All Is Not Well..!!

As soon as I gave the morning newspaper a look, an advertisement on the front page caught my attention. It read, “Fresh vegetables!.. Rates per Kg…Potato-Rs 260/-, Onion- Rs 340/-, Tomato- Rs380/-..”Further it said, “Cost of living is rising and it might be harder to cope with once you retire. Here’s a pension plan for you.”Finding it quite fascinating but true and assured of the credibility of the life insurance plan, it sold, I turned pages... 
After a few more pages, came another advertisement which said, “Yellow Peas Dal, only at Rs 26 per Kg!”After a few more details was written in hideous fonts, “Available in select,” and also written conspicuously was, “Jago Grahak Jago.”


That was it, I folded back the newspaper, a leading national daily, kept it on the table and pondered over the contradiction the two statements presented. One showed the future we were to enter and the way the advisers have shifted their theme from “Bete se Paisa, kabhi nahi” to “rising food prices, which is very clever of them. The other portrayed the tall claims offered by government, which usually prove false. Confirming the actual prices, I thought of the poor, frail women who I had seen begging yesterday evening. I thought of the domestic helps at my home, the ones who could neither afford neither a pension plan nor a life insurance policy, nor could they read newspaper. I was filled with disgust which was a result of 40-50% price rise of all the pulses- arhar, masoor, moong – to almost Rs 100 per Kg. when such an unexpected rise can give the monthly budget of an average middle class Indian, a jolt, then what about those who survive on daily wages?


The central government is mute. Mr. Sharad Pawar, the Union Agriculture Minister says, it’s the fault of state government who are not subsidizing adequately. In short, the matter is being politicized “as usual”. Leave politics for a second, let’s talk of facts. India has among the highest rates of Child malnourishment and female anaemia. We badly need additional protein and pulses are becoming unapproachable. Their production has stagnated at around 14 million tonnes/year since 1990, while the population has increased by 350 million. R & D has failed in its all attempts, if at all, to create high yielding pulses, so production has dropped drastically. Has Mr. Pawar got any answers to these facts, which for sure can’t be politicized, nor can be blamed to be doctored? After 60 years of Independence, when heavy industries have grown well, the banking sector is well established, I.T. sector is booming, automobiles being innovatively launched every year, why has the agriculture seen no lights of development. At the time of independence, when we lost our agricultural lands and rivers to Pakistan, we were still able to survive the odd. Green Revolution made India a self sufficient state but today the situation is grim to the extent that food has to be imported to combat sky soaring prices. Isn’t that preposterous!! Why have we lost our strength in sector where we once excelled? Is this not the price we are paying for into the race of being a developed country?


Aamir Khan says that in hour of problems, keep your hand on your heart and assume “All iz well” but coming back to reality, I surely find all is not well for the public. In spite of farmers being keen on growing crops, the production of food crops is declining. If we claim to be an emerging economy, our nation should at least be self sufficient in food production. It’s strange that despite being technologically sound and equipped with several agricultural research institutes; our country has to battle inflation. Is it not the disastrous result of the government’s faulty or more appropriately non-existent agriculture policy? We are producing an increasing number of billionaires every year, but our Human Development Index (HDI) is the same as most impoverished African nations. What a shame! What a shame!