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To be an environmental world power
Crossborder environmentalism is crucial for South Asia, but India is not inclined to take the lead
denizens of Lahore, New Delhi, has not evolved enough to address development saboteurs.
Kathmandu and Dhaka alike, but the tens of millions of ‘climate re Meanwhile, the task of preserv
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ince June 1, many farmers are on an unusual 10
gramme (UNEP) has chosen India velihoods in downstream Bangla Lepcha fi ghting against the odds to
day ‘strike’ to draw the government’s attention to
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cological ruin is on a gallop to be the ‘host country’ to mark desh, causing the fl ood of ‘undoc protect the upper reaches of the
distress in the fi elds. A federation of 130 farmer across South Asia, with life World Environment Day today. umented aliens’ in India. Teesta. The urban middle class is
bodies has decided to stop supplies of vegetables and and livelihood of nearly a But when will New Delhi rise to The retreat of the Himalayan not visible in environmentalism,
dairy produce to major cities and hold a dharna on 30 quarter of the world’s population connect the dots between repre glaciers is jeopardising the peren other than in ‘beautifi cation
national highways, without blocking vehicular passage. aff ected. Yet, our polities are able sentative democracy and ecologi and urban/industrial effl uents nial nature of our rivers and cli projects’.
Prices of vegetables and fruits are inching up in urban to neither fathom nor address the cal sanity? have converted our great rivers in mate scientists are now zeroing in Perhaps we have been foolhar
centres given the supply shock created by this ‘Gaon degradation. The distress is para to sewers. We refuse to consider on the ‘atmospheric brown cloud’ dy in waiting for another Chipko to
mount in the northern half of the Rivers into sewers drip irrigation as a solution just as to explain the excessive melting of emerge, and the changed times
Bandh’; in cities like Mumbai fi shermen have joined the
subcontinent, roping in the Truth be told, the environment we fail to acknowledge that the riv snows in the central Himalaya. may require new approaches. To
cause. The farmers’ demands are not new — enhance swathe from the Brahmaputra ba ministry is invariably the least em ers are made to carry hundreds of This high altitude haze covers the morrow’s activists must work to
ment of the minimum support price regime for crops in sin to the IndusGanga plain. powered in the major countries of tonnes of plastics daily into the IndoGangetic plains for much of quantify the economic losses of
line with the M.S. Swaminathan Commission’s recom Within each country, with polit South Asia, without clout vis-à-vis Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. the dry season and penetrates environmental destruction and
mendations, higher prices for milk procurement and ics dancing to the tune of populist line ministries, and unable to While underground aquifers are deep into the high valleys. get local institutions to act on their
loan waivers to off set low or negative returns on invest consumerism, nature is without a coordinate the ecological res exploited to exhaustion, the popu This cloud is made up of ‘black ownership of natural resources.
ment. Leaving out vegetables, food prices rose by just guardian. The erosion of civility in ponse. Governments were content lar ‘rivertraining’ prescription im carbon’ containing soot and smog The activists must harness infor
geopolitics keeps South Asian so once to regard environmental pro prisons our rivers within embank sent up by stubble burning, wood mation technology so as to engage
0.55% in the fi rst four months of 2018 — almost a fourth
cieties apart when people should tection as synonymous with wil ments, according to the inherited fi res, smokestacks and fossil fuel with the public and to override
of the average 2% rise recorded in the same months bet be joining hands across borders to dlife protection. Today they stand Western engineering canon that exhaust, as well as dust kicked up political frontiers, and they must
ween 2014 and 2016. There is a supply glut, and with a save our common ground. unprepared when the challenges does not factor in the natural silt by winter agriculture, vehicles and creatively use the power of the
good monsoon expected, a healthy output could put Because wildlife, disease vec have greatly multiplied and carried by rivers of the Himalaya. wind. It rises up over the plains market itself to counter nonsus
additional pressure on prices. But this stir, which ends tors, aerosols and river fl ows do deepened. The wouldbe highdam builders and some of it settles on Hima tainable interventions.
