Live on Rs 32 a day: Aruna Roy to Montek Ahluwalia

NEW DELHI: Aruna Roy and Harsh Mander, members of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council, have joined Right to Food campaigners in demanding that Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia withdraw the poverty line affidavit filed by the panel before the Supreme Court or resign.

In an open letter by the two prominent members of the UPA think-tank National Advisory Council in their capacity as members of the Right To Food Campaign, they publicly blamed Ahluwalia particularly for the affidavit.

They wrote, "The affidavit filed by the Planning Commission in the Supreme Court skirted the two major issues that were raised by the highest court in the country: why there should be a poverty line that determines the BPL 'caps' and, a request by the bench to the Planning Commission to reconsider the poverty line. That the affidavit chose to repeat the stand taken by the Planning Commission in its last affidavit in May 2011 is, we believe, an affront to the poor of this country and also the Supreme Court."

"The affidavit is a document, no less historically significant than the 'India Shining' campaign that brought the downfall of a previous regime, because it reflected arrogance and contempt for the poor comparable to the views held by the Planning Commission," it said. "If Rs 25 for rural areas and Rs 32 for urban areas per capita expenditure was 'adequate' then it is not clear to us why Planning Commission members are paid up to 115 times the amount (not counting the perks of free housing and health care and numerous other benefits that is enjoyed by you)."

Targeting Ahluwalia, the activists noted, "After years of terming the IMF and World Bank as the sources of all knowledge for how this country's economy is to be run, you have, we believe misinterpreted the FAO to suggest that the poor need less food than what government norms state."