Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has probably ruffled more feathers than any other minister in the Manmohan Singh government
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has probably ruffled more feathers than any other minister in the Manmohan Singh government. From holding up the Navi Mumbai airport project to thumbing down hydel projects in the north-east, Ramesh's ministry has been in the thick of the action. Dilli is impressed at the sudden emergence of this new nerve centre of UPA's policy making.
It is also buzzing with questions on Ramesh's remarkable survival instinct. Is it the Prime Minister who opposed him on Vedanta? Who is backing Ramesh in his environmental adventurism? Is it 10 Janpath? Or is it Rahul Gandhi?
Now it is beginning to look more likely that Ramesh indeed has the backing of the party President. And with the Maharashtra government now throwing the gauntlet at him again by controversially approving mining in the Western Ghats, apparently a state subject, Dilli awaits Ramesh's response to this new challenge.
Breaking the ranksFew tears would have been shed in Dilli if the authorities had driven the dreaded Blueline buses off the roads (an unsuccessful aspiration, cut short already). But in Mumbai, the concern is over the state government's decision to change the colour of the city's cabs from the familiar black-and-yellow to listless beige.
Naturally, the first to protest this seemingly whimsical directive are the city's taxi unions, who fear it is another step towards depriving them of their livelihood.
But the fact is that the black-and-yellow cabs are fighting a losing battle, especially since 2008 when a city court had ordered these taxis to be phased out.
While Mumbaikars may or may not miss the old decrepit Fiats, the Mumbai authorities are now keen to brand the city and bring it up to global standards.
This, then, could be just a step towards that shiny, happy future and hopefully even more new-age taxi variants.
