A debate on malnutrition has ensued with the Global Hunger Index ranking India at 100 of 119 countries. Former finance minister P Chidambaram is leading the debate from the Opposition in accusing the ruling BJP of neglecting food security. In an interview to BusinessLine, Chidambaram contends that the BJP lacks an economic philosophy and the only agenda it is advancing through policy is Hindutva. Excerpts:

How was the Congress different from the BJP in substantially addressing the endemic hunger and malnutrition situation?

It is not my case that malnutrition suddenly came about in 2014; that would be a stupid statement. But governments prior to 2014 thought about malnutrition and devised policies to address malnutrition. The UPA took a major step, I would call it the most decisive intervention, to address malnutrition by enacting the National Food Security Act (NFSA).

My charge against the present government is — One, that in the last three years I have not heard the Prime Minister speak about malnutrition at all. While he talks about Beti Bachao, he does not talk about malnutrition. Two, they have an instrument in their hand, the NFSA, but they have callously neglected it. That is established by the Supreme Court which, in an order, called the situation “pathetic”. Three, if they did not think that the instrument, the NFSA, was the right instrument then they should have proposed an alternative.

I can only conclude that the very poor and the destitute are not on the radar of this government.

Where you would place the BJP in its philosophical interpretation of the role of the State as a promoter of welfare, provider of health and education for furthering equality or a complete laissez-faire approach?

The BJP does not have a core economic ideology or philosophy. The BJP’s core ideology is only Hindutva and majoritarian government. Any government must have a core economic philosophy that would give an indication of where it stands in the Left-to-Right spectrum. The BJP has, as a party, never reflected on its place in terms of the Left-to-Right spectrum of economic philosophy. Therefore, it is wandering all over the place.

Contrast the Congress’s approach, and I would be the first to admit that there were many deficiencies in the implementation of the programmes. But the Congress placed emphasis on three or four issues which defined its core philosophy. First of all, nobody should die of hunger or starvation. That is why we brought the MNREGA and the NFSA.

Secondly, for the vulnerable sections — pregnant women, lactating mothers, infants and under-five children — there were interventions by expanding the Anganwadi programme dramatically, in terms of both quantity and funding, and appointing ASHAs to reach out to the very poor and the vulnerable, especially in the rural areas. All these efforts culminated in the enactment of the NFSA.

Simultaneously, there were interventions in health — the most important one was the immunisation programme where we immunised children against five diseases — and the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). These interventions defined the Congress’s core beliefs and philosophy.

That is absent in this government. Which is why there is simply no sense of guilt or shame or contrition when there appears a report that 282 children died in Gorakhpur in a few days. This is not the cumulative number of deaths. This is the number of deaths that occurred in a few days. Nobody in the government seems to be even concerned about the fact that 282 children have died; it is not even a statistic as far as this government is concerned. It is not impacting the central government. It is not impacting the UP government. It is not moving anyone’s heart.

All I can conclude is, death of children and similar matters are not on the radar of the new rulers of India. To them, lighting up Varanasi on Diwali and building a temple that exemplify their Hindutva philosophy are more important than infant/maternal mortality, malnutrition or hunger. May be they philosophise by saying that India has always been so and, therefore, it will always be so. May be they are able to find peace in this outdated philosophy.

The BJP can argue that their big structural reforms signify a certain economic ideology and direction…

Barring GST, I cannot name any structural reform undertaken by this government. I think the Finance Minister should define ‘structural reforms’ and then list the structural reforms that his government has implemented.

This government has confused ‘programmes’ with structural reforms. For example, more roads, more electricity, more housing for the poor, more port capacity etc do not qualify as structural reforms, they are just more of the same thing under the same structure.

If the government wanted to undertake structural reforms, the obvious low hanging fruit were the Direct Taxes Code, financial sector reforms (recommended by FSLRC), privatisation of some public sector banks, disinvestment/privatisation of some PSUs etc.

The Government argues that big reforms such as GST are bound to cause upheavals after which there is certain to be a period of recovery. Do you agree?

