Vast areas of the country are facing acute hunger. Come to think of it, our countrymen who have identical civil rights as we, in millions of numbers, are plainly starving.
"She just stares. Occasionally opens her mouth." This is from news piece that reported the starvation in MP. The report described a baby, so weakened by hunger that she opened her mouth only occasionally to signal hunger, unable to muster the energy needed to cry. In districts of AP, the hunger is acute too. Many people eat only once a day -- rice and salt. And if a visitor arrives, some members of the host family must skip a meal. May be your eyes are moist. So are mine.
Writers and poets can go on writing heart melting pieces on hunger, on plight of human. Historically, these have proved to be some really touching writings --- connecting very well with the readers. Some have even gone on to become fodder for revolution. But most power changes swap one underclass for another. Few salty problems. The hunger has proved to be a fertile ground for Naxal recruitments. The hungry are joining an armed rebellion to bring the government down. They have succeeded to some extent. There are some parts in Chattisgarh, MP and even Maharashtra, where government has little or no administrative control. Our response has been to commit more armed and paramilitary forces to counter rebellion.
But the hunger remains. We don't need poets or writers to heal. Neither can paramilitary forces crush problems stemming from hunger. We need government and capitalism to deliver on their mandates. We need to large & efficient farms to generate the necessary food. We need factories where we can send our vast farm labour force to earn and buy this food.
Some politicians like Buddhadeb Bhattachrya have already understood this. But farm lands have become holy cows with our politicians by and large, who often surrender to vocal minorities. Anything that succeeds even marginally once, becomes a role model and subsequently a holy cow. Farm lands in the 60s, and of late the software industry?
The trouble is why isn't then copying the Gujarat model of industrialization politically fashionable?
"She just stares. Occasionally opens her mouth." This is from news piece that reported the starvation in MP. The report described a baby, so weakened by hunger that she opened her mouth only occasionally to signal hunger, unable to muster the energy needed to cry. In districts of AP, the hunger is acute too. Many people eat only once a day -- rice and salt. And if a visitor arrives, some members of the host family must skip a meal. May be your eyes are moist. So are mine.
Writers and poets can go on writing heart melting pieces on hunger, on plight of human. Historically, these have proved to be some really touching writings --- connecting very well with the readers. Some have even gone on to become fodder for revolution. But most power changes swap one underclass for another. Few salty problems. The hunger has proved to be a fertile ground for Naxal recruitments. The hungry are joining an armed rebellion to bring the government down. They have succeeded to some extent. There are some parts in Chattisgarh, MP and even Maharashtra, where government has little or no administrative control. Our response has been to commit more armed and paramilitary forces to counter rebellion.
But the hunger remains. We don't need poets or writers to heal. Neither can paramilitary forces crush problems stemming from hunger. We need government and capitalism to deliver on their mandates. We need to large & efficient farms to generate the necessary food. We need factories where we can send our vast farm labour force to earn and buy this food.
Some politicians like Buddhadeb Bhattachrya have already understood this. But farm lands have become holy cows with our politicians by and large, who often surrender to vocal minorities. Anything that succeeds even marginally once, becomes a role model and subsequently a holy cow. Farm lands in the 60s, and of late the software industry?
The trouble is why isn't then copying the Gujarat model of industrialization politically fashionable?
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