Why are we always begging?

At the recently concluded climate conference in Paris India was pleading to be allowed to use coal to produce electricity for millions of people who are still living in darkness. All kinds of figures were trotted out: 300 million people in India are without electricity, 10-12 million young people will need jobs every year for the foreseeable future, China produces 28% of global CO2 while we produce only 6%, and average electricity consumption per person  in the US is 13,000 units per year, as compared to 1000 units per Indian. The conference was a complete stitch up because the 2 biggest polluters, China and the US, had already signed a deal which allows China to peak its pollution by 2030 and the US to cut pollution below 2005 levels. They get the biggest pieces of the emission cake while we were left begging for crumbs. The scene shifts to Nairobi for a meeting of the World Trade Organisation where again we are pleading to be allowed to dispense a few pennies in subsidies to our poor farmers while the US and the EU insist on the right to dish out tens of billions of dollars. We were beggars in 1965 when an American, Lester Brown could foresee a famine coming to India and was able to persuade President Lyndon Johnson to provide millions of tons of grains in aid. We now have buffer stocks of 61 million tonnes of grains by paying farmers a Minimum Support Price, which is fixed above market price, on 25 agricultural products. This is what India is fighting to protect. With such measures our farmers should have become wealthy, as they are in the west. Yet, farmers, even in prosperous districts, keep killing themselves. Why? Partly because excess numbers of children mean that farms have been divided into smaller bits until they are unable to provide enough income for families. But mainly because irrigation was not developed, leaving farmers dependent on the vagaries of monsoon rains. The European Union has strict rules about the quality of fruits and vegetables that maybe sold to the public. Indians, on the other hand, have to spend lots of time finding good pieces. Even so apples maybe full of worms, mangoes maybe rotten inside, while looking perfect from the outside, and cucumbers maybe intensely bitter. Instead of wasting money on subsidies why can't our agriculture department sell seeds of top quality fruits and vegetables to farmers at reasonable prices? Instead a vocal group of scientists is clamoring for genetically modified food, which will give control of our food production to foreign companies. GM plants resistant to one variety of pests can succumb to another. Ask the farmers in Punjab. Meanwhile the Prince of Congress is so worried about our farmers that he will not allow any land to be sold, so farmers will locked into their miserable poverty forever. So, we continue to beg at various forums. We should be so proud.