'To a man with an empty stomach food is god', the Mahatma had famously remarked
economy news: In an effort to consolidate urban vote base, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah earlier this month opened over 100 Indira canteens in Bengaluru, which would offer subsidised food for the urban poor. The canteens, modelled on the Amma canteen that brought back the late J Jayalalithaa into power in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, offer breakfast at Rs 5 and lunch and dinner at Rs 10, with each outlet to serve around 500 people at a time. This writer discusses how political parties have time and again played the subsidised food card to satiate the hunger for votes.
The late H N Bahuguna was once asked by one of his close associates what two things he would do if he becomes the Prime Minister. The veteran leader had replied that one thing he would certainly do was to ensure that the price of bread is brought abysmally low so that no one would go to bed hungry.
That was sought to be done in urban Karnataka with the launch of the Indira Canteens in Bengaluru earlier this month with much fanfare by Rahul Gandhi who is seeking to seize the initiative in the poll-bound state to retain power amid times of crisis for the grand old party.
No doubt that it is a desperate measure to attract the urban poor, but it also signals a fight back at a time when Congress has lost from almost all major cities including the four metros in the Narendra Modi surge in the last Lok Sabha elections. Bengaluru was no exception.
Karnataka is the last bastion of the Congress being the single largest state it has in its kitty when its footprint has drastically dwindled and the last victory it witnessed was in Punjab recently after many a defeat in several states since 2014.
The move has also come at a time when the Narendra Modi dispensation is at its zenith with BJP for the first time able to install its men in four top constitutional positions -- the President, the Vice President, the Prime Minister and the Lok Sabha Speaker. Loyalists of Modi are beating the drums of TINA—There Is No Alternative-to the Leader....(Read more)
economy news: In an effort to consolidate urban vote base, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah earlier this month opened over 100 Indira canteens in Bengaluru, which would offer subsidised food for the urban poor. The canteens, modelled on the Amma canteen that brought back the late J Jayalalithaa into power in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, offer breakfast at Rs 5 and lunch and dinner at Rs 10, with each outlet to serve around 500 people at a time. This writer discusses how political parties have time and again played the subsidised food card to satiate the hunger for votes.
The late H N Bahuguna was once asked by one of his close associates what two things he would do if he becomes the Prime Minister. The veteran leader had replied that one thing he would certainly do was to ensure that the price of bread is brought abysmally low so that no one would go to bed hungry.
That was sought to be done in urban Karnataka with the launch of the Indira Canteens in Bengaluru earlier this month with much fanfare by Rahul Gandhi who is seeking to seize the initiative in the poll-bound state to retain power amid times of crisis for the grand old party.
No doubt that it is a desperate measure to attract the urban poor, but it also signals a fight back at a time when Congress has lost from almost all major cities including the four metros in the Narendra Modi surge in the last Lok Sabha elections. Bengaluru was no exception.
Karnataka is the last bastion of the Congress being the single largest state it has in its kitty when its footprint has drastically dwindled and the last victory it witnessed was in Punjab recently after many a defeat in several states since 2014.
The move has also come at a time when the Narendra Modi dispensation is at its zenith with BJP for the first time able to install its men in four top constitutional positions -- the President, the Vice President, the Prime Minister and the Lok Sabha Speaker. Loyalists of Modi are beating the drums of TINA—There Is No Alternative-to the Leader....(Read more)
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