur have been now on the issue of Food Security and what their leaders have done in this regard.

As we have pointed out through this column earlier, there could be no two opinions on the need for food security in a country like India where the problem of malnutrition is wide-spread and one in every three malnourished children in the world are living in it.

But this is far from happening, more so from the war of words that has been going on endlessly without any substance.

It is interesting to note that those justifying the proposed Food Security Ordinance keep on harping over the Government’s responsibility to alleviate the suffering of the people through effective implementation of welfare measures. On the other hand, those criticizing the Ordinance stick to the possible negative impacts of such ‘feel good’ measures in the long run.

In the process, both the parties confuse the public on some important issues pertaining to the Food Security Ordinance and its proposed implementation in Congress-ruled States.

Specially on the part of the opposition parties in Manipur, it is disheartening to note that they have completely failed to raise some pertinent questions like why the Government wants to distribute more food grains to the people ‘now only’ when it had not acted upon the directive of the Supreme Court for free distribution of the food grains lying rotting in the godowns to the poor.

Heaves of food grain lying rotten in the godowns is a clear indication of an ineffective Public Distribution System and so strengthening of the existing Public Distribution System before making any more allocation is of paramount important for ensuring the food grains reach the targeted people.

Last but not the least, it is not understandable why those criticizing the Food Security Ordinance fail to make a strong case over the undue favour being given to the Congress-ruled States, when it comes to implementation of a scheme that could mark a paradigm shift in addressing the problem of food security from that of a welfare approach to a right-based approach, or could spell a complete disaster for the country and any Government that would come to power after the much awaited Lok Sabha election.