Expressing deep concern over the environmental degradation, senior leader of Bharatiya Janata Party Dr Murli Manohar Joshi said, “High consumption is the root cause of mass destruction of environment. More consumption, more production will not help. Instead of sustainable development we must concentrate on sustainable consumption. Level of consumption should be as such where reasonable, dignified living condition for every individual has to be provided in a sustained manner centuries together.”

 

Dr Murli Manohar Joshi was in city to attend the inauguration of birth centenary of founder of Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh Dattopant Thengadi. During his brief stay at Hotel Tuli Imperial after the programme, he spoke to ‘The Hitavada’.

 

Dr Joshi, a former Union Minister of Human Resource Development said, “There should not be large gap among people in society. In our society there is a high disparity. One per cent of population has more than 50% wealth in some cases even 90%. It is a high disparity. This has created existential problem. These can not be resolved by patchwork. One per cent against 90 per cent is not good. Instead of high growth model we have to think about a balanced growth model. This is the lesson we should learn from the environmental studies. Any technology which we use has to be examined in terms of social, moral and ethical consequences. All technologies cannot be universal. There is a local requirement of particular technology which needed to be seen.”

 

Elaborating his observations, Dr Joshi said, “There are global challenges of environment and India is suffering a lot. Climate change has become an existential issue. Variation of climate, untimely rain being witnessed rampantly. Maharashtra too has  not come out of it. These environmental fluctuations not only change the agriculture but the whole scenario. It affects body also. New diseases will come and old diseases will vanish. If you are using certain medicine against some bacteria which is dead, it will become useless because new bacteria might have taken birth.”

 

“People are saying it should be mitigated. But since long I have been saying, many scientists, researchers are saying this is taking place because of developmental model. You are consuming too much energy, you are extracting energy from the environment more than what you require. Too much use of aviation fuel, flights too are releasing gases. We need to change. Now we must focus on low capital, low energy, minimal use of solid matter. For example, if we have to produce we should be careful to have strong iron but to be made through a different technology so that environmental degradation should be less. Unfortunately we are consuming at the cost of our future generation. Normal tendency of humans is to preserve energy for the coming generation,” added Dr Joshi.

 

“Deforestation, technological revolution has taken place that changed the perspective. We are applying high energy, high cost, high material use, high use of natural resources, high technology. This is very bad. Our mindset has to be changed. Deep thinking, very powerful cultural and technological revolution need to be brought because we have moved into the era of super technology. Today there is a unholy nexus between technology and capital. We have to be very cautious about the deadly combination. Technology masters are living in Western countries. China Japan, Russia, America are much ahead. India is far behind in Information Technology as we are just providing Information Technology labour to other countries. It is the serious area needed to be attended. I am trying to create mass awareness on environment,” stated Dr Joshi.

 

Calling the Supreme Court verdict on Ayodhya case as forward looking judgement, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, senior leader of BJP said, “It is a historic judgement resolving long pending historic dispute. It is a forward looking judgement which has provided directions as to what to do in future. This is the uniqueness of this judgement, otherwise judgement stops after it is delivered. But the one on Ayodhya dispute is different. Secondly, it has tried to develop sense of unity, took the country towards the peace. It is a new dimension and its one more speciality is, its unanimous acceptance. The verdict has given one more message to the world that India can resolve its own dispute on its own, which is a great example of maturity.