In the new generation diplomacy, the US definitely occupies the most important place on Indian thinking wavelength but India is no sub-contractor of America in the global context wherein Uncle Sam can decide what and how much Indians should eat or not!
US President George W Bush blaming the 'wealthy' lifestyle of India's huge middle class for the spiraling global food prices endorsing his Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice views only adds insult to the injury for Indians.
It's true the Indian middle class has grown in size, the 350 million as Bush himself says, and enhanced purchasing ability to look for better nutrition and better food.
But India is growingly self-sufficient in terms of its requirements as it is no longer a big food buyer. India, in fact, has become a fairly major food exporter and proper planning like a farm output policy can help it better.
The Hon'ble US President seemed to have forgotten some of his making and American follies that have propelled the food shortages and the price rise.
For long, the US and a few major countries have been diverting the agricultural land for bio-fuel purposes. The Americans also have selective amnesia on their faulty foreign policy vis-à-vis the Gulf region.
"One of the main reasons for this spiraling inflation is high crude oil prices," says an analyst. "One, the US raid on Iraq. In fact, the rise in crude oil price began to rise from the moment US signaled that it would raid Iraq. This was in 1990s," he points out.
The other reason is the general thought that Bush has interests in oil companies, particularly those based in Texas. It is, therefore, natural for him to ensure that crude oil prices stay high. In fact, these companies are supposed to be his main sponsors and he draws his strength from the Texas oil firms.
Moreover, the US government has also set a higher target for production of ethanol from corn,that has led to diversion of corn to fuel from food. Farmers in the US overwhelmingly switched over the growing corn
While this is one aspect of inflation, the other vital aspect dwelling on the rice and as such the US leaders are talking about Indians' rice eating also deserves a closer look.
The United Nations ha declared 2004 as the International Year of Rice but what was notable is that the importance of the commodity as the staple foodgrain for households in India Asia was likely to decline.
One issue contributing for this theory was that the rapid urbanization and growing demand for housing and industrial activities would make inroads into land under rice cultivation in most countries. This may affect its production and create supply distortions.
A few years back, survey revealed that a more serious factor in the long run was the steady shift of consumers towards fruits, vegetables and meat as result of rising incomes, changing dietary habits and lifestyles -- like love for junk votes in urban areas.
All this, too, may affect demand for rice to some extent. However, what will be the most critical factor affecting rice cultivation is water availability. India, experts say, may not remain unaffected from these changes and the growing mall culture.
For an overwhelming Indians, especially in coastal belt and tribal region of northeast India, rice is the staple food. Statistics show, the rice consumption in India has remained below 100 kg per person per year for long while it improved during the period 1970-72 to 1989-91 to edge down a bit in 1999-01.
Notably, China's consumption is better than India's and Bush and his team may not know that even sometime back a tiny trouble-torn Myanmar topped the league of rice consuming countries with a little over 200 kg per person per year. Vietnam, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Indonesia, all rice producing countries, have higher per capita rice consumption.
Does Bush know that over 95 per cent rice is produced in developing countries and most in Asia. In India the rice production has also gone up gradually.
