Off target

Recently, activists like P V Rajagopal and water conservationist Rajendra Singh met representatives of top firms, Tata Steel, ArcelorMittal, Cadbury, Nestle and so on. Since the activists were hosting the meeting, industry spokesmen were at their gentle best on what they would like to do on land issues. But as such meetings are wont to, this one, too, turned fiery towards the end, with Singh naming companies he claimed had finished off the Ganges or made hundreds along the Yamuna Expressway homeless. Halfway through this tirade, the lone representative from a Jindal company quietly stood up to say she represented Ratan Jindal and not the other Jindals who seemed to be at the receiving end of Singh’s temper. Not that this deterred Singh. As a parting shot, he accused industry chambers CII and Ficci, whose representatives were present at the meeting, of doing nothing when some of its members acted in an unethical manner.