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Today's
Stories
March 17, 2008
Pam Martens
The
Fed's Wall Street Dilemma
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The US, Iran and the Policy of Dual Containment
March 15 /
16, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
How
to Destroy a Country in Five Years
Mike Whitney
Bearly
Alive: Investment Giant Rushed to ICU by Panicky Fed Chief
Ralph Nader
Of
Laws and Men
Robert Pollin
It's Still the Economy, Stupid
Diane Christian
The Poetics of Perversity: From Boccaccio to Spitzer
Wajahat Ali
Faking the Hood: a Conversation with Ishmael Reed
Tom Wright
/
Therese Saliba
Rachel Corrie's Case for Justice
Alan Farago
Back to Florida: Where Bushtime Began
Greg Moses
Raiding the Family Room in Texas
Michael Hudson
A Grand Global Bargain?
Martha Rosenberg
Why Hillary's Favorite Chicken Company is Eying China
John Goekler
Fourth Generation Warfare in a Fifth Generation Conflict
Uzma Aslam
Khan
A Letter to Barack Obama: Where's the Change, Barack?
Oren Ben-Dor
The Silencing of Gilad Atzmon
David Underhill
Mammon, Morals and the Mobile Tanker Deal
Fred Gardner
The Education of Eliot Spitzer
David Michael
Green
Why Spitzer Should Have Resigned (and Why He Shouldn't Have)
Rev. William E. Alberts
Jesus, Entombed in Heaven
Gail Dines
It's All About the John: Prostitution and Male Power
David Yearsley
Conducting, Anarchy and the Problem of When to Begin
Chris Clarke
Walking with Zeke: the Luckiest of Dogs
Poets' Basement
Anderson, Lodge & Subiet
Website of
the Day
Deviant Art
March 14, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Watching
the Dollar Die
Don Santina
Vichy
Democrats: Pelosi and the Politics of Collaboration
Patrick Cockburn
Iraqi
Mother Vows Revenge on US: How She Lost Her Husband and Her Sons
Tim Rinne
StratCom
Rules! The Next War Will Start in Nebraska
Robert Fantina
In
Torture We Trust
Saul Landau
Letter
to the Presidents-in-Waitings
David Macaray
Common
Myths About Labor Unions
Franklin Lamb
Is
the Bush Administration Switching Horses in Lebanon
Michael Neumann
The
One State Illusion: Reply to My Critics
March 13, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Republicans
and "Free Market" Zealots Bring Disaster to America
Mike Whitney
Meltdown
Looms Larger As Credit Markets Freeze
Assaf Kfoury
"One-State
or Two State?"- Sterile Debate on False Alternatives
Andy Worthington
Afghan
Hero Who Died in Guantánamo: The Background to the Story
Adam Federman
From
Autopia to Autogeddon: Cars Reach the End of the Road
March 12, 2008
Dave Lindorff
Bringing
Down Spitzer: It's the Big Brother Who Should Bother US
R.F. Blader
The
Spitzer Backlash
Yonatan Mendel
How
to be an Israeli Journalist. Never Write "Murder" or
"Palestine"
Jonathan Cook
One
State or Two? Neither. The Issue is Zionism
Bill and Kathy
Christison
Fallon
and Gates -- At Least One Cheer
James J. Brittain
Was
the U.S. Involved in Killing the FARC-EP Leaders
Ron Jacobs
"All
the Money You Make Will Never Buy Back Your Soul"
March 11, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
How
to End the Subprime Crisis
Ed O'Loughlin
How
Israeli Troops Invade Homes in Gaza, Brutalize, Smash and Steal
Ramzy Baroud
'Unwavering
Commitment' to Inequality
Kathy Christison
One
State or Two? The Debate Over Israel and Palestine
China Hand
PRC
Plays it Cool, as U.S. Tries to Amp Up Pressure on Iran
John Joslin
Thank
You, Nafta! Welcome to Weirton, Home of the Discount Cigarette
Mike Averko
Serb
Politics, Kosovo and the Moscow-Washington Divide
Ben Rosenfeld
Gavin
Newsom's Kneejerk Plan
Thierry Paquot
High
Rise, Low Spirits:The Curse of the Tower Block
March 10, 2008
Uri Avnery
"Kill
A Hundred Turks and Rest": The Five-Day War in Gaza
Col. Dan Smith
Scoring
the "Surge" and What Lies Beyond
R.F. Blader
Why
"Lock Them Up and Throw Away the Key" is Losing its
Sheen
Michael Neumann
The
One-State Illusion: More is Less
Bob Fitrakis
and Harvey Wasserman
Did
the Republicans Give Hillary Her Victory in Ohio?
