Twisting the tongue

The UPA Government took extreme care to see that the 25,000 participants of the Janadesh Rally8212;mainly landless tribals and marginal farmers walking from Gwalior to Delhi demanding land rights for all dispossessed8212;were not antagonised. This extended to a linguistic courtesy. Apparently Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had approved the formation of a National Land Resource Management Council under him a full three days ahead of its formal announcement. However, the organisers of the rally opposed the words 8216;resource management8217; on the ground that it reeked of World Bank phraseology. The PM summoned Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, who was to have announced the formation of the council, and instructed him to replace the offending words with 8216;land reforms8217;.