Contemporaries

Hi All,
Long time!!!
Here I would present two pictures at the same time, one leading us to a new future and the other showing us that still how much difficult it is to let go of the past.

Let

Out of denial (finally) India is feeling the heat and coming to terms with the recession in the global economy. Three stimulus packages in the last three months haven't created any better situation, but we should realize these were not stimulus packages but something that was required and this could not have changed the tide of the wave. We must, therefore, wait patiently till this storm calms down.

India's great growth in the preceding years was a result of the economic boom that surrounded the global economy, mammoth boom in all sectors worldwide raised our growth to 9% and similarly the global slump has retarded it to 5%. After all, we should not anticipate to grow at the same pace when the world is reeling under the great crisis.

One of the major contributor that could exacerbate the situation in today's slump, from India's perspective will be the idea of increasing the country's forex reserves. High forex reserves has helped India to survive this global crisis even in the past as well, but it wont help the cause further if forex reserves are aimed at higher levels in future.

US went on a buying spree in the recent years and this made the household savings from a meager 6% to zero as everything was purchased on credit due to the bubble that was created. Even the financiers corporates, in their attempt to cash in ran under huge debt to buy assets stocks and commodities. This created a bubble.

Asia's insistence for higher and higher forex reserves meant, they bought more and more US bonds and securities. This led to a high inflow of liquid in the US markets, and therefore lesser rate of interest. This spurred the borrowing spree and hence bubble.

When the bubble finally burst, many huge companies were salvaged by the government. Meanwhile, the US household coming to terms with the hard reality started to save 4% of their disposable income. This meant more savings and less spending, and hence a deeper crisis.

Richer countries save more and hence run trade surpluses and poorer countries save less and therefore run into trade deficits. Current account surpluses must necessarily balance the current account deficits for world economy to work as a unit, but after the great Asian crisis, China started saving huge trade surpluses which were later invested in US treasuries.

Not too many poor Asian countries could have had account surpluses unless others ran into account deficits. US did exactly the same. The huge inflow of dollars from Asian markets were spent on borrowing and spending spree. This skyrocketed the demand and the boom world wide and created a record GDP growth from 2003-08.

But, this global boom was based on huge global imbalances, no country, not even the US could run trade deficits for ever on the back of Asian trade surpluses. This bubble created had to burst which took the economy to shambles. The demand and spending plummeted as a result.

To recover from this imbalance, situation has to be changed. US has to save more export more and Asian countries have to spend more and import more. Huge foreign reserves do not show this. Such reserves show excessive savings. Therefore, huge forex have saved Asian countries from going into a deep hole, but they too are a reason for this crisis.

If Asian countries still don't spend more, which is in line with what people in the US will do, the world demand will worsen. The recession will become a depression. Forex reserves are cushion to the economy but only to a certain level. Saving too much can be as harmful as saving too less. Asian markets must realize this before things get even worse than anyone could imagine them to be.

Do we need an agony to wake up? With the country and the world still coming to terms with the worst and the deadliest attack in India a week ago, the politicians are reeling under an unprecedented attack from the denizens of the country. With all accusations directing towards a Pakistan attack, the government there have outrightly denied any intelligence behind this.

There is a deeper insight on why Pakistan has been so diplomatic in its approach and what it is gaining from attacking its neighboring country. Pakistan is a democratic country today, but the political party reigns and not rules and the army (still) rules but not reigns the country. Right now the Pakistani army is defending its western border, under pressure from the US and the other western countries to restrain the talibanis, the jihadis and other terrorist camps like al-Qaeda from entering Pakistan through the west. On the other hand it is provoking India to rage a war like situation, so that it can justify its move towards the eastern border, to the US and the other countries. The Pakistani army and the ISI have made overtures to jihadi organisations within Pakistan and signalled to the al-Qaeda, Taliban and other jihadi groups that in spite of the new government in Pakistan, they are still friendly to them.

