River Sutra Woes

INDIA8217;S giant river linking project is still on the drawing board but criticism may already be rising to the high water mark. We heard ...

INDIA8217;S giant river linking project is still on the drawing board but criticism may already be rising to the high water mark. We heard the critics at home. This week in the GUARDIAN, a report filed from Dhaka spoke of the concerns these ambitious plans have triggered in Bangladesh.

Where the government fears that India8217;s proposal to divert vast quantities of water from major rivers threatens the livelihoods of more than 100 million people downstream. And where ministers are considering appealing to the United Nations to redraft international law on water sharing.

According to estimates by Bangladeshi scientists, said the GUARDIAN, even a 10 per cent to 20 per cent reduction in the water flow to their country would dry out vast areas for most of the year. Because more than 80 per cent of Bangladesh8217;s 20 million farmers grow rice and are dependent on water that has flowed through India.

India8217;s plan to divert water from the north to its drought-prone southern and eastern states may also dry out the Sunderbans. The world8217;s largest coastal forest may be all silted up as a result of India8217;s riverlinking project.

Early Poll Fever

THE FINANCIAL TIMES is standing on tiptoe to catch an early glimpse of the most grandiose Indian project of all: the next general election. It predicted that the Shimla announcement that Sonia Gandhi will be the prime ministerial candidate of an anti-BJP coalition is all set to trigger a 8216;8216;xenophobic8217;8217; election campaign.

The FT was daringly certain: One, that the mood of India8217;s swelling middle class is 8216;8216;key8217;8217; to the outcome of the next election. And two, that the Congress8217;s claims about Sonia Gandhi8217;s Indianness have failed to convince 8216;8216;most of this class8217;8217;. Brave FT. To be so sure, so early!

Bush War

CLINT EASTWOOD would never do that, clucked columnist Joe Klein in TIME. Klein was writing about how Bush and the Bushies seem to be on the run ever since a furious scandal broke out over the incorrect claim in his last State of the Union message that Iraq recently sought to buy uranium in Africa. Kelin accused Bush of undermining his reputation as 8216;8216;a straight shooter8217;8217; by ducking responsibility for the erroneous claim.

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William Kristol, editor of the conservative WEEKLY STANDARD, has ridiculed the US media for their 8216;8216;hyperbolic, rush-to-judgement, believe-the-worst8217;8217; coverage of the issue. Bush has been forced into a kind of moral time warp, wrote TIME: Six months after he first argued for war and three months after he announced major combat operations ended, he is making the case for war all over again.

Some commentators pointed out that the death of Saddam8217;s sons, Uday and Qusay, couldn8217;t have come at a better time for Bush. In Britain, the GUARDIAN was especially acerbic: 8216;8216;If Mr Bush were a fighter pilot which he sometimes seems to think he is, he would paint two silhouettes on his fuselage with crosses through them.8217;8217;

The Big Media

Controversy rages in the US over the size of Big Media. This week, the House of Representatives passed legislation to block a new rule supported by the Bush administration that would permit the nation8217;s largest TV networks to grow bigger by owning more stations.

Last month the Federal Communications Commission FCC decided to raise the limit on the number of TV stations a network can own. The FCC ruled that a single company can own TV stations reaching 45 per cent of the nation8217;s households. But the House measure would return the ownership cap to 35 per cent. House members from both parties have evidently taken note of the 8216;8216;vocal resistance8217;8217; to the FCC action by a 8216;8216;broad spectrum of conservative and liberal lobbying groups8217;8217;, observed the NEW YORK TIMES.

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Opponents of the FCC8217;s rule worry about media giantism. Further media consolidation would reduce the diversity of voices on the airwaves. 8216;8216;Our democracy is strong8217;8217;, counters FCC chairman and architect of the new media rules, Michael K. Powell.

In the UK, amid heated debate, the rules preventing joint ownership and imposing a limit of 15 per cent on a company8217;s share of the total television audience have been abolished by the Communications Act passed last week in Parliament.

Here in India, we8217;re debating the limits of foreign ownership of our media. But the Big Media debate may be coming soon.

P.S.: IT could be because she breathed her last in the US. But that would be giving too much credit to geography and not nearly enough to Leela Chitnis. On her death last week, the more intimate tributes were penned to the actress by the American media. Last week, the NEW YORK TIMES wrote affectionately about the 8216;8216;Duchess of Depression8217;8217;, also the first Indian movie star to endorse Lux soap.

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This week, TIME remembered the 8216;8216;Mother of all Mothers8217;8217;. Who had perfected the 8216;8216;art of suffering radiantly8217;8217;. In a sense, wrote Richard Corliss in his elegant tribute, 8216;8216;all lovers of classic Indian cinema are her grateful children, nurtured by the women she embodied8217;8217;.