II

The editorial is an eye-opener and a reflection on the failure of successive governments to provide food to the teeming millions. There are over 200 million hungry people in the country. They live in slums with no food, shelter and clothing. Many go to bed on empty stomach due to abject poverty. They are considered a blot on the so-called civilised nation.

Politicians are divided wasting time in criticising each other. All political parties are wooing minorities for their vote banks and none is bothered about the problems like the food crisis confronting the country.

D. R. SHARDA, Chandigarh

III

True, the right to food ought to be granted to the teeming millions but it won’t do unless the hungry people are provided food or the means to earn food. India has no dearth of wheat and rice but, intriguingly, their stocks are being eaten away by rodents or just rotting in our godowns and silos while poor people are dying of starvation.

Even the Supreme Court, in August 2001, had directed the Centre to provide food to the starving populace but to no avail. For the hungry, a morsel of food is God. Economic reforms have no meaning to them.

So, radical economic changes are required to alleviate the suffering of the poor and the hungry. Mismanagement, red tape and corruption should be eradicated. Glaring disparities should be tackled quickly.

TARSEM S. BUMRAH, Batala

IV

More such editorials and articles are needed to awaken our rulers from their slumber. Sadly, the food problem has mainly gone unnoticed even by the powerful media. Our leaders who made supreme sacrifices to attain freedom would never have visualised such a shameful situation even after 60 years of Independence.

The majority of our countrymen are leading a life of abject poverty, extreme hunger and absolute deprivation. The conscience of our rulers is seldom stirred at the pathetic state of affairs. Little is being done or planned for the deprived lot.

A few welfare schemes like the Annapoorna Yojna, the Antyodaya Anna Yojana, the Food for Work and the Mid-day Meal are not really meant for the welfare or uplift of the unfortunate ‘have-nots’, but are baits to catch votes.

Prof R. L. MALHOTRA, Nawanshahr

Central concern

The core of Arundhati Ghose’s article, “Services’ contempt for civil authority is not casual” (Oct 22), veers around a central concern — the need for the Service Chiefs to explain their stand on why they chose to ignore a government direction to submit their respective bills by the desired dateline.

The stand is really not all that complex for the respected former Ambassador and one-time contender for the top slot in the Indian Foreign Service to fathom: the Chiefs command over a million soldiers lives on trust. They owe them something in return for this extraordinary faith.

They owe them the belief that they can, with due dignity, represent their grievances to the government of the day in unfashionable, even if seemingly unfathomable, terms: unfathomable, that is, for those to whom the equation of holding lives on trust and a response thereto is something passe, something tiresome, since bureaucracy has no equivalent relationship of this kind to worry about.