UPA clears Food Security ordinance, eyes new allies

Mangaloretoday/CNN/IBN

New Delhi, July 4: Though the government is well within its rights to promulgate an ordinance, questions are being raised about the timing, especially with the Monsoon Session just a few weeks away. By pushing through the Food Security ordinance, it seems, the Congress-led government is once again hoping that pro-poor rhetoric will deliver votes.

On June 13, Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram had said that the government will make one more effort to bring the Opposition on board to clear the Food Bill. "We would like to make one more effort to ask the opposition parties whether they would cooperate in passing the bill in a special session of Parliament. Therefore the decision is that the Leader of the House, Minister of Parliamentary affairs and Minister for Food will approach the opposition parties and request them for support to pass the bill," he had said.

 

But on July 3, fearing a washout of the Monsoon Session, the government junked the option of a special session and cleared the Food Security ordinance. "The cabinet has unanimously approved the National Food Security ordinance," Minister of State for Food and Consumer Affairs KV Thomas said on Wednesday. It even ignored the opposition raised by the Samajwadi Party.

"We’ve had no information of the government reaching out to us," BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said. CPM leader Brinda Karat also condemned the move and said "to push through an ordinance of a bill which has serious flaws is contempt of Parliament".

But what is giving the government the confidence of ignoring the opposition parties and the SP might be the support of its former ally the DMK and its possibly new friend the Janata Dal United. "Food security is important. We would have preferred if it would have come through discussions as various parties have a lot of concerns. The government must address those also," JD(U) leader Shivanad Tiwari said.

It seem with the Food Security ordinance, the Congress is trying to erase the memories of many scams that have taken place during the UPA’s regime and bring in the votes. But it has tough competition from many opposition-ruled states like Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Tamil nadu and Madhya Pradesh, which have their own strong food security programmes.

The BJP, the CPM and the BJD are all set to move amendments to the bill when it comes up for discussion in Parliament. The government has majority in the Lok Sabha but in the Rajya Sabha it would need the help of the Opposition to pass the bill.

"It is not coming under the Food Ministry but it is coming under the Agriculture Ministry. The storage capacity is needed, the railway capacity needs to be revamped because there are no extra rakes available to even move foodgrains. Our estimate was that it would not cost us less than Rs 200,000 crore a year," Agricultural Cost and Prices Commission Chairperson Ashok Gulati said.

The Congress-led UPA might have promulgated an ordinance but clearly there is a lot of home work which still needs to be done.