Even though the recent Karnataka election result is not a mandate against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Hindutva, it has pushed the Modi-Shah election machine into serious introspection. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) editorial on the topic was succinct when it declared that Modi and Hindutva alone are not enough to win an election when one has to defend a government perceived as most corrupt. This, along with the Congress’s five guarantees – 10 kg free rice, free electricity up to 200 units, free bus travel for women, monthly assistance of Rs 2,000 to women head of Below Poverty Line families, and unemployment allowance for fresh graduates and diploma holders – also played a big role in helping the party win the election.
This victory has enthused the opposition parties in states heading for elections this year and also in the run-up to the general elections in 2024. The Congress and several other opposition parties are preparing their manifestos on the lines of the guarantees promised in Karnataka.
The previous BJP government had a hunch about the schemes’ success and had aggressively attacked and ridiculed them as freebies and even anti-national as it threatens the economic integrity of the nation. Even the Supreme Court (SC) was roped into their agenda, which meekly submitted itself to a petition in 2022 and the then Chief Justice of India suggested forming an interdepartmental committee to look into the same.
Now having lost Karnataka, the Modi government seems to be using and misusing all the power at its disposal to defeat the schemes in Karnataka and elsewhere. The refusal of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to provide rice for the Karnataka government’s Anna Bhagya scheme appears to be a well-designed political strategy rather than a routine administrative measure. The subsequent justifications for the denial offered by the state BJP, the FCI, and the likes of Tejasvi Surya, the South Bangalore MP and the head of BJP’s youth wing, substantiate the political ploy behind this move.
First of all, the Karnataka government placed its requisition for 2.08 lakh metric ton (LMT) rice through its Open Market Sales Scheme (Domestic) [OMSS (D)] before the FCI regional office for its Anna Bhagya scheme at the rate of Rs 34 per kg on June 9, 2023. The Karnataka FCI regional manager, Shanmuga Priya, through a reply letter on June 12 “accorded approval” for the release of the rice from the regional storage.
ಭಾರತೀಯ ಆಹಾರ ನಿಗಮ (ಎಫ್ಸಿಐ) ಕರ್ನಾಟಕಕ್ಕೆ ಅಕ್ಕಿ ಕೊಡುತ್ತೇವೆ ಎಂದು ಹೇಳಿರುವ ಕಮಿಟ್ಮೆಂಟ್ ಪತ್ರ ತೋರಿಸಲಿ ಎಂದು ಬಿಜೆಪಿ ನಾಯಕ @CTRavi_BJP ಸವಾಲು ಹಾಕಿದ್ದರು.
— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) June 16, 2023
ಇಲ್ಲಿದೆ ಎಫ್.ಸಿ.ಐ ಕಮಿಟ್ಮೆಂಟ್ ಪತ್ರ.
ಇಂತಹ ಬೇಜವಾಬ್ದಾರಿ ಹೇಳಿಕೆ, ಸುಳ್ಳು ಮತ್ತು ಅಪಪ್ರಚಾರದ ಗೀಳಿಗಾಗಿಯೇ ರಾಜ್ಯದ ಪ್ರಜ್ಞಾವಂತ ಮತದಾರರು ಬಿಜೆಪಿಯ ಇಂತಹ… pic.twitter.com/y6uT7eLXlw
But the very next day, this approval was withdrawn by the Ministry of Food and Public Distribution. In a letter addressed to the CMD of FCI, the ministry informed that “the sale of wheat and rice to the state governments under OMSS (D) is discontinued.”
The only reason provided by the ministry for the withdrawal is that required stocks had to be held to intervene in the market to control the prices. The same notification also allows the FCI to “liquidate the rice under OMSS (D) to private parties to moderate the prices.”
It has been the practice and obligation of the FCI to release rice to private traders and welfare schemes of state governments under OMSS (D), keeping necessary stock as buffer. Observers and concerned parties seriously question the double standard of the new policy for which the Modi government has failed to provide convincing answers.
In fact, the relevant policy for the year is announced at the beginning of each year after accounting for the stock, and the estimation of food production and availability for purchase each year. Thus the FCI had – way back in October 2022 – declared in its statement on the availability of food grains:
“Even after meeting the requirement of stocks under NFSA, other welfare schemes as well as PMGKAY VII, as on 1st of April 2023 sufficient stock will be available under the central pool which is over & above the buffer norms. It is estimated that as on 1st of April 2023, approximately 113 LMT wheat and 237 LMT rice will be available in the central pool after meeting all the requirements, against the buffer norms / operational requirement of 75 LMT of wheat and 136 LMT of rice.”
Based on these estimates, the relevant policy for the year 2023 was announced on January 26, 2023. The relevant policy for rice procurement by states was:
“4.1. States may be allowed to purchase rice (including fortified rice) from FCI for their own schemes at the rate of Rs 3400/qtl. (Pan India).
4.2 States may be allowed to purchase rice without participating in e-auction.
5. The prices for Open Sale will be applicable up to 31st of December 2023 or till further orders whichever is earlier.”
Even the approval given by the FCI regional office on June 12 was based on this policy direction.
The rice stock for the month of June recorded on the FCI website is 262 LMT. This is 30 LMT more than the estimated stock when the policy was announced and 100 LMT more than the required buffer stock to moderate the market prices and reserves for exigencies. Notably, food inflation was higher during 2017 and 2018 and the stock of rice was only 221 LMT and 242 LMT respectively, which is less than the stock available in June 2023. Even then the sale of rice to states under OMSS (D) was not discontinued.
