Blogs

Although parliament has passed the new forest bill – giving tribal settlers ownership rights to property in forests – legislation alone is not going to help tribal inhabitants much. What is more important is the implementation of the legislation at the ground level with the involvement and participation of the local population in it. As long as the rights to manage forests remain in the hands of callous government officials in the states, neither our wildlife will be protected, nor will the fore

Within hours of winning the UP elections, the new Chief Minister Mayawati initiated action against corrupt politicians in the state. In my view, she should come down equally heavily on the main conduits of corruption in the state, namely the senior bureaucrats who worked hand in glove with the politicians. The previous government nurtured senior IAS officers posted in Noida and Greater Noida and UPSIDC, whose only duty was to cook land-grab deals with builders and industrialists, get them expedited and make millions for themselves and their politician bosses in the process.

There is more to Mayawati's victory in Uttar Pradesh than her acclaimed caste combination strategy. In fact it was the polarization of votes against Mulayam Singh Yadav that ensured an outright victory for BSP. Mulayam paid the price for the rampant curruption, crony capitalism, casteism and criminalization that his government had blatantly indulged in. The slogan ‘Chadh gundon ki chhati par, mohar lagao haathi par’ was the most popular in each constituency where BSP has won.