Though several surveys indicate the return of Narendra Modi with a comfortable majority for the successive third time at the center and Prime Minister Modi and other BJP leaders are claiming a record number of 370 seats by the party alone, besides more than 400 seats by the BJP-led NDA, the ground realities seem to be different.

Both Prime MInister Modi and other senior BJP leaders are treating TDP’s chief Chandrababu Naidu as their prime opponent in Andhra Pradesh after his departure from NDA six years ago. Due to the grudge they developed against him, they are openly supporting AP Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy in several matters.

Though YSRCP is not part of NDA, Jagan Mohan Reddy’s proximity with PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah is a `open secret’. Though several BJP chief ministers and other senior leaders are unable to get appointment of Prime Minister so easily, Reddy was able to meet him whenever he wanted.

As BJP failed to gain any ground in Andhra Pradesh during Modi’s regime and its vote share is confined to lower than NOTA votes, top BJP leadership is of the view that only by making TDP politically irrelevant, they can occupy that political space.

Intentionally, both Modi and Amit Shah were allegedly protecting Jagan Mohan Reddy from numerous CBI and ED cases. With the active support of the Center only, Jagan is said to be successfully `preventing’ from beginning of the trail in all those cases since more than a decade.

Even YSRCP leaders say in private discussions that the minute BJP top leaders decide, Jagan will be behind bars. BJP top leaders are targeting Chandrababu Naidu since last six years, using Jagan Mohan Reddy as a tool. A minister in Jagan cabinet openly admitted that last year’s Chandrababu Naidu arrest by APCID was on the directive of the Center.

But the sudden decision of the BJP leadership to seek political alliance with TDP, make use of its association with Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan, surprised many in political circles. At national level, BJP leadership is said to be securing a clear majority in polls and in Andhra Pradesh political scenario seems to be favouring the return of TDP.

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy said that since Prime Minister Narendra Modi was claiming that the NDA would win 400-plus seats in the Lok Sabha elections, he should explain why the BJP was trying to strike alliances with more regional parties. Revanth Reddy said Modi stitching up alliances with leaders and parties with whom he had maintained distance for years was proof that the BJP had become weaker.

Eating right in a climate-risked world

(With Photo)

“How should we practice agriculture and food production in our climate-risked world, so that we can ensure security of livelihood, nutrition and nature? This book – The Future of Taste – and the ‘First Food’ series that it is a part of, gives us some answers: by bringing us the color, essence and joy of a biodiverse food that is good for nutrition as well as for nature,” said Sunita Narain, Director General, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in New Delhi. 

Narain was speaking at the official release of CSE’s latest publication, First Food: The Future of Taste. The book was released by a galaxy of celebrity chefs and cuisineers, including Jatin Mallick, Chef and Co-owner, Tres Restaurant, New Delhi; Manish Mehrotra, Culinary Director, Indian Accent, The Lodhi, New Delhi; Manjit S Gill, former Corporate Chef of ITC Hotels and Founder-President of the Indian Federation of Culinary Associations; and Rajiv Malhotra, Corporate Chef, Habitat World, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.

Says Vibha Varshney, the conceptualiser and creator of CSE’s First Food series of books: “Local communities in India knew about millet’s much before they became fashionable. In fact, they know much more – about how to create healthy and nutritious recipes from a host of products available in and around us, from weeds, tree-borne foods and seeds which can be stored for long periods, to plants with short life-cycles, and even those parts of cultivated plants that are generally wasted. Our book brings together over 100 of these ‘non-mainstream’ recipes, foods that could turn out to be ideal for a world that is struggling with the ravages wrought by climate change.”

In 2018, about 11 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions came from the food the world produced. While emissions from agriculture and food systems are a reality, Narain points out that there are two distinct agricultural worlds. She explains: “One, based on an intensive industrial model where food is manufactured in factory farms at a massive scale; and another which is subsistence level, practiced by farmers in the developing world with small landholdings, who grow food for their livelihood”.

The Future of Taste also recommends measures such as promoting multiple cropping to minimise risk; improving soil health by using non-chemical alternatives to fertilisers and pesticides; and encouraging low-input, cost-effective agriculture.

“Most importantly,” says Narain, “we must realise that what our farmers grow depends on us – the consumers. The food on our plates has lost the meaning of nutrition. We know we need good food to live healthy, but we continue to eat wrong. If we change our diets, it will provide signals to our farmers to grow differently, to cultivate food that is good as well as climate-resilient.”