Environmental charter for the new government
The results of election 2019 are in and the old government is the new government. What should be its environment and development agenda? To answer this, we must understand the narrative and the results of these elections. In the 2019 elections, development was not an issue—even though there is distress in rural India, employment is a huge crisis, droughts in many parts have reached a crippling point, tribals are apprehensive that their land will be alienated and pollution has grown to be a public health emergency in many parts of the country.
It could well be argued that as people have voted effusively for the same government therefore, these issues are not important; or worse that they are not real. If that is the case, then government would be more than right to move ahead without any credence on these matters. Or that government will be confident that it has already fixed these problems and that their current policies are working to everybody’s benefit. All is well. Otherwise, people would have spoken differently.