DRAFT RESOLUTION ON FOOD SCARCITY AND HIGH PRICES

Summary

This three-page draft resolution attributes food scarcity and rising food-grain prices to what the Swatantra Party calls the Congress Government’s economically misguided policies. It criticizes farm-size ceilings and the resulting fragmentation of holdings, arguing that uncertainty, taxation, and the threat of collectivisation discourage private investment in agriculture. It also blames inflationary fiscal measures and the priorities of the Second and Third Five-Year Plans for neglecting agriculture, road building, and rural processing in favour of slower-yielding heavy projects.

The resolution rejects State Trading in food grains and compulsory levies on peasants, warning that such controls would increase blackmarketing, corruption, and chaos. Its proposed long-term remedy is the rehabilitation of agriculture through irrigation, fertilisers, seeds, roads, guaranteed floor prices, and cheap credit. In the short term, it calls for the release of government-held grain stocks, the restoration of a common free market, an end to scapegoating peasants and traders, and consultative machinery bringing government, farmers, and the food-grain trade together. The document closes by urging Swatantra Party members to defend the rights and interests of peasants, traders, and consumers.

Key points

• The resolution blames food scarcity and high prices on Congress Government policies that it says disregard economic principles.
• Farm-size ceilings are said to fragment holdings, create uncertainty, and discourage private agricultural investment.
• Deficit finance, heavy excise duties, sales taxes, and Five-Year Plan priorities are presented as drivers of inflation and food shortages.
• State Trading and compulsory grain levies are rejected as measures likely to expand blackmarketing and corruption.
• The proposed long-term solution is agricultural rehabilitation supported by irrigation, inputs, roads, floor prices, and cheap credit.
• Immediate measures include releasing government buffer stocks and restoring a common free market in food grains.
• The Party is urged to oppose scapegoating and protect the interests of peasants, traders, and consumers.