Any fresh firing at the Indo-Pak border will result in international attention on the subcontinent and the Kashmir issue. What this terrorist act proves is that the Pakistani army, armed with nuclear weapons, and the ISI pose terrorist threats to India, Pakistani democracy and the international community. Therefore any action against Pakistan should not play into the hands of the Pakistani army. Given the nature of the terrorist act, retaliatory action should be preferably international rather than national.

If India does not walk into the trap, the US will in any case have to tackle the Pakistani army in their own national interests. India just needs to be patient.

The second thing I would like to point out is the responsibility taken by us and the government. There is absolutely no glitch in the fact that what we are doing right now by chastising the government, is not exaggerated. Let alone sympathy a few politicians have not even shown solidarity to the people who are suffering. Here, what we should also realize is, we are the face of our nation, at the end of the day it's we who choose our politicians and therefore we call ours the biggest democracy in the world. Politicians are our mirror images, and therefore whatever changes we want in our political system, we have to do ourselves as well. We have to take the onus and be the change which we intend to see.

We need to show solidarity to our own people, we have to be united. First we have to fight with our own demons present in India. Fighting in the name of caste religion should be stopped. We are Indians, not Hindus Muslim Sikh or Isais. We should learn to live and grow together. Nothing should be mine it should be ours. Fighting under the guise of God, religion are even worse than terrorist attacks.

Let us stand together in this hour of grief and come together to show our solidarity and unanimously tell the perpetrators of terror that we are here to fight against anything which threatens to disrupt and disintegrate our country. JAI HIND!!!!

"On offside there is god and then there is Saurav Ganguly"
Rahul Dravid.

With the first African American taking charge in the white house history has been made in America and the world is savoring the moment. In India though, a different kind of history is in the making. History of one of the legends to have played the game of cricket. Only if there had been a sensitive index for cricket, it would have expected to see a black monday on 10th Nov 2008.

The world will see the reformer of Indian cricket, the man with one of the most illustrious careers in the game one last time wearing the honorable cap for India on monday in Nagpur. Surrounded with controversies through out his career, he has been the blue eyed son of the critics. The man who has been in the eye of the storm through most of his career, Saurav Ganguly will be remembered as a fighter who has retorted with all guns blazing every time someone has thrown him the gauntlet.

After failing in just a single ODI he was dropped from the side in 1992, but the world was to witness the comeback of an injured tiger with a vengeance. Back to back centuries against England in the first two tests during 1996 tour of England brought him to fame. The black horse at that time, never looked back since then.

Critics have always argued that he looked in troubled waters facing bouncers and fast bowlers. One may agree that this great was never the most swift runners between the wickets, but with unparalleled talent and sheer timing he always made sure he could makeup for what he lacked in his running. To get the facts correct, he has 22 centuries in ODI, the second most by an Indian only after Sachin Tendulkar and also has more than 11,000 ODI runs. In tests he averages over 42 and has scored more than 7,000 runs with 16 centuries and playing really well to add another feather in the cap in his last test for India. If a player who with a lot of weaknesses has stats like this, India would really require a lot of weaker players to regain the hegemony of cricket.

Indian team was shattered and devastated after Md Azharuddin and other main stray players were booked under match fixing allegations. Indian team was awaiting a new dawn with a spark of life in it. The challenge was there to be taken and Ganguly grabbed it with both hands. Indian cricket witnessed its golden period from 2000-2004-05 when Ganguly was at the helm. From nurturing young talents to injecting aggression into them, Saurav was never short of ideas or support for his players. What stands out for the most successful captain of India (till 10th Nov 2008) is his inherent aggression and emotion which he shows on and off the field.

As a player this south paw was one of the finest stroke makers and the sweetest timer of the cricket ball, his lofted shots especially of spinners were a treat to watch. His aggression was not rare to watch and he was one of the rare players who used his feet at will to the fast as well to the spin bowlers. In the beginning of his career, he gave good support to Tendulkar at the top of the order and with time he matured to be one of the best batsman and with Tendulkar he formed the most formidable opening partnerships of all time. His memorable 124 against pakistan in B'desh under poor flood lights still haunt the opponents. His daunting 183 against SriLanka is his best performance in ODI. In tests he was a part of the world's strongest middle order with a career best of 239 against Pakistan at chinnaswamy stadium bangaluru, although he attributes his innings of 144 at brisbane as his favorite test innings. With test average never dropping below 40 DADA was one of those players who had a mental strength to prove his critics wrong everytime he took the field.

