90 SOCIAL SCIENTIST
In this article we have concentrated on just one instrument of state policy, namely, the procurement price, and not paid any attention at alt to such related issues as the public distribution system, credit policies and so on. But our analysis does show that there are good reasons to believe that the current price rise is the outcome of class-biased policies followed consistently by the government since 1967-68.
A question that arises, whether the policies are specifically designed to serve certain class interests or whether the political power of these classes prevents the government from implementing its professed socialist policies, is only of academic interest. What matters is that the state policies that emerge reflect the basic character of the power-relations that exist-The Prime Minister's reported search18 for an 'unconventional wizard^ who would solve our economic problems without taxing agriculture (without disturbing the alliance of the ruling class with the big farmers) is but one manifestation of the underlying power base.
1 See Bulletin on Food Statistics, 1973.
2 Economic Survey, 1972-73, p 7.
8 Bulletin on Food Statistics, 1973, p 34
4 Ibid., pp 33-34.
5 Economic Survey, 1973-74, p 21.
6 Ib id., p21.
7 Ibid., table 4.4, p 22.
B Report on Price Policy for Kharif Cereals for the 1974-75 Season, APC, September 1974
(mimeo) pp 2-4. » The Hindu, 24 October 1974, p 1. 1 ° Thanks are due to P G K Panikar for &uggcsting this argument*
11 Averages of prices in four markets: Sonepat, Ambala, Jullundur and Bhatinda^ taken from the Bulletin on Food Statistics.
12 The Hindu, 30 November 1974.
1 8 The Economic and Political Weekly, 25 May 1974, p 14.