Kerala’s limited cultivable land is not enough to feed the population. Till now the problem was solved by importing rice from Andhra Pradesh but now Andhra Pradesh has limited the export of rice resulting in “Rice not available” signs in many shops. Kanchan Gupta writes about the situation in two Communist states, Kerala and West Bengal.
In West Bengal, tales of hunger and starvation emanating from districts that witnessed food riots last autumn and where cereals have all but disappeared from ration shops, have a tragic sociological twist to them. Many of the men and women who are on the verge of starvation are elderly and, needless to add, indigent. Abandoned by families which have migrated to Delhi and Mumbai, they can neither work for a living nor afford the prices demanded by hoarders who also happen to be, not so coincidentally, local party bosses on whose support and ill-gotten wealth the CPI(M) is pathetically dependent for its survival in power.
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