The turning point in his career came when he opted out of the Nagpur test against Australia due to some undisclosed reasons(rumors afloat that he was not too happy with the grassy wicket). India lost that match and series ignominiously and DADA's hold started to wither. After a spat with Greg Chappel, which became public, he was unceremoniously dropped from the side after Zimbabwe's tour. With bleak chances of a comeback at 33-34 opponents as well as proponents had put DADA out of the books, but he himself was the last person to call it quits. It was the most difficult phase a DADA fan ever witnessed but the DADA's (re)treat was far from over. He came back with a hard 51 against South Africa and India made its first win in South Africa. He averaged the highest in the year 2007 in test cricket and also was the second highest run getter in the same year. Cricket fraternity accepted that Dada was here to stay.

But destiny had its own funny way, as they say poilitics and Indian cricket go hand in hand DADA was once again dropped from the ODIs in Australia. Synonymous with a run machine after his comeback, he was unexpectedly shown the door by the selectors once again as he was ignored for the Irani trophy after his failure in the Sri Lanka series, and this came as a bigger surprise because he was the leading run scorer in the year 2007 and the Asia's cricketer of the year for the same year. Remarkably, chosen for the home series against Australia, Dada had already made up his mind to hang his boots.

A well calculated century at mohali made sure India are at the driver's seat in the 2nd test match of the series which India won eventually made his adieu series even more memorable. He might not be content to be named in the dubious list of players to have got out on naught in their last innings, but that doesn't take away any credit from the strong will he has shown in the last series of his career. He has played with a big heart and today one would have been overwhelmed to see the respect he commands when the team waited for the most successful captain of India to lead them to the field on the last day of the 4th test match (India went on and trounced Australia 2-0).

It would be an icing on the cake if India manages to clinch this series 2-0. If it was the cruel irony that got him out on the first ball of his last match it was destiny that made him play for India. India will need many more of gangulys to maintain the suzerainty in cricket.

DADA the mettle will continue to stay in the hearts of millions of DADA fans and his legacy will stay for a long long time.

DADAGIRI NEVER ENDS!!!!

A lot said and a lot done let me write something to refurbish my old sweet and humourous memories. I had this hero puch with me in the last year of my graduation(yes, I 'am a graduate!!). What a vehicle, sometimes even the joggers(my friends pushed me very hard to write the morning and the evening walkers instead but I persisted with joggers) used to pass me by giving a sarcastic smile, but then that(my puch) was one of the most indispensible things during the fag end of my college life.

The ordeal started since the time I thought of bringing it to Indore. At the source station(Jabalpur) it was a torrid time with the personnels who were stuffing my puch with hay(so that it avoids jerk through the journey). They were treating it as just another of those strong 2 wheelers and manhandling it, but wait...that was my extra sensitive HERO PUCH!!! The journey went fine(I dunno what my puch suffered, for me it went fine as I was travelling in the sleeper class, as I always travelled in general ), but I was unaware of the bitter time waiting ahead. When I went to retrieve the vehicle at Indore railway station, they blatantly told me that I cant take it for some absurd reasons and apparently I had to bribe a few of them to retrieve my own puch after a strong altercation, which I 'am supposedly very good at. Then came the last round of harrowing when I realised that the HERO did not have fuel while loading at jabalpur, and therefore I had to walk 1 KM with my new friend under the scorching sun to get it refuelled. But then, after that it was a smooth ride from the petrol pump to my room which was approximately 2KMs from the petrol pump.

