While Roti, kapada aur makhan (food, clothing and shelter) has been a key slogan of the national parties, in Tamil Nadu it is rice that has been used as a political tool for years.
In the run-up to the 1967 Assembly election, when the State was in the grip of an acute rice shortage, the DMK, then yet to taste power, assured the voters that it would supply three measures of rice (approximately 4.5 kg) at one rupee. The promise evoked scepticism in certain quarters, but struck a chord with the voters. No wonder, the DMK won hands down, ousting the Congress, which could not return to power so far.
Subramaniam’s advice
On the day the DMK assumed office (March 6, 1967), Congress veteran C. Subramaniam, speaking at a public meeting at Triplicane in Madras, had a piece of advice for the ruling party: It should not, for instance, stick to the impossible promise of three measures of rice for a rupee and work up a quarrel with the Congress government at the Centre. Subramaniam had just then lost in the Lok Sabha election from Gobichettipalayam after steering the country through a difficult phase of back-to-back drought in the mid-1960s and playing a crucial role in the implementation of the Green Revolution as Union Minister for Food and Agriculture.
Sensing practical difficulties in carrying out its assurance, the ruling DMK came out with a modified scheme of providing a measure of rice at ₹1 on an experimental basis in, what they were then called, statutory rationed areas of Chennai and Coimbatore. At the time of the launch of the revised scheme in Chennai on May 15, 1967, neither Chief Minister C.N. Annadurai nor Food Minister K. A. Mathialagan was present. It was left to Satyavani Muthu, Minister for Information and Harijan Welfare (which was how the post of Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare was known then), to inaugurate the scheme. Even the revised scheme did not last long.
On February 9, 1983, the State was in for a dramatic event when the then Chief Minister, M.G. Ramachandran, undertook a seven-hour fast near the ‘Anna Samadhi’ (Annadurai’s mausoleum) on the Marina to draw public attention to the Centre’s “indifference” to the State’s request for rice to meet the “critical food situation”. The Chief Minister, explaining the rationale behind his agitation in the now-defunct Legislative Council the previous day, had said Tamil Nadu’s monthly requirement was 90,000 tonnes, but its stock could last only two months and because of the drought, it was in no position to procure surplus paddy from farmers. He had also denied that he had undertaken the fast with an eye on the Tiruchendur by-election (which took place on March 5, 1983, in which the AIADMK scraped through, overcoming the DMK by 1,710 votes). Even as the fast was on, the then Union Agriculture Minister, Rao Birendra Singh, tried to reach out to the Chief Minister for talks. The issue later died down.
Only a month before MGR’s fast, in the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) captured power and its key promise was rice at ₹2 a kg. Eleven years later, the party had repeated the assurance and returned to power. In 1994, the Congress, which was in power then at the time of the election, offered to provide 10 kg of rice free a month to families sending two children to schools.
In Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK Ministry, headed by Jayalalithaa, attempted during September, 2002 to effect a major shift in rice supply to ration card-holders. It decided that the first 10 kg of rice would be given at ₹3.50 a kg to card-holders (except the families under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana) and the balance, if applicable, would be supplied at ₹6 a kg. The intention was to reduce rice subsidy, but the decision sparked a strong opposition and the government abandoned it a year later.
Food subsidy shot up
The 2002 controversy had possibly prompted the DMK to come up with a promise of rice at ₹2 per kg at the time of the 2006 Assembly election. Prior to the election, the State’s annual food subsidy was ₹1,200 crore. The DMK came back to power and M. Karunanidhi, who became the Chief Minister for the fifth time, launched the scheme. In September 2008, the price was further lowered to ₹1 per kg. By then, the State had begun implementing a special public distribution system through which commodities, such as toor dhal, urad dhal, palm oil and wheat flour, were being supplied at concessional rates. The annual food subsidy now rose to ₹2,800 crore. Three years later, it was the turn of Jayalalithaa to come out with a free rice scheme. The first budget presented after the AIADMK’s return to power in May 2011 provided ₹4,500 crore towards food subsidy.
Now, free rice is being given to 2.2 crore cards, with each adult being entitled to 5 kg a month. In the 2023-24 Budget, ₹10,500 crore was set apart. At the end of the year, the provision may go up, if the expenditure on food subsidy in the recent couple of years is any indication. During 2021-22, the bill was about ₹9,320 crore, and last year, it was around ₹11,500 crore.
The present DMK government, apart from ensuring smooth supply of rice through the public distribution system (PDS), is making efforts at price stabilisation. One such measure is to supply tomato — of which price is on the rise in the open market — at ₹60 per kg through PDS outlets.
