OPINION

Gestures in diplomacy reflect how a host country perceives a visiting dignitary and wants to be perceived in return. On this count, Prime Minister NarendraModi’ Israel visit, a first by any Indian premier, was brimming overwith symbolism sending out the message that both the countries are eager to take the diplomatic ties to a higher plane. 
As Modi disembarked on Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurionairport, his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu was present at the tarmac to welcome him, putting all protocols aside, an honour previously accorded to the US President and the Pope. His words – “Aapkaswagathaimere dost.We have been waiting for almost 70 years (for a visit of an Indian Prime Minister)” – reflected a nation’s long cherished yearning.
Another gesture from Netanyahu was of no less import when he said that India-Israel’s friendship was a “marriage made in made in heaven”, despite the fact that he had said the same thing about the Israel-Chinese relations in March this year.On the last day of the Modi’strip to Israel, Netanyahu himself drove him in a jeep to Dor beach in Haifa and later gave him a signed photograph which Modi shared on Twitter.

Mini-mountains of accumulated untreated urban waste are common sights in most big and medium cities and towns in the country.  Waste dumps greet visitors to any city, reflecting the rapidly rising prosperity in each bit of trash at the waste dump. With cities having literally failed to develop effective ways to dispose of their waste, the resulting mountains of waste in almost all cities have become a serious health hazard.
The Government of India is seized of this exacerbating problem, more so having embarked on the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA) and the Smarts Cities Mission (SCM) to turn things around by driving growth to improve the quality of life through area-based development and city-level smart solutions. In developing Three-Year Action Agenda (2017-18 to 2019-20), the Niti Aayog has drawn a broader framework for addressing the issue of municipal solid waste (MSW).

To align the development strategy with the changing reality, the Niti Aayog has been tasked with developing tools and approaches for impacting policy change within the three year period. It will back up its Three Year Agenda with Seven Year Strategy and Fifteen Year Vision for taking the agenda to its logical conclusion. Given the enormity of the situation, the Agenda has recognized the need for speeding up action on managing municipal solid waste.

Dadabhai Naoroji (1825-1917) – one of the makers of modern India- passed away on June 30, 1917. His death centenary was an apt occasion to revisit his legacy. Two features of his long and distinguished career stand out prominently a) sustained advocacy of Indian cause abroad and b) use of statistics to shape public discourse. He was the first Indian to be elected to the House of Commons (1892). He formulated the famous drain-of-wealth theory, which became India’s cornerstone argument against the British rule. In his late years, he was the first to give expression to the demand for Swaraj from platform of Indian National Congress (1906). He served the cause of India’s political emancipation for six decades.Born in Bombay (now Mumbai) in a poor Parsi family, he began his career as a teacher of mathematics and natural philosophy at Elphinstone Institute (later Elphinstone College). He was the first Indian to become a full professor. As a member of the Students Literary and Scientific Society formed in the Institute, he acted as a pioneer of women’s education. He was an active member of the Bombay Association (1852), the first association in the western India to consider political issues. Its meetings were held in the hall of the Institute. In 1851, he founded Rast Goftar (Truth Teller), a Gujarati fortnightly with a Persian name. It was a progressive journal educating readers on duties of citizenship.

There is a fatigue which sets in each time there is an agitation. That’s the time when matters cool down and shortly it’s back to business. Bandhs have a limited shelf life unless supplemented by the power to debate. Both the process must run concurrently and simultaneously ensuring that the democratic nonviolent methods dominate. 

The Gorkhas have made Gorkhaland an emotive issue, but the real time need is to think on how to carry this exercise forward -- through power of debate, creating favourable public opinion and expressing one's cause at national level.

Some things are crystal clear, as brought out earlier on June 20 in these very columns. Trinamool Congress government in Kolkata created a situation of unrest to counter influence of both the BJP and GJM in the hill areas.

It’s doubtful that the BJP would support cause of Gorkhaland at the cost of Bengal; caputuring power at the Writer’s Building is their long term political ambition. Civil Society from all corners of the nation has come out in support of Gorkhaland. However, the local political class, sees this as a Darjeeling centric movement, which hurts the overall identity issue.

It is tough being a Modi supporter these days. It is even tougher to apply critical reasoning in an attempt to distinguish between the narrative and the reality. There is a certain disconnectfrom what the news channels, both pro and anti Modi, would have you believe as compared to what is, essentially, the everyday life-on a train/bus, on the dusty roads orin the crowded markets, far away from the daily hyperbole and social media outreach.A war of the narratives is on.

Given the riveting aura created around the persona of Modi, cult following and the heavy mandate in 2014 elections, the burden of expectations was natural. He was pitched as the new Lee KuanYew who had catapulted Singapore from a poor landlocked nation into an economic powerhouse, someone who would unshackle the country from its baggage of the past and pave the way for a golden future.

These great expectations have perhaps become his greatest scourge.