GoM=Gag on Ministers

With Singur and Nandigram showing no signs of dying down, none in the political class wants to be seen as politically incorrect on the issue of land acquisition for industrial purposes.

The fears about being politically incorrect on this issue is so great that even the Cabinet ministers in the GoM constituted by the PM to look into the rehabilitation issue are afraid to speak their mind. It so happened that in the second meeting of the GoM on rehabilitation, panel head Sharad Pawar pulled out a set of newspaper clippings of the stories that appeared in the media after the first GoM quoting some members. Pawar started the meeting by asking the members whose names appeared in those stories to refrain from leaking to the Press on what transpired at these meetings. He is learnt to have said that the media leaks put undue pressure on the members whose opinions went against the politically correct opinions. This, he surmised, interfered with the free discussion on the rehabilitation issue.