Movements have been going on in Britain since 2012 to ban the mining of coal. Germany has shut down nuclear power production completely, as the European Powerhouse has rightly realised that nuclear waste and risks, posed by nuclear power plants, would become unmanageable in near future. Instead, Berlin has decided to depend on solar power and hydrogen to produce electricity. At the moment, countries that are at the forefront of using alternative energy are: Finland, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, China, Uruguay, Costa Rica and Scotland.

Unfortunately, the illegal mining of coal is on the rise in India. It is going on across the Aravalli range in the northern part of the South Asian country, and also in north-eastern Provinces of Meghalaya and Assam. The Government does not even want to investigate the illegal mining of coal in the rainforest of Assam. Illegal construction works are also going on near Deucha Panchami, the second-largest coal block in the World and the largest in India, which is situated in Birbhum District of (the eastern Indian Province of) West Bengal.

The Government of India is seemingly not interested in exploring alternative sources for producing energy. The world’s first solar plant was built in Italy in 1968, while work on solar energy began in India in 1984. However, India gets nowhere due to limitless corruption. A couple of years ago, India ranked third in the world, after China and the US, in terms of carbon dioxide emissions. New Delhi also promised to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050 at the Climate Summit. Now, India is trying to achieve the target by the end of 2070. There is no possibility of meeting the target of reducing the carbon footprint by 2035 either.

Reports suggest that nearly 54% of people do not have access to clean water in India. Groundwater in major Indian cities, like Chennai, Bengaluru and New Delhi, is almost exhausted. In 2018, CNN, BBC and Science Alert reported that Jaipur, Jalandhar and Kolkata would face an acute water crisis in near future. The Government is yet to complete the Ganga Action Plan, a project launched by former Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi in April 1986 to reduce the pollution load on the River Ganges, even after spending INR 9,017 million in the past 37 years.

These form only a small part of the problem. It becomes clear what the manifesto will look like in this situation, what will be prioritised, and the revolutionary decisions that will have to be taken by the Government to save the civilisation. India needs to step out in order to address these issues as soon as possible.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das