GST was a structural reform and a disruptive one at that. So was VAT that was rolled out in 2005. Please compare and contrast the two events. VAT was rolled out smoothly with hardly any harmful consequences. On the contrary, the GST roll out has caused an upheaval and has driven thousands of small and medium businesses to despair and, in many cases, closure. Everything about the GST rolled out by this government was flawed: concept, design, rates, preparation, advocacy, training, compliance requirements, backbone, infrastructure etc.

Of course, there will be a recovery. Once you touch the bottom, the only way is upward. Will that justify touching the bottom? The government should have the honesty to admit that it took a good idea (GST) from the previous government and made a complete mess of it. The economic slowdown was due to a number of reasons. Demonetisation and flawed implementation of GST made matters worse.

The spectre you paint signifies a contra-factual vision of reality where the objective conditions are diffused by a grander spectacle. That the Health Minister of UP can say they will not invest in public sector hospitals but his government allocates ₹500 crore for Ardha Kumbh preparations. Is this the “new normal” in India?

It appears to be the new normal because the institutions and bodies that should play of the role of an opposition have been either threatened or silenced. These deviations will be exposed when people begin to speak up. When the media and the courts begin to speak up on these issues, the deviations will be highlighted.

This “new normal” will continue because in the BJP’s concept of governance, issues that demand attention, which include almost everything that is important, — hunger, disease, poverty — have a very low priority. For them, it has to be programmes, you might even call it ‘events’, which can be magnified and raised to levels of ‘missions’ or ‘movements’. Yoga, for instance, is good and those who want to practice Yoga may practice Yoga, there are also other forms of exercise. But the government will try to raise Yoga into a national and international movement. Why have you not expended the same energy and money on ensuring that no one dies of hunger? Government has made sanitation a major issue, which I welcome. But just see what our neighbour, Bangladesh, has achieved by emphasising ICT interventions in sanitation and not physical targets. Bangladesh has practically achieved ODF (Open Defecation Free), whereas we are struggling with collating the number of toilets built, toilets which are functional, and toilets that have fallen into disuse. These are the statistics we are still struggling with.

That is why I think that, as far as this government is concerned, it is the greatest ‘event manager’ that I have seen. Everything has to be made into an ‘event’ and the Prime Minister and his ministers must be present at the ‘event’. Governing a country as large and as complex as India is getting into the detail and making sure that every rupee spent, and every t crossed and every i dotted, achieves results on the ground.

Does anyone really believe that infant deaths in Gorakhpur cannot be stopped? Of course, they can be stopped. All it requires is dedicated doctors with dedicated funds and equipment, and it can be stopped. You can’t do anything about the children who have died, but surely you can do a lot to prevent another child from dying. But that is not the way they look at child deaths. May be they look at it philosophically and say that children have died in the past and children will die in the future. That, according to me, is not just callousness, it is cruelty. It shows the State’s contemptuous attitude towards human rights of children. May be they believe that infants have no rights.

From the big announcements and policy interventions, where do you think India is headed?

If I understood the way their mind works, I would try to explain it better. But from my limited understanding, I think their approach stems from a complete absence of a core economic philosophy and from being blinded by their belief that they are in government, they have an absolute majority, and the primary purpose of being in government is to promote Hindutva and majoritarian rule.

Their prioritisation of fund allocation, of time spent and of attention paid will be on matters that promote Hindutva. Everything else will get less attention. Take the hunger story. Except for a passing comment by one or two ministers, there is no considered statement form the Prime Minister of the country! Imagine the consequences if this hunger story had hit any other developing country.

There would be such an uproar and the first person who would be called to account would be the Head of the Government. Here, the Head of the Government has cynically ignored the story as if it is of no consequence. I don’t think it is ignorance.

There is so much information that no one, least of all the Prime Minister can say that I am ignorant of the fact that the Global Hunger Index has placed us at 100. No Prime Minister can say that I didn’t know our score has slipped from approximately 17 to approximately 31 in a matter of three years. They are dismissive of these things because they don’t think that this advances their core agenda.

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