dated May 3, 1951: War against famine

Broadcasting to the nation on the food situation in the country, the Prime Minister, Mr. Nehru, declared on May 1 that ``taking India as a whole, the deficit is not so great as is imagined''. While large areas in the country were deficit, yet there were other areas which produced a surplus of foodgrains.

The Prime Minister appealed to the people to pool all resources and use ``them to the best advantage all over India. People must realise, Mr. Nehru added, that whatever help might or might not come from abroad, the burden and the responsibility rested upon all Indians and, ``if any part of India goes down, we go down with it.''

``When I told the people in Bhulandshahar (Uttar Pradesh) last week of the sufferings of their brothers and sisters in Bihar or in far off Madras'', said Mr. Nehru, ``they were moved, and immediately, without my asking for it, many offered their help and their gifts. This spontaneous gesture affected me deeply and I realised that if only our people know what the facts were, they would come to the rescue, even at a sacrifice to themselves.

``What then are we going to do about it?'', Mr. Nehru asked. We cannot look on while tragedy develops, we cannot live our every day lives when starvation and death march with stealthy steps towards many of our people. There are many important, and even vital, problems confronting us in the international and domestic sphere, but there is nothing more vital or of greater importance to-day than to meet this menace of famine. What are our brave schemes worth, if we cannot even save our people from that worst of fates, death by slow starvation? For the moment, it serves little purpose to spend our time in apportioning blame. We have to be up and doing to meet and counter this danger that confronts our people. Each one of us must do his bit to prevent this happening. We have to face a very difficult situation, and I do not want anyone to minimise this difficulty. Nevertheless, I am convinced that we can face it successfully, if only we show that awareness and a determination to do our utmost to crush this evil which threatens to overwhelm us. Let us declare war on famine and all its brood.

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