The mother of all scams

The BJP was the first to point out a scam in the import in which the government has spent Rs 10,000 crore and impoverished the aam aadmi

The Manmohan Singh government has in the past three years been dogged by numerous scams, but the allegations of kickback in the wheat import have proved to be the mother of all scandals in recent years.

The BJP was the first to point out a scam in the import in which the government has spent Rs 10,000 crore. In a well-documented booklet, A Tale of Wheat Scam, the BJP leader, Dr Kirit Somaiya, has convincingly analysed all aspects of the colossal waste of public money by a foolish and inexplicable act of the Union agriculture ministry. This has all the makings of a
monumental scam.

It is the story, as Somaiya says, of how the UPA managed to convert India from wheat exporter into a desperate importer of wheat at astronomically high price. This scandal has three dimensions: the first is its effect on the Indian farmers; the second is whether it was imperative to import; and the third, and most intriguing is the role of the government and the multinational companies in this game.

These imports were made at double the rate that the UPA gave to Indian farmers as minimum support price. But the larger scam is elsewhere. The agriculture ministry first cancelled its own orders for import issued in May 2007, as it felt the prices were too high. But in September, it issued orders for import again, paying even higher than the May price. The BJP has accused the UPA of being in collusion with MNCs like Cargill, Glencor and others.

For instance, Cargill purchased good quality grains from Indian farmers at Rs 8 to 8.50 per kg while the government has placed orders for import of wheat from Cargill Inc at Rs 16 per kg. And the quality of this imported stuff is so poor that it is not fit for human consumption. The government in the process has enriched the farmers of the US, Australia and other European countries at the cost of the poverty-stricken Indian farmers who are committing suicide on a daily basis. It shows that the government, supported by the Communists and formed in the name of the aam aadmi, has no heart, sense or rationale when it comes to the national good.
Under the UPA, Indian agriculture has been taken hostage by the vagaries of nature and money-lenders, multinational seeds, and grain importers. It has also opened the field wide to
exploitation by the Indian bourgeoisie in the name of SEZs and vegetable malls. And there is no respite from the farmers' suicides across the country. Coupled with this is the spiralling price rise in essential commodities for which the government has no clue.

Under the UPA, the minimum retail price of goods in the ration shops has steadily increased. It is another story that the fair price shops in most states are in a terrible mess though the UPA had promised to revive and streamline them. When the NDA demitted office in May 2004, the country had a buffer stock for 140 days. In two years, the UPA started importing. This was scandalous. For, from 2001-2002 to 2003-2004, India exported 12.4 million tonnes. Under the UPA, the procurement of grains has also come down.

The BJP has accused that the UPA is playing into the hands of a lobby of international grain traders of MNCs, big Indian corporates and the Association of Wheat Exporting Countries of the US and Australia. The result was aggressive disposal of buffer stocks, making the FCI non-functional, selling buffer stocks in the open market, faulty procurement, delay in announcing minimum support price, creating a climate for distress sale by farmers to private parties and relaxing norms for import quality to help MNCs. All these smack of a huge scam.

Now, the CPI (M), too, has demanded a probe. In a letter to the prime minister, CPI (M) leader Brinda Karat wrote, "In May the government floated a tender for five lakh tonnes of wheat and the price of wheat per tonne was stated to be $263. This order was cancelled by the government on the ground that the price was too high… two months later in July the government ordered the same amount (of wheat) at $325.59 a tonne leading to a loss of Rs 127.93 crore. Shockingly this was compounded by a further import order of eight lakh tonnes at an even higher rate of Rs $389.45 which meant a further
loss of Rs 412 crore."

She asked for an inquiry into this faulty policy and the consequent loss. Who benefitted from all this. Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar owes an explanation to the nation. Is he a direct beneficiary or is he a victim of the shenanigans within the ruling coalition?
Who is the middleman who has taken the cut and why is the government so tight-lipped on the subject? Perhaps the UPA has become so brazen—a columnist in The Asian Age recently wrote, "The UPA government is impervious to all human intervention only because its foolishness leaves most people baffled... Never have so many unintelligent ministers existed in India's Union Cabinet as in this government..."—that it does not care. But the country has a right to ask questions and expect answers.