Party spokesperson Mani Shankar Aiyar issued a two-page statement detailing the Congress's record on foodgrain output and ridiculing the BJP's policies. ``Now, it is only the middleman, with whom the BJP enjoys a notoriously close nexus, who is happy. Soaring prices have transferred crores from the pockets of the poor to the bulging sacks of the middlemen. The BJP, not the poor, is the beneficiary of this loot. This explains the BJP government's abject failure to act on time,'' Aiyar said.

The rest of the statement lists what happened on the foodgrain front in India. ``Congress governments raised foodgrain production from 54 million tonnes to 198 million tonnes in 1995-96. Stagnation in production is a consequence of non-Congress governance in the last 30 months, when the BJP was twice in power,'' is says. Interestingly, there is nocriticism of the United Front which had two governments in the same period.

Aiyar details how India became the largest producer of fruits in the world during 1991-96 and exporting grapes and oranges worth over Rs 200 crore every year. India became the largest milk and sugar producer and self-sufficient in edible oil.

In vegetable production, India became second only to China and was exporting onions and potatoes in addition to rice, wheat and fruit. All this has been negated by the BJP, the Congress spokesperson added.