SEZs: Back to the Drawing Board, Look At the Land Acquisition Act First

Better sense seems to have prevailed among the powers that be in New Delhi , when they decided to put on hold, earlier last week, any more approvals for the Special Economic Zones (SEZs). After months of controversy and agitations, the UPA Government has realized that the policies they were trying to pursue on SEZs are after all not so good, and the matter will now be looked into by an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM).

Last week, this column had dealt with the issue and expressed apprehension how the nearly over 400 SEZs which have been approved or in the pipeline, may end up as real estate rackets.
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Nandigram? Look what's happening across the country!!

From Singur to Nandigram, the debate over the establishment of a Tata Motors factory for establishing Special Economic Zones (SEZs) has taken a militant and also violent turn, putting the West Bengal Government and the CPI (M) on the defensive and sometimes even terribly embarrassed.

The way in which activists are making a beeline to Nandigram and surrounding areas and raising slogans almost reminiscent of the days of activism of the 1970s gives an impression that farmers of West Bengal are being taken for a ride by an oppressive Government.
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Nathari Horror: Deep Fault-lines in our society comes to the Fore

The serial killings of children and women by an ostensibly respectable and invariably affluent gentleman of the society, in the Nathari village in Noida, which is part of the National Capital region of Delhi, continues to send shock waves more than ten days after the skeletons of the slain victims were discovered.

This heinous and gory crimes, reflects the serious fault-lines in all aspects of our society, from our police to administration to politics to media, and of course the individual.
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The Land People finally get to live on their own land peacefully

Tribals are Land People. If you look at the map of India and see where they are mainly located, you will find them concentrated in the heart of central India with majority dwelling in Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Orissa and Gujarat.

And these Land People whose natural habitat are the forests, can you believe, had no right over the land on which they had been dwelling all these centuries?
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What is an attack on the Freedom of the Press?

'Freedom of the press is the cornerstone of any democracy' is a well worn-out cliché though it has stood the test of time as a universal truth. No one in a functional democracy like ours can deny the importance of the freedom of the press. It is also a fact that this freedom has not come about easily.

People in authority have a tendency to undermine this freedom, whenever it comes in their way. And therefore eternal vigilance of the people and the media is an essential requirement to maintain this freedom. And protect democracy.
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Politics and Strange Bedfellows: Marxists at the Receiving end

Politics, they say makes strange bedfellows. And we thought we had seen enough of this in this country during the last decade. But the last week's spectacle in West Bengal seemed stranger than fiction, where people and parties holding extreme and conflicting political views, seemed to have converged.

While it was not at all surprising that the fading firebrand and Trinamul Congress chief Mamta Banerjee was visited and supported by the BJP's compromise president, Rajnath Singh as she fasted fighting for the Singur farmers, what really made strange bedfellows was that the extreme left in the form of Naxals, who seem to be regrouping after years in West Bengal, also made common cause.
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Soren and Sidhu: A study in contrast

It has been an extraordinary week for Indian politicians. Two MPs, including a Union Minister have been convicted for murder. This does not happen even in the most nascent of democracies. That it has happened in this country, with a history of 60 years of uninterrupted democracy, has mixed signals for all of us.

First the positive signal. That even Ministers and MPs, presumably with the backing of the powerful and the mighty, cannot escape the long arm of the law. It should be heartening for the families of the victims of these two influential men, that what they thought would not be possible, has happened.

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BJP: Old wine in older bottle

A few months back, a senior BJP leader also an MP, who has been responsible for the wins and losses of a few States, more wins actually, was distraught about the state of affairs in his party. Discussing informally with this columnist about it, he pointed out that one of the major challenges faced by the party was the question of leadership. A fact, he stressed, everyone and his aunt knew about. But sadly, he said, the two people who need to know about it just refuse to admit it. One does not need to be a very canny observer of politics to know whom he was referring to!

The leadership problem, he correctly analysed, was due to the unacceptability of any one of the second generation of leaders, by the others, which he candidly confessed included himself.

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The Lessons From Justice Sachar: Where is the Appeasement?

When the UPA Government set up the Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee, which was known as the Prime Minister's High Level Committee for preparation of Report on Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India, it raised the hackles of many people in this country, both political and non-political.

These voices took some time to gain stridency. It was only in February this year, though the Committee was constituted in April 2005, that controversies reached a peak, forcing the Prime Minister's office to issue a clarification that it had nothing to do with the work of the committee.

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The Pleasures and Pains of the Clintons; Right Wingers on the way out?

"Deflated and disappointed, I wondered how much I was to blame for the debacle: whether we had lost the election over health care; whether I had gambled on the country's acceptance of my active role and lost. And I struggled to understand how I had become such a lightening rod for people's anger. Bill was miserable, and it was painful to watch someone I loved so much hurting so deeply" --- Hillary Rodham Clinton.

