It concludes: “India is the only country that has always protected the minorities. But the definition of minorities in India is strangely distorted. Here the minorities are better off than Hindus and were the ruling class for centuries... The Christians are in majority in four states, the Muslims in one. Is it not a fact that where minorities are dominant they don’t accommodate any other community? ...The BJP has walked an extra mile to reassure the minorities and take them into its fold. But the response has so far been limited. If pseudo-secular politicians and fanatics gang up in this fashion what will be the future shape of Indian polity?”

US crash and burn

In a column titled “India’s chance in the financial crisis of the West”, R Balashankar writes: “In the last three weeks the world of American finance came down crumbling marking perhaps the end of Wall Street as we know it. China and India have largely been insulated from the crisis...The big meltdown has forced the US Federal Reserve and the Treasury ‘nationalise the economy faster than Hugo Chavez.’ India and China will continue to thrive for various reasons, the most important being that they had no part in the big gains made by few in the freewheeling financial system that is now in a shamble.” He adds: “The US government had to rescue the American International Group (AIG) through an $85 billion loan at punitive interest rates though AIG was a safe, well-run insurer. But its financial products division, which accounted for just a fraction of its revenues, wrote enough derivatives contracts to destroy the firm and shake the world ...”

Back on the farm

A news item titled “Social service by Kisan Sangh” observes: “Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, the premier organisation of farmers of the country, has started banks in four villages in east Andhra Pradesh to aid the farmers. Each farmer deposited their money at the rate of Rs. 50 per month. The banks have a membership of 303 farmers in all and the deposits totaled up to Rs. 11 lakh soon. Ninety per cent of this was disbursed as loan to farmers. The recovery is 100 per cent. All this goes on merely on mutual trust among the farmers.”

It concludes: “There is no employee in the banks. That way the expenditure is minimised. Last year, one of the banks purchased manure and seeds on joint bargain method and it could sell them at dramatically lower prices (compared to the market level) to member-farmers as well as other farmers. This is one of the projects of social service by BKS.”