The recent outbursts of political leaders regarding the rising prices of essential commodities seem to be eyewash and befooling of the general public. This is because no political party has so far suggested any practical remedy and how it can be solved. When the Finance Minister of UPA Government at the Centre states that our country cannot escape the international recession and inflationary trend, Chief Ministers blame that the ball lies in the court of the Centre to take effective steps to check the rising prices. The reply to them from UPA Government is that the States are not taking sincere efforts to curb the hoarding and unable to act against the black marketers and further points out that the States are also have its share to control the rising trend of prices.

 

Amongst all the allegations and counter allegations, the people of the country, especially the middle class and poor people are finding it difficult to cope up with the situation. There are no leaders to take up their cause and expose the actual story behind the prices rise. They are in the run up of grabbing an opportunity to take political advantage out of the miseries and hardships of common man. One should really understand the rising cost of inputs in cultivating various crops and also the labour charges including the transportation costs which are also responsible for the cost escalation of essential commodities. Further, there are other factors such as   switching over to cash crops by the farmers, which would yield them more profits and under utilization of agricultural lands due to the lack of availability of manpower and inability to bear the enhanced labour charges and also converting the fertile lands for building industrial areas and residential complexes. Though our leaders know these facts, they are not ready to tell the truth, but interested only in mudslinging and allegations against each others. 

 

One of the other important reasons is the failure of the government to take stock of the situation and making a bumper stock to collect the food grains from the farmers, so that the same can be pushed through the public distribution system, if an artificial scarcity is created by the vested interested groups to amass the profits by taking advantage of the lacunae of demand and supply situation. Moreover, the large scale export of farm products and withdrawal of active intervention in controlling the prices by the Central Government have also escalated the situation beyond control. If we look into the natural calamities in different parts of our country, it has also played havoc with the farm sector and raised the indebtedness of the farmers. On the other hand, the intervention of large scale industrial houses in farm sector to procure the essential commodities through ‘Vayada Bazar’ – a system of fixing up of prices by the buyer in advance and the agreement thereof by the farmers to sell out the farm products at the fixed up rates at the time of harvest has also made a complex situation. Such a practice quite often leads to price escalation, as the result of such a business would most probably be in favour of the buyers. From such a scenario, we can understand that the Government wanted to do some favour to the farmers in the changed atmosphere of liberated economy, but failed to understand that it actually benefited a small section of big farmers.  

 

Considering all the above factors, the natural question arises in the mind of an ordinary man is the solution to this vexed issue. When the opposition is accusing the Central Government for failure of controlling the price rises, one failed to understand the wisdom of the UPA Government for inviting all the political leaders for a meeting and taking their suggestions to sort out the issue as per the consensus arrived at in such a meeting. The political upmanship of blaming each others and washing the dirty linen shall not solve the miseries of the people and therefore, both the Central and State Government should sit together and find out a solution even by active market intervention or promoting farming with the support of cooperatives or even subsidized supply of essential commodities through Public Distribution System or through other private outlets. 

 

The ball is in the court of the Central and State Governments and they have to act in a practical manner to bring the situation under control and plan about the future without siding any vested interests or groups and see the general welfare of the people in true sense and serving spirit. Otherwise, a day may come that all the political parties will lose the credibility and trust of the people of our country and no ventilation is provided to mitigate the genuine grievances of the people and solve the sensitive issue of availing the foods within their manageable source of income, we cannot predict what would happen tomorrow, if they express their anger and anguish against the rulers spontaneously and come out to the streets ignoring the dictates of the leaders and authorities concerned. Let us hope that such situation may not arise and our leaders should ponder over the issue of alarming price rise and find out some effective remedial measures to keep the same within the affordable limits of common man!