Then started the bigger picture, my college was somewhere around 10kms from our room and with the scant source of funds during college life(my dad's going to kill me for this) we(me and my roommate Nirmal) realised, although a lil too late, that it was difficult to go by bus everyday as the fuel prices were skyrocketting and hence the bus fares. Here came into scene the hero (rather the heroine as my friends shamelessly used to call my hero puch a bakri and that pissed me off, they even coloured it on holi)puch, it was effective and efficient.

Physically bleak, it could not have been more contradictory to the looks, I, along with Nirmal, who was apparantly not very slim, used to go to college on. Not only Nirmal, another of my roommates, the most disciplined of the lot Kasif also hitched it several times (My roommates will understand y I named Kasif to show the potency and strength of my hero puch )

So other than college it was the source of my commute for guitar classes and parties as well. I remember of one incident when our juniors were giving us a farewell party at a three star hotel, and I took my hero puch aka bakri to the hotel....gosh it was so embarassing when I saw that all other vehicles which were present there were cars . I cannot recall the umpteenth number of times when it ran out of fuel or when it stopped even at the slightest signs of drizzle(It was very allergic to water, and co-incidentally it refused to run even if it rained at 100kms from Indore).

The most embarassing part was that, the girl whom i used to see(from a distance) a lot and who used to come in a car to the college always noticed me when I was on this omnipresent HP on my way to college. Putting it in first gear would have raised a commotion in the rarest of distances, gosh!!! AK47 would have failed competing with the noise my HP raised when I used to put it up in the 1st gear(I can relate it with SRK making a serious attemp to say KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKIRAN....kkkkrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr khatash boom boom 1st gear!!!!!), but I always made sure I had a cloth covering my face as a pretext to avoid dust and pollution and I always took care of the fact that I leave atleast 10-15 mins after she(the girl in the car) leaves college.

I started for MBA coaching in the first half of my last year and HP was my source of commuting, monsoon had already arrived that time and everyday I had to heat the spark plug to start the bike and once it started it was only luck that could have taken me to my destination. Mercurial as the bakri was, I was never sure when I have to heat the plug again as most of the times it used to break down exactly at the middle of the road.

Yes, I remember two songs which my pillion(Nirmal, with his aweful taste of music and hoarse voice ) always used to sing while riding the awesome puch, the first one from the movie Andaz apna apna, and the song was Do mastane chale zindegi banane...lolz gosh !!! we were so filmy and the second was the title track of Dhoom II with the background music, matching the speed of an ant and the attitude of hayabhusa my puch was one of the most exciting things in my life.

The second half of the last year with the invincible was less eventful. One evening while I was going for this so called CAT coaching, accidentally a guy came in my way and I crashed into him, the area where this happened was a purana mohalla (the common name purana mohalla is used to say all the goons stayed there). Unlucky I was and considering that I could not have taken my puch faster than the goons could run(chase and catch me), I decided to stop, and as expected a few came to rough me up but after a serial salvo of verbal blows(only from their side) I was spared, in between all this a samaritarian came, he took my side told everyone(commuters who gathered there to see what happened) that it was the other person's mistake and started abusing the goons, that foolish samaritaian rushed his CBZ at 100kmph after throwing a few tantrums and it was I who was caught up again...gosh!!!! thank god I was spared . Well if I start saying more it will get boring......

Like they say, best things come at a price, I too paid a price but I experienced something which, to be honest I wont vie to experience again but would cherish the memories forever.

After a long time, I decided to write something. I was reading something which explained why the dollar rates are going down and how dollar is becoming less powerful, but then I thought of writing something on a different line rather than ennuing the readers with the same cliched topics.

Through the last couple of weeks I was lucky enough to have managed to see the masterpiece of one of the legends of Indian cinema, Mr Satyajit Ray. I say through the last couple of weeks because there were three parts of the epic and I spent nearly two weeks to complete the whole series as I have been travelling most of the times.

