“What a revelation! Does Basu think that Sonia knows the rest of the country so well? She is, after all, a naturalised citizen — having been born in a foreign country — and has no understanding of India or its culture or ethos. Basu’s statement is an indirect admission and acknowledgement of the BJP’s stand that Sonia is a foreigner. A question that begs for an answer is ‘why then did the Left parties support a regime propped up by a leader who does not know India so well. Was it also a blunder?”

It then concludes, “One does not know what Basu’s assessment of the heir apparent Rahul Gandhi is. May be they will hold a politburo meeting for a week and then come out with a statement that dynastic rule is a lesser evil than communalism”.

Towards food insecurity

In the column ‘Economy Watch’, Ashwani Mahajan says that “India is fast moving towards food insecurity.” He writes, “India which had emerged as an exporter of foodgrains has become a net importer. This is also true that developing countries are making large-scale imports of food grains ... Two weeks back Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh forewarned the international community that the world is moving fast towards shortage of foodgrains. This would not only lead to a high rate of inflation, but in fact even the development efforts of the third world would get adversely affected. Prior to the PM’s statement, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had complained about reduction of area under wheat cultivation by the US in an attempt to enhance its bio-fuel production. And now it’s the turn of US president George Bush. According to his statement a week ago, the consumption in fast growing India and China is a major cause of the rapid increase in food prices. Before him, US Secretary of the State Condoleezza Rice had also made a similar statement blaming the rising prosperity of India’s huge middle class for spiralling food prices.

... contd.