However, the Climate Crisis is more pressing today and the government of India has recently finished talks with China regarding the incursion. Given the fact this is a highly sensitive problem for India, the policy regarding the climate crisis and food distribution is an emergency for USA foreign policy.
By Jean Dreze
The right to food (click here) is finally becoming a lively political issue in India. Aware of the forthcoming national elections in 2014, political parties are competing to demonstrate – or at least proclaim — their commitment to food security. In a country where endemic undernutrition has been accepted for too long as natural, this is a breakthrough of sorts.
The rhetoric, however, is not always matched by understanding of the issues, let alone action. The National Food Security Bill taken up by Parliament in December 2011 in pursuance of electoral promises made by India’s governing coalition, the United Progressive Alliance, is at the heart of the current debate over food security. The bill was to be put to vote during the last session of Parliament, along with a series of amendments based on the report of a parliamentary standing committee. Opposition parties, however, continuously disrupted the proceedings under one pretext or another.
Exasperated by this obstruction, and quite possibly hoping to win votes, the government recently promulgated the National Food Security Ordinance 2013. The ordinance effectively activates the bill, but it must be ratified by Parliament within six weeks of its first sitting or else the bill will lapse. The use of emergency powers to promulgate this ordinance is being criticized as undemocratic, and rightly so, but most political parties bear some responsibility for this outcome....