Lemme start with the first part...
Set against the background of rural Bengal, the story takes us through a beautiful, but sorrowful journey of a boy and his family. /*Though the story itself is a heart wrenching beautiful naration of a novel, the cinematography and the picturization are something to boast about.*/
A rather poor family, which finds it hard even to have daily meals at home and with the lone bread earner's(The child protagonist's father harihar) rather meagre income and submissive attitude, which leave the family in dire straits, finds some joy when it is blessed with a boy, Apu, as he is called by his family. The little protagonist, Apu, who is the blue eyed child of his parents also has a sister named Durga, who comes in as a notorious girl and steals fruit from the neighbour's vicinty. She is someone who cannot afford what all her friend's enjoy (because of her poor family background), and to make the matter worse, it is their mother(Sarbajaya) who has to bear the brunt of her daughter's propensity to steal things. Outraged with all the inneuendos of their neighbours for blaming her for her daughter's nuisance, Sarbajaya even chastises Durga for minor thefts.

Not the story but the way it has been potrayed has what made me go head over heals in love with the plot. Even though trivial, scenes like, the children watching the train passing by and getting ecstatic, following the sweet vendor passing through and looking at him with eyes of hope, so that he gives them one each as they dint have money (to buy sweets), the joy on the faces of the children when they view a bioscope from the passing by vendor, the motherly love and affection which Durga shows for her little brother and teasing him at the same time, the affinity of the little girl Durga with the elderly(aunt Indir), who stays in their home, are some of the instances which make you feel so comforatable and satisfied.

It all looks going very merrily untill one day the children playing in the backyard find the elderly (aunt Indir) dead. It's from there that the family fails to recuperate, not due to the grieve of the elderly's demise but due to the circumstances that follow. The lone bread owner of the family, Apu's father leaves home in search of some better paying job, in the process leaves his family in shambles. Apu's mother (Sarbajaya) is the lone fighter who survives the thick and thin after her husband leaves. Tradegy strike the family once again when the innocent children go out to play and the monsoon cuts loose on them, the heavy downpour and the gutsy chilly wind fells the girl severly ill. With the scant medical treatment available and the monsoon showing it's worst face the fever snowfalls into the demise of the little girl.

Unconsolable but as hard as a rock, Sarbajaya bears it all, but eventually breaks when she sees her husband coming back with a lot of stuffs from the city, only to tell her husband that they have lost more than what he has earned. A mountain of grief befalls the family and harihar is shattered after hearing the horrorific news that awaited him. The family in distraught decides to leave the village in search for a new horizon......

Even at the end, the little boy is seen throwing the necklace of beads, which his sister had stolen earlier, in the pond, as a sign to save any more belated blemishes on her sister and to preserve her memories forever.

Part 2 coming up....

I remember of an afternoon where a friend of mine was talking to her friend and they had this bickering, where one favoured the English language to be the medium of communication for everyone and regional languages not to be used unless they are unavoidable.

HUH!!!!! the first question that came to my mind was, do we even require English? Is our (or for that matter anyone's) country dependent on english for their economic prosperity or developement? No doubts there are benefits of learning this beautiful language but it is in no way the elixir for economical benefit of the country.

No one would deny the fact that English gave a headstart to the Indian economy and also the fact that immaculate english spoken by most of the Indians is the driving force for such a boom in the outsourcing sector, but are we saying we hope to employee everyone through call centres and BPOs? What they need is education, good solid foundation in core subjects such as maths and science. Do we even need english for the upliftment of most of the sections of the society?

The best example that comes to my mind here, is of Japan's and China's. Japan has held on to it's reputation to be a country with unparalled growth and indefatiguable work force. Although China is catching up with english real fast, their achievements till now can never be overlooked. All the non english speaking countries are growing on the basis of strong education foundation which is independent of language.

There is also another side of this, although it would be harsh to say but english divides us in its own way. There is an upper class(((like the amitabh bachchans who can talk english walk english and laugh english))) which flaunts english writes english reads english(I 'am quite sure the reader is very unlikely to have read anything else in any other language for a long time), and there is the other one which reads writes and thrives on languages like Hindi, Telugu, Bengali etc. Although we have developed a common vision and culture currency for the country, our discourse remains divided. We read news papers in different languages, and even though the headlines are the same, the focus and approach differs and therefore even if it gives us many discourses, it divides us in ways hard to realise.

