Chacha's Food Minister - A Rascal

Nidhi Nath Srinivas, agriculture correspondent of the Economic Times, a position she has held with distinction for well over a decade now, has an important blog post today that lays the blame for unusually high sugar prices on the nation’s food & agriculture ministry, now headed by a “sugar baron,” Sharad Pawar. The post is titled “Time to quit, Mr. Pawar.” It should have been titled “Throw the rascal out.”

She begins:

On December 31, sugar was selling for Rs 36/kg. On January 7, wholesale price jumped to Rs 43 and we began paying Rs 50. Sugar is now pricier than desi ghee, kaju and badam.

She goes on to say that sugar should be cheap now because this is the season when the mills are crushing all the cane. What is the “real story”? Here is her scoop:

Each month Sharad Pawar’s food ministry fixes how much sugar is sold in India. On December 30, it announced that only 16 lakh tons would be sold in January. But January is a month of festivals and weddings. Traders know actual demand is about 2 lakh tonnes higher. So prices exploded instantaneously. Instead of cooling rates that have already doubled over last one year, the food ministry added fuel to the fire by widening the demand-supply gap.

About then, traders say, the railways began delaying wagons for moving open market sugar to the East because other commodities took priority. This was a disaster for Kolkata, a key market which needs 30 rakes a month, and the North East, which monthly consumes 2 lakh t. Both depend on Maharashtra and the South for supply. Kolkata flared, leading to a corresponding jump in supplier Vashi as well.

So, Mamata and Pawar are hand-in-glove – probably.

Nidhi also comments on Pawar’s “misbegotten” – or should we call it “insincere” – attempt to fix things:

A few months ago, in a misbegotten attempt to flush out hoarders, it [food ministry] asked all states to impose stock limits on traders, processors, large consumers and even mills. It completely forgot [forgot? Or was it intentional?] that in a country where three-fourths sugar is produced by two states – Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, only a reliable and efficient supply chain can make sure consumers everywhere continue to get it affordably.

Thus, it seems to me that our great Central State is nothing but Chacha and his Chaalis Chor (forty thieves). They are not “governing” the country; they are only pretending to do so. In reality, they are all running huge rackets – at the expense of the governed.

Let us take a vow to throw ALL these rascals out – soon.