Population explosion responsible for food inflation: Najma Heptullah

BJP leader Najma Heptullah says India’s inflation woes are directly related to its ever growing population.

Speaking on Zee Media’s Bharat Bhagya Vidhata, Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Najma Heptullah says India’s inflation woes are directly related to its ever growing population. An inept policy response has further exacerbated the problem.

Zee Research Group/Delhi New Delhi: India’s inflation woes cannot be tackled merely by pushing agricultural production and carrying out supply side reforms. They will prove futile unless and until we stabilize India’s population growth rate, said Najma Heptullah on Zee Media’s Bharat Bhagya Vidhata ‘Ek Naari Aisi Bhi’. Speaking with guest anchor Divya Jaitly, the former deputy chairperson of Rajya Sabha reckons the need for food security for the poor but questions the politics behind it. The UPA, says Heptullah, lacks political will and imagination to solve the problems of the common man beginning with inflation. “Inadequate implementation of policies and lack of political will power has forced every common man to crib for his bare essential necessities.” Moreover, statistics never capture the true sense of the problem. “The true retail price inflation is never truly reflected in government data,” she added, while demanding a total revamp of inflation data reportage. The senior BJP leader held the incumbent government’s policies responsible for the spiraling prices, especially in food commodities. “Government is not making optimum utilization of the resources already available in the country and is held bound to import many unnecessary commodities.” Heptullah agrees on the need for the Food Security for poor, but questions UPA’s motive to bring the Bill in an election year. “Food security was a long awaited issue so, why the UPA government felt the need of passing it suddenly before the elections. If feeding the poor was the major mandate of Food Security Bill, the government would have passed it two years ago when our economy was in good state,” she opined. She stressed on the need to improve execution of policies rather than piling up new laws and burdening the exchequer with budgetary allocations. On the role of the ruling party in curbing down the inflation, she lamented that the focus had completely shifted away from curbing the price rise to building the vote banks. Talking on the role of the opposition Heptullah averred, “Our party is blamed for not letting the Parliament function but what would opposition do if the ruling party fails to answer all the necessary questions asked about bleeding economy and corruption.” Adopting a different stand from Heptullah, senior journalist Neerja Chowdhury said, “Rather than opposing the ruling party by halting the Parliament’s function, opposition should participate in the policy making discussion and collectively move towards nation’s welfare.” Heptullah requested the people of India to use the power of voting to fight against inflation. She pitched for making people believe in their voting right. #EkNaariAisiBhi (#BBV) airs on Wednesday @ 10pm