How is it that people who have money to buy airplanes as birthday gifts for their spouses have nothing to pay the poor families they have kicked out? India is an agrarian country where everything, from religion to livelihood, emerges from and is tied to the land. How can the government hope for development and growth by killing the very soul of the country?
Koshika Krishna, Mumbai
Though successive state governments have been stressing on preventive measures to check pollution levels, especially in the industrial and coal mining areas, nothing has come of it and people are continuing to suffer (Mera Bharat Mahan, Mar 9). Even existing forests with high-value trees are being felled for establishing thermal power plants. Depleting forests are the reason for tragedies like the Uttarakhand floods.
Ranjit Sinha, Calcutta
Land acquisition has always been a cruel business. Some of the students my father taught economics to at Hindu College, Delhi University, were from families of agriculturists, and had orchards that were acquired for considerably less than one rupee per square yard. In the days of yore, the dda was instrumental in effecting a great intra-social transfer of wealth.
Ashok Lal, Mumbai
The bulldozers that have begun to roll at Mahan will roll from Kodagu to Kozhikode to Dandeli-Anshi. The next generation will see a barren and concrete jungle called India.
Mrs Praveen Thimmaiah, Bangalore
Development and achhe din are concepts that exploit the innocent and the poor, make them believe in a dream and give up their wealth of innocence so that asome politician like Nitin Gadkari or Robert Vadra can benefit.
Dinesh Kumar, Chandigarh
The story of Mahan is perhaps the story of almost every case of land acquisition. The main reason for resistance to land acquisition is that it snatches away parental assets and the only source of livelihood for farmers and tribals—land and forests—without giving them a good deal for providing better livelihood and rehabilitation. Mahan is an example of unfulfilled promise and betrayal.
M.C. Joshi, Lucknow
Both the UPA and NDA governments are guilty of the systemic plunder of farmers’ land in the name of development but actually enriching only the corporates. It’s the opposite of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
M.Y. Shariff, Chennai
