Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Agriculture, Food Grains and Peepli Live
When Saleem Kidwai, Agriculture Minister of the Union Government, played by Naseeruddin Shah, in the recent Bollywood movie Peepli Live said that the “solution” for increasing number of suicides by farmers was industrialization, the audience laughed at the naïveté of his comment.
Was Saleem Kidwai really naïve or was he stating a fact…or was he drawing our attention to an existing phenomenon?
“There are severe limitations to expanding employment opportunities in agriculture on a large scale…a developing country like ours cannot afford to view industrialization as a negative phenomenon”, this is what India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on March 1, 2007.
In an even more forthright statement, P.M. Singh during a rare interaction with a small group of editors at his residence last week said “The only way we can raise our heads above poverty is for more people to be taken out of agriculture.”
The movie Peepli Live also subtly touched the issue of how different agencies of the Government at the Centre and the State work at cross purposes and shift responsibility under the garb of legal and constitutional provisions. Something similar came out of the Prime Minister’s interaction with the editors.
Reacting to the order of the Supreme Court which had directed Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to distribute rotting food grains to the poor for free, the PM said that his Government is committed to ensuring that food is available to the poor at an affordable price. “But quite honestly it is not possible in this country to give free food to all the poor people.” The Prime Minister said figures vary but if one takes the Tendulkar committee’s estimates, 37 per cent of the population is below the poverty line. “How are you going to give free food to such a large segment of the population,” he asked. The Prime Minister’s defence reflects a narrow and literal translation of the Supreme Court’s verdict. The related but vital issues of grain storage and distribution facilities and poverty alleviation are brushed aside by referring to statistical and legal hurdles.
Sadly this replay of Peepli live was devoid of the humor that I had experienced in the theatre.
P.S. Prime Minister Singh’s Comment on the movie Peepli Live: “All journalists should see it because it has a moral lesson both for politicians and for the gentlemen and ladies of the media.”
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Well Dr Singh cannot follow supreme court directive to distribute free food because
1. He doesn’t see poverty in India
2. Second the distribution channel to identify poor and then give them the grains is not there.
3. Congress leaders own the warehouses where grains are stored, distribution of grains will result in loss of rental income as empty warehouses means no rent.
4. Not to mention the loss to chemical guys that sell chemicals to govt to prevent rotting.
In short, Damn with poor people !!, First of all they are invisible second they hurt the chemical business and rental income of warehouses.
And eventually carbs in Grains will cause obesity. It’s better to be poor then obese.
It’s really sad to see that this Indian govt is wasting such a strong mandate it got from Indian people.
I have started believing that our leaders is spineless and without charisma and corruption rules.
Unfortunately the opposition in India is no better thus leaving us with no alternative.