James J. Brittain
Anti-Uribe
Protests in Colombia and the World
Missy Comley
Beattie
The
Passion of John McCain
March 8-9,
2008 Weekend Edition
JoAnn Wypijewski
The
Only Way to Fight the Clintons
Mike Whitney
Sorting
Through the Rubble in Post Bubble America
Peter Morici
Fed
and Treasury Fiddle as Economy Plummets
Ralph Nader
The
Silent Violence of Gaza's Suffering that Candidates Ignore
Jonathan Cook
The
Meaning of Gaza's Shoah
Steve Niva
Behind
the Israeli Escalation in Gaza
Bill and Kathy
Christison
Crisis
over Teheran's Alleged Nuclear Plans Nearing Climax
Hervé
Do Alto and Franck Poupeau
Bolivia:
Morales is Checked
Eric Walberg
To
Leave and Stay at the Same Time: Putin to Medvedev to…?
Scott Johnson
City
of A Thousand Foreclosures
Mark Scaramella
James
Brown's Gate
Bill Clinton
President
Clinton's Remarks on Naming William M. Daley as NAFTA Task Force
Chairman
Poet's Basement
St.
Thomasino, Engel, Davies and Willson
Website of
the Weekend
Hillary
Blackens Barack
March 7, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
Why
Iraq Could Blow-Up in John McCain's Face
Robin Blackburn
Question
for Barrack Obama: Why Afghanistan is the 'Right War'?
Saul Landau
The
Stupid Economy
Binoy Kampmark
When
Competition is Good: McCain and the Muddled Democrats
Chris Floyd
Crushing
the Ants: Admiral Fallon and His Empire
Andy Worthington
Spanish
Drop "Inhuman" Extradition Request for Guantánamo
Britons
Will Potter
Before
the Smoke Even Clears in Seattle: Bringing Out the T Word
March 6, 2008
March 6, 2008
Vincent Navarro
The
Next Failure of Health Reform
Forrest Hylton
High Stakes in the Andes: Colombia's Cornered President
Peter Morici
Why the Dollar is So Cheap
George Ciccariello-Maher
Counter-Attack of the Bureaucrats
John Ross
Taxi! Taxi! The Dark Side of the Oscars
Jacob Hornberger
No Standing to Lecture on Justice
Paul Watson
Illegal Japanese Whaling by the Numbers
Dan Bacher
Off the Deep End
Website of the Day
A Katrina Reader Online
March 5, 2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
A
Great Day for John McCain (and Maybe Nader)
Joanne Mariner
After Guantanamo
Fidel Castro
The Raid on Ecuador: Underestimating Rafael Correa
Christopher
Brauchli
The Turkish Invasions
Steven Sherman
Obama and the Prospects for a Renewal of the Left
Dave Lindorff
Busting Bush & Co. in New England
James Murren
Bombing Somalia
Adam Engel
Necropolis Now
Website of Day
Remember Song
March 4, 2008
Wajahat Ali
Mumbo
Jumbo: Naming Names with Ishmael Reed
William Blum
How Could Hillary Have Known?