In her autobiography, "Living History", Hillary recalls how she and her husband President Bill Clinton felt on that night, in November 1994, when the Democrats lost control of both the House and the Senate to the Republicans. It was therefore most interesting to watch Bill and Hillary joyously celebrating the other night, when the democrats regained control over both the Houses of Congress, after a 12 year hiatus, during which Clinton himself had to wage many a battle with the Republican-controlled Congress including shut down of the Government thrice in 1995.

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Ram Jethmalani ko gussa kyo aatha hai ?

On Friday evening, those watching the CNN-IBN were witness to a spectacle, which is not so often witnessed. An angry and obviously upset veteran advocate, Ram Jethmalani was spewing vitriol against the interviewer and the journalistic community in general. The interviewer/anchor's angst was why the "angry old man" had decided to take up the case on behalf of Manu Sharma, the alleged killer of the lissome late model, Jessica Lal.

Jethmalani, who is known to have lived and thrived by his own rules of the game, more so in politics, however was angrily throwing the code governing the conduct of the lawyers on the anchor and defending his decision.

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Of course Caste matters to get into any Ministry, Ask Ambareesh!

It is interesting to read and listen to the reactions of people whenever a Cabinet expansion takes place. "Oh, he has managed to get in only because of his caste, gender, region, language, etc.", are touted normally, and most of the times all this is true. The latest is the case of Ambareesh, the film star-turned-politician. There is no doubt that if there were a better choice available among the Vokkaligas, he would not have found a place ever in the Union Ministry.

And it is also a fact that he has been chosen, only because of the caste to which he was born in. As a Parliamentarian, in his third term, he has nothing otherwise to show, to merit a place in the Union Ministry.

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From a 'Road Romeo' to a Union Minister: AmbareeshFrom a 'Road Romeo' to a Union Minister: Ambareesh

When he was driving back to Bangalore on Monday afternoon from Mysore, after his horse had lost the Mysore derby, he was naturally disappointed. But some major good news awaited him when he reached Bangalore. "I had won the life-time derby", Ambareesh remarked his deep-set eyes glowing, recounting how he got the news about his induction into the Union Ministry.

The latest, and the fourth, Union Minister of State from Karnataka, Ambareesh had got a call from the Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh, asking him to come to Delhi, and that he would be inducted into the Union Ministry. "Don't tell anyone", the PM cautioned. Five minutes later, Congress President Sonia Gandhi called, to confirm.
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Sting operations

'Whether sting operations are in public interest or to make money have to be examined one day,' 'sting operations are generally outsourced...Very often these tapes are sold for lakhs of rupees by those who do the string operation.'--- Chief Justice Y.K.Sabharwal

The draft bill includes 16 do's and don'ts for TV news channels, including a provision that any media group which carries out a sting operation should be able to justify its undercover operation as being "warranted" by public interest. —Union Information Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi.
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The Man who changed India's Political Paradigm

From mouthing slogans like "Brahmin, Bania, Thakur Chor, Baki sab hum DS-4" to " Tilak, Taraazu aur talwar, maaro unko joothe char " to the present day, "Brahma, vishnu aur mahesh, haathi nahin hain yeh ganesh", the Bahujan Samaj Party and its precursor, Dalit Soshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti(DS-4) has come a very long way in its evolution as a political force in some major parts of the country.

Thanks to Kanshi Ram and his vision, this has been possible. So when he died last week, after virtually being in a coma for more than a year, he left behind a party, which can well, claim to be the first political party of, for and by the downtrodden. Just to think that some thing like this could have been done, when Kanshi Ram became a full time politician only in 1986, would have been scoffed at.

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Should he Hang or Live?

The raging debate on whether Mohd.Afzal alias Afzal Guru, found guilty by the Supreme Court of masterminding the attack on Indian Parliament in 2001, should be sent to the gallows or his sentence be commuted to life imprisonment has understandably taken an emotional turn.

The letters column in the newspapers and blog sites on Internet, are replete with demands of vendetta against the bearded Kashmiri, for his treachery against the nation. Political parties are divided on predictable lines. The BJP is opposed to any mercy for the Kashmiri, in tune with its tough nationalistic posture, while the CPI (M) has openly professed it, again in tune with its liberal pro-Human rights approach, with the Congress central leadership undecided where it stands, even as its Chief Minister in Jammu and Kashmir petitioned the Prime Minister to grant mercy.

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From Nehru to Sonia: A Party in Transition

For the discerning participants and observers of the last week's Nainital conclave of Congress Chief Ministers, the most interesting outcome was the interplay between the Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh.

Every time we see the two together, what is most striking is the affection and respect both have displayed for each other ever since the formation of the UPA Government. Nainital however went beyond it. It was an open display of bonding and confidence the two have among them, which must have sunk the hearts of those within and outside the party who have been hoping and plotting to drive a wedge in this relationship.

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