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Showing posts from November, 2015

Milking Cash Cows In Political Pails

BY R.K.MISRA To err is human but to really mess up you require a design committee of bureaucrats headed by a politician. How else would you account for  the government’s approval to cheap import of butter oil that puts Indian dairy majors-largely it’s milk cooperatives- in an avoidable stranglehold  at a time of glut conditions. Indian dairy cooperatives have been shouting hoarse at the doorsteps of a government headed by a Prime Minister from Gujarat-the milk cradle of India- pointing out the hazards but so far to no avail. According to a report, 1300 metric tons (MT) of butter oil(ghee) from New Zealand has already landed and another 2500 MT is on the way. And of course, there is more in queue .The glaring price difference tells it’s own story. Imported at Rs 170 per kg it is ranged against a domestic product going at Rs325 per kg in bulk packing. The  global milk market is ‘fermenting’ and the international dairy product prices are in free fall .There is a drop in currency

Delhi,Bihar And Now Gujarat ?

  BY R.K.MISRA More often than not ,victory  walks in on a bicycle when vanity is sanguinely sailing the skies .The cymbals have ceased and the soldiers are back in their camps: the one to savour success and the other to debate the debacle .But India ,after the battle of the ballot in Bihar will never be the same again .A  national political re-alignment has begun. Two crushing blows in a row-Delhi and now Bihar - has the garrulous Narendra Modi government  dumbstruck .Even as it seeks to brazen it’s way out of the cul-de-sac with hurried announcement of a long pending reformist  agenda ,a third  setback hovers menacingly on the horizon .Incidentally ,it was not Pakistan where crackers were burst after the BJP defeat in Bihar but in Amit Shah’s own Gujarat .And not in some isolated cases but  in most cities ,town and villages of the state! Modi and  party chief Amit Shah’s bastion ,Gujarat is under siege .Though State Assembly elections in Gujarat are due only in 1917,a two

Where Pettiness Rules & Prejudice Governs

BY R.K.MISRA Mindsets chasing mandates have a maudlin mentality .They put band-aid on a cut finger when seeking power but amputate from the elbow when safely settled. And, all in the name of public interest. Headed by a modern day prime minister elected on a landslide development mandate ,the BJP still needs  to fall back on crass communal polarization in the Bihar  State Assembly elections, brings out its total  bankruptcy of ideas .A party as old as Independent India which seeks to give a new vision to the country has  even failed to clothe it’s age old polarization formula in  more trendy wear .Many of us media persons ,had  watched  the polarization drama unfold in the 2002 Gujarat Assembly elections that followed the  Godhra train carnage and the statewide communal riots  thereafter. It was then personally led and spread by Chief Minister Narendra Modi through his  Gaurav Yatra launched from Phagvel in Central Gujarat on September 8,2002.His speech was all about the ‘daugh