To this, the angry Supreme Court said it was an 'order' and not a suggestion implying that the minister may be summoned for judicial contempt if he fails to adhere. A bewildered Pawar had no choice but to act and act fast. Actually, the whole union cabinet was taken aback by the nature of Supreme Court outburst after Pawar's initial insensitive response to the SC judgment. Actions are being taken first to identify the quantity of foodgrains being 'wasted' at government godowns across the country and, then, how to reach them out to the poor.

Controversy does not seem to ever spare Pawar. Cricket, mafia connection, sugarcane and sugar link, friends among liquor barons, food shortage, import leaks, public distribution (PDS) scandal, what have you? Yet, for Pawar, the Supreme Court order on food waste was probably a bolt from the blue, something the veteran Maratha politician could have never considered coming in this form. The rebel in him did not take the SC order seriously because he knew the true story behind the rotting foodgrains at government godowns since he was a junior minister in the late Shankar Rao Chavan government in Maharashtra in the 1970s. An empowered committee of the union cabinet, led by Pawar, met on September 3 and agreed to offer an additional 2.5 million tones of grains, worth about Rs. 3,700 crore at procurement cost, to the poor or to those living 'below the poverty line'(BPL) to defuse the issue. It was possibly the quickest crisis management measure by the government on a non-security issue ever. Obviously, grains to be distributed among the poor won't be either 'rotten' or totally free of cost.

Historically, the truth is more food is wasted in India than it is consumed in many of the smaller countries in the world. It was wasted even during the period of the 1960s and early 1970s, in the Nehru-Indira Gandhi era, when India witnessed the worst food shortage and was forced to go to the United States of America with a beggar's bowl for 'free' wheat that was imported for years under the famous 'PL 480' scheme. The news stories with pictures of rotting imported American wheat in Bombay port found front-page headlines in many national and regional newspapers in the early 1970s. The creation of Food Corporation of India (FCI) for storage and distribution of foodgrains did not stem the rot. The FCI was never well equipped and properly administered to achieve its corporate goal. It never had adequate storage space even when the volume of annual public food procurement was as large as over 15 million tones. It does not have adequate storage facility even now though the grains procurement quantity has fallen to less than 50 per cent of the volume in the peak period of the 1970s. Today's senior citizens, including those from the judicial fraternity, might recall the time when wheat and rice were a rare sight in the open market and their black market prices were sky-high. The FCI and its public procurement and distribution systems were always inefficient and corrupt to the core. Government godown keepers ensured large grains leakage and huge wastage of foodgrains year after year and fudged inventories to make quick bucks from black market and other sources.

Who says that rotten foodgrains are not fit for human consumption? In fact, they are although in different form. For instance, rotten wheat is never a waste. It is the most sought after fodder for the liquor industry. Behind the thriving state of India 's liquor industry, the world's largest producer-consumer of 'whiskey', is the abundant supplies of rotten wheat procured from government and other godowns, openly or clandestinely. The long established liquor industry-godown keeper nexus has been performing extremely well since the inception of the FCI. There had been media reports, from time to time, about these links, which seemed to embarrass none. Nothing much has been done to change the ways of the FCI and the PDS. The system has benefited politicians, officials and liquor industry for decades. Molasses and rotten wheat are important ingredients for manufacturing 'rum' and whiskey. In a way, foodgrains waste in storage is a myth. There is no waste. Rotten wheat or rice creates a much higher value addition in processing and when converted into expensive spirits. Therefore, it is unlikely that the well-intentioned judicial intervention to prevent wastage of foodgrains in government godowns will change the ways of the FCI and its officials after the current issue dies down.

Now, some stray thoughts, How much can we really rely on official statistics such as the poverty index, the BPL number, foodgrains production, volume of waste foodgrains, small-scale sector output, national income, population census, and even export-import data, which does not include smuggled goods? Not much, especially after the latest Planning Commission faux pas over India's first quarter (fiscal 2010-11) GDP growth figure, for which the whole world waited eagerly. Barely 24 hours after the government announced the first quarter GDP growth rate at 8.8 per cent, the central statistical organization (CSO) of the Planning Commission was forced to deflate the growth number by over 10 per cent to eight per cent flat calling it a typographical error. Interestingly, the 'error' was noticed when economists representing industry and financial institutions challenged the government number in the light of demand or consumption growth statistics. How could CSO make such a mistake? And, more surprisingly, how could industry react so fast? One reason could be the key monthly industrial production and consumption data are no longer processed by the government since the closure of the Directorate General of Technical Development (DGTD). The job has been privatized. Data procurers are also data suppliers to industry. It is a two-way business for the private agency or agencies engaged in the very lucrative job. And, the government is having a taste of its own medicine.

A three to five per cent statistical error on a huge format such as population census, GDP denomination, BPL headcount, farm production, SSI output, etc in a country as large and complex as India is always permissible. But, certainly not of the magnitude of 10 to 20 per cent. Take, for instance, the BPL data, which, according to the government, covers 6.25 crore families. In many official papers, the BPL number is quoted around 7.5 crore while the Tendulkar committee figure is 8.4 crore. It does not improve the image of a country, the vital economic and social sector statistics of which are unreliable and fudged to suit the political ends of the government. (IPA Service)