Food inflation is at its all-time high. Rising prices of food items have burned holes in the common man’s pocket. While the economist prime minister Manmohan Singh and his sincerest student the deputy chairman of plan panel, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, are at their wits’ end after they failed to control inflation in the last four years, union steel minister Beni Prasad Verma seem to be at his wit’s best. Addressing a public meeting at his hometown Barabanki in Uttar Pradesh on Monday, the former Samajwadi Party leader said, “Dal, atta, rice and vegetables have become expensive. The more the prices, the better it is for farmers. I am happy with this inflation."

While it is true the rising prices have at least something to do with an increased minimum support price (MSP), it is also equally true that only negligible little of this increased MSP goes to benefit farmers, the bulk being gobbled up by the middlemen.

Do you agree with the minister that inflation is actually helping farmers?