Thus there was no change of circumstances as on June 13 when the new notification discontinuing rice to states under OMSS (D) was announced, except the defeat of the BJP in Karnataka by the Congress guarantees!
Though the BJP fielded Tejasvi Surya and armed him with the minutes of the Inter Ministerial Committee (IMC) meeting held on June 8, 2023, that is a day before the requisition made by the Karnataka government, the documents failed to defend the Union government’s move.
Tejasvi said it was wrong to accuse the Union government of changing its policy after the requisition made by the state. He cited administrative lapse as the reason for the approval accorded by the regional office on June 12. Very unconvincing, to say the least.
Even a cursory look at the IMC minutes provided by Tejasvi lays bare the lies of the BJP. A “special meeting for the review of the prices of agricultural commodities” of the IMC did take place on June 8 between 7-7.30 pm. But the minutes of the meeting do not corroborate the claims made by Tejasvi.
ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ ಸರ್ಕಾರ ಹೆಚ್ಚುವರಿ ಅಕ್ಕಿ ಮಾರಾಟಕ್ಕೆ ಮನವಿ ಮಾಡಿದ ನಂತರ ಕೇಂದ್ರ ಸರ್ಕಾರ ಉದ್ದೇಶಪೂರ್ವಕವಾಗಿ OMSS ನೀತಿಯನ್ನು ಬದಲಾಯಿಸಿದೆ ಎಂದು ಶ್ರೀ ಸಿದ್ದರಾಮಯ್ಯ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕದ ಜನರನ್ನು ದಿಕ್ಕು ತಪ್ಪಿಸುವ ಪ್ರಯತ್ನ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿದ್ದಾರೆ.
— Tejasvi Surya (@Tejasvi_Surya) June 17, 2023
ಆದರೆ ಜೂನ್ 8 ರಂದು ನಡೆದ ಅಂತರ-ಸಚಿವಾಲಯ ಸಮಿತಿಯ ಸಭೆಯ ಅನುಸಾರವಾಗಿ, ರಾಜ್ಯ ಸರ್ಕಾರವು ಪ್ರಾದೇಶಿಕ… https://t.co/UF0PW60LwC pic.twitter.com/AVdSaY8KLT
Firstly, the main agenda of the meeting was not to discuss withdrawal of sales to states but to review prices. So 99% of the 30-minute meeting was spent on that. Only the last para mentions a serious proposal to withdraw OMSS to states. Clearly, it appears to be a last-minute addition.
Secondly, Ashok K Meena, MD of FCI, was one of the seven participants in the meeting. It is unbelievable that the MD had not informed such an important decision to his immediate subordinate for four full days from June 8 to 12.
Importantly, as the minutes clearly mention, no decision was taken on the issue: “After detailed discussions, the IMC recommended the above proposals and it may be placed before CoS and CoM.”
Tejasvi does not throw any light on when the concerned higher body acted upon the proposal and made the decision to withdraw the OMSS. In the absence of any change of decision made or communicated, the FCI regional office acted according to the guidelines given on January 16, 2023 and accorded the approval. Therefore, the Karnataka government’s accusation that the Union government made the decision to discontinue OMSS to states after June 12 is further strengthened by the documents provided by Tejasvi.
Another untruth Tejasvi said in the press conference was that the discussions around withdrawing OMSS to states was initiated way back on May 2, 2023 as reflected in the IMC minutes. Again, the minutes show a discussion on holding quarterly meetings on OMSS of wheat to control prices. Nothing more.
Further, the minutes also inadvertently inform that private parties are not interested in buying rice from the FCI under OMSS since they have other cheaper options. Still the final order by the Modi government, based on these minutes, was to liquidate the stock of rice to private parties and discontinue the same to states for welfare schemes.
Tejasvi also pronounced that Prime Minister Modi continues to give 5 kg of free rice to 80 crore people under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). But the NFSA itself was passed by the UPA government in 2013 heeding to the struggles of the people and under the SC’s directions. Since it is now a constitutional obligation of any elected government to provide free 5 kg food grains, no government or prime minister can claim credit for the same. At least not the BJP under Modi, which has been notorious for its policies of withdrawing or reducing allocation for welfare schemes.
Tejasvi went to the extent of claiming that the Siddaramaiah government wants rice from Modi’s bhandara (storage), equating India with Modi. But it is FCI’s storage and not Modi’s. It came into existence in 1964, through an act of Parliament, pursuant to the policy strategy of providing remunerative prices to farmers through Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) and cheaper food grains to the people through ration shops. It must be noted here that the Modi government wanted to privatise FCI, dismantle APMCs, and thereby destroy the food security of the country and the people.
It is clear that the BJP is playing dirty politics. It wants to portray the provision of food grains under NFSA as a benevolent charity from the Supreme benefactor PM Modi by precluding any other parallel schemes by opposition parties. It is also determined to defeat the Anna Bhagya scheme not only to vilify the Congress government in Karnataka but also to destroy all welfare schemes in the long run.
The irony is that withdrawal of subsidies, cutting down of welfare schemes, privatising FCI and APMC, etc., were part of the neoliberal policies initiated by the Congress during its regime. Since the Modi government has the required legislative strength, it has become aggressive in implementing and expanding these anti-people policies.
So it is not only incumbent on the Congress to make good on its guarantees in Karnataka without taxing the people indirectly, but also revise its own economic policies.
Shivasundar is an activist and freelance journalist. Views expressed are the author’s own.