Brickbats

It’s not just big business that is unhappy with the strictures of the Ministry of Environment and Forests; brick and tile manufacturers also claim to face annihilation. They’re not writing elegant letters to the minister, but protesting in a manner in which India excels: a mass rally of workers and owners at Ramlila Maidan in north Delhi on December 18. No surprise, the All India Brick and Tile Manufacturers Association, the representative institution, has mobilised politicians from almost every conceivable major Opposition party – the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (United), the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Rashtriya Lok Dal – to address the rally.