with a Bharat Bandh call on June 10, is not about the im not respect national boundaries, There is distress across the eco have not adequately studied the layan snow and ice, which absorb As we have seen, the highs of
mediate crisis faced by specifi c sections of farmers the environmental trends must logical spectrum, but one need on phenomenon of Himalayan cloud heat and melt that much faster. It environmental movements are in
(such as the cashstrapped sugarcanegrowers for perforce be discussed at the re ly study the rivers and the at bursts, nor do they fi nd it neces is no longer anecdotal that the ice variably followed by lows, and so
gional intercountry level. As the mosphere to track the inaction of sary to address the question: how falls of the Himalaya could before to exit the cycle what is needed is
whom a cess is being considered under the GST re
largest nationstate of our region, governments and our weakened do you desilt a deep reservoir long transform into waterfalls. an “environmental system” inbuilt
gime). It is a culmination of multiple attempts made ov and the biggest polluter whose activism. On water, the subconti when it fi lls up with sand and Like the ‘brown cloud’, the pol into the infrastructure of state and
er a year to redfl ag the systemic malaise in agriculture. population is the most vulnerable, nent is running out of the resource mud? icymakers are yet to consider the society. Work towards ecological
On June 6, 2017, some farmers were killed in police India needs to be alert to the due to the demands of industriali Sadly, activists in Bihar and el seet lahar, the groundhugging fog sustainability must go beyond ri
fi ring in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh, during an agita dangerous drift. sation and urbanisation, and con sewhere who propose the ecologi that engulfs the subcontinent’s tual, with the path seeming to lie
tion for better crop prices. There have been agitations China has been resolutely tack tinuation of the colonialera irriga cally sound ethos of ‘living with northern plains for everextended in the empowerment of local go
across the country since then, including in Tamil Nadu, ling air pollution and promoting tion model based on fl ooding the the fl ood’ have been relegated to periods in winter, a result of the vernment all over. Elected repre
clean energy. But while Beijing’s fi elds. the media backwater. They need spread of canal irrigation and si sentatives in cities and districts
Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra (where thousands of
centralised governance mandates The economic and demograph to be heard, for the Ganga plains multaneous increase in the pre must be challenged to emerge as
farmers walked nearly 200 km to the State capital in environmentalismbydecree, the ic forces are arrayed against the are densely populated for the very sence of particulate matter in the the bulwark of environmentalism
March). The current stir also derives from lack of tangi subcontinental realities demand rivers and their rightofway. In the reason that the natural meander air. This inattention to the inde even as the provincial and national
ble action on assurances made earlier and impercepti civic participation for sustainabili hills, the Ganga in Uttarakhand ings of rivers spread the largesse of scribable distress of millions of the governments are asked to rise to
ble movement on the Centre’s grand promises such as ty to work. Unfortunately, despite and the Teesta of Sikkim are repre loess across the land — silt that is poorest and shelterless of the their regulatory responsibilities.
doubling farm incomes and raising MSPs. That the gen being a vast democracy where pe sentative of rivers that have been now locked away between dykes. plains is hard to comprehend. When ‘organic environmental
eral elections are just a year away adds a political sub ople power should be in the driv converted into dry boulder tracts ism’ rises from the grassroots and
ing seat, the Indian state not only by ‘cascades’ of runofriver hy Ground fog, brown cloud A new kind of Chipko makes state authority accounta
text to the protest. Rural distress has dented the BJP’s
neglects its own realm, it does not droelectric schemes. The same As the UNEP will be the fi rst to in When environmental impact as ble, South Asia and its peoples will
electoral performance in recent months. Too much of take the lead on crossborder fate now threatens the rivers of Ne sist, climate change is introducing sessments have become a ritualis be protected. At that point, no
the structural reform agenda to free agricultural mar environmentalism. pal and India’s Northeast, while massive disturbances to South tic farce in each country and go force will be able to stop activism
kets from the grip of government rules and intermedi Thus, Bihar is helping destroy the tributaries of the Indus were Asia, most notably from the rise of vernments react with great across the frontiers and South Asia
aries remains pending. There has been dithering even the Chure/Siwalik range of Nepal ‘done in’ decades ago through wa sea levels. The entire Indian Ocean prejudice against environmental will begin to tackle pollution and
on simple things like strengthening the food processing to feed the construction industry’s ter diversion. coastline will be aff ected, but the activists, it is little wonder that the dislocation as one.
sector. Take one instance — 100% FDI was allowed in demand for boulders and con Everywhere, natural drainage is hardest hit will be the densely Chipko Movement of Uttarakhand
glomerate, even though this hurts destroyed by highways and rail populated deltas where the Indus, is erased from memory. Today, en Kanak Mani Dixit, a writer and journalist
the food retail business in 2016, but little money has
Bihar itself through greater fl oods, way tracks elevated above the the Irrawaddy and the Ganga vironmental activists all over tend based in Kathmandu, is the founding
come in as retailers want permission to stock a few non desertifi cation and aquifer deple fl ood line, and bunds encircling Brahmaputra meet the sea. to be lampooned in the media and editor of the magazine, ‘Himal
food items like soaps and shampoos for customers. The tion. Air pollution is strangling the towns and cities. Reduced fl ows The climate change discourse social media as antinational, anti Southasian’
minister in charge had promised this over a year ago,
Governance and the Governor
but nothing happened. Blaming the agitators is easy;
policy responses are where the heavy lifting is needed.
