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TEHELKA INITIATIVES: Critical Futures | Tehelka Foundation
Discussion Topics

Palaniappan Chidambaram does not want to ruin his own copybook but the rising international crude prices, fuelling an all-time high inflation, are making things difficult for the country's erudite finance minister. Days before he sat down for this no-holds barred interview at his office in the imposing North Block, the FM had rejected demands from the oil ministry for bonds to bail out ailing PSUs and angered the cement lobby by forcing the cement companies to lower prices.

Click below to post your views on eleven interesting issues raised by the FM in the interview::
[1.]"We are doing everything to control inflation, but I don’t think it will have too adverse an impact on our government"
Total active post[s]: 17
[2.]"The Indian economy is not overheating: Overheating is when you have a situation where demand is far in excess of capacity. You can have overheated segments of an economy, but I do not think that across the board demand is in excess of capacity. The consequence of arguing that the Indian economy is overheated is to slow down the growth rate. And that would be disaster for India"
Total active post[s]: 4
[3.]"Our policies made a dent in the country's poverty indicators like per capita income, education, employment, etc"
Total active post[s]: 5
[4.]"Our growth is at an impressive rate, but the inclusiveness of that growth is at a very tiny rate. If we had a better system of administration, a better system of reaching benefits to the poor, greater accountability -- we could have reached the benefits of this growth to a much larger number"
Total active post[s]: 0
[5.]"People normally do not employ disabled people. We have to woo them and that is why we’ve offered to pick up the tab for ESI and EPF for three years if corporates employ a differently abled person"
Total active post[s]: 1
[6.]"Our per capita emission is a fraction, one-twentieth of the most developed countries, one-tenth in some places, one-fifth in others. So I don't think we should be overawed by these arguments from the developed countries"
Total active post[s]: 1
[7.]"Poverty is the worst polluter. If you are poor, you live in the most polluted world. The sanitation is poor, your drinking water is poor, the housing is poor, the air you breathe is poor. Everything is polluted. It’s our right, our duty first to overcome poverty"
Total active post[s]: 9
[8.]"I think people are being deceived to believe that the existing state of life is an ideal state of life and development and industrialisation will make it worse. Here we talk about steel prices going up, but for three years we have stopped the world's largest steel producer from producing steel in India. This could be categorised as a conspiracy of the socially-driven class to keep poor people poor"
Total active post[s]: 5
[9.]"Why do you assume that Posco or the Mittals will not build in Orissa and Jharkhand a place like Jamshedpur. Why do you assume so?"
Total active post[s]: 2
[10.]"I don't agree that the only ones with conscience and sensitivity to the environment are NGOs and that business houses and entrepreneurs have no conscience and are totally oblivious to the larger good"
Total active post[s]: 3
[11.]"You grow food to consume it as food. You don't grow food to be converted into fuel. Twenty percent of US corn is being diverted to fuel. Sugarcane is being diverted to fuel. Palm oil is being diverted to fuel and because of the high prices of fuel linked to the crude oil crisis, people are diverting land which is meant to grow food grain to grow crops for bio-fuels. How is this justified in a world where millions of people are still going without food?"
Total active post[s]: 4
Nano: Part of the Solution or Part of The Problem?
Total active post[s]: 33
The launch of the Nano, Tata’s Rs. 1 lakh 'People's car', has captured the nation’s imagination in an unprecedented way. If the Nano is an answer to many problems, it also raises larger concerns that needs to be pursued beyond the hype surrounding it. To start with, in a free society, how to reconcile the right to pursue individual aspirations with concerns about its environmental impact? What are the issues it raises, and the unforeseen challenges it brings forth? Join the debate on the “People’s Car”.
Is regionalism in India, a result of the country's inability to provide adequate resources to all of its citizens?
Total active post[s]: 23
Raj Thackeray wants to drive all north indians from Maharashtra. Lt. Governor Tejendra Khanna claims that North-Indians derive a sense of pride by violating laws. Is this an indication of the brewing intolerance towards each other among countrymen? Is the emerging cosmopolitan culture across the country just a farce? Are our leaders risking the mutiethnicity of a pluralistic society? What can be done about it?
Should Indian politician be also held accountable for what they do in their personal lives?
Total active post[s]: 13
Nicholas Sarkozy announces his affair with Carla Bruni. Bill Clinton Admits his liason with intern Monica Lewinsky. Is it the turn of the Indian politicians who to be more transparent about their personal lives, considering the social powers and the role they have in shaping the Indian democracy? Or is it okay for them to guard their secrets under the garb of privacy?
Taslima Nasreen: Publicity Hound or Free Speech Martyr?
Total active post[s]: 21
Salman Rushdie, MF Hussain, and now Taslima Nasreen too have joined the ever expanding list of cultural figures under attack in the name of religion. Cultural intolerance – whether Hindu, Muslim or Christian – seem to be on the rise everywhere, with the fundamentalists ire often directed against artists and cultural figures. Who decides if a painting or a book is offensive or not? Are we being played by publicity-hungry artists or are we falling prey to the agendas of religious reactionaries?
Himachal’s Third Force
Total active post[s]: 1
As Mayawati’s elephant gently but firmly makes it way up to Himachal, both the established parties – the Congress and the BJP- can feel the ground shake. What are the BSP’s chances? Will it be able to ride on the wave that started in UP and pull off a coup in Himachal or will it prove to be non-starter?
Gujarat Elections
Total active post[s]: 51
The election campaign in Gujarat is heating up, while both parties try not to ‘rake up’ the crimes of 2002 and instead talk about ‘peace’, ‘harmony’ and ‘development’? Can there really be peace and prosperity in Gujarat when the perpetrators of the gravest crime in the state’s history remain unpunished? Or will defensive Gujarati voters vote them back into power once again?
Nandigram: Revelation or Repetition?
Total active post[s]: 14
The CPM’s shameful and blatant act of brutality in Nandigram has been widely condemned by the intelligentsia, the media, and civil society, with some even comparing Buddhadeb to Modi. Was what we saw a new face of the CPM – the self-declared champions of the poorer and weaker sections of society - or was Nandigram consistent with the Party’s track record of violence?
 