The third point that comes to my mind is the cost we are paying to learn the language. It's coming at the cost of our national and regional languages. There are language guides on French, German, Portuguese...but are there any guides on Hindi or any other of our 16 regional languages, NO there aint.

A recent study on the desires of the US parents showed their keen ness for their children to learn foreign languages as quickly as possible, be it Chinese french or German, but Hindi is taught in hardly 10 schools in the US, that's not very exciting either. The problem is not that foreigners dont want to learn Hindi, the problem is we dont want to learn Hindi and other regional languages.

Why cant we have Tamil or Bengali as second languages in Northern part of India or for that matter any other regional language, or atleast there can be a choice. Our languages are millenia-old, rich and imbibing we learn english at therir cost, we should never forget if we dont give priority to our own languages no one else will. Let's start cherishing what we are and what we know and as they say .....there's only one language world wide....'The language of love'....

Cricket, it is said is more than a game in India. It's a religion, not only followed enthusiastically but also worshipped in great depths. Lately, the buzz in the country is all about how a team of 15, most of them unnoticed till now managed to clinch victory from the hands of defeat. Politicians, ex-sportsmen, hoi polloi, in fact everyone (even the desperate housewives) are going gaga over the incredible performance of the men in blue.

India is oblivion to anything other than cricket, but are we missing something here? Yes, we are missing our national pride, we are missing the national game of our country, and we are missing HOCKEY. It's very ironical to hear the Chak de song to ad nauseam for the millionth time when India is going great guns on the cricket field, ironical because it's the theme song to promote hockey. Where has Chak De HOCKEY gone?

Let alone how many youths know who currently play hockey for the nation, 80% don’t even know when was the last time India won a world cup in HOCKEY. It's not only the youths, more than majority of the people who are more than 40 years old can recall all the members of the World Cup winning Indian side in 1983 but how many would even remember who participated in the 1975 World Cup in HOCKEY which India won, not surprisingly no one.

The two big recent achievements in Hockey and in Football for India have been the Asian Cup (India thrashing Korea by 7-2) and Nehru Cup (India beating Syria 1-0) respectively. Does it ring bells to anyone, in fact does it matter to anyone whether India win or lose a 7-2 game or a nail biting 1-0 game, it hardly does.

It's very disheartening to see players of the Indian Hockey team showing their protests by going on to hunger strikes. They have objected strongly to the government's partisan behavior towards cricket and it's players. It should be noted here that no one has any personal grudges against any cricketer or any politician or more importantly against the game, talent will always praise talent, but the fight is for equality and justice.

At the same time when cash rewards are raining for the Indian cricket team, an announcement from K.P.S Gill to give 1000Rs cash rewards for every goal scored during the Asian Cup drew flak from most of the politicians including the ones who are leaving no stones unturned to felicitate the Indian cricket team. Isn’t this a biased approach?

As harbingers of a sports loving country let's wake up to this gross partiality and give our national sports it's due. Of course, we cant force ourselves to like or dislike a game, giving our forgotten national heroes their due and respect will not rob us or make us or our country any poorer....

CHAK DE INDIA...........CHAK DE HOCKEY

The rupee hit it's highest value last week when it reached a perilous level of 40.60 in comparison to the dollar. The exporters were under tremendous pressure and so were the IT and other companies, which thrive mainly on exports. The imports though were booming like never before, the government was borrowing generously, thus widening the trade deficit gap (export - import), and due to the high interest rates the companies and individuals were also borrowing from outside. With the FIIs and FDIs investing munificently there was a huge mismatch in demand and supply of the dollar, and therefore the repercussions were inevitable. Thus there was an overheating (overheating means when there is more demand and less supply). And there fore there was a rise in inflation as a result of overheating.

