Food bill Rs13 lakh: Feast of fasts or fasts for feasts?

Well, it is believed that if someone is on a fast, money won’t be spent on the food, but if the chief minister Narendra Modi or for that matter Congress leaders go on a fast, more than Rs13 lakh would be spent easily for the feast.

Interestingly, while Congress was candid enough to admit that their leaders are observing the fast but the food arrangements had been made for the visitors, the district collector and BJP are claiming that no food was arranged for the visitors.

This correspondent visited the kitchens put up by both Congress and BJP and talked to the catering contractors, involved in preparing food for the visitors.

Congress visitors were served daal-rice, potato cooked in gravy and Mohanthal (a sweet largely popular in the rural areas of the state). In other camp, BJP’s caterers had prepared puri, potato cooked in gravy and Mohanthal. Babulal Rasoiya alias Pradeep Thakkar, Congress’ catering contractor happily shared his visiting card and boasted, “This is nothing, I have the capacity to handle food for 15,000 people at one go. Today, I have prepared food for 7,000 people. You just taste the food and tell me, how is it.” He said, “With these four items on plate, it would cost you only Rs40 per plate, including labour, grocery and utensils. You would need to arrange only for the drinking water.”

On the other side, at BJP’s kitchen, the catering contractor Kaushik Pujara was hesitating to share that who had given him order for the food. He said, “I keep getting order for my business, so I have not decided on a final amount for this order yet.”    

But one of his assistants informed that they have prepared lunch for 20,000 people. “One lot of 15,000 people was served food at this ground, whereas other 5,000 were provided food on the other side of the road at another ground.” Arjun Modhwadia, president of Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) said, “We don’t have arrangements at every Satkarm fast of. Here, one of our local party worker was enthusiastic so he had made arrangements food arrangement for the visitors.” When categorically asked on Monday during the press-briefing about food arrangements at the Sadbhavna fast at Bavla on February 7, Ahmedabad district collector Vijay Nehra had said that neither food arrangements nor the food packets would be made available to the visitors. Similarly, sources in BJP also refused to say who had sponsored the money for the food. Whatever it is, nearly 27,000 people from considerably weaker economic section of the society were able to get food for a day, at least. It might be considered as Satkarma full of Sadbhavna coming from both the parties for the needy.