#dnaEdit: Week's analysis in nutshell

Maggi under the scanner
The Uttar Pradesh Food and Drug Administration’s discovery of impermissibly high levels of lead and taste enhancer Mono Sodium Glutamate (MSG) in Maggi, a popular instant noodle brand owned by Nestle India, appears to have triggered a wider investigation. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) have now reportedly sent samples for testing. The UP FDA found a lead concentration of 17.2 parts per million (ppm), against the acceptable lead range of 0.01-2.5 ppm. Nestle has responded defiantly, claiming it does not use MSG and that glutamate is a naturally occurring substance in food commodities. It has also alluded to “stringent quality control processes and testing by accredited laboratories” to reject the possibility of high lead content. With packaged processed foods becoming cheaper, they have become an integral part of the Indian palate cutting across class boundaries. It is about time the FSSAI, whose insignia is prominently displayed by branded food products as a signifier of conformity to official standards, showed more vigil. The FSSAI must conduct more tests and place all relevant information in the public domain about nutritional and mineral content in packaged foods.

Mamata-Modi camaraderie
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has decided to accompany Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Dhaka for the signing of the land boundary agreement but the suspense over her position on the Teesta water-sharing issue continues. In September 2011, she had left former PM Manmohan Singh in the lurch by refusing to accompany him to ink the pact. But the mercurial CM appears to have had a change of heart in recent months. In February, she had visited Bangladesh and said she would support the water-sharing pact if it did not compromise West Bengal’s interests. A similar thaw has also been visible in her relations with PM Modi. Mamata must know that her cash-strapped state can ill-afford an antagonistic Centre. The CBI probe into the Saradha scam in which Trinamool Congress leaders were arrested or questioned is on the back-burner. Realisation appears to have dawned that the scam has had little impact on Mamata’s popularity or the Trinamool’s electoral prospects. The BJP’s plight in the Rajya Sabha has also been linked to the fate of the Saradha scam probe. The growing camaraderie between Mamata and Modi will benefit both, but how far will it go?

Yogic gesture
The UN’s decision to celebrate June 21 as International Day of Yoga has been enthusiastically received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, so much so that he will lead a 35-minute exhibition of yoga on that day. The PM had proposed to the UN General Assembly that such a day be recognised and hence can take due credit for the UN announcement. But the Yoga Day will remind many of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launch on October 2 and the Good Governance Day celebrated on December 25, where Modi wanted bureaucrats to show up as ambassadors of his mission. All officers, under-secretary and above, will have to show up at 7 am on June 21, a Sunday, for what promises to be a visual spectacle. Though doing yoga is not part of their duties as public servants, the Modi government certainly believes that yoga will make the babus better and more efficient employees. But the government would do well to find out whether the October 2 and December 25 events contributed to its employees’ work ethic. The real exercise would be to get them to push files faster and stop seeing the RTI Act as a red rag.