Why does every political player believe that the CBI is their personal tool, with which they can threaten, manipulate and blackmail people they are opposed to, for their personal whims? Who on earth is Ram Vilas Paswan?s brother, to inform us that he is going to order a CBI probe on a doctor whose diagnosis he did not agree with? Frankly, it only goes to show that institutions such as the CBI can be misused by all and sundry?brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles of political leaders. The threat meted to Dr Naresh Trehan, that the CBI will interrogate him, is yet another example of the high-handed oppression of the ?authority? and the dilution of the intellect of those who wield power mercilessly. It makes one sick and exposes the pathetic level of those who rule us.
This country is going bananas! The convenor of the Prime Minister?s Task Force has no connection or understanding of tigers, wildlife or their habitat. Poachers run amuck, ministry and forest officials hide under cover, as archaic and faulty rhetoric envelops us.
We are being told that animals and people must coexist in the jungles of India. Ouch! Even the gods could not ensure that! We haven?t been able to get castes to co-exist in peace, we cannot guarantee water to Harijans from the village well, we have not secured safe co-existence between citizens of different faiths. And we want wild tigers to co-exist in the same habitat with humans! Are we saying ?to hell with tigers?…we have to indulge in some lip-service and therefore, the ?task force?…tigers will become extinct anyway, once the forest lands are returned to the tribals?
India should be awarded the International CITES award for successfully bringing to extinction all the big cats. The Indian cheetah?not one around; the Indian lion?relegated to a small spot called the Gir; and the Bengal tiger being mercilessly decimated by gangs, tribes, communities hired by mafias to kill, with government officials looking the other way, consciously not enforcing the law, but merrily framing those who speak out.
It does not require a task force to comprehend this truth. As for the corrective, wildlife scientists have been warning the rulers of India for years. These experts have been fighting mafias and the many governments who are in cahoots, consistently breaking the law, harassing the experts, fearful that their crooked ways could be exposed, their illegal incomes stalled. No government or leader, Left, Right, Middle, Congress or BJP have responded or acted firmly.
Raghu Chundavat in Madhya Pradesh, Ullhas Karanth in Karnataka… worked the better part of their lives in the field, are internationally renowned for their knowledge, but have been kept out of the PM?s Task Force. Why? What vested interest was at play? One of them should have been at the helm of the Task Force. Instead, these men have been harassed by Congress regimes in their states, given no credence for their expertise by the PMO and the UPA. And have a person with limited knowledge in this specialised area on top of their heads…Why? Why is the government so utterly inappropriate? Is there some other game being played out, where this ?Task Force? is merely a face- saving device for the PM? Many have seen through the facade.
• Who is Ram Vilas Paswan?s brother to threaten he will order a CBI probe? • NGOs have become government mouthpieces and are losing their identities |
The Tribal Rights Bill will go through. Votes will be garnered. Land and timber mafias will celebrate. The rich ?do-gooders? will have won out. Their damning of dissenters in this democracy, by branding them ?elitist,? will have worked short-term. But, soon enough, the curse of nature will take over. That will be another story!
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are rapidly losing their special identity, as governments co-opt them as operatives and mouthpieces. NGOs possibly feel they could be effective from ?within?… the predictable game. Petrified in a time-warp, this UPA coalition is no different in how it governs, manages, functions, in real terms, than the many previous governments. Once again India is being set back, primarily because of a profound lacuna of fresh thinking on old issues. The BJP erred on one end and the UPA is erring on the other. The middle ground is up for the take and that is where the salvation of India lies.