Yes! The ‘national food security bill’ has been passed & UPA-2 is beating its drums over it. So are we to believe it’s something as historic as it is being made to sound. To start with I must ask if ‘Food Security Bill’ is about hiring a security agency to protect our food or perhaps even our dilapidated FCI godowns. Wish the plan was all about it though.
This actually is a project of mammoth proportions & is supposed to guarantee subsidized food to two thirds of India's 1.2 billion people. 2/3 of 1.2 billion is a substantial number and to guarantee them supplies year round requires a hell lot of food. The project on paper sounds like poetry which can make Keats, Shelley and Stevenson look shoddy. So is it as good? It must be, for it did go through parliament without much of the traditional fun, fervor and filth, which our parliament now has gained infamy for (globally).
To understand the scheme, one needs the knowledge of a chef’s arithmetic, since we are the ones who generally cater to large gatherings. So let’s decode the UPA-2’s recipe here.
Let’s see how a chef would have calculated if he was in charge of this over-sized party invite sponsored by our Government (actually it’s us).
The arithmetic is as under:
1.2 billion = 1.2 X 1,000,000,000,000 = 1,200,000,000,000
2/3 of 1,200,000,000,000 = 1,799,999,999,100
Guaranteed Ration per person = 5 KG per month
Total grain requirement per month = 1,799,999,999,100 X 5 = 8,999,999,995,500 KGs (wooooow !!!)
Total grain requirement per year = 8,999,999,995,500 X 12 = 107,999,999,946,000 KGs
For the average middle class citizen of our country wheat @ Rs.44/KG is what suits the pocket. Let’s presume 50% of this price comprises of commissions to middle men. So the actual price paid to the farmer is approximately Rs.20/KG. Now it’s after buying it at the rate of Rs.20/KG that the Government is actually planning to distribute it at Rs.3/KG.
Here are a few questions coming to my mind at this point.
Question 1 - When the world knows that the Indian government has decided to buy such a quantum of grains, will the price remain at Rs.20/KG or will it shoot up??????? So if the price shoots up by 50% in the 1st year, the subsidy which is supposed to be Rs.17/KG (20-3) will shoot up to Rs. 27/KG (30-3). This is bound to happen due to the sudden impact of such a huge purchase order which will create a demand supply divide and hence the shoot up in pricing. Which means the government will increase its budgets to buy the grains at the hiked up prices. Can you then imagine the purse of the Minister for Civil Supplies? It’s a cool Rs. 30 X 8,999,999,995,500 = Rs. 269999999865000 (for the 1st year). When the Government is out with such a purchase order, imagine the results of even a hint of a famine or a drought. It will bring them a bounty. Declare scarcity & buy at even higher prices from across the globe. We have the last minute price hikes of CWG as live examples for the negotiation skills of our Government mechanism. The more they negotiated the higher the price we ended up paying.
Question 2. Am I part of this scheme of activities??? Sorry Sir! You are part of the other side. The 1/3 of the population of India that sponsors this bonanza & unlike the IPL there are no free passes here for the sponsors.
Question 3. But isn’t there anything in this for me AT ALL??? Of course there is!! After the government has done its deed, I will get free management lessons (on dealing with the inflation) & a better heath (with BMI under absolute control). What else can be expected, when the result of this bonanza has been predicted to be a minimum 50% hike in food inflation by economists galore. I am the 'Food Security Host'.
Question 4. And who is the F&B Manager of this catering company?? The entire melee has been designed to be executed by the corrupt and defunct PDS system. Check out the plight of government granaries on the Delhi – Chandigarh road or at the Gurgaon - Palwal road (via Sohna) to decide. You can see Thousands of sacks of grains kept in the open, with just a polythene sheet for protection. They rot in the heavy moisture laden winds and are infested by pests. Within a month or two of procurement the entire purchase can be certified unfit for human consumption by even the most corrupt food inspector (you will however need to ask him to eat a bowlful of that rice to get this done though). One doesn’t need Einstein’s brains to figure out what % of the actual purchase will actually reach the intended masses. I shall be glad if it’s in double digits. Again going by CWG figures. In a nutshell, grains are to be bought to create a scarcity. A few make loads of money in that process then redirect it to the eagerly waiting mafia (of late called the Retail Marts) & sell the grains at double the prices to the tax payer and make even more money.
Question 5. So how/why did this bill pass through? Kudos to whoever put up this scheme. He/she definitely has a very fertile brain. The government & the opposition both finds the numbers involved too big to ignore. Even a 10% of that sum adds up to the GDP of some smaller countries. Net result is that post the next elections; I predict a major power struggle for the two concerned ministries. Public Distribution and Agriculture. The biggest stalwarts will be seen battling it out (literally) for the spoils.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Never teach the population to fish, just give them subsidized fishes instead and make merry.
The Chef’s Remedy: A minor tweak to the program name can however remove all the cloud of doubt over it. Just call the scheme ‘International Food Security Bill’. Beneficiaries of this program anyways are citizens of Mauritius, Switzerland, Cayman Islands, Bahrain and the other tax havens, so nothing wrong in calling a spade, ‘A SPADE’.
As a Food Professional nothing pains me more than seeing someone go hungry. You feel like helping then, but it’s a different feeling when you see hunger of this kind.
It’s time for us professionals to wake up and paint the wall with ink.
Do you agree with The Saint on this? Even a little bit? Please let me know your take on this.
Cheers..........DK
‘Every Saint Has A Past & Every Sinner Has A Future’