Please don’t make public sufferings a matter of mockery!

That the Bangladesh ministers or relevant responsible persons in the government do not keep track of development in the world is quite well known. It is only they know where they live in their imagination – perhaps ‘paradise’ is the right word to express it. Had that not been the case, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen would not have said that the government can ensure food security in the country despite the fear of a global food crisis.

No, the world is not now apprehensive of a global food crisis. In fact, the world has come through the fallout of Covid-19 pandemic as well as the Ukraine-Russia war. The problem of food imports from Ukraine, Russia and the neighbouring countries has greatly eased after a deal signed by the two warring nations under the supervision of the UN in Turkey that ensured movement of ships with food grains through the Black Sea.

As a result, the global food inflation came down almost to its previous state, and amid this welcome development, the international news agencies reported Thursday that the world (the UN’s) food price index fell for six month in September. It was reported that the monthly decline in food price was driven by a ‘sharp fall’ in the prices of vegetable oils as well as moderate decreases in the prices of sugar, meat and dairy products.

But what is the food inflation situation in Bangladesh?

Apart from an official reduction–not in the market–of Tk 14 per litre in edible soybean oil from its abnormally high price, every consumable commodities are now well above the purchasing capacity of the middle class people, let alone those poor people who make up the majority of Bangladesh’s population. A kg of unpackaged wheat flour is now being sold at Tk 55 per kg. The coarser rice is also well above Tk 55 per kg. Everyday newspapers carry reports of hardships people are facing due to exorbitantly high commodity prices.

For Bangladesh it is not just about the Covid-19 and Ukraine-Russia war, it is also about pervasive corruption and plundering of public money and wealth that led the government to hike the fuel price arbitrarily by about a record 50 per cent. As a result, one can hardly find a commodity in the market that is not far above the price of it in neighbouring countries.

When the foreign minister points out, like others in the government, Bangladesh’s 6% GDP growth compared to 3 percent of other countries – US for example – and relates to Bangladesh people’s purchasing capacity it becomes a cruel joke. People now know very well that the government has no mechanism to get the country out of the present economic crisis which is the result of more than a decade of its misrule.  

When the country’s economy is under serious crisis and the revenue collectors are saving their jobs sucking out money from the businesses to make the economy we are told the country’s economy is strong. Lying has become the business of the government to save its face from the public.