Bill Quigley
The Cleansing of New Orleans
Ralph Nader
The Prince Harry Solution
Patrick Irelan
Oil and Health in Venezuela
James J. Brittain
/
R. James Sacouman
Uribe's Colombia is Destabilizing a New Latin America
Norman Solomon
The War Election
Jacob Hornberger
Hillary in Waco: the Missing Apology
Andy Worthington
Guantánamo and the European Parliament
Mike Averko
Kosovo and the Press
Website of the Day
Tex-Mex Primary
March 3, 2008
Jennifer Loewenstein
Gazan Holocaust
Alan Farago
American Politics and the Faltering Economy
Richard Gott
Colombian Deaths in Ecuador
Wajahat Ali
Who Speaks for a Billion Muslims? Analyzing the World Gallup
Poll with John Esposito
Paul Craig Roberts
The Mukasey Conspiracy: a Bi-Partisan Attack on the Constitution
Robert Weissman
When Multinationals Say Adieu
Uri Avnery
Good Morning, Hamas
Martha Rosenberg
When Your Meat is a Downer
Eva Liddell
Leave the Next Dance for Bill
Michael Donnelly
Will Ferrell Does Flint
Website of the Day
Muddy Waters: Train Fare Home Blues
March 1 / 2,
2008
Alexander Cockburn
The
Race Card
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Political Trial of Don Siegelman
Kathleen and Bill Christison
Nader the Best Antidote to American Imperialism
Nelson P. Valdés
Cuba After Fidel
Christopher Brauchli
Meet Mr. Nursultan Nazarbayev: Friend of Bill, George and Dick
Ron Jacobs
Inside the Secret City: Bomb Making at Oak Ridge
John Ross
The New Conquistadores: Spain's Reconquest of Mexico
Robert Fantina
Posturing Over Patriotism: Obama and Those Lapel Pins
Robert Weissman
Hidden in Plain Sight: Human Rights Hypocrisy
Mohammed Omer
Fear in Gaza
Remi Kanazi
Barack Obama and the Politics of Xenophobia
Bob Jackson
Why is Yellowstone Destroying Its Bison Herd?
Richard Rhames
Casual Threats: Loaded with Mercury
Franklin Lamb
Lebanon Awaits the Arrival of the USS Cole
Rannie Amiri
Showboat Diplomacy: US Warships Steam Toward Lebanon
David Michael
Green
The Three Faces of Hillary: the Politics of Flim-Flam
Conn Hallinan
Notes from the Southern Cone
Faheem Hussain
Prince Harry of Afghanistan and the Meaning of Normalcy
Poets' Basement
Gibbons, Orloski, Gardner and Ford
Website of
the Weekend
The Palestine Chronicle Needs (and Deserves) Your Help!
February 29,
2008
Matt Gonzalez
The
Obama Craze
Jonathan Cook
Academic Freedom? Not for Arabs in Israel
Joshua Frank
Obama and Israel
Anthony DiMaggio
The Unilateral Presidency: Signing Statements and the Rollback
of American Law
Linn Washington, Jr.
Cop Abuse in America
Binoy Kampmark
Hubris and Nemesis
Robert Bryce
Energy Efficiency May be a Good Thing, But It Won't Cut Energy
Use
Sonja Karkar
Australia's Government Continues Its Love Affair with Israel
Dave Lindorff
A Manchurian Candidate in the White House? Obama or Bush?
Website of
the Day
Olduvai George
February 28,
2008
Patrick Cockburn
"Iraq"
Falls Apart
Fred Gardner
The Birth of NAFTA
Michael Levitin
The Crisis in Kosovo is Just Beginning
William S.
Lind
The Fake State of Kosovo
David Macaray
A Ray of Hope for Organized Labor
Stephen Fleischman
Nader's Latest Run: Monkey Wrench or Cattle Prod?
George Wuerthner
The Myths of Forest Health: Why Ecological Logging is an Oxymoron
Laura Carlsen
The North American Union Farce
Carl Finamore
Why the Delta-Northwest Deal Hasn't Taken Off
Michael Dickinson
The Day I Bombed the House of Commons
Website of the Day
Plane Stupid
February 27,
2008
David Rosen
Playing
the Race Card: Obama, Love Across the Color Line and Political
Dirty Tricks
Vijay Prashad
Bomber John: McCain and the 100 Year War
Harvey Wasserman
Incident at Turkey Point: Did Florida Go to the Radioactive Brink?
Andy Worthington
Guantánamo's Shambolic Trials: Pentagon Boss Resigns,
Ex-Prosecutor Joins Defense
Wajahat Ali
Pakistan for Sale: an Interview with Ayesha Siddiqa on Pakistan's
Military Economy
Peter Morici
The Auction-Rate Securities Fiasco: a Drama of Greed and Betrayal
Stephen Philion
Conspiracy Theory, Fears of Betrayal and Today's Anti-War Movement
Michael Donnelly
Obama by Unanimous Decision
Erica Rosenberg /
Janine Blaeloch
After the Land Deals: Will There
be Any Wilderness Left to Protect?
