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Showing posts from July, 2009

Surely you are joking Mr. Ramesh…

Our honorable union minister of environment and forests Jairam Ramesh is in news since he has taken charge of the ministry. He has been meeting NGOs all over the country working on various environmental issues. Be it an issue of Genetically Modified crops, of climate change, of tiger conservation, of mining or that of reformation of regulatory system for implementation of environmental law of the state; name the issue and you’ll find a couple of his statements reported in national media. Seems to be a considerate environment minister? media-friendly and accessible… Some activists, some NGOs must be flattered. Well, beware those who are flattered, here is a glitch… This looks like a ‘Yes… But’ game. It means whenever there is a ‘but’ in a statement that starts with ‘yes’, one must take a special note of the second half of a statement, and it usually indicates unwillingness to act. Let’s evaluate a few of Mr. Ramesh’s statements from this ‘Yes… But’ point of view. Bt brinjal can wai