1. Vedanta Alumina was given a clearance to mine for bauxte ores in the Niyamagiri hills of Orissa. The central government rejected that clearance this week, citing legal reasons. The Hindu's editorial on this issue says "The 72 million tonnes of bauxite ore deposits estimated to be available in Niyamgiri hills can feed the aluminium refinery of Vedanta Alumina Limited in Lanjigarh only for about four years at the expanded capacity being created." And hence goes on to argue that there is really no need to cause such a huge damage to the local tribals and to the environment too. This article by Ashok Mallik is strongly recommended, for gaining a better understanding of the Vedanta issue, because this piece gives a complete pespective of Orissa's economic background and helps us understand why Vedanta was needed in the first place. Jairam Ramesh is now gaining a nick name "Non Clearance Minister" too! Currently, he is also locking horns with Civil Aviation ministry on the Navi Mumbai Airport plan. And when tribals are involved, can our dear leader Shri Rahul Gandhi be far away? He visited these tribals and told them that he is their "soldier" in New Delhi. In case you are wondering, what he has done to "soldier" their cause, keep wondering because there is nothing he did! A pre-planned trip to Niyamagiri hills, coincided with the announcement of rejection of clearance (well, is it a mere coincidence? :D), and Nidhi Razdan of NDTV asked a panelists- "Is this a defining moment in Rahul Gandhi's career, like some seem to suggest". Who the "some" are - we will never know! Best headline - "Rahul Finally becomes a Gandhi".
2. After stealthily inserting clauses according to its will, in the Nuke Liability bill, the central govt., early last week was gracious and generous enough to let us know that it will contact the opposition parties and take their views into consideration. Sensing that its utter disregard for basic norms or writing a law will not see the light of the day, the government had to agree to 18 amendments in the bill and only then was it finally passed in the Lok Sabha. The Prime Minister, as is his wont, has waxed eloquent on the need for this deal, and how history will judge blah blah. However, we have been made to quickly forget that it is a cabinet meeting chaired by this very Prime Minister, which sought to bring in changes to the bill, without informing any of the stake holders in this country. Why did the government resort to such cheap measures, on this aspect, is what needs to be questioned. Alas, that is history now!
3. So while, 45 more people were injured in Kashmir, and another teenager died, our Home Minister had these golden words to say " We hope to find elusive starting point in Kashmir soon". The hope is not even to find a solution - the hope is to find a starting point still ! 3 months of unrest and we are stil trying to "find the elusive starting point." That's all, your honour!
Monday, August 30, 2010
That's all, Your honour! : August 22-28
1 comments:
Apparently Nidhi Razdan "Was a bit taken aback when the PM said "I beg of you to pass this bill" on the nuclear liability bill."
http://twitter.com/NidhiNDTV/status/22103957000
What I ask is "What kind of PM is he if he is resorting to begging instead of providing indisputable proof of how good the deal is instead of remaining extremely tacit and in some cases, banal in his remarks/answers to questions raised by opposition.
I think this is the not at all good, not because he deal is not passing through but PM is resorting to begging! In front of the people of the nation, it will seem as if he is trying his best for the deal to go through where as the opposition is playing evil and denying it. Slowly, it will seem as if deal, good or bad it may be, Manmohan Singh is trying to play the victim card, just like the way INC did in 2009 GE blaming left parties for their ineptitude in doing what UPA common minimum programme proposed to do. For a learned man like him, I think it is very very substandard to stoop to begging instead of reasoning it out with the members of the parliament that the deal will actually do good to the nation in the long run.
Needless to say, there are loopholes. As Nirmala Sitharaman put it aptly in an NDTV show, "we are ready to accept the deal once our questions are answered and loopholes corrected".
To end it, since I speak of that show, I must also quote Manish Tiwari's hilarious commentary on Nuclear Bill and subsequent reply from Nirmala Sitharaman. Keep in mind that I am not quoting them verbatim but only the gist of what they said.
MT said "sure there are differences between two of us like for example, we are party which believes that democracy is defined by how well we treat minorities whereas they think democracy is defined by how well majorities are treated but sometimes I think we do come out of such differences"
To this Nirmala Sitharaman almost gave a slap in the face answer that "You see this is exactly the problem. Even for an issue like Nuclear Bill which has got nothing, whatsoever, to do with majority or minority but is simply something to do with profit for the nation as a whole, Congress goes to the lowest level possible and diverts the attention to some vague ideological difference. If congress can stop this nonsense and answer our questions, get hurdles cleared, we are ready to accept the deal!". MT will never learn.
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