Website of
the Day
Dress Blues
February 26,
2008
Debbie Nathan
Confessions
of a Gitmo Guard
Alan Dershowitz
v. Frank Menetrez
On Finkelstein
Harvey Wasserman
How Ohio Got Nuked
Michael Colby
Ralph Nader vs. the Fundamentalist Liberals
Gary Leupp
Condi vs. Putin on Bullying Belgrade
David Orchard
The New Conquistadors: Canada in Afghanistan
Martha Rosenberg
The Big HRT
Fran Shor
The Electoral Circus and Nader's Sideshow
Serge Halimi
The Dom Perignon Socialist Manifesto: Bernard Henri-Levy's Plan
for the French Left
Global Balkans
Neo-Liberalism and Protectorate States in the Post-Yugoslav Balkans:
an Interview with Tariq Ali
Website of
the Day
Texistentialism
February 25,
2008
Roger Morris
A
Death in Damascus
Anthony DiMaggio
Military
Bases, the Media and the Democrats
Ralph Nader
Why I'm Running
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq Broils
Paul Craig Roberts
Kosovo and the Empire Crazies
Peter Morici
Bernanke's Failing Policies: a Long Recession Looms
Dave Lindorff
General Welch's Whitewash: What We Still Don't Know About That
Minot Nuke Incident
Saul Landau
/
Farrah Hassen
Fanatics, Mountebanks and Drillers: a Bloody Oil Film
Heather Gray
James Orange, Civil Rights Legend
Robert Weitzel
Accomodating Torture
John Halle
Kucinich Goes Down
Website of the Day
Do the Trunk Monkey!
February 23 / 4, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
The
Mushrooming Clouds That Hang Over McCain
Paul Craig
Roberts
Obama
and Global Trade
Wajahat Ali
Omissions of the Commission: an Interview with Phillip Shenon
on the 9/11 Commission
Ralph Nader
Neutering the FDA
Jürgen
Vsych
"What Was Ralph Nader Thinking?"
Fidel Castro
Watching the US Presidential Campaign from Havana
Andy Worthington
Britain's Guantánamo
David Macaray
Unions Under Assault
Jeremy Scahill
The Real Story Behind Kosovo's Independence
David Krieger
Stanley Sheinbaum
Caging the Cold War Monster
Ron Jacobs
Building for the Future
Michael Garrity
The Last, Best Hope for the Northern Rockies
Brian McKenna
Higher Ed's "Civic Engagements" Get Dumbed Down
Missy Beattie
Over the Hill with John McCain
Fred Gardner
American College of Physicians Takes Pro-Cannabis Stand (Mostly)
Boris Kagarlitsky
The Growth of the Russian Labor Movement
Mike Ferner
Kick That Barrel
Dan Bacher
On the Trail with the Border Angels
Christopher
Ketcham
Hillary Goes Where Obama Fears to Tread
Poets' Basement
Davies and Buknatski
Website of
the Weekend
Obama
Mariachi
February 22,
2008
Mike Whitney
The
Bonfire of Capital
Jason Hribal
Elephants and the Circus: The Story of Janet
Liaquat Ali Khan
Arresting Musharraf
Joshua Frank
That Obama Glow: the Nuclear Industry's Golden Child
Dave Lindorff
Vicki's John: Ask Not What She Did for Him, Ask What He Did for
Her!
Liliana Segura
When Torture is Old News: McCain's Blonde Diversion
Robert Fantina
Castro, Bush and Cuba: a Fiasco Waiting to Happen?
Yifat Susskind
The ABCs of Death: Bush vs. Africa's Women
Norm Kent
Pushing 60 with Pot
Website of
the Day
Bush Gets Down in Liberia
February 21,
2008
Saul Landau
Fidel
Steps Aside
Elizabeth Schulte
Left Behind, With No End in Sight: America's Long-Term Unemployed
Helen Redmond
Health Care as a Human Right
Benjamin Dangl
Undermining Bolivia
Michael Levitin
Kosovo's Dilemma
Liam Leonard
Fear and Loathing on the Emerald Isle
Patrick Irelan
Land and Food in Venezuela
Linn Cohen-Cole
Poor Ohio: a Second Letter to Hillary on Her Ties to Monsanto
Michael Simmons
Daydream Believer: John Stewart, the Miles Davis of Folk Music
CounterPunch
News Service
A Message from the Women of Okinawa to US GIs
Website of the Day
Cop Abuse in Shreveport
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St.
