Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Universal entitlement to food

PDS existed in various shades for most part of independent India. But it had little impact in ensuring food security because of the extent of corruption. Rajiv Gandhi remarked that the PDS struggled due to 90% pilferage. Our experiments with socialism failed miserably and there is no reason to bring Nehruvian policies back. Congress is creating a culture of entitlements driven by state control. Congress is the new Left. The Left parties have lost relevance and their support base.

Kerala, although being a money-order economy, had to revert to targeted distribution. It wont be long before TN drops the current scheme. But N.Ram has ideological compulsions in supporting universal entitlement to food.
The Hindu : Opinion / Editorials : A single solution
There is a single — and conceptually uncomplicated — solution to the problem of mass food insecurity in India: a universal entitlement to cereals and other basic components of a food basket.

7 comments:

kuttychathan said...

Please read the following editorial of chindu.

'Sedition' versus free speech - October 26, 2010

The editorial asks... "Do we lock up or threaten to silence our writers and thinkers with an archaic section of the law that carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, merely because they speak their minds?"

It concludes..." It is tragi-comic that there is talk of ‘sedition' at a time when it is regarded as obsolete in many countries. Courts have ruled that laws that aim to punish people for bringing a government into hatred or contempt are frighteningly broad and risk being used to suppress radical political views."

I agree..no arguments there. But I have a doubt. Do chindu's views apply to Liu Xiabo, the Nobel peace prize winner 2010? Why chindu is silent on his issue?

kuttychathan said...

Please read this editorial also.

Abolish the death penalty -
October 25, 2010

The chindu is currently on a campaign to abolish death penalty in India. I personally want death penalty to be abolished all over the world. But I have a strong reservations about the new found love for life of chindu.

Most of the people, who are likely to be put in the death row in India in the immediate future, are Jihadi terrorists, undergoing trial in various parts of India. Then there are the celebrated cases like Afzal Guru and Ajmal Kasab. I have strong suspicion that chindu is arguing the case of jihadi organisations who have much to gain from the abolition of death penalty. After all it could be an attractive incentive for the new recruits to their cause.

Amusingly, the editorial pats China in the back by saying.."In China, the Supreme People’s Court now requires this harshest penalty to be issued only in extreme cases, and death by firing squads is soon to be replaced by lethal injection" Is Ram serious? Or is it black humour?

But the editorial is conspicuously silent on the Islamic countries where large scale executions are held in public places and where the people really gather round to enjoy them.

kuttychathan said...

Sorry..One more point.

I find that the Business Line, sister of chindu, is a quality, sober, level headed publication. It may be because Venugopal, its de facto editor, is allowed to run it independently, without any interference from Ram and Malini.

I wish it carried all the news, in addition to the biz news. As Wall Street Journal and Economist do. Then we could have finally said goodbye to chindu.

Xinhua Ram said...

Kuttychathan just found two gaping holes in LiC's moralistic shield. . Here is more on death penalty in China from Amnesty International. Now we know why Islamists and Marxists are bed mates.

kuttychathan said...

My 'last post' for the day...

The chindu is making much a do about 'paid news'. Obviously, its target is Times of India. I hold no brief for TOI, but I feel singling out TOI, as the Satan of Indian media, is unfair.

The TOI has entered into contract with private companies to publish news favourable to them and to censor news unfavourable to them. The TOI receives payment for this service in cash or in kind (like shares in the company). It is an evil practice.Okay. But what about chindu? Has any reader ever seen the chindu taking on any business house for any bad practices? As reported several times,the chindu often refuses to publish even letters from readers that are remotely critical of prominent private companies.

The Chindu always play up news favourable to CPM, China and Muslims in. It never publishes news even remotely critical of CPM, China & Muslims.Please note that TOI has no such political and communal fixations.

Let us compare the edit & op-ed pages of TOI & chindu . TOI hosts a wide range of writers ranging from left-end to the right-end of the political & economic spectrum. But Chindu's edit & op-ed pages are open only to a handful of chosen 'intellectuals' belonging to the Marxist-Khomeini school.

Moreover,the TOI is far more tolerant to criticism than chindu.Atleast the TOI doesn't have the intellectual and moralistic pretensions of chindu

Shyam said...

Varadarajan has called the sedition charge "outrageous". It would be worth revisiting his article on Varun Gandhi

http://www.hindu.com/2009/03/24/stories/2009032458930800.htm

Here he says "In any democracy worth the name, a politician would be arrested and prosecuted for making such a speech."

So Arundhati is a holy saint...Yawn

Anonymous said...

Arundhati is a "holy saint" and that too very secular, perhaps next only to Mother Tereza!