Hold that drink

Without disputing Sunita Narain8217;s findings on pesticide traces in cola drinks, I want to know if a cola containing pesticides is more harmful to us than milk...

Without disputing Sunita Narain8217;s findings on pesticide traces in cola drinks, I want to know if a cola containing pesticides is more harmful to us than milk, vegetables and even drinking water that contain pesticides, pollutants and other adulterants. Why is the cola issue raked up again and again but samples of vegetables, milk, yoghurt and packed juices, also retailed by multinationals, not investigated? Even agricultural produce has been tested for high pesticide content.

I wonder how many people are aware of the extent of the presence in milk of poisons like arsenic, caustic soda and urea. It is an open secret that urea milk is being manufactured on a large scale at a Haryana plant. It is estimated that as much as 30 of milk sold across the country is made of synthetic milk, with urea the prime ingredient. Cola companies make an easy target but thousands of synthetic milk manufacturers and even big milk plants go completely unnoticed; no NGO, Padma Shri awardee or even electronic media fights this far deadlier monster. Yet consider the danger: Milk is almost a staple diet among Indians, and few parents force their children to drink colas as vigorously as they do with milk. The irony is that everybody knows we are all gulping down poisoned milk and yet nobody finds the issue big enough to pursue.

We should not compromise on adulteration in any food product but we certainly cannot cherry-pick high-profile products with little actual consumption. Even in the case of cola drinks, it is clear no checks were done before unverified and unsubstantiated facts were misused to create panic in public. Worse, it also provoked a ban in many states, and in Parliament House. The blanket ban by some state governments through short-circuiting the tenets of law is nothing short of tyrannical and deserves legal action.

Slippery Grounds

The BJP8217;s Yashwant Sinha minced no words while attacking the UPA government recently over the alleged compromise on national nuclear policy. I wish my fellow MP was aware of his own party8217;s record while negotiating India8217;s nuclear programme with the USA in 1999. Engaging India, the book by then US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, has a detailed account of negotiations between him and our former foreign affairs minister Jaswant Singh. On page 145 of the book Talbott writes, 8220;Jaswant said that India would sign the CTBT by the end of May.8221; Singh is even attributed to have assured Talbott that the signature would be tantamount to ratification as well.

At the same time, the so-called 8220;Indian position8221; on the subject was revealingly demonstrated by a statement that 8220;India might join the long-sought, elusive moratorium on the production of fissile material8230;on the condition that the other six countries that had tested did likewise.8221; In fact, Talbott writes that the only thing that prevented India signing the CTBT by September 1999, as promised by the then Prime Minister in his statement of intent to the UN, was an unexpected and unforeseen collapse of the government in April 1999, and Jaswant felt regretful and embarrassed over what was his 8220;honest and determined commitment on CTBT8221;. It is obvious that all of Singh8217;s promises and 8216;commitments8217; had the support of the government and the Prime Minister himself. Even the MEA8217;s annual report for 1999-2000 puts on record India8217;s 8220;willingness to discuss converting this unilateral moratorium on nuclear tests into a de jure obligation.8221;

If this is the record that his own party has in protecting India8217;s nuclear interests, I wonder how Sinha, or anyone from the BJP, can question the UPA8217;s government8217;s attempts to get a historic nuclear agreement in place, all the more so when the agreement is yet to be signed and ratified by either side!

Road tripped

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways tabled a revealing annexure on our highway projects in reply to a question in Rajya Sabha. It says 67 highway projects have outrun their deadline by several years and are awaiting completion. The most common reasons for delay are cutting of trees and poor contractor performance. A total of seven trees blocked the construction of a 12 km project in Assam for two years! The Golden Quadrilateral project itself will only be 96 complete at the end of this year. No surprise, then, that in 2002-04, more than 100,000 people died in road accidents across the country.

The writer is a Congress MP in Rajya Sabha