i read with horror tavleen singh article on singur. with zero facts, zero arguments, she just thrashes arundathi roy and environmentalists.

of late, articles in indian express has a definite tilt towards pro industry lobbies. no wonder its premier editor is also doing the same.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Date: Dec 10, 2006 12:11 PMSubject: re: CPM gets taste of its own medicine in singur
To: tavleensingh@hotmail.com, tavleen.singh@expressindia.comCc: editor@expressindia.com

dear tavleen,
i read your article titled "CPM gets taste of its own medicine in singur" in indianexpress.

you mention that when india moves away from being 70% dependent on agriculture we would have kicked off poverty.

i am assuming that you are telling rural people who depend on agriculture to give way for industries so that they can work in industries and earn better income thereby kicking off poverty.

i think you are wrong. let me give a few examples, where people have given way (usually by mindless 1895 land acquisition act and by brutal force) to industries and are getting royally screwed.

india's industry can be broadly classified into a couple of tiers. one is the high paying urban software jobs (with the huge benefit of high and decent paying service jobs that caters to software industry). the next tier is the dangerous and hazardous and wilfuly polluting industries (that countries like america, britan, etc have kicked out) like chemicals, leather, bulk low cost pharma, sponge iron units, etc that dot our rural landscape.

in cuddalore, where tens of thousands of once decent doing people are now even struggling to breathe amidst the polluting chemical units that employ only a couple of thousands people but destroying agriculture, fishing, etc by easy pollution.

look at patencheru, in outskirt of hyderabad, once a thrirving community of farmers and fishermen and now a choking hell.

look at the beautiful island of eloor, than can give cancun a run for its money for tourism. now it is a dead place with massive industrial pollution that employs a very few people and that too migrant labourers and that too working in hazardous conditions.

look at south gujarat, look at fertile terai region of uttranchal, look at the 'great' sponge iron industry, look at massive tirupur pollution that feeds mill owners but screws up farmers and fishermen.... the list is endless...

you write, "if our environmental its are not another tedious bunch of mindless activists"....

mindless and polluting industrialisation (that's the one india is paving way to) is not an answer to poverty.

in singur it may be a car industry, but across thousands of singurs across india, it is cuddalore's, eloor's, patancheru's, etc.

i think you should rewrite it as "if our journalists are only half as learned as environmentalists, we would have not have fake journalism like the recent one's that you and indian express are doing".