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SEZs and socialism

  • 30/01/2008

the Goa chief minister's unwillingness to allow special economic zones (sez s)in his state must have mildly zapped his central colleagues (see p 24). Has he become a socialist? Doesn't he aspire for his state? But what Digambar Kamat did was to please his electorate; his energy has deflated the commerce ministry and it seems Goa sez s are going to be denotified. We must ask: so it is easy to get rid of the idea of sez, right? There are anti- sez protests in every state, against special treatment to industrialists whose interests amount to creating private states within the union of India, propelled primarily by farmers. Outbursts usually dealt with violent forces, gunshots. How come the Goa cm responded positively?

Protesters in Goa speak in English, and have a large middle class component of those who have seen their land ravaged by mining and property developers. Opposition in other states is

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