The announcement that the United Progressive Alliance will reconstitute the National Advisory Council under Ms Sonia Gandhi has not come a day too soon. The original NAC died a premature death primarily because Ms Gandhi quit it and also resigned her Lok Sabha seat in the wake of the office-of-profit controversy. Her long absence from the NAC deprived it of its authority. Now that the law has been amended to exempt the NAC from the scope of offices-of-profit, it’s entirely appropriate that the Council be formed again to counsel the UPA on fulfilling its promise—made before the 2004 general elections, and reiterated in 2009—to bring about “inclusive growth” in which the aam aadmi has a vital stake
Tag - India
Reworking our climate policy
Since the Copenhagen summit ended two months ago without producing a binding multilateral agreement, there have been further setbacks to the agenda of combating climate change, both globally and in India. The hollowness of the so-called Copenhagen Accord—the collusive, ineffectual deal between the United States and BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India, China), with no emissions-reduction targets, timelines or obligations—later signed by less than 30 of the 193 governments present at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference, is unfolding week after week.
Reason Triumphs Over Bt Brinjal: For consultation-based governance
India has done something unusual in defying the long-established trend of capitulating to corporate power. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh must be complimented for imposing a moratorium on the commercial release of genetically modified (GM) brinjal (baigan, aubergine, eggplant) developed by Mahyco-Monsanto in collaboration with two Indian agricultural universities. He deserves encomiums for consulting stakeholders in major brinjal-producing states like West Bengal, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. This public consultation approach sets a good precedent. This deserves to become a model for governmental decision-making on all issues that concern people’s livelihoods.
Doctors Must Not Oppose Medical Reform: Reviving the healthcare system
Will India’s affluent professionals never stop fighting self-serving battles to defend their privileges even when doing so blatantly violates the public interest? Going by the reaction of the organised medical profession to the government’s proposal to train a special category of rural doctors for a shorter duration than the MBBS course, that seems to be the case. The Indian Medical Association and other guilds representing registered physicians and surgeons have launched strong protests in addition to media advertisements against what they term a “retrograde” proposal, which will “discriminate” against rural India by leaving it at the mercy of “sub-standard” personnel.
The pragmatic Communist
Jyoti Basu gave the Indian Left parties a unique perspective on practical politics and acquired an unmatched national stature and universal respect.
India must defuse rivalry with Pakistan
India and Pakistan should acknowledge their respective and joint stakes in stabilising Afghanistan. This could best happen if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh convenes a summit in New Delhi with Presidents Zardari and Karzai to discuss peace-building, trade and transit, joint action against jehadi extremism, people-to-people exchanges, and economic cooperation. There are two preconditions for the success of such an initiative. First, the India-Pakistan dialogue must be resumed quickly. India’s refusal to talk to Pakistan has proved counter-productive. Mature diplomacy must replace this approach.
Himalayan blunder
The IPCC should create a special commission to cross-check all references in its report if errors such as the one on Himalayan glaciers are not to recur.
Reworking India’s Regional Policy: Resume dialogue with Pakistan
Does India have a half-way coherent policy towards Afghanistan and Pakistan, the two turbulent countries which have major implications for Indian security? Going by recent developments, the honest answer is no. India is losing opportunity after opportunity to help stabilise this critical part of its neighbourhood in the interests of the region’s people.
Jyoti Basu's mixed legacy
In communist veteran Jyoti Basu's death, India has lost its most illustrious politician and the last leader who embodied a personal link between the many phases of Indian politics since the early 1940s.
After Copenhagen: A People-Centered Action Agenda - Invitation to a Talk by Praful Bidwai on (15 February 2010)
From: Suhas Borker Working Group on Alternative Strategies
You are invited to a Talk by Praful Bidwai on After Copenhagen: A People-Centered Action Agenda
The Indian Left’s Yasser Arafat - Jyoti Basu’s legacy
In Jyoti Basu’s death, India has lost the last leader who embodied a personal link between the many phases through which Indian politics has evolved since the early 1940s. Basu was not just a major Left leader in a country which has the world’s biggest Communist party barring China’s. He was an active participant in the many processes that have shaped politics, including trade union and peasant movements, radicalisation of the intelligentsia, contestations between social-group identities, and crystallisation of the party system. He was India’s most illustrious political leader, with a stature that few have matched anywhere in the world.
Fouling up the air
India has become collusive in the weak and inequitable Copenhagen Accord. The government must correct course if India’s poor are not to suffer further.
Copenhagen cop out
It is apparent to everyone that the Copenhagen Accord is a travesty of what the world needs to avert climate change.
Lessons from Kaiga
The tritium poisoning episode highlights grave safety lapses and the urgent need for an independent nuclear regulator.
Bhopal - 25 years of shame
The government’s deplorable response to the Bhopal gas disaster and its attempt to shield the polluter constitute a blot on our democracy.
Anti-Naxal Operation Green Hunt: Waging war against the people
The Indian state will diminish itself and undermine its claim to being minimally civilised if it resorts to organised, large-scale and deliberate violence in which civilians will be the main casualty.
After The Karnataka Quake: The BJP as political franchise
The Bharatiya Janata Party's national leadership could not have cut a sorrier figure than it did with its abysmally inept handling of the latest political crisis in Karnataka, which very nearly brought down the only government the party heads in all of South India.
Technical Committee Approves Bt Brinjal: Paving the way for Frankenfoods?
The future of Indian agriculture and food security doesn’t lie in GM foods. They are unsafe, deliver no real benefits, and are bad for the environment and human health.
Murder by encounter
Perpetuation of the gory practice of fake ‘encounter killings’ highlights judicial apathy as well as police culpability.
How many bombs does India need?
India already has more than 100 fission weapons, each enough to kill up to two million people. This is deterrence enough
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