Monthly e-newsletter from Focus on the Global South, India


Content summary:

Its not often that the Economist magazine, known for its free market dogmatism, find itself on the side of globalisation critics. During the recent G8 summit at Hokkaido in Japan its portrayal of the group that supposedly runs the world was less than flattering – ‘ignorant, old and impotent’ are some of the words used to describe the elite self serving club. The call from global justice groups at the summit was predictably more forceful – they called for disbanding what they called a ‘mafia of the rich and powerful’.  

It is not a secret that India harbours ambitions of joining this elite club. And one of the short cuts to power and glory is the India-USA civil nuclear cooperation agreement and its assorted side deals. Seema Mustafa of Covert Magazine looks at the political machinations of the Manmohan Singh Government to save what she describes as a ‘dirty deal’. Yesterday the Government survived the trust vote by a margin of 19 votes. Political commentators have termed the victory of the Government as a defeat for parliamentary democracy as it saw the worst kind of opportunism. 

While this drama is being played out in Delhi, the 7 year saga of the Doha Round of trade talks is unraveling in Geneva at a hastily called Mini-Ministerial conference. Farmers and other civil society groups have kept the heat on Commerce Minister Kamal Nath. We carry a statement from the Indian Peoples Campaign Against the WTO demanding that India take a position at the meeting only after obtaining an explicit mandate from the Indian Parliament. While the focus has been on the issue of agriculture and industrial tariffs Walden Bello’s article points to the dangers of a deal on services.

Tragedy struck the National Alliance of Peoples Movements as they lost their Karnataka Coordinator in a brazen daylight attack by the illicit liquor mafia. Focus salutes the brave activist and stands in solidarity with his family and comrades at NAPM. The demise of AT Babu is a part of a larger trend of a breakdown of state machinery and points to the increasing vulnerability of social activists.


Contents:

1.    STATEMENTS/REPORTS
1.a. NAPM condemns murder of its Karnataka state convenor Mr. A. T. Babu
1.b. Denunciation regarding the attack on the MST. Brazil
1.c. Make the Hokkaido Summit the Last Summit of the G8!
1.d. Asian Civil Society Groups Call For 'Climate Justice'
1.e. Statement from the Indian Peoples Campaign against the WTO (IPCAWTO) on upcoming WTO Mini-Ministerial Conference (21-25 July 2008) at Geneva
1.f. Creation of people's union of S Asia emphasized

2.    ARTICLES
2.a. The perils of a Doha deal on Services by Walden Bello
2.b. A Dirty Deal by Seema Mustafa
2.c. Justifying the Opposition of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Retail by Chetan Choithani