How Absurd
Surely there are places where one can expect to hear absurd and stupid talk. Among the young for example. Or read trash in Facebook or WhatsApp. But definitely the last place to expect rubbish is in a column in a premium newspaper written by a reputed columnist.
Perhaps it is the 800 word limit or perhaps it is the focused one point per piece write ups never mind the larger picture or the buts and ifs which must qualify such assertions. That the views expressed are solely the authors’ and the magazine or newspaper do not subscribe to it is the standard disclaimer. That the reader should be assaulted with a perspective which the editors find suitable to publish but unsuitable to endorse suggests a paradox if there was one.
Karan Thapar earlier this week in the HT questioned the voters’ intelligence for reposing faith on Modi in spite of the findings of the economic surveys and unemployment statistics. Does the voter read these surveys and do these findings translate to his subjective reality are questions not asked neither the important question that even if the voters were to turn their backs on Modi as Thapar would have desired who exactly would they put their stamp on is left unanswered.
Then Shreekant Sambrani writing in the Business Standard questions the choice of Ministers by the new government. Another a forever Modi critic like Mihir Sharma wants land and labour reform. How can Ministers matter when their hands are tied by the very Institutions of democracy which are supposedly under threat according to the media. These Institutions like the Rajya Sabha which can put prohibition of instant triple talaq on hold. Or the very important amendments to land acquisition reform. Are they not aware of the use of Article 246 by state governments to bypass the onerous provisions of land acquisition law or labour law. Have they for example not read that in highway projects land acquisition costs are greater than project costs besides the time taken to acquire them. What would be the fate of Industry wanting land then ? Extracts from Shree Cements case which came out in the Business Standard in January 2018 is reproduced below ( Shree Cement had the money for private investment )which is failing to pick up) and chose to buy land in the UAE for its project instead) :
In case of the Rs 20-billion Karnataka project in the Gulbarga district, which marks the cement company’s maiden south Indian foray, the process of land acquisition had started seven years ago and the plant is expected to be completed in the forthcoming October-December quarter. Its Rs 5-billion project in West Bengal’s Purulia district, which is projected to strengthen the company’s eastern market share, is yet to see the light of the day.
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In this two-mtpa project, Shree Cement has already acquired 95 per cent of the requisite 100 acres of land but is facing problems in acquiring the remaining five per cent for quite some time. Until the residual land parcel is acquired, the plant cannot be put up.
“In West Bengal, the biggest problem was the pace of purchase was low because the average land parcel size is 500 square feet and, in some cases, it is as low as 100 square feet. Typically, for every acre, there are 70–80 registries on account of the fragmented nature of the land,” Bangur(Chairman of Shree Cements) added.
Take education. Can anything substantial be expected when the only parameter of performance is inclusion. Excellence is then immaterial. Unworthy of pursuit.
Isn’t it better then for governments to focus on contentious issues like language and religion and culture and statues ? Isn’t the average voter aware that nothing is going to change. It hasn’t after so many governments after all. It is also because he himself doesn’t wish to change by obeying traffic laws or obeisance to tax laws.
It is not columnists who dish out trash. Take noted now deceased playwright and theater artiste Girish Karnad. I have watched the performance of two of his plays namely “The Wedding Album “ and “Fire and Rain”. In the former he exposes hypocrisy in the middle class and in their values while in the latter he rubbishes rituals and practices. It’s like writing a play on materialism or globalization. Nothing to it except exaggerating subjective experiences. But if your plays meet the approval of the then left intellectual elite dispensation then you become a celebrity.
Yesterday on his death no one among my FB young friends found him missing but many a tribute was written on the retirement of Yuvraj Singh.