Patrick's Day Edition
March 17, 2008
Debt (and Voter)
Forgiveness in an Election Year
Oh,
What a Lovely Waiver!
By P. SAINATH
It was around the distress in regions
like Vidharbha and Anantapur that the governments present 'farm
loan waiver' was conceived. Growing knowledge of that distress,
breaking through even the filters of a media unmoved by the crisis
in the countryside, made the waiver both thinkable and acceptable.
Odd then, that in its present form, it excludes the very regions
whose pain brought it into existence.
Millions do indeed get relief
from what is a positive step. (Though not quite as 'unprecedented'
as some believe). Even the colonial raj went in for loan waivers
or 'karza maafi' more than once. And those waivers addressed
private moneylender debt. (There were no nationalized banks in
those days.) That's something the present waiver does not touch--even
though usury accounts for the overwhelming share of farm loans.
In Vidharbha, money owed to private lenders would account for
between two-thirds and three-fourths of all debt. In short, we
haven't begun to resolve the debt crisis of these and millions
of other farmers.
The failure to touch moneylender
debt is just the first problem. In Vidharbha, the average landholding
size is 7.5 acres or 3.03 hectares. Way above the two-hectare
cut-off mark for the bank loan waiver. Up to 50 per cent of Vidharbha's
farmers are above this limit. Not because they are big landlords.
They tend to have larger holdings as their land is unproductive
and unirrigated. Poor adivasis in Yavatmal, for instance, often
own over ten acres but get very little from their land. In Anantapur
in Andhra Pradesh, too, many farmers will be left out by size
or other norms. By contrast the farmers of Western Maharashtra,
the Union Agriculture Minister's stronghold, will benefit greatly.
Their holdings are smaller, well-irrigated and more productive.
For those with over two hectares,
there is the old deal of "one-time settlement" of their
bank loans. In this case, if they repay 75 per cent of the loan,
they will be given a rebate of 25 per cent. Only very large farmers
will gain from this. If the rest, drowning in debt, could pay
75 per cent of their dues, they wouldn't be committing suicide.
They would pay hundred per cent.
Then, of those farmers falling
within the two-hectare limit, only a small group have access
to bank credit. So the gainers in this crisis-hit region will
be a small percentage of the total number of farmers. It doesn't
end there, though. The few who do qualify, gain much less than
farmers in, say, Western Maharashtra. The average crop loan in
sugarcane territory is Rs. 13,000 per acre. Apart from which
farmers there get up to Rs. 18,000 per acre for drip irrigation.
In Vidharbha's cotton regions, they get loans of just Rs. 4,400
per acre. So the scale of the write-off will be far greater for
the relatively better off farmers. In political terms, this benefits
Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar's base. At the same time,
it undermines the farm base of the Congress in Vidharbha. Indeed,
the average loan for the grape growers (outside of Vidharbha)
is Rs. 80,000 per acre.
The cut-off date of March 31,
2007 works against even the small group of Vidharbha farmers
who do benefit. Loans in the cotton regions are taken between
April and June. In the cane growing regions, they are taken between
January and March. This means the Vidharbha farmer has one less
year of loans waived than the others.
Since no distinction has been
made between dryland farmers and others, anomalies abound. West
Bengal and even the non-crisis regions of Kerala have large numbers
of farmers below the two-hectare limit. With agriculture in bad
shape, don't grudge them the windfall the waiver brings. But
it is odd the same does not happen for farmers in dryland regions
who need it most. What's more, the farmers of Bengal and Kerala
have far more access to bank credit than those in Vidharbha do.
The State government itself
reckons that Rs. 9,310 crore [$1US= 40.4 rupees; a crore is
an Indian unit, equivalent to 10 million] of the waiver comes
to Maharashtra. That is, almost a sixth of the total. Of this,
a fraction goes to Vidharbha, the rest being collared by better
off farmers. And what of other dryland farmers across the nation?
Those in, say, Rayalaseema or Bundelkhand? What do they get?
Is the waiver 'unprecedented'?
