Bt Brinjal ka Bhartha !

Watching Jairam Ramesh go hyper over Bt Brinjal and then seeing him retract his stance later, I was forced to feel pity: for Bt Brinjal.

Why feel pity for Bt. Brinjal?

Well, Bt Brinjal almost lost a “purple” opportunity to get named as the “National Vegetable of India”!

Yeah, just come to think of it: Brinjal is native to India since pre-civilization times; India produces over 3500 varieties of this vegetable that is called Baingan in Hindi & Begun in Bangla. Also, India is the world’s second largest producer of this vegetable that is called Eggplant in the US. And by these statistics, Brinjal – Bt or no Bt! – deserves to enjoy the “national” status!

However, here, I am curious about our over eager MoS for Environment’s contemplation of granting regulatory approval for Bt Brinjal’s cultivation in India – all in solidarity with India’s “poor” farmers and the even more “poor” public – ever hungry for Brinjals!

Because, like Brinjals, people are in abundance in India! And, honestly, I can understand the Monsanto’s strategy of “testing” Bt Brinjal on Indians in India!

So, did we get saved by the minister’s “moratorium” on Bt Brinjal post severe protests? Well, the minister stated that the “moratorium” on Bt Brinjals would last for as long as it is needed to establish public trust and confidence.

Mr. Minister, how about indulging into “Brinjal diplomacy”? You can organize – in coordination with Monsanto, of course – free Bt Brinjal ka Bhartha camps for the “poor” and gain janta’s confidence for your Bt Brinjal agenda!

Or, if you want to go more professionally, appoint a PR agency to popularize Bt Brinjals through media campaigns besides camps and turn the “Brinjal Tide” in your favour!

Or, may be, you could take your campaign to the Net and have a facebook page dedicated or have a twitter account opened or a linkedin link established or a blog space created for Bt Brinjal! You could successfully kick start your crusade by urging a few twitter-happy colleagues in the Parliament to tweet a “controversial” 140-lettered opinion on Bt Brinjal and you could witness the whole world – India included – going “purple” in the debate: “Bt Brinjal - Bad or Not-so-Bad for humanity”!

Mr. Minister, do I make sense? ... Then say na, “what an Idea, madamji!”

P.S.: Picture of latest Amul Ad courtesy amul.com

Frankly, Shashi Tharoor deserves better!

Frankly, Shashi Tharoor deserves better! I simply couldn't understand the media-created brouhaha. Also, I feel that there was no need for him to exhibit his anger in the press conference. He could have simply given journalists a copy of his brilliant “Nehru: The Invention of India" and had asked them to come back with questions, if any, only post reading the book! (Wonderful platform for advertisement! The sales of the book would have skyrocketed! ... Just joking :) ... I took out his "Nehru" from my almirah last night and re-read the preface and the concluding chapter in order to refresh my memory with the beautiful journey of "Re-invention of India" before writing my opinion here.

It is sad to see Shashi Tharoor get into unnecessary controversies repeatedly and then spend his time and energy in explanations and apologies. The fault is not entirely his. However, he is himself to be blamed a great deal.

Shashi Tharoor should understand that he has an enviable status and people, especially Media, would be ever eager to exploit that for their own benefits. In today's 24x7 news environment and mushrooming news channels, all vying to grab the eyeballs in order to increase/maintain their TRP, a personality like his becomes a favourite fodder! And his tweets have satisfied their appetite regularly! He is their latest and the current TG - Target Group - if I may use the popular corporate parlance! They have got a replacement for their erstwhile favourite TV-friendly personalities like Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rakhi Sawant. (I do not mean to demean him by associating his name in the same context as that of Rakhi Sawant's but I am just trying to explain my viewpoint.) … The best thing for him to do would be to maintain a respectable distance from the otherwise highly alluring media as it is a double-edged sword!

Though I found his "cattle class" remark a bit arrogant and also did not agree with his attitude of tweeting his “difference” of opinion on an official matter on a social networking site (the entire world will collapse if everybody started exercising their democratic rights on Twitter or Facebook!), but I wholeheartedly support him on this "Nehru" controversy. I repeat: frankly, Shashi Tharoor deserves better!

Shashi Tharoor is the most suitable person to handle the ministry of external affairs. His 3 decades of rich international diplomacy experience (he should recall his lessons fast in order to survive in the murky political landscape of India!) will come handy to him in redefining India's otherwise archaic foreign policy. He has the capabilities to soon reach to the status of a few able ministers like P. Chidambaram. He just needs to get his perspective right.

I use my blog page to suggest him something at the cost of making him even very angry with me.

The time Mr. Tharoor spends on reading his half a million plus followers' tweets and posting his own, he should utilize the available time to write a book. He is amongst the select few rare Indian authors in English who are worth reading! In fact I strongly believe that if he gave enough time to writing, his books could be in the league of Nobel laureates! There is a purpose in his books (I especially liked India, Nehru, Great Indian Novel and Riot). Rest all authors are a complete waste of time and I feel that their books should be sold with a "money back guarantee"! Shashi Tharoor’s admirers will be really happy to be able to read a "real" book of his (not compilations of newspaper articles as in "Elephant..." or a hasty job in "Shadows...")! ... At the same time I wish him all the success in his political career, as well! Best of Luck!

Hope NOT to see him in news any time soon for any further controversy!

P.S.: Pl ignore my blog if you found it preachy and a running moralistic commentary on complete nonsense.