India is India because of its rivers, forests, hills, beaches and biodiversity. The devastation of the environment is in fact the devastation of Bharat Mata. No government can call itself swadeshi if it promotes judicially documented, environmentally and socially destructive activities.
Two recent decisions of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Government in New Delhi have caused consternation in the minds of those who believed that the BJP would base its policies on a strong nationalistic plank. The two decisions involve the shifting of around 320 items on to the "free import list" and the revival of the Aquaculture Authority Bill (AAB) which was introduced in the Rajya Sabha by the United Front Government to protect the interests of the environmentally destructive aqua farming lobbies but failed to go through because of protests by coastal villagers, fishing communities and environmentalists.
The Export-Import (Exim) Policy is the main policy instrument for controlling imports and exports, and it is generally acknowledged to have impacts on domestic production, livelihoods and the environment. Trade liberalisation pressures require that all restrictions of the kind embodied in India's Exim Policy be removed in the interests of global traders. In particular, Article XI of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) makes any trading restrictions illegal.
From 15 to 19 April, the WTO was scheduled to undertake a Trade Policy Review of how far India has gone in liberalising its imports and exports. The dilution of its Exim Policy two days prior to the Trade Policy Review is proof that, like earlier governments, the BJP Government is going out of its way to carry out the WTO agenda long before the pressures even build up.