Now the question before the FM is, how to tame this overheating. The most obvious solution may be tightening the screws on money supply and creating more stringent monetary laws, but this would dampen growth. When it was speculated to breach the economic growth of China, India's economic growth is seem to be dampening by inflation.

But are we thinking archive when we say we are rather happy with a slow growth and lower rate of inflation than the other way round(both, economy and inflation rising simultaneously)? Well inflation too has its pros and cons, with rising inflation the rate of interest incurred on government debt decreases. Therefore with inflation the government expenditures and revenues increase(the media has reported that revenues increase more than expenditures) and thereby reducing the fiscal deficit, and it wont be surprising to know that India will have a primary budget surplus for the first time. Hence inflation has contributed to a happy scenario.

Inflation has also increased the corporate profit, also helping investments and stock valuations. These have increased corporate revenues. This has increased corporate and personal tax thereby increasing the GDP.

Although the above two examples are good enough to prove a point it shud not be understood that anyways inflation is a blessing. Lesser the inflation better it is and if a trade off is done by having more growth at the expense of a lil more inflation than it shud not be too much worrying factor.

Though this is not a sustainable equation because politically the interest rates are bound to touch sky high prices, it would be a pain for them to drastically reduce the inflation. Therefore one would pray for a medium anti inflationary steps and hope for the best to happen across the globe.

A lot has been said and done in areas like Singur and Nandigram. Restless farmers, insatiable politicians, brutal police, suicides, hunger strikes, bloodbath, what and what not. And after feeling the emotions lying within it's not very difficult to say that I support the farmers agitations against the forceful land acquisition by the TATA's in Singur and Salim Group's in Nandigram.

This though does not mean I 'am against the proposed industrialisation of a place like West Bengal, I would love to see that but in a manner not like the one going on now.

Earlier the policies were like, the government after acquiring their fancied land used to decide what kind of compensations to give without even taking the farmers into consideration and therefore no wonder the government has now called for a more humane policy.

For decades the government thought the way to industrialisation was through forced acquisition but now it has taken some lessons from the Singur and Nandigram episodes and these give a strong signal as to what this policy of government will face if there's any more forced acquisitions.

But has the government missed on something easier? Infact, the best way to do it is, to be given the land voluntarily and let's not say it is impossible. Reliance has acquired scores of acres of land in Haryana without any road blocks, Sahara has made Ambey Valley without much fuss, Land acquirers like DLF and Unitech have clinched deal worth crores by persuading farmers to sell their lands.

The problem arises when big companies want contagious piece of lands and they dont get them because of some naysaying farmers who hold veto and dont let go of their lands, even if they(the farmers) are in minority. This is what then leads to forced acquisition. Though suggested reforms are to give vet to panchayats to decide, one feels the farmers should be the only people who should be empowered to decide. They should reach a mutual consensus and act accordingly. If more than majority of the farmers are ready to sell their land then it should be propagated to the others.

Secondly, the farmers may give away their land as rent or lease to the companies, in this way they can get money as rent and still own the piece of land, the deal but obvious subjected to period of revision, and their tenants would be the big power houses of business. This will also give farmers the share of dignity they deserve and will make them true share holders of the industrialisation.

Thirdly, the residencies in the farmland should not be used, the farmlands given for industrialisation purpose should be kept aside from residencial areas. There's a core zone which should be secured for reasons obvious but the non core area should not be wrested away from the farmers, let their be a good mix of effluents and farmers in the non core zone.

Delhi as an example has striden incessantly by obliterating villages taken over by DDA(Delhi developement authority) and the farmers are forced to come to cities where they are sitting pretty on property worth crores and have built one or multistoried building.

Therefore for obvious reasons corporates have blamed the situation to have gone out of proportions and the media have also played their part to make the mole look bigger than a hill and hence the rescue act of opposition parties was inevitable but uncalled for.

Today agriculture provides little scope for the farmers and therefore they are more than willing to acquire a share in this run of industrialisation, government should see to it that it eyes good farmlands for moving ahead but the farmers should be given the pay they deserve and we can finally see a symbiosis.