Your editorial on food exports is charitable towards the Indian government in saying we always get the timing of foodgrain exports wrong (“Export or perish”, May 9). The right question should be, “Is there more to the fact that India is unable to get a decent price for its foodgrain exports, especially since its entry into the world foodgrain markets is always a major factor in pricing?” Shades of the 2G scam?
The editorial has also missed out a valid thought. When thousands in the country go hungry every day, can we not distribute this to the hungry? Prime Minister Manmohan Singh claims he does not have a methodology to distribute these stocks among the poor. In this case we need another prime minister, not the absence of this idea.
There is a possible solution: the wages of the scheme under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) should also include, say, 10 kg of wheat and 10 kg of rice every month. This should take care of our growing hoards of grain and also serve as an inflation-linked component of NREGA wages. Surely Manmohan Singh can now see the road ahead: send the lorries to the panchayats where the NREGA is in force?
Saurabh Sharma, Chennai
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