Not Just Gujarat’s Shame
Total active post[s]: 2481
Those who cheered from the sidelines, those who waited and watched, those who had the power but did not want to ‘interfere’; all of India stands implicated in the events that transpired in Gujarat. Will this revelation of the deepest, most terrifying truths that lie at the heart of our divided society provoke self-reflection or denial?
Whither Democracy?
Total active post[s]: 134
The events that unfolded in 2002 will forever be a blemish on democracy, and not just in Gujarat. Above all, because the very people who were responsible for the pogrom were re-elected in the elections that followed it. What does it say about Indian democracy? What’s its future in India?
Narendra Modi: Implicated Beyond Doubt
Total active post[s]: 353
Key BJP, RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal activists spoke openly of how Narendra Modi blessed the anti-Muslim pogrom. The Gujarat Chief Minister's future now hangs in the balance. Does the Tehelka tapes merely confirm what everyone knew?
At What Cost Hindutva?
Total active post[s]: 208
The perpetrators of the Gujarat’s pogrom refer to it as a ‘lab’ of Hindutva, a successful experiment that could be replicated elsewhere. The Sangh’s version of Hindutva has exacted a terrible price from the nation. Now that it’s rotten core lies exposed, where does Hindutva go from here?
The Castle Over the Graveyard
Total active post[s]: 69
In the years following the riots, Gujarat became the hottest destination for foreign and domestic investment in India, and Modi hailed as a ‘visionary’ and feted by NRI tycoons and corporate leaders. Why did India Inc. think it was ok to do business with the 'devil'? Or is morality to business what water is to oil?
Role of the Police
Total active post[s]: 85
Accounts of those who engineered the riots reveal how the guardians of the law colluded with the outlaws to make Gujarat’s horror even worse. Is anyone familiar with our police surprised? Would this finally bring about long-pending police reforms and check saffronisation of the forces in Gujarat and beyond?
Legal Subversion
Total active post[s]: 71
Parts of the judiciary has been found to be equally complicit in the events of 2002. Public prosecutors ran with the hare and hunted with the hound, keeping their sympathies strictly for the accused. To what extent did the most trusted public institution fail in its duty? What can be done to stem the rot?

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