The Congress, which came to power on the slogan “Congress ke haath aam aadmi ke saath”, is leading the UPA government for the second time. A world- renowned economist is the Prime Minister of the country for the last six years. An experienced administrator and a seasoned politician is the Agriculture Minister. Monsoon had behaved well until last year. India has been experiencing high growth till last year. Despite all these, the prices have gone through the roof - a matter of grave concern. .

Food price inflation has recently touched 20 per cent, the highest in last 20 years. Potatoes are selling at Rs 25, tomatoes at Rs 20 and green peas at Rs 23. The price of sugar has gone beyond Rs 50 while dal is sold at Rs 120; other pulses are scarce. The minimum support price of wheat has more than doubled in the last three years. Moreover, drought and delayed monsoon this year have made matters much worse. The more Sharad Pawar admits that the prices of milk, sugar and other essential commodities are going to go up, the more the hoarders and black marketters get into action.

In such a scenario, who will bell the cat? All political parties are playing a game of passing the buck. It is ironical that no one wants to take the blame. The ruling Congress party wants to make Sharad Pawar the scapegoat because he is heading the Agriculture Ministry. Pawar, stung by the criticism, counters that he alone couldn't be blamed as the entire Cabinet had taken decisions on the prices. So the ruling combination's whipping boys are the opposition-ruled states like West Bengal.

The weak response of the opposition to the price rise is attributed to a division in their ranks and their low morale after the humiliating defeat in the 2009 polls. The opposition merely raises the price rise as a routine subject in every session and does not launch a sustained campaign. Is it because none of them cares for the common man? Is it because there is a stable government at the Centre with no threat of facing Lok Sabha elections for the next four and a half years?

The Congress is smug after the recent poll victory in Maharashtra where the ruling Congress-NCP combine has come back to power despite the price rise and 26/11 terror attack. The Congress had everything going wrong, yet it won, emerging as the largest party without any iconic figure in the state.

The Centre and the states are playing the passing the buck game. Regional leaders like Mayawati of U.P, Nitish Kumar of Bihar, Naveen Patnaik of Orissa, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya of West Bengal and Badal of Punjab do not miss a chance to blame the Centre for the spiralling price rise. In West Bengal, while the CPI-M-led government is blaming the Centre for the food crisis, the maim opposition party Trinamool Congress, which is part of the UPA, also blames the Centre. They accuse the Centre of following wrong economic polities and liberal export regime, which has caused the current crisis. What is the response of the Prime Minister or the Agriculture Minister? They blame the states for not having in place an effective public distribution system.

How can the alarmingly widening gap between the wholesale prices and the retail prices of commodities be bridged? The Centre has convened a meeting of the chief ministers. Will there be a consensus at the meeting?

First of all, the states and the Centre should act tough by booking the black-marketers and hoarders. With a weak monsoon, the government should have taken all steps to ensure that essential commodities were available. Mill owners had started building up their stocks as soon as they realized that there was going to be a weak monsoon but no remedial action was taken. The government is also resorting to more imports, benefiting some big importers. The Centre also allowed export of rice, which led to the present shortage. Despite good sugar production in the last two years, buffer stocks were not built up. The Government must supply sugar, pulses and edible oils through PDS outlets at cheap rates. Future trading in all food articles must be immediately banned. The Government must release cereal stocks through the PDS by increasing the rice and wheat quotas for the States. The Food Security legislation should be tabled without any further delay. The government must reflect on why there is such high food inflation when the country is sitting on record food stocks of 55 million tonnes?

The opposition has finally woken up to the fact that the Government needs to be held accountable. With the budget session beginning next month, the opposition is getting active. The BSP, BJP, CPI-M, RJD and SP are planning separate agitations. While the Congress is putting Pawar in the dock, he has managed to get the support of RJD and SP against the Congress attack.

The Congress is planning to have a Working Committee meeting in which Sharad Pawar will be blamed for the fiasco. The CWC will end by appealing to the government to check price rise. With all these political drama ahead, what does the poor “aam admi” do? He has to wait patiently while the political parties play out their power game. (IPA Service)