The Congress' "sudden hurry" in pushing through the food Bill as an ordinance and that, too, on the cusp of the monsoon session, expectedly has the Opposition up in arms. In his overzealousness to counter the Opposition attack, Congress communication department chief Ajay Maken said, "This may be a life saver, life changer for many people... So delay even by a single minute or day, God knows how many lives it could cost!". This rationale of the Congress found few takers among the journalists he was addressing and Maken had quite a time fending off the barrage of questions. "Why was the Congress waiting for nine years?" "Of the 60 years of post independence the Congress has been in power for close to 50 years - you waited for 50 years and now, the Congress is talking of a single minute delay being costly ?"


