• Sharad Pawar is right in saying that their have been dietary changes in different parts of the country. Where rice was the staple food, such as in the south, east and north east, wheat chappatis are increasingly being consumed. With the new economy and a huge floating population, especially of the young, a more cosmopolitan food habit is inevitable.

However, alongside this change in food habits, there has also been a shift in food production. Punjab was the wheat basket of the country. Over the years, it has shifted to to cultivating rice. While good quality rice fetches a better price, especially abroad, heavy use of water in paddy fields has depleted ground water levels to alarmingly extents. Today, it is difficult to produce both wheat and rice. Besides, grains like jowar and bajra have been increasingly discarded in favour of lucrative cash crops like sugarcane. Thus the pattern of food production has also had some effect on the current situation.

Punish performers

• M.R. Madhavan's article ‘Different value for different votes’

was somewhat amusing. He says the mandate not to change the number of Lok Sabha seats for each state will be unfair to states which have failed to check their population growth vis-a-vis the ones which have successfully controlled it.

Madhavan is also afraid that a lower representation of states with a high population growth may lead to “a further deficit in governance”. To what extent this is true is a matter of debate. Madhavan points out the Hindi-speaking states to be the ones with a high population growth and consequently disadvantaged.

... contd.