Singur: it makes sense for Tatas to return the land

Today, the Supreme Court of India asked Tatas Motors - one of the largest industrial groups in India to consider returning the land to farmers in Singur.This isn't a verdict; the Company gets the time to tell the court what it intends to do with the land acquired years ago for setting up a car factory, until of course all hell broke loose.
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The news took me back years ago, bringing alive so many memories! I was at my first job in this TV station - a fresh face in journalism, itching to report . One day I  found in my email an e-petition that said, the government of West Bengal had taken from farmers a very large stretch of very fertile land and leased it to the Tatas for setting up a car factory. The total land was 997 acres. Put together, that is 2 square km of high-yielding rice producing land.

Ulhasnagar and Banaskatha - the great Indian Human markets

No matter how much you love shopping, here are two 'unique' Bazaars in India that you will wish had never existed: Ulhasnagar near Mumbai and Banskatha in Gujarat. And what is so unique about them? Its the goods that they sell: humans
 
I was born near Ulhasnagar - a township barely 2 and half hours from Mumbai, en route Pune. I knew that Ulhasnagar had a very dubious distinction of being the piracy hub of India. There was a thriving market for selling pirated copies of illegal - and horrible - versions of any electronic 'foreign' goods. But this week I was surprised to learn that Ulhasnagar also has a thriving market for selling human babies. Exposed by Mid-day, a tabloid published from Mumbai, the baby bazaar apparently sells stolen new born babies at INR 100,000 - 300,000. After the report was published, Fauziya Khan, minister of state, women and child welfare, said, "We will carry out an investigation on this issue. After a proper investigation, we will take action."

I think the question that the investigators should begin with is 'where do the babies come from?' The root of the rot has to be there!
 
Now, while the Ulhasnagar's baby bazaar might see a good intervention and hopefully a closure, a market for adolescent  girls and women in Wadia village in Banskatha district of Gujarat has been continuing smoothly, without any 'disturbance'. In this community run market  men, brothers and fathers of girls pimp for their own sisters and daughters, marketing them to truckers and men from neighboring villages. And this isn't an issue for any politician or opinion leaders