Nitish: Hard to please?

Patna, Dec. 19: Nitish Kumar today welcomed the Food Security Bill cleared by the Union cabinet last night, but unveiled a three-point wishlist for the Centre.

Identification of the beneficiaries by an autonomous commission, keeping the states free from any financial burden and numerical majority of representatives from the rural areas in the body to implement the food security scheme are the three issues the chief minister wants the Manmohan Singh government to address.

“I have no objection to the Food Security Bill. What I want is that the concerns of the states must be addressed while giving final shape to the bill,” Nitish said. “There must be an effective tool to identify the poor. I propose the setting up of an autonomous commission for the purpose.”

In case the Centre left the onus of identifying beneficiaries on the states, Nitish said, they would have to face any criticism of discrimination that may arise. “The people left out might allege that their names were dropped or they were ignored despite meeting the criteria of getting foodgrain at cheap rates,” he said.

The bill offers legal entitlement to cheap grain and millets to about 63.5 per cent of India’s population. The scheme is expected to cost the government an additional Rs 27,973 crore a year.

The Bihar chief minister, who has of late taken up matters pertaining to Centre-state relations in a bid to cultivate a national image, pointedly said the states should be kept “absolutely free” from any financial burden. “The states are not in a position to bear the additional burden the legislation might impose,” he said.

The weaker sections, particularly the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, minorities, backward classes and women, must get fair representation in the body that is likely to be constituted to implement the ambitious legislation, he added.

“The draft legislation that had been circulated for our opinion had the provision of seven people in the body to implement it. I suggest that five of the seven people should be drawn from the rural areas,” Nitish said. “We have sent our suggestions on the draft bill, detailing all our concerns. I hope the Centre will take care of them.”

Nitish has in the past asked the Centre to expand the spectrum of BPL families. As of now, 68 lakh people from Bihar figure in the BPL list, but the state has been insisting that it should cover 1.25 crore people.

The chief minister believes that the extremely backward castes (EBCs), mahadalits (impoverished among the scheduled castes) and the Pasmanda (backward) among the Muslims should be the real beneficiaries of the food scheme. These are the sections, which besides being poor, constitute the “nucleus” of the NDA’s strength in Bihar.

“When the chief minister says that the poor and needy should be the largest beneficiary of the food security bill, he actually means these social sections,” a source close to Nitish said.

Top sources in the NDA said Nitish’s “nuanced” response to the food security bill was aimed at guarding the interest of the social groups that constitute the “backbone” of his political strength.

Nitish has so far succeeded in disallowing the UPA to convert the credit of its work into political gains in Bihar. For instance, the MGNREGA — UPA-I’s flagship programme that was believed to have had given it a cutting edge against the NDA in 2009 in most parts of the country — failed to work in Bihar. The NDA won 32 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

“Obviously, Nitish is at work to ensure that UPA-II is not able to politically cash in on its food security legislation in Bihar of which he is the master right now,” said an NDA leader, who did not wish to be named.