It's Clean-up time after the CWG

Despite the bungling and corruption, the Commonwealth Games, thankfully, did have its moments.

Despite the bungling and corruption, the Commonwealth Games, thankfully, did have its moments. But now that the afterglow has faded, the government has rightly got cracking on the swindles, which dogged the run-up to the Games. For now, at least, it does seem that the government is serious about investigating the allegations.

For one, it is clear to all that the issue is very much on the public's radar. Rather, there is high expectation that the government will now catch the guilty and punish them. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has already set the ball rolling with some damning evidence and, no doubt, other agencies will join in.

Public pressure apart, the urgency to investigate what went wrong may also be to deny an opportunity to the opposition parties to put the government in the dock. The heat is clearly on Mr. Kalmadi and Co. to come clean. But right now it all looks somewhat messy, to say the least.

Bad science
Dilli has reason to be embarrassed that our local scientists are not above the pull and tug of conflicting interests. This has shown up, embarrassingly for votaries of GM foods, in the recent report on Bt brinjal submitted to the government. Plagiarism is probably the worst crime in the world of science, academia and media, but the scientists, thankfully, owned up. Curiously, though they've not withdrawn the report, in which they recommended lifting the moratorium on Bt Brinjal imposed by the government.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh promptly trashed the report, leaving the scientists with egg on their faces.
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Given that powerful commercial interests are involved, the episode has strengthened the argument of many activists that the economic benefits of genetically modified brinjal have perhaps been grossly overestimated.

One positive outcome is that Dilli is now giving serious thought to setting a mandate for the proposed regulator for biotechnology, which would deal with such issues in the future.

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