The State wants the rice to be supplied free to poor people living under poverty line under Anna Bhagya guarantee scheme envisaging 10 kg free foodgrains per poor family. However, the Centre continues to sell rice at subsidized rate of Rs 20 per kg to petroleum industry to produce ethanol for blending of petrol. BJP led Centre prefers not to supply foodgrain for poor people even at Rs 34 per kg but to petroleum industry at Rs 20 per kg is shocking. Should a political party take such a revenge from people who voted them out of power?

The politics revolving around foodgrain for poor, does not end here. In his audacity, the Union Minister of Food and Public distribution Piyush Goyal has said that Food Corporation of India (FCI) had refused to provide rice to several states from its stock to ensure the price of the grain did not increase in the open market. He has further said that the Centre had received demands for rice from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, and none of them got the grain.

The logic of not selling foodgrains to states that are trying to feed their poor people in the name of possible price rise in the open market is not acceptable. Hungry stomachs must be fed first, rather than providing it for ethanol production for industrial use of blending of petrol. A question can be asked, if selling at Rs 34 per kg to states would result in price rise in the open market, why can’t the BJP led Centre cannot sell it at Rs 20 per kg to feed the hungry stomach whit it is already providing the same at Rs 20 per kg to industries and corporates? The answer is obvious. BJP does not want to sell foodgrains the poor hungry people at any rate but want to ensure profits for certain groups or people by selling it to them.

The other answer of the minister that several other states are also not supplied foodgrains does not justify the action of refusing foodgrains for poor and supplying the same to industries and corporates for ethanol production. Piyush Goyal has carefully named four states – two of them are ruled by the BJP and two others are ruled by the opposition political parties. He has been balancing the political bias against the opposition is obvious, but this political balancing goes against the poor people who do not get two squire meal daily, and denying them food, even free of cost if they cannot afford it.

Food is a basic human right and we have also Food Security Act in operation in the country. BJP led Centre has obviously no right to scuttle the people’s fundamental right to have food at any logic, forget about the presumed price rise and the so called necessity to supply it for industrial and corporate houses at subsidized rate of Rs 20 per kg. As per the reports, the Centre had allocated 78,000 tons of rice to ethanol producer industries and corporates at the subsidized rate of Rs 20 per kg. It is shocking that the BJP government at the Centre does not want to sell it even at Rs 34 per kg to opposition ruled Karnataka.

Politically speaking, the opposition ruled states like Chhattisgarh and Punjab has offered to sell rice to Karnataka, however, the offer is too difficult to implement, at the offered price of Rs34 per kg. Chhattisgarh has offered to supply 1.5 lakh ton while Punjab has agreed to supply the rest of the needed quality. In Karnataka, people and the Congress workers have protested the decision of the Centre in all district headquarters. They accused the Centre of a vindictive action against them.

Congress on other hand alleged that Modi government has stopped selling rice to Karnataka to prevent it to implement the electoral promise to provide 10 kg free rice to all poor families per month. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said that the state needs 2.28 lakh tons of rice, and FCI had agreed to sell them on June 12, but backtracked two days later.

There is no dearth of rice with FCI. Currently it has a much higher quantity of rice than the required buffer stock, the Congress has said, and alleged that the present decision not to sell rice to Karnataka Congress led government is just another example of PM Modi’s anti-poor and vendetta politics. As of June 1, 2023, FCI had 41.4 million ton of rice (including paddy equivalent) against required buffer stock of 7.5 million ton, according to sources.

Congress Communication Chief Jairam Ramesh has said that state government has announced the Anna Bhagya guarantee scheme on June 2, and on June 13, the Centre issued circular banning sale of rice from FCI to states under Open Market Sale Scheme.

The entire episode shows the dirty politics of PM Modi led BJP government against the opposition ruled states. PM Modi has been taunting the opposition for quite some time now alleging their welfare schemes as “revdis” to the people, while his government has written off around 12 lakh crore rupees loans of the defaulting industries and business houses in the last 9 years. Moreover, he does not brand his government’s welfare schemes as “revdis”. (IPA Service)