Each year, nationalised banks write off thousands of crores of
rupees as bad debt. Mostly money owed by small numbers of rich
businessmen. And theirs is not a 'one-time waiver.' It is a write-off
that recurs every year
Between 2000-04, banks wrote
off over Rs. 44,000 crores. Mostly, this favoured a tiny number
of wealthy people. One 'beneficiary' was a Ketan Parekh group
company that saw Rs. 60 crore knocked off. (The Indian Express,
May 12, 2005). However, those 'waivers' are done quietly. In
2004, last year of the NDA, such write-offs went up by 16 per
cent. Such 'waivers' have not slowed down since 2004.
Staggering
giveaway
And all this is apart from
the annual Rs. 40,000 crore 'giveaway' to the rich, mainly corporate
India. That has been the average in the budget every single year
for over a decade. Then there are the straight handouts. No one
knows how many thousands of crores are lost by handing out spectrum
the way it's being done. But we know it's a staggering amount.
Tot up the 'tax holidays,' exemptions and the rest of it and
you're looking at sums that make the 'unprecedented' one-time
farm loan waiver look like loose change.
But let us look, for instance,
at the millions of farmers owning less than one hectare--the
largest group. Some 7.2 million of them have accounts in scheduled
commercial banks. And the total outstandings against these accounts
is Rs. 20,499 crores. (Reserve Bank of India: Handbook of Statistics
on the Indian Economy 2006-07.) As Devidas Tuljapurkar of the
All-India Bank Employees Association points out, that's about
the same amount the nationalised banking sector writes off each
year as bad debt. Mainly for industry. Those farmers with between
one and two hectares hold 5.9 million accounts and owe Rs. 20,758
crores. That is: these 13 million account holders owe less
than the Rs. 44,000 crore written off by the banks during just
the NDA period for a tiny number of rich people.
The waiver does bring great
relief to large numbers of farmers. But it is no solution to
even the immediate crisis let alone long-term agrarian problems.
Nothing in this budget will
raise farm incomes. Which means farmers will be back in debt
within two years. Their incomes have long been much lower on
average than those in other sectors. And they fall further behind
each year. Worse, fresh credit will not come cheap. Pleas for
'low-interest or no-interest loans' have been ignored. There
is no mention of a price stabilisation fund to shield farmers
from the volatility of corporate-rigged global prices. Besides,
the idea of a five-year repayment cycle has not been touched.
And the highly unjust crop insurance rules that dog regions like
Anantapur remain unchanged.
However, there is still a long
way to go in the budget session. So these problems can be set
right if the government is sincere about helping those worst-hit
by the crisis. It could work all these measures into the final
document and also adjust the terms for dryland regions.
One funny outcome of the budget
is that the media are now talking about farmers. Of course, the
'analysis' of what is 'pro-farmer' comes from the elite. From
CEOs, stockbrokers, business editors, corporate lobbyists and
touts in three-piece suits. On budget eve one anchor posed a
question to his panel in words to this effect: "Will it
be a pro-poor, aam aadmi budget or will Mr. Chidambaram
use the opportunity to do something good [for the country] in
terms of reforms."
When the budget rolled out,
one anchor said: "And now for the budget bad news. India
Inc.'s plea for a cut in corporate tax rates went unheeded."
Isn't that cute? If a budget is pro-poor, it cannot be good for
the country. If it does not give the corporate world more goodies,
it is bad. And of course, the elite panellists mostly rued this
"gigantic giveaway."
While gasping at the size of
the "write-off" it's worth asking why the loan waiver
comes up now. Why not in 2005, when the demand was already being
made? Or in 2006 when the Prime Minister visited Vidharbha and
was shaken by the widespread distress. Mr. Pawar has outsmarted
his rivals. Had the step been taken then, the credit would have
gone entirely to the Congress. No prizes for guessing who opposed
it then (when it would have cost much less).
For three years, while the
misery and suicides mounted in Vidharbha, there was not even
the admission that a loan waiver was possible. Indeed, it was
shot down by those now taking out full page ads claiming credit
for it. As they complain in Vidharbha, this is not about karza
maafi. It is about seeking voter maafi (voters' forgiveness)
in election year.
P. Sainath is the rural affairs editor of The
Hindu, where this piece appears, and is the author of Everybody
Loves a Good Drought.. He can be reached at: psainath@vsnl.com.
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