Wordsmiths & Newsplumbers

BY R.K.MISRA There is an element of irony as India and Gujarat roll out the red carpet to welcome US President Donald Trump. The Narendra Modi government move to give the US access to its dairy and poultry markets may help bail out the US milk industry but is set to   hurt Gujarat and consequently India the most. According to a report in 2017 India contributed 21 per cent of the world’s milk production making it the largest milk producer in the world. This was made largely possible by 73 million marginal farmers and landless labourers working in the dairy sector and possessing an average of one or two milch animals. The World Dairy Situation Report,2019 states that the US milk yield per cow is the highest in the world at 10,500 litres per cow as against 1,715 litres per cow in India which is the second lowest in the globe ,only after Pakistan. As a big-wig of the co-operative dairy sector in Gujarat put it on condition of anonymity, a trade deal with India may help

BY R.K.MISRA What is common between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and American President   Donald Trump?   A king size ego, giant size events and   an obsession with walls that separate rather than bridges that bind !   Modi’s Gujarat is fond of   comparing   his brainchild, the Statue of Unity(SOU) as being twice as high as America’s Statue of Liberty. Again, Houston’s ‘Howdy Modi” last year should be   both outclassed and outnumbered two to one   in the ‘Namaste President Trump’ at Ahmedabad. If the US President   is building a 576- mile wall. costing   $20 million a mile, to fence off his country from Mexico, the civic body in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat is   at work building a wall of its own too. Only that this one is to keep the slums of   his model state out of Trump’s sight. Then again, the Trump extravaganza is the inaugural event at the 1.10 lakh capacity, biggest stadium in the world   built at a cost over Rs 800 crores. It is un

BY R.K.MISRA History repeats itself -first as a mistake, second time as stupidity and thereafter as a tragedy-invariably with lethal costs. It   began in 2002   as an experiment in crass communal cleaving to win elections in Gujarat   and has endured up to   February 2020 as the BJP pulled out all stops in ethnic animosity to wrest India’s capital, Delhi from the Aam Admi Party(AAP) only to fall flat on its face. A recap would be in order. If AAP chief minister Arvind Kejriwal sought   votes for his work, BJP toiled to unseat him through a vicious witch-hunt. The Prime Minister termed the ongoing Shaheen Bagh protests in Delhi, a proliferating mindset which needed to be checked. His Home Minister Amit Shah wanted voters pressing the saffron button so hard that those protesting the   CAA(Citizens Amendment Act) and NRC(National Register of Citizens)   scamper home by counting evening . Again Union minister Prakash Javadekar termed Kejriwal a terrorist and BJP’s Uttar Prad