Cola & Pesticides! How to scratch my Back!. Review on Coca Cola

Well, Well, Well,

I never thought I will see a second round of this 'pesticide residue' farce.

Bless my soul!. This is better than the devdas story, they keep remaking it once in a while.

How fortunate we are to have such interesting episodes!

And, It gives all of us an opportunity to scratch their own backs. Alas, in India We don't want to stratch other's backs and support them.. So, All parties concerned should concentrate on scratching themselves, isn't it?

First & foremost is the CSE. Oh! What a way to grab attention. See their glowing faces in front of millions of TV cameras! Their interest - to provide half the truth and to pose as a saviour of the masses.

Here is an organization which has taken on itself the role of saving the crores of teeming India from the evils of cancer, ashthma, indigestion, constipation, paralaysis, SARS and may be AIDS.

They pose as if they have done a 'tehelka' and found out something so evil from the secrets of these cola companies. But, ofcourse, You can't expect to them to tell you that pesticide-residue is a problem in ALMOST ALL THE FOOD ITEMS in India. For example, CSE will not tell you that the wheat atta we eat contains 1000 times higher pesticide residue. CSE will not tell you that the problem is entirely due to lack of specification in standards of the government. CSE will not tell you that this is a national problem of all items. For example, How much pesticide-residue you think our milk contains, which our children consume? Well more than these cola. Because, CSE wants to scratch their back and enhance their place in the NGO crowd.

And, Secondly, against them are our powerful MNC clowns (now turned temporarily into villains!). They will never tell you that they will only be as good (or bad) as the government wants them to be. They are not here to take care of your and mine health, be clear!

They will never tell you that they don't give to Indians what US drinks because US government wants their citizens with better standards. Hey! Come on, Have we not learned from Union Carbide that there are double standards and that such standards are only as good as the government wants them. What is interesting is that they will not justify their inferior colas by saying that pesticide residue is a common problem. Because, if they take that correct stand, Then, they can't maintain their puristic appearance and the halo behind their head will vanish. So, the best way to scatch their own back is stoutly denying it.

After all, they have been doing this for ages... Have they not succeeded in the normal ''Bottled Water'' episode couple of months back? (Any of you know what ultimately came out of it?.. only lot of gas!) Have they not twisted the indian standards into such a level as to make a joke of it - see bathing soaps, see ice creams, see electric safety. These Cola clowns will all be laughing heavily in couple of weeks, when the hopeless consumer forgets all these drama, when another serial comes on newspapers.

Thirdly, How can we forget the great Sarkar? Here is a Government with strong desi flavour. Look how they are fighting the media barons against the 'spirit' of foreign invasion into News. But, Keep talking and keep burying the problem so deep that it rots. See, the Sarkar is a master in these. Look how they buried the ''Bottled water'' problem. There are various Ministries - health, Consumer affairs, water, industries and so on.. who can be trusted between them to keep passing the responsbilities so that ultimately nothing happens.

You can hear the sarkari babu almost talking and glowing to himself - See how successfully we frustrated this ''bottled water'' crisis. Just cool down till this CSE finishes scratching their back and cools down. After that, We will silently sit with Cola elephants and bury this problem amicably. ha.. Ha.. Ha.. After All, have we not made a mockery of hundreds of standards ? Did we not introduce a new farce called ''bathing bar'' when the standards of soaps were not met? Have we not recently introduced another farce standard called ''frozen dessert'' to make a mockery of inferior ice creams? We will do it again and keep scratching their backs. Have we not purposely omitted to specify critical conditions in almost all consumer durables and electrical appliances? Have we not made mockery of all such quality by completely ignoring the compliance of these? Have we not allowed non-standard chinese junk to infilterate even electrical safety instruments - causing hundreds of accidents each year?

And, Lastly, Let us not forget our own consumer organizations. See, How right minded and how service oriented they are!

If silence is golden, why should we talk and clarify these things? See, How they have kept soooo quiet in this mess called CAS? Well.. We will all let CSE scratch their backs and hog all attention with half-baked reports. We will all let the consumers have their own drama days. If the hapless consumer thinks that these organizations have a job to protect them, forget it.. Their actual job is only to keep highlighting the problems dramatically and will not work towards a problem. See, How many of us are fragmented and infighting amongst ourselves? Let us all warm our bottoms in this fire called ''cola and pesticide'' for this week? We will get some other fire next week, why worry?

jayaram