The death of 22 school kids in the Indian state of Bihar after eating mid-day meal provided by the state government on Wednesday has again exposed the rampant corruption gnawing away the foundations of the state. Bihar is particularly infamous for its corruption and lawlessness. The Bihari fetish for government jobs in the era of reforms can only be explained by the lure of speed money that comes as the perks of a government post. Media management had helped Nitish Kumar to paint a rosy picture about his administration but that is unravelling now.
In April 2013 questions had been raised regarding the quality of the midday meals being provided in Bihar, according to media reports. At the April 23 meeting of the programme advisory board for the scheme held by the Union human resource development (HRD) ministry, the Bihar government was told that meals were of poor quality and cooked and served in unhygienic according to the feedback from students. The institutes hired by the Union HRD ministry to monitor the scheme had pointed out that the meal quality was poor and quantity insufficient and several schools did not offer variety in menu. The audit also found that there was interruption in the midday meal scheme in several schools due to shortage of food grain, fuel and cooking cost.
The quality of midday meals has been a worry nationwide. The first social audit of the programme conducted in 40 schools in Andhra Pradesh found the quantity of rice to be inadequate and the quality to be poor. The rice was mostly broken and contained stones and worms. In fact many children had complained of stomach ache after consuming this rice.
The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council and the United Progressive Alliance government have failed to appreciate the dangers of trusting an inefficient and corrupt bureaucracy with the future of the nation. Corruption in execution of another feather in UPA cap the rural job guarantee scheme or MNREGA scheme has been spoken about. But the government instead of trying to tackle corruption has been ignoring it and as some may accuse it tacitly supporting it. The Sonia Gandhi-led Congress party recently helped one of the main accused in the 2G Scam, Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, get elected to the Indian Upper House of Parliament, the Rajya Sabha.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India may have exposed 2G and Coal mine scams, the Supreme Court may have tripped the iron ore loot but the state and village level termites of corruption are hale and hearty. India is trying to implement a bureaucracy-run social welfare state model which has been a failure the world over. There are still China fans who are blinded and overawed by its economic growth and think government knows best. They forget that India is a democracy and the elected representatives will be punished at the polls. The recent Supreme Court order banning people given jail sentence of two or more years is likely to further loosen the grip of those using muscle power to short-circuit Indian democracy. China, where the colour of the cat doesn’t matter as long as it catches mice, is more of a party dictatorship desperately fiddling with systems to avoid crash landing of the economy. As the internet breaks the Great wall of Chinese communist which kept out the ideas of individual freedom and choice, the question is when and not if there will be a Chinese Spring.
“Give man a fish and you feed him for a day; show him how to fish and you feed him for life.”
The Gandhi family and its coat-tail hangers must understand the adage: “Give man a fish and you feed him for a day; show him how to fish and you feed him for life.” Their short-sightedness has already tripped Indian economic growth. Their brand of socialism is only benefitting crony capitalists. The Food Security Bill will be a new avenue to turn many cronies into millionaires. History is replete with examples where rulers have used creation of infrastructural assets to feed the poor as well as revive the economy. Free or subsidised distribution of food and money without creating jobs and inculcating the habit of earning your bread is bad economics. It is also bad for the society as the population becomes addicted to getting largesse without contributing to the nation’s progress. This tragedy should serve as the wake-up alarm to put an end to use of taxpayer money for trying to bribe voters and win elections instead of providing good governance.
