One in four persons now affected by drought. When will Modi sarkar wake up?

Shocking images of water being sprinkled on road to make the Karnataka chief minister’s ride to drought-affected area dust-free depicts the irony of the situation but not its full horror. The full-scale horror of the parched fields was narrated in the Supreme Court.

Also read: Targeting IPL is making a poor joke of water crisis

More than a quarter of the country’s population - 33 crore people - is facing drought. 2.55 lakh, a quarter million villages, in 254 out of 678 districts have drinking water shortage, let alone water to irrigate land. That’s what the Modi government's additional solicitor general PS Narasimha told the court.

Drought is not a calamity that arrives stealthily and suddenly. It takes a full year of deficient rainfall to cause drought. For a very bad drought it takes failure of monsoon for not one but two or three successive years to affect the lives, as seen in Latur.

But did you guess or hear about the enormity of the situation? Did the government take the trouble to bring the seriousness of the situation in the public domain?

If the government would spend a quarter of time and energy on bringing the crippling drought on national agenda, rather than raising awareness on its version of nationalism and why one must chant Bharat Mata ki jai, the people of this country would be conscious of the reality.

Also read: Bharat Mata is thirsty. No water for her, Fadnavis?

Did you find the national media tell a story that affects one in every four persons in the country?  No. Television channels have debated Indian Premier League versus drought in Latur, one district of Maharashtra. But does that bring to light the enormity of the situation?

Closer to Delhi, ten crore people in 50 out of 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh are in the grip of a severe drought. A report here and a report there on drought in Bundelkhand region of UP has come out but what about the situation in the other 49 districts?

The situation is even worse in Madhya Pradesh, with 46 out of 51 districts in the grip of drought, and 27 out of 30 districts in Karnataka facing drought and scarcity of water. These figures are mere statistics that will remain mere abstract numbers unless the grim reality of the situation is put on the national agenda to jolt the conscience of the people who sit in positions of power. 

Does this government have a conscience? Scroll down the cursor on your news page, look for the "D" word and "G" word. You will find Prime Minister Modi and his ministers waxing eloquently on GDP numbers but not even once mentioning drought.

The government is patting itself on the back that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has certified growth at 7.3 per cent. The government is happy that inflation is under control, that India is a bright spot in the global economy - a one-eyed king in a kingdom of blind - and it’s not tired of repeating it ad nauseam.

But who cares about 33 crore people? They don’t have water to drink and you are throwing India’s growth numbers at them!

Also read: Drought shaming IPL won't end Maharashtra's water crisis

The Supreme Court embarrassed the government for presenting wrong figures even on something as serious as impacting the lives and well-being of 33 crore people. The government’s counsel didn’t mention Gujarat in the list of drought-affected states though as many as 637 villages are facing drought there.

Bihar and Haryana governments have not declared the states to be drought-affected though both states had deficient rainfall. The total number of drought-affected people will go up if Bihar and Haryana’s numbers are taken into account.

The reason behind the callousness of the government is its skewed priority. The government is under no pressure from political parties, media and civil society because the farmers and the poor, who are the worst victims of the drought, have no voice.

For Modi, the priority is image building, spotlight-hogging and continent-hopping diplomacy. For political parties, the priorities are elections in states. For media, the priorities are, of course, profits and TRPs. This is the sad reality of India.

The ugly reality is that talking poverty has become a dirty word. It’s no longer a word that finds place in the public discourse. It has been a long journey that India has travelled in a very short time.

There was a time when, in pre-1991 pre-liberalisation period, political parties talked poverty. They did precious little to mitigate the situation but they did make noises about it. They even romanticised poverty.

No public discourse was possible without mention of word poverty and everybody claimed to be working for its elimination.

Indira Gandhi even won a landslide victory in 1971 on the slogan of  "Garibi Hatao."

In 25 years since then, affluence and obscene display of wealth have become the mantra of success in public life. Working for amassing wealth in a country that is home to the largest number of poor in the world is no longer associated with collective national guilt.

Paradoxically, the disappearance of poverty from public discourse is in sharp contrast to the successive government’s failure to eliminate grinding poverty.

A Planning Commission report of the Rangarajan committee estimated in 2014 that 29.5 per cent, or 300 million people were below the poverty line in 2011-12. According to a World Bank report based on a different methodology, India had 20.6 per cent of world’s poorest in 2011, which is 180 million people.

Even the staggering number of 33 crore drought-affected people without drinking water and water for basic needs, without grain in their households to cook food and without income to pay debts don’t jolt the nation’s conscience.

It’s because the government has pushed poor to the margins of public discourse.