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pain’s conservativeled minority government, the ruling party at the Centre. The tially by the Supreme Court structure in maintaining eff ective
which fell on Friday, has been swiftly succeeded root lies in the process of appoint through S.R. Bommai v. Union of communication between the
ment itself. The post has been re India. Following the Sarkaria Com Centre and a State. As a fi gurehead
by a wobbly minority government led by the So
Agnidipto Tarafder duced to becoming a retirement mission’s recommendations, the who ensures the continuance of
cialists. It counts on support from, among others, Cata package for politicians for being Court underlined that the break governance in the State, even in
lan and the extreme left parties. In this sense, the chan politically faithful to the govern down of constitutional machinery times of constitutional crises, his
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geover represents continuity of the relative uncertainty he article, “Do we need the ment of the day. Consequently, a implied a virtual impossibility, and role is often that of a neutral arbi
that has characterised Spain since the 2016 general offi ce of the Governor?” (Ed candidate wedded to a political not mere diffi culty, in carrying out ter in disputes settled informally
election. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who had held itorial page, May 24, 2018), ideology could fi nd it diffi cult to governance in a State. It said that within the various strata of govern
offi ce since 2011, was voted out after top functionaries raises important questions about a adjust to the requirements of a while the subjective satisfaction of ment, and as the conscience keep
of his People’s Party were convicted for operating a constitutional post which has constitutionally mandated neutral the President regarding such a er of the community.
come under fi re. While the deve seat. This could result in bias, as breakdown was beyond judicial In the current political climate
slush fund during Spain’s construction boom in the last
lopments in Karnataka over go appears to have happened in hal v. Union of India, on interpret scrutiny, the material on which — examples being Goa, Manipur
decade. The judicial verdict centrestaged Pedro Sán vernment formation after the As Karnataka. ing Article 156 of the Constitution such satisfaction was based could and Karnataka — it may seem natu
chez, the Socialist Party chief who masterminded the sembly election results are the peg A possible solution would be and the arbitrary removal of Go certainly be analysed by the judici ral to suggest that the post of the
noconfi dence motion against the government. Ironi for this, calls to do away with this not to nominate career politicians vernors before the expiration of ary, including the Governor’s re Governor has outlived its utility.
cally, Mr. Rajoy had managed to form a minority coali often maligned position are hardly and choose “eminent persons” their tenure. This judgment is cru port. It reserved the power to de These occurrences are but in
tion in October 2016 only after Mr. Sánchez’s failed bid new. from other walks of life. Both the cial since a fi xed tenure for Gover clare this report mala fi de and stances in a long chain of events
for premiership and ouster as party leader, breaking a Sarkaria and M.M. Punchhi Com nors could go quite far in encou restore the dismissed government. stretching back decades, all of
An overseer missions seem to hint at this. But raging neutrality and fairness in The same idea can be extended in which point to the need to ensure
prolonged political deadlock and averting a third gener
Under the constitutional scheme, this could also lead to the creation the discharge of their duties, un case of the Governor’s discretion proper checks and balances to
al election in the space of a year. But in a remarkable co the Governor’s mandate is sub of sycophants within the intelli mindful of the dispensation at the in inviting a party to form the go streamline the functioning of this
meback, Mr. Sánchez reclaimed his party’s leadership stantial. From being tasked with gentsia, an equally worrisome Centre. vernment. offi ce. However, misuse of a posi
in May 2017 and has now emerged as Spain’s Prime Mi overseeing government forma prospect. On the other hand, Undoubtedly, the most crucial Since the Bommai verdict al tion of power should not serve as a
nister after leading the Socialists to consecutive elec tion, to reporting on the break there are instances of politicians issue relates to the exercise of gu lows the Supreme Court to investi justifi cation for removing the of
tion defeats in 2015 and 2016. His biggest challenge is to down of constitutional machinery who have risen above partisan pol bernatorial discretion. The Gover gate claims of mala fi de in the Go fi ce altogether, unless such a posi
work with the Catalan separatists, whose demands for in a State, to maintaining the chain itics, and performed their role nor has the task of inviting the vernor’s report, a similar tion has totally lost its relevance.
of command between the Centre with dignity and without fear or fa leader of the largest party/alliance, extension to cover mala fi de in the Rather, these debates on limita
statehood have long united the country’s conservatives
and the State, he can also reserve vour. In this one can think of form postelection, to form the govern invitation process could be a po tions on the power of constitution
and Socialists in their opposition to the idea, seeing it as his assent to Bills passed by the er President Pranab Mukherjee, ment; overseeing the dismissal of tential solution. al functionaries should be allowed
a threat to Spanish nationhood. Madrid had imposed State Legislature and promulgate former Lok Sabha Speaker Som the government in case of a break unimpeded to ensure the organic
direct rule over Catalonia last year after it declared itself ordinances if the need arises. nath Chatterjee, and former West down of the Constitution in the Important link development of our polity.
