After air pollution, it’s Delhi’s water quality that is reportedly the worst. Like air, water has become a political slugfest with CM Kejriwal calling Centre’s report false and motivated. Quality of life issues being raised by politicians is a positive sign. But not when it’s reduced to a blame game.
Modi needs a new Sri Lanka strategy. Countering China amid economic slowdown not easy
India must now design a new outreach to Sri Lanka after the election victory of wartime defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa. It was during his strongman brother Mahinda Rajapaksa’s term that Beijing’s influence peaked. A new strategy is needed, especially because India’s weak economy doesn’t allow room for much largesse now.
It is essential to lay dual pipelines for domestic purpose. One pipeline for pure drinking water and the other for washing clothes etc.
Neither an arms race nor a competition to buy the favours of small neighbours is a sustainable policy for India as it deals with the growing influence of China. We have had issues with Sri Lanka, Nepal, even the Maldives. Red lines should be etched, which India has been in a position to enforce and will continue to do so. However, South Asia is no longer our exclusive zone of influence. We have to share it in a constructive, cooperative way with the dragon. Putting life back into SAARC would probably be a good thing.
All politicians living in Delhi, irrespective of party affiliation, breathe the same air, drink the same water. That should be a powerful incentive to act in a spirit of bipartisanship, to give the citizens of Delhi these two most basic attributes of life. 2. Look at the state of the Yamuna, white foam arising out of it, like a film set. If any town, upstream of downstream of Delhi, is sourcing drinking water from it, unsurprising it is of such poor quality. 3. Large parts of India are facing a health emergency. The entire government system should act. Bottled water and oxygen bars are not the solution, even for the affluent.