The news came from Madhya
Pradesh which has a popular chief minister who has been consistently elected by
his constituency and who is now in his third consecutive term.
The Madhya Pradesh assembly
had some chaotic scenes today where one political class was taking on the other
- the opposition over the ruling class - and the issue in point was
distribution of adulterated and rotten wheat sacks to the flood victims.
Reports said some wheat sacks contained as much as 20 kg soil in a pack of 50
kg.
Well, it's a flourishing
business. We should be thankful to P. Sainath, a sincere career journalist, who
devoted his whole life to rural reporting, especially on farm suicides,
droughts and agrarian crisis. The book 'Everybody Loves A Good Drought' makes
for a pithy and informed reading. It shows how droughts have become big money
spinners for the governing machinery and the appendages dependent on it.
Floods present a similar opportunity,
in fact any natural calamity of big scale - but what makes floods and droughts
big opportunities for money minded vultures - are their geographical spread and
regular frequency. Their earning potential far outweighs other catastrophic
happenings like earthquake, cloud burst or cyclone. These are localized in
nature and thus limited in scope for making money.
Big projects, big money.
Small projects, small money. Simple!
So, it everybody loves a good
drought..'that' everybody loves a good flood as well!
©SantoshChaubey
