Separating cricket wheat from the chaff

In the ‘Cricket knowledge quiz’ Pawar defeated Mandira Bedi. Will Flour be used as snuff? Does Reservation catch Cricket? PDS scam and costly decision of wheat import defame Pawar.


Pawar in double role separates the cricket wheat from the chaff.

Beyond seven wonders more wonders are in India. Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar successfully threw his hat in the ring for the Indian cricket board election. Farooq Abdullah well described the race, "We have put our horse in the maidan (field) and now let the people choose," Pawar won the race to defeat Dalmia. He became President of BCCI. Now Cricket is a game of POWER. Can you hope in future Cricket will remain a noble game? In his eyes Dalmia is corrupt. God knows Pawar Team whose eyes are on billions dollars of BCCI, will be corrupt or not in the eyes of future BCCI Team.

India thus became the only country in the world where a politician is in charge of cricket and a buffoon in charge of the Railway Ministry. Laloo ate Cows’ fodder and Agricultural minister earned his name in Wheat PDS scam and unforgivable decision of importing wheat.


Will Flour be used as snuff?

Now rates of wheat become double. I recall a conversation when I was a Taxation Acviser. STO Mr.Sahni said that time would come when we had to use flour as snuff. After touching flour to nose we would feel fully satisfaction. Are we stepping towards that direction?


Does Reservation catch Cricket?

Can we suggest Sharad Pawar for making more interesting cricket to follow holistic view of Reservation scheme in Cricket also as suggested by HRD Minister Arjun Singh and by PM Dr. Singh to Industrialist?


Why politician and journalist in cricket

Congress wanted to give the impression that the slogan raised by Indira Gandhi, “gareebi hatao” has worked. All poor Congressmen have turned rich. Rijiv Shukla wants to keep alive that tradition. Is enter in BCCI more beneficial than envelope journalism?

Sharad Pawar who once parted ways with Sonia Gandhi on the issue of her foreign origins and has now suddenly developed interest for all Italian things.

Sadly, Pawar has not been in the pink of his health and appears past his prime. More disappointingly, even the little energies left with him are dissipated in affairs related to the Board of Control for Cricket in India and such other sublime issues. So where has he time to keep his past historical reord of sugar.

The surge is not just at the Dallal Street. The graph is heading northward at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) too. Coffers of the BCCI are swelling at an unprecedented pace matched only by the sensex’s rise.
Over the next four years, the board would have earned an amount that is almost three times what Jet has put at stake to purchase Sahara Airlines and the revenues generated would match the worth of Rahul Bajaj - 20th richest businessman in India. “One and a half billion”, says Lalit Modi. Rupees? “Dollars,” clarifies Indian cricket’s new marketing Moghul. Converted into ruppes, that is an astronomical 7,000 crore. Modi is confident that is eminently achievable. For half of that is already in the coffers.


Costly decision of wheat import

Wheat crop of the season is more than the exectation. But it is unfortunate that because of the blindness of the Govt., in a move that virtually catapults India back to the pre-Green Revolution days, the government has decided to import three million tonnes (30 lakh tonnes) of wheat. The decision, announced by food minister Sharad Pawar

Govt. after taking huge money through back door from the traders and exporters, it allowed them to purchase the wheat direct from the producers agriculturists by giving them Rupee one to Rs.20 per quintal more rate than the dec;ared rate of Govt. as Rs. 650.

After one month of the godown full purchasing of exporters and traders, now Govt. decided to give Rs.50 per quintal as bonus to the producers. But they have already sold their wheat. What is the use of bonus to them?

No one can digest the reason which is being given by the Govt. for theimport of the wheat. It said that secured stock of wheat which was 40 lac tons on April 1, is now minus 21 lac tons. Govt. doesn’t want to explain why it issued 21 lac tons wheat of buffer stock.

Price of imported wheat is Rs.9, 978 in comprison to too much less cost of the wheat which is in the godown of Food Corporation of India. Further on March 26, 2006 Sharad Pawar has said that government is confident of achieving the wheat output target of over 73 million tonnes. He said there was no threat to the wheat crop which, in many states, would come up for harvesting from the Baisakhi day on April 14. There is no problem about wheat output. We have looked at the situation. In fact the harvesting has started in Madhya Pradesh and it would be undertaken from the middle of April in Punjab and Haryana.
In Rajya Sabha one member rightly said that 75 per cent population of India lives in the villages. In the absence of development of villages, India could not develop and achieve economic progress. Although India is an agricultural dominated country still it is importing wheat. Government should give thrust to the agricultural sector and to double its production. On one side India is trying to became a super power by the year 2020, and on the other, people engaged in agriculture activities are being neglected. Due to this very reason, the gap among the economic and social equality has been widening


PDS scam

The timesofindia’s news report of April 21, 2006 titled ‘SC upset with govt's handling of PDS scam’ says:” The Supreme Court is very upset with the way UPA government has acted on its direction to look into diversion of wheat, allotted through the Targeted Public Distribution System under APL (above poverty line) scheme, to roller flour millers, which sold it in the open market and made a huge profit,”

By Premendra Agrawal
Premendra_in@indiatimes.com