Last August, Narendra Modi as the Chief Minister of Gujarat wrote a much-publicised letter to the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, “I am… pained to note that the Food Security Ordinance does not assure an individual of having two meals a day…”
His main objection was “the Ordinance proposes to reduce the entitlement of Below Poverty Line (BPL) families from 35 kg per family to only 25 kg per average family of five persons.” He also complained that Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) households, the poorest among the poor, would receive no additional benefit.
On the floor of the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley went a step further. He dubbed the Bill as a “re-packaging of all existing schemes” and rightly probed, “are we substantially expanding the right over what existed prior to this Bill being brought in? Are we substantially increasing the outlay? The answer is ‘no’...” Now, as the Finance Minister, will he walk the talk and increase India’s food bill or eat his words?
To support this push to expand the Act, party leader Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi even moved an amendment in the Lok Sabha. Instead of the present formula which restricts the National Food Security Act to only 75 per cent of rural and 50 per cent of urban households, it proposed that, “every person… shall be entitled to 10 kg of food grains, two and a half kg of pulses and nine hundred grams of cooking oil per person per month.”
Though this amendment was not passed, it contains three important elements. First, increase in the guarantee from the present 5 to 10 kg of food grain for each person per month. Second, a call for universal eligibility for subsidised food grains for every single Indian. And lastly, inclusion of pulses and cooking oil into the public distribution system.
Now that the composition of the Lok Sabha has dramatically altered in its favour, will the BJP honour these tall declarations made from the cool comfort of the opposition benches?
The BJP’s 2014 Election Manifesto displays an even clearer commitment. To quote verbatim, it states, “BJP has always held that ‘universal food security’ is integral to national security. BJP will take steps to ensure that the benefits of the scheme reach the common man and that the right to food does not remain an act on paper or a political rhetoric…”
Chhattisgarh, as a long-standing BJP-ruled state, is famed for its reforms in the public distribution system. Chief Minister Raman Singh who has won three elections is locally referred to as the ‘ chawal wale baba ’ (the Rice god) for delivering low-cost food to nearly 90 per cent of the population. It is also the only state to pass its own Food Act, considered to be better than the national one.
Now that the clock is ticking on the Modi administration, it remains to be seen how the government clarifies the intent to make food security truly universal. The President in his address to the joint session of Parliament has so far only committed that “containing food inflation will be the topmost priority for my government.”
Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has called for a meeting of all state food ministers to ‘review’ the food law. But does this signal an expansion? He also apparently plans to extend the July 5, 2014, implementation deadline, as 25 states and union territories, largely BJP ruled ones, are yet to launch the Act.
With only a month left, all eyes are now on the first budget — to see if the new Finance Minister redeems his party’s priority pledge for ‘universal food security’.
The writer is a food policy specialist.
