A seemingly innocuous statement by Sharad Pawar on Dec 20, 2009, attributing the existing price rise of consumer goods to ‘global warming’ jolted me into writing this piece. Sheer baloney, was it! The price inflation during the past two years has been phenomenal. Does it not demonstrate GOI’s failure in controlling price rise? Will the country’s economists including the PM agree with such frivolous and escapist statement of Agriculture minister on ‘Food Security’? Let us spare a word about the BPLs (37% as per GOI estimate) . They do not get two square meals a day. They merely get election promises on ‘Food Security’ in terms of UPA’s mandate. On the contrary, the mollycoddled MPs who represent them get total’ food security’ through highly subsidized canteens located inside the Parliament House, its Annexe and the Library. Is this concealed subsidy justified? One feels such food security to MPs in the temple of democracy is a blot on the Parliament. How could these parliamentarians digest food at such abysmally low price and debate the issue of 'Food Security ‘for the down-trodden. This is hypocrisy at its worst!. Worse still, enjoying virtually free lunches and dinners by the staff and officers of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Sectts looks to me down- right vulgar, to say the least! I have personally seen them shamelessly enjoying the 5-Star grub during the deliberations of the Standing Finance Committees attached to various ministries. All this at the tax-payers’ cost. Will the Speaker, Lok Sabha and Deputy Chairman, Rajya Sabha jointly ponder over these matters seriously in a transparent manner and order immediate withdrawal of concealed subsidies to Parliamentary food jaunts. These heavenly canteens must also be declared in-accessible to the Parliamentary Secretariat babus and Security Staff. Let the Parliamentarians cutting across party lines lead by examples and boycott these canteens, run by the Railways, if they have the slightest concerns for the poor.
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