Do you remember the dinosaur era prior to 2014? You know, the Manmohan Singh era? The era where retail inflation of India touched new record highs almost every other week? Well, if you remember, this inflation of India led to the decimation of UPA at the centre.
The inflation of India at the time was entirely the making of UPA and its disastrous policies by the supposed best PM of the country’s history. While the NDA government never really allowed inflation to get out of its hands in the last eight years since it came to power, some unforeseeable international situations have ensured that retail inflation has touched a new high in the last few months.
However, unlike the UPA, the current government is willing to take the courageous calls and sort out the issue at the earliest. If media reports and their sources are to be believed, the Modi government may be gearing up to ban the export of rice, after having already banned the export of sugar and wheat.
According to an Economic Times report, to ensure adequate domestic supplies and prevent a rise in prices, a committee led by the Prime Minister’s Office is doing a product-by-product analysis of essential commodities. The product on the top of the pile is non-Basmati rice and if the committee gives the nod, its export to nearly 150 countries could be halted.
While the previous government regimes would have continued to supply food grains to the Westerners, just to seek their validation, the current Modi administration is not interested in playing such dumb games. You see, for NDA, the welfare and food security of the public is more important than being in the good books of few whites – a concept which the UPA had a hard time wrapping its feeble minds around.
Reeling in the inflation
It is pertinent to note that retail inflation of India reached an eight-year high of 7.79 per cent in April, primarily due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict which has disturbed the flow of international trade. Thus, the government anticipated that despite record exports this season, it was time to pull the plug and sort out our silos, for our own people.
Rice exports from India, also the world’s second-biggest consumer of grain, jumped to a record 21.2 million tonnes in the fiscal year to March 2022 from 17.8 million tonnes the previous year. Food Corporation of India has procured a record 80.4 million tonnes of rice paddy from growers so far this year against 77 million tonnes over the same period last year.
Not leaving anything to chance – Government’s idea behind the export ban
Despite all this, the government is not willing to leave anything to chance. It gave the same logic when it announced a cap on the export of sugar. Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey announcing the cap remarked, “India’s exports [sugar] have reached a record high in this season and now domestic availability has to be ensured during October – November as consumption increases in the festive season”.
Read More: After wheat, India stops the mindless export of sugar to the world
As reported extensively by TFI, while the sugar and rice yield has been bumper this season, the wheat yield has been hit by an extreme heatwave across the country. This forced the government to stop the export, which, even in the best-case scenario, amounts to less than 1 per cent of the global wheat trade.
India wheat exports are less than 1% of world trade and our export regulation should not affect global markets. We continue to allow exports to vulnerable countries and neighbors. pic.twitter.com/N61929BNt5
— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) May 25, 2022
Read More: IMF begs India for wheat
Accept India’s ‘nation-first’ position – PM Modi’s message to West
As for the western world, PM Modi’s answer to them is simple. For years, the white-skinned westerners and their lobbying groups masquerading as world leaders in global bodies put India at the bottom of the pile when it came to hunger index or providing leeway to Indian farmers to produce and export their goods at a decent price. India was at its lowest and yet these leaders didn’t stop from punching us down.
While India is not in the same category as them, it surely is putting the interest of its people first and foremost. The moment the food security is ensured, New Delhi will lift the export ban and supply the food grains. Until then, the western nations should stop being a nuisance and understand the logic behind India’s moves.
