This is a chronology that should do justice to the tale associated with Marie Antoinette who supposedly declared “let them eat cake”.
May 13: Karnataka election results are out. The Congress storms back to power, unseating the BJP.
June 2: The Karnataka cabinet, headed by chief minister Siddaramaiah, approves Anna Bhagya, a scheme to fulfil a pre-poll promise to provide every month an additional 5kg of rice to every individual in poor and extremely poor families.
June 9: External affairs minister S. Jaishankar implies that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has the capacity to provide grains to the entire Europe and North America.
June 12: The Centre-run Food Corporation of India (FCI) sends two letters to its local office in Karnataka approving 2.22 lakh tonnes for July.
June 13: The Union ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution announces the discontinuation of the sale of wheat and rice through the Open Market Sale Scheme (Domestic), under which the Karnataka government had sought to purchase rice at Rs 34 per kilo, excluding transport charges. The stated reason was to “moderate prices” in the larger interest of the people as prices of grains have shown an upswing in markets recently, officials said in New Delhi. The circular said the FCI “may liquidate rice under OMSS (D) to private parties from central pool stock as per the requirement in order to moderate the market prices”. The sale of rice to state governments would continue only for those in the Northeast states, hill states and states facing natural calamities and law and order issues.
Data suggested that FCI silos were brimming with 262 lakh tonnes of rice as against the buffer stock norm of 115 lakh tonnes for July 1.
June 21: Chief minister Siddaramaiah meets Union home minister Amit Shah in New Delhi. One of the issues discussed is the rice supply but in vain.
June 22: The White House hosts a state dinner for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The main course included stuffed portobello mushrooms, creamy saffron-infused risotto, lemon-dill yogurt sauce, crisped millet cakes and summer squashes.
On Wednesday, the Karnataka government announced that ration cardholders entitled to the additional 5kg of rice every month would be compensated with cash in their bank accounts in order to get around the Centre’s refusal to sell additional rice for the welfare scheme entirely funded by the state.
Each beneficiary — below-poverty-line and Antyodaya individuals — will receive Rs 170 a month (34 x 5, Rs 34 being the price at which the FCI sells a kilo of rice to the states minus the transportation cost). The payout would cost the exchequer about Rs 750 crore every month.
Since the state government already gives 5kg of free rice to every beneficiary, the cash compensation will be for the remaining 5kg that they were to receive under the enhanced allocation of 10kg as part of the Anna Bhagya scheme.
A Karnataka cabinet meeting that addressed the non-supply of the additional rice decided to take the cash payment route as a temporary measure until the state manages to procure sufficient quantities of rice.
One of the five guarantees announced prior to the Assembly elections earlier this year, the Congress had promised to give 10kg of rice every month to every impoverished person under the Anna Bhagya scheme.
In order to raise the allocation by 5kg for each individual, the government had tried to source 2.28 lakh tonnes of additional stock from various sources. “We had asked other states (for rice). But they couldn’t commit for more than a few months,” deputy chief minister D.K. Shivakumar said, citing the reason for the cash compensation.
Chief minister Siddaramaiah accused the Centre of trying to derail welfare programmes meant for the poor. “The central government is trying to scuttle our scheme although they have enough rice stocks. This is a betrayal by the central government,” he told reporters after the cabinet meeting.
“Aren’t there BJP leaders from Karnataka? This is a scheme for the poor. Don’t block such schemes for the poor and don’t do politics of hate,” he said. Shivakumar charged the Centre with playing politics over welfare programmes.
“The BJP’s central government is merely doing politics with the poor. We are committed to paying the price of the rice according to the government rate,” Shivakumar said. The Congress had pointed out that the Centre was still providing subsidised rice for the production of bioethanol.
In a last-ditch attempt to meet the launch deadline, state food and civil supplies minister K.H. Muniyappa had recently met Union minister for consumer affairs, food and public distribution Piyush Goyal in Delhi. The effort has not yielded any result till now.
Although it was the BJP that first demanded that the government give cash instead of the 5kg of extra rice, the party has decided to launch an agitation on July 1. “We had already told them to give money. But Siddaramaiah said why money when they can give rice…. The Congress government should go by its word. Otherwise, we will protest inside and outside the legislature,” Nalin Kumar Kateel, BJP state president, told reporters on Wednesday.