independent. Now, a new Catalan government has been Further, under Article 355, the Go Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna State; and, through his report, re In India, the balance in power is
formed under Quim Torra, who too is insistent on push vernor, being the Central authori Gandhi. commending the imposition of tilted towards the Union. The im Agnidipto Tarafder is Assistant Professor
ing for independence. No less of a complication for Mr. ty in a State, acts as an overseer in One has to consider the verdict President’s rule. There are exam portance of the Governor’s posi (Law) at the West Bengal National
this regard. of the Supreme Court in B.P. Sing- ples of the last two having been tion arises not from the exception University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata
Sánchez would be working with Podemos, the farleft
antiausterity party that has sought to capitalise on the
eroding base of the Socialists to project itself as the
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
more credible progressive platform in Spanish politics.
Moreover, given the slender support his disparate The message of June 4 every turn, starting from on the BJP. The 2019 election accepted an invitation from ■ I fail to understand why not met with outright
new coalition commands in Parliament, Mr. Sánchez In more than one article the allocation of ministerial will be a fi ght against the RSS to visit its there is such a hue and cry. resistance and defi ance
published in The Hindu, berths to exiting, leaving communalism. After four headquarters in Nagpur, a First, the RSS is not a banned (Editorial, “Fire without
has little room for manoeuvre in terms of either eco
Gopalkrishna Gandhi has behind a trail of mega years at the Centre, there is host of voices have been organisation and in a vibrant smoke”, June 4). Data on a
nomic or political policy ahead of the scheduled 2020 made clear his wish, subtly scams. As for the Left, after little to cheer about for the heard, critiquing his decision democracy such as ours no thinning smoking population
elections. A ray of hope amid this prevailing sense of in or directly — to see the promising outside support, BJP. The ruling party has (“Pranab’s Nagpur visit a hot organisation should be in India may be heartening
stability is Spain’s steady recovery from the deep reces Bharatiya Janata Party it blocked the Congressled been following almost topic”, June 4). For the perceived to be untouchable. news but the ground realities
sion triggered by the banking and housing crisis earlier removed from power both UPA government from everything that is secular lobby, the RSS has Also, once Mr. Mukherjee convey that those who are
this decade. The country’s doubledigit unemployment at the Centre and in States. making crucial decisions unconstitutional, the always been untouchable became the President of initiated into tobacco far
fi gures are way above the Eurozone average. But the His article, “Heed the before withdrawing support economy is in a shambles and it has been puzzled that India, he ceased to be a outnumber those who have
echoes of June 4” (Editorial over the signing of the and foreign relations are at a strong votary of secularism Congressman. Once he’s quit. Today’s free Indian
current healthy rate of growth in per capita gross dom
page, June 4), is one more IndiaU.S. civil nuclear deal. an alltime low. What the BJP and an arch critic of the RSS relinquished presidentship youth do not need sermons,
estic product is projected to persist over the coming instance of this. Towards If UPAI still survived, it was needs to realise is that is now treading a new path. he is perceived to be an much less watchdogs over
years, according to an International Monetary Fund fo this end, he has eloquently due to conditional support. people cannot be swayed by Whether Mr. Mukherjee is ordinary citizen. their conduct in public.
recast. This positive trend possibly explains the state of advocated unity among the The people should get a appealing to just their having second thoughts K.S. Sundaram, Personal liberty and privacy
overall political equilibrium in Spain, as compared with Opposition parties which government the majority religion or caste. about his assessment of the Coimbatore are the bywords today. In
the hollowing out of the middle ground in several other includes the Left. But the elect in 2019. Vimal Varghese, RSS is the moot question. most residential complexes
countries in southern Europe. Yet, political parties question is whether those V. Jayaraman, Angamaly, Kerala One cannot ignore some of Tobacco use in London, smoking is a very
who come together on such Chennai the comments by those who The link between cancer and strict ‘no’ for all. Can we dare
should not lower their vigil against antiimmigrant and
a narrow agenda can stay Nagpur visit matter in the RSS on the the consumption of tobacco enforce such a rule in the
antiEuropean Union forces trying to gain a foothold. united for a full term. One ■ An Opposition alliance that Ever since former President need for inclusion. Have has been established beyond Indian context?
Rising above narrow party interests to promote the recalls how during the is composed of units that are Pranab Mukherjee, a veteran these got Mr. Mukherjee’s doubt, yet weaning away Sivamani Vasudevan,
common good will be the challenge before Spain’s UPA’s rule (20042014), the in synchrony with the other Congressman and one who attention? people, more notably Chennai
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