Meghnad Desai, in his column for The Indian Express on Sunday, 17 February, designates the Pulwama terror attack a certain “endpoint” in Indo-Pak relations and wonders aloud what the way forward is.
He reminds one of a few problems in India’s way of countering terrorism: One, that Pakistan is not “a normal State, with its quizzical history of elections on democratic principles, its army establishment and its Islamist terrorist armies. Two, there is the problem that terrorism isn’t easy to eliminate and is, today, a global problem. And finally, that India can’t hope for much from its “fair-weather friends” in the fight.
Coomi Kapoor, in her Sunday column for The Indian Express, enumerates a host of political developments, and her rather unique commentaries on the same. She begins by marvelling at Arun Jaitley, whose fortitude also wins pride of place in her headline above anybody else. She talks of how Jaitley is set to resume duties as finance minister, and also head the BJP’s publicity campaign for the 2019 election, despite two major illnesses.
She mentions also the dissonance on both the BJP and the Congress’ fronts, and the factions that seem to be disputing with the power-that-be in both parties, in Parliament’s Central Hall.
Perhaps her quirkiest story yet, however, comes from a narrative about portraits:
For anyone wondering, P Chidambaram lists the many ways in which he believes the Rafale deal to have been “flawed” and come back to bite the BJP, in his column for The Indian Express on Sunday.
He alludes to how the deal has been PM Modi’s brainchild entirely, and a “one-man show” that he alone has orchestrated. He mentions how key people like the defence minister, finance minister, external affairs minister, Air Force, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) and the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) were kept out of the loop. He also refers to, among other things, how the “new deal was indeed a new deal” with earlier negotiations scrapped. And what had the government hoped for, in its favour?
Aakar Patel, writing for Aakarvani in the The Times of India, begins with this portentous headline. He tells the reader that one needs to, in today’s situation, figure out how to convince Pakistan to do the right thing. He also enumerates three ways of doing so: one, the use or threatened use of force, two, the mediation of an external party such as the US, China or the UN, and three, negotiation.
Patel then proceeds to debunk the merits of all three approaches and seems to have reached a strange conclusion: That none of these would work. He anticipates the problem and outlines a solution, in place of these three:
Nalin Mehta, in his column for the The Times of India, also delves deep into the horror of the Pulwama terror attack and sifts through the many ways in which Pakistan can be countered. He begins by listing how the attack was clearly a well-planned, meticulous move that was testing India’s resolve right before the country goes to polls. He also states that this must end any hopes Indians had of new PM Imran Khan establishing a new realm of peace between the two nations.
Mehta understands, he says, that “a desire of retribution” in the face of “helpless anger” is natural, but insists on using tools that have more deterrence value:
Tabish Khair, in his column for The Hindu, addresses a key concern with governance or more specifically, a model of governance, that some citizens seem to be voicing. He talks about the clamour for changing India’s model of democracy to a presidential one. However, he laments the fact that the only two models we seem to be looking at, are the US and UK models.
Many opposed to the BJP have argued the case for a presidential system, as opposed to the winner-takes-all system of the UK. However, where representation of the majority is the main calling card, Khair argues that this is not the answer:
Rana Safvi, in her column for The Hindu on Sunday, writes beautifully and evocatively about a historical site that occupies a pride of place in the country’s cultural pantheon: the Ajmer Dargah. She begins by writing of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti, and how he was “generous like the sea and hospitable like the earth.” She elucidates his history for her readers, starting at birth and moving through his journey to Delhi and Ajmer.
She also writes of her own visit to the dargah, and how it instills in her, a sense of peace:
“A lot of what’s flying is only just lying.” Sankarshan Thakur might easily win top honours for the most mischievously crafted Sunday column yet, as can be evidenced in this week’s piece for The Telegraph. He begins with a fantastical scenario, almost Orwellian, where he calls people’s attention to fact that swine are flying in the air. This swine is dropping all manner of pestilence upon the face of the country, and, as Thakur warns, if one gets hit by any of the flying swine: Then, WHAM! “You are flu.”
Thakur’s column bears an eerie similarity to Ionesco’s iconic play, Rhinoceros, a telling social satire that talks about how people were rammed into by rhinoceroses, epitomes of rising fascism, and how such people were immediately converted themselves. The fact that Thakur, in the midst of his wordplay, also throws in references like “pigs have been flying for a fair number of years, maybe four” is also less-than-subtle allusion to his narrative:
“Student politics is one thing and using students to further a political agenda is quite another.” Thus succinctly can Upala Sen’s column for The Telegraph be summed up this Sunday. Sen begins with the cloud hanging over Aligarh Muslim University, claiming that it has been lately in the news for not all things academic – later making a reference to the recent tweet by a student on the Pulwama attack.
However, the crux of her argument is that students and universities have largely been wrested by political parties for their motives. She asks a valid question:
Sen also goes on to list the number of times students have been in the eye of fire, in recent times:
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