Two headlines and a website
Two recent headlines and a website prompted this piece. 60 years since independence, we have definitely come a long way – breaking traditional thought and venturing into new territory. But what are the results?
Opium production privatised. Wow – what a way to go. If smoking pot was legal, guess nobody would have done it. Is that the government’s way of tackling this? No, the government was just trying to ensure that this stuff (pun unintended, of course) was available for life saving purposes. The Government run factories are not able to meet the current requirements, hence this idea. Some facts - India has licensed poppy cultivation for international export of raw poppy materials and for the internal manufacture of medicines since independence. Controlled by the Central Government, the controlled exploitation of this natural resource brings the country a gross profit running into millions of dollars each year. I understand that there has been some law or the other in force since 1770 in India, which regulated pot! Wow, I love my country that privatises opium production! The mind boggles at the possibilities in the future.
The next headline was in connection with the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, which India proposes to ink with USA. Come to think of it the team for the first peaceful testing was assembled in 1967, just twenty years after our independence. This was referred to as a Peaceful Nuclear Experiment. Irrespective of political manifestos or the party in power ((’74 or ’98) India is/was particularly focused on this source of energy. Keeping the lid on the nuclear testing for many years ensured that India gets to test more of the nuclear materials keeping the world informed. Now why did India strike the pact with the USA? India has always prided itself on its independent status without the need for any approval. It always thought that the whole world knew that India would never do anything but peaceful. In 1998 India was thrilled as NAM slammed the Big-5 for monopoly over nuclear weapons and described their stand as "highly discriminatory". And our neighbours, who lobbied intensely against India's nuclear tests, received a severe blow when the declaration did not mention India's Pokharan blasts! Where is NAM today? It shows that a country cannot survive for long in the grey area, when the whole world is watching it mainly due to a good rate of GDP growth. So do we suppose that India plans to be either black or white and sign the doctrine of peaceful uses of nuclear energy that would in turn boost India’s trade relations, proud independence notwithstanding?
Now last but not least, rains have been lashing Bihar and other parts of country. People are stranded on rooftops and elsewhere. Reporting this news, one of the channels switched from one item to the other. The other is what caught my attention. Now why would a set of educated adults bring out an online petition to save a movie star who is handed a sentence for doing things forbidden by the laws of country? Freedom of expression, blah and blah be damned was the immediate thought. Wait a minute, can’t these brains get together and work out something for the flood-affected victims, whether using online networking, a very powerful tool or some other means? We stand up or go online and say the authorities are responsible, but how about doing our two bit to the cause, though not as celebre as Sanju baba?
Opium production privatised. Wow – what a way to go. If smoking pot was legal, guess nobody would have done it. Is that the government’s way of tackling this? No, the government was just trying to ensure that this stuff (pun unintended, of course) was available for life saving purposes. The Government run factories are not able to meet the current requirements, hence this idea. Some facts - India has licensed poppy cultivation for international export of raw poppy materials and for the internal manufacture of medicines since independence. Controlled by the Central Government, the controlled exploitation of this natural resource brings the country a gross profit running into millions of dollars each year. I understand that there has been some law or the other in force since 1770 in India, which regulated pot! Wow, I love my country that privatises opium production! The mind boggles at the possibilities in the future.
The next headline was in connection with the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, which India proposes to ink with USA. Come to think of it the team for the first peaceful testing was assembled in 1967, just twenty years after our independence. This was referred to as a Peaceful Nuclear Experiment. Irrespective of political manifestos or the party in power ((’74 or ’98) India is/was particularly focused on this source of energy. Keeping the lid on the nuclear testing for many years ensured that India gets to test more of the nuclear materials keeping the world informed. Now why did India strike the pact with the USA? India has always prided itself on its independent status without the need for any approval. It always thought that the whole world knew that India would never do anything but peaceful. In 1998 India was thrilled as NAM slammed the Big-5 for monopoly over nuclear weapons and described their stand as "highly discriminatory". And our neighbours, who lobbied intensely against India's nuclear tests, received a severe blow when the declaration did not mention India's Pokharan blasts! Where is NAM today? It shows that a country cannot survive for long in the grey area, when the whole world is watching it mainly due to a good rate of GDP growth. So do we suppose that India plans to be either black or white and sign the doctrine of peaceful uses of nuclear energy that would in turn boost India’s trade relations, proud independence notwithstanding?
Now last but not least, rains have been lashing Bihar and other parts of country. People are stranded on rooftops and elsewhere. Reporting this news, one of the channels switched from one item to the other. The other is what caught my attention. Now why would a set of educated adults bring out an online petition to save a movie star who is handed a sentence for doing things forbidden by the laws of country? Freedom of expression, blah and blah be damned was the immediate thought. Wait a minute, can’t these brains get together and work out something for the flood-affected victims, whether using online networking, a very powerful tool or some other means? We stand up or go online and say the authorities are responsible, but how about doing our two bit to the cause, though not as celebre as Sanju baba?
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