The Right to Food
After the Right to Education, the government has a National Food Security Bill in the pipeline: simply put, it would make food a legal right of every citizen. I don’t have issues with the motive of it. Well, ok, let me add the qualifier: overall, I don’t have an issue with it…since it undoubtedly has a vote-gathering component to it as well. But let’s set that aside for a moment. But first, the government should find a way to identify who is a citizen. In a country where “citizens” are imported from neighbouring countries to cast votes, why should my taxes be used to put food in some illegal Bangaladeshi immigrant’s mouth? Next, do we have a food distribution system that can deliver? Does the government plan to fix the leaky godowns and clamp down on the hoarders and middlemen who siphon off the food today? "To use such a leaky bucket to carry a subsidy would mean the fiscal burden would be huge," says Kaushik Basu, chief economic advisor to the Ministry of Finance. I agree w...