Opinion EU Deal
While the BJP was busy with its organisational reshuffle,the Sangh Parivar discovered that India was all set to get a raw deal in the proposed Indo-EU free trade agreement (FTA).
EU Deal
While the BJP was busy with its organisational reshuffle,the Sangh Parivar discovered that India was all set to get a raw deal in the proposed Indo-EU free trade agreement (FTA). Consequently,the journal Organiser has decided to raise the pitch against the FTA in its latest issue,with over three pages of coverage claiming that the deal is discriminatory,dangerous and of no real benefit to India, but that the prime minister is pushing a deal that deeply hurts the economy.
The official negotiators are under pressure from the UPA top brass to mortgage national interest at the altar of EUs economic aggression, it asserts. Claiming that the proposed FTA has dangerous consequences for farmers,goods and services,investment,drugs and survival of SMEs in the country,the two articles on this issue state that North-South FTAs do not make economic sense because India will have to significantly open its markets for the EU,with only a marginal gain of additional market access from the EU. It reasons that developed countries already have low tariffs in most products,so India can actually get access without an FTA… the possibility of a gain (to EU) just from tariff reduction (by India) is huge for the partner but very limited for India.
On the contrary,the article seeks to highlight that it is European subsidies,non-tariff (such as standards) and process barriers that block the Indian access to the EU market but these are hardly addressed under the FTAs.
Law Elitists
Both Sangh parivar weeklies have frowned upon the clamour within a section of population favouring pardon for actor Sanjay Dutt after the Supreme Court convicted him for a case related to 1993 Bombay bomb blasts. Organisers editorial asserts that law elitists want terror as celebrity pastime asking,how else does one explain the support to
Sanjay Dutt,who has proven links with the underworld and anti-nationals? It has also come down against the doubts cast over the arrest of suspected Kashmiri terrorist Liaqat Shah and the government bowing to the demands from the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister to order an NIA probe into the arrest.
It argues that amnesty is a noble thought that should be approached with a lot of responsibility,commitment to justice and to the nation,but that the reactions on Sanjay Dutt and Liaquat Shah betray none of these.
The editorial also contrasts Pragya Thakurs case with Dutts to argue that Sanjay Dutt was roaming free all these years,making commercial hit movies but Sadhvi has been wasting away in jail,her body bruised from police abuse,her mind numbed from mental torture,merely because she sold a bike fifteen years ago,and did not bother to change the papers and this bike was used in a blast. Similarly,it questions the motives behind investigations into Aseemanand and Lt Col Purohit.
Educational Telescope
A report in Panchjanya is critical of adopting a Western approach towards education in the country. It attacks English medium education in primary schools,with an editorial wondering whether English is the sole repository of wisdom. It says that forget about telescopes,Indian sages could tell the velocity of celestial movement by observing the movement through their naked eye when even spectacles were not discovered. It laments that we have started orbiting around Western model by ignoring our own model. A report from the C.D. Deshmukh Memorial Lecture in Organiser also criticises rising private participation in education.
Compiled by Ravish Tiwari
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