Requesting for the inclusion of the climate agenda in the Bharat Jodo Yatra: a letter to Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi

Posted on 20/11/2022

To

Mr. Rahul Gandhi

To

Mrs. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra

Sub: Requesting for the inclusion of the climate agenda in the Bharat Jodo Yatra

Dear Rahul & Priyanka,

We, the inhabitants of the planet earth, are encountering two major problems. We would like to point out those problems in the context of the #Bharat_Jodo_Yatra, with an emphasis on the issue of environmental apocalypse. 

The two problems can be summarized in the following manner: 

1.     Catastrophic natural ecosystem or anthropogenic glocal (global+local), what is popularly known as “Climate Crisis” or the epoch of the climate emergency. Human beings, as geological agents, since the Industrial Revolution, have destroyed the biodiversity of the earth. The international climate politics or environmental activism makes it our duty as species-beings (homo sapiens sapiens, ignoring the ascribed caste or creed-based extrinsic identities) to include the climate agenda as part of our grassroots realpolitik. 

Here are two recent instances of climate-related elections:  

·        Norway’s ‘Climate Election’ Puts Center-Left in Charge VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 13^th September, 2021 ©The New York Times)

·        After winning the climate election, Labor must be the climate government the whole world needs  VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 5^th June, 2022 ©The Guardian)

Though we previously approached the ruling party regarding this matter, they did not pay any heed to this major problem threatening the planet earth and the very existence of its species-populations:

O KING, STOP KILLING THE ENVIRONMENT OF OUR TAPOVANA (HERMITAGE), THE AKHANḌ HINDU BHĀRAT VIEW HERE ⤡ (Sarcasm Intended under Plutocracy)

We do not require a debt-ridden economy depending on the loans taken from the trio: the World Bank, the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund. We do not even need the unsustainable developmental paradigm as preached by the trio. What we need at this hour of crises is a sustainable retreat from the developmental paradigm on the basis of the Gandhian gram swaraj and Rabindranath’s concept of samavaya, so that we can combat the onslaughts of crony and monopoly capitalism. 

2.     The second problem concentrates on the crumbling financial ecosystem (incorrect term as it suffers from Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness) that can be cured by the application of Buddhist economics as introduced by E. F. Schumacher⤡. 

The abrupt bankruptcies, the astronomically increasing assets of the ruling party, the politically-aided escape of superrich wilful defaulters or discharged jailbirds are not to be allowed at the cost of public money (e.g., IL&FS, DHFL, PNB etc.). 

The religious fundamentalism of the present ruling party is being deployed by bulldozing the inherent plurality of the South-East Asian subcontinent in order to mask or foreclose the vicious forces of market fundamentalism or free flow of the private capital and the consequent concentration of wealth in fewer hands⤡.  

You may remember that we have already approached you regarding these two issues in our earlier letter on 11/02/2021: WHITHER EXTINGUISHED DHFL FD HOLDERS? AN APPEAL TO THE GANDHI-NEHRU PARIVAR VIEW HERE ⤡.

We hope that you would include the climate crisis as one of the muddas of your pan-India movement to restore the core constitutional values. Following in the footsteps of the other countries, we may also bring forth the appeal for the commencement of climate legislation, keeping in mind the devastating, nearly irreversible ecological situation of the planet earth.

Yours Sincerely,

Dr. Debaprasad Bandyopadhyay

Mrs. Rupa Bandyopadhyay

Mr. Akhar Bandyopadhyay

SEE ALSO: 

ENVIRONMENTALISM: THE ROLE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES (ECO-ECONOMICS OR GEO-SOCIOLOGY?) VIEW HERE ⤡

COPY TO:

1. Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, the Honourable Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha

2. Mr. Mallikarjun Kharge, the Honourable President, Indian National Congress

3. Mr. Jairam Ramesh, the Honourable Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha

4. Dr. Shashi Tharoor, the Honourable Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha

बहुजनहिताय बहुजनसुखाय च॥

(“For the happiness of the many, for the welfare of the many”)