Empress Joseph­ine of France, I believe, told her star­v­ing poor subjects that they should eat cake if they cannot afford bread. The rulers of Maharashtra are doing something similar. Sometime ago, the Maharashtra government was considering giving licences to 14 kin of politicians who wanted to set up breweries to make whiskey from food gra­ins like jowar, bajra and sour­gham. So what if these were the grains of the poor? So what if the poor starve? The poor are habituated to starving. The distillers and the government of Maharashtra wou­ld make so much from profits and revenues respectively. Ma­harshtra would shine so much more, the poor be da­mn­ed. Thankfully the Mumbai High Court stepped in and disallowed the attempt.

According to press reports, the government of Maharashtra is now once again trying to allow distilling of liquor from food grains, this time under the guise of industrial alcohol. Reports appearing in the press state that Union industries minister, who lost the chief minister’s post in the wake of the November 26 terror atta­cks on Mumbai, is now backing chief minister Ashok Cha­van who wants to allow the brewing of industrial alcohol from jowar. Traditionally, jow­ar and bajra have been the grains used to make bhakri by Indian villagers. These are fo­od grains of the poor along with nachni. So­metimes it is the only sustenance the poor can get. But the greed of the political class is so great. They don’t mind snatching the morsel out of the mouths of the starving populace so long as they can line their pockets with profits.

The latest move is a very cleverly thought out strategy to subvert the ruling of the court disallowing the brewing of whiskey from food grains. First approve licences for brewing industrial alcohol out of jowar. Then engineer a sh­ort supply of jowar and add bajra and other cheap food grains to the list, then on the sly one of the distilleries or breweries will seek a change of licence from industrial alcohol to alcohol for human consumption and viola you ha­ve breweries brewing whis­key from food grains. Having a minister of agriculture at the centre who is known to be an avid pusher of making Maharashtra the numero uno liq­uor producing state of India, helps tremendously.

On the one hand, prime mi­nister Manmohan Singh has warned that India is faced with a grave food famine, the granaries are emptying out alarmingly fast, but his ministers seem least bothered. Th­ey want to divert food gra­ins and produce alcohol.

During the British Raj in 1856 and in the early 1940s, India was gripped by deadly famine. These famines were not due to natural calamities or solely due to the failure of the monsoon. These famines were largely man-made, due to the careless policies of the colonial setup, food grains we­re looted from farmers when crops failed and they were unable to pay the land tax to landlords and the colonial administration. This led to large-scale starvation and a large number of poor perished. Wh­ole villages were devastated and it is said that vultures, th­eir bellies full of carrion ro­amed around in villages where domesticated cattle and humans were perishing by the scores. On all three occasions, it lead to an uprising. The 1856 drought led to the first war of Independence in 1857. And the drought’s of the 20th century also led to social and political turmoil.

Immediately after independence too, India faced a grave scarcity of food grains. Mahatma Gandhi advocated that all available land must be utilised for food production. On his advice, the Birlas and Bajajs dug up the magnificent gardens around their villas and planted fruits and vegetables. Later Lal Bahadur Shastry practiced the policy of fasting on one day of the week and the nation followed his example. When I was a child our entire household used to skip a meal for two years. For the second meal of the day, my mother would cook only one dish and we would eat rotis with achar or khichadi with achar. This was in solidarity with what our agriculture mi­nister was doing. In the sixties and even once in the early seventies, there was a guest control act. One could only en­tertain a certain fixed number of guests during marriages and other feasts. All these measures were to stem wast­age of food and overcome food scarcity. Alas we don’t have leaders like Lal Bahadur Sh­astry anymore. Look at the shamelessly lavish feasts organised at political dos and at the lavish marriages of children of politicians, austerity be damned.

There is a debate the world over on the use of food grains for producing fuel and alcohol, and diversion of agricultural land for cultivation of fuel producing plants. Fortunately, those advocating that food must get priority over fuel seem to be winning for the time being. But our greedy politicians in Maharashtra are trying to find ways so that they can indulge in profiteering by diverting much needed food grains to produce industrial and potable alcohol. The hungry can starve for all they care.

The writer is founder president, Mahatma Gandhi Foundation