Continuing from his column last week, P Chidambaram attempts at tackling the problem of ‘definitions’ that is the crux of the Kashmir issue. While several parliamentarians agreed last week that the Valley is more than just ‘land’ to its people, Chidambaram stresses that they must not look back at the last 40 years to find solutions. He suggests an alternative list of eight points to restore peace in the Valley by recreating the conditions of having a special status under which J&K acceded to India while taking steps to demilitarize, negotiate and rework legislature.
(Source: The Indian Express)
Karan Thapar, in his column, hits upon an epiphany while watching the news (thanks to Pertie) about happenings in Arunachal Pradesh. The problem lies in the way we dealt with the government losing majority in the state, even Uttarakhand for that matter. Thapar says the law is more than just its letter; why does the Center insist on not delving into the emotion and the intent of the law? Had that been our mindset, a vote of no confidence would have seen the Rawat and the Tuki governments well on their way out, in time. Thapar does not restrict himself to the Modi government, to be fair, and makes it clear that this has been the pattern of decision-making since the time of Indira Gandhi, especially with regards to Article 356.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
Why is it that the public mood in London has undergone a sudden shift with the coronation of Theresa May as Prime Minister, and yet Putin is looked at with suspicion and derision even though he clearly pulled Russia out of the post-Soviet trauma seamlessly? Swapan Dasgupta, in his column, mulls over the history of the West celebrating politically audacious female leaders at home, and yet when the question of a strong willed male leader outside of the West arises, he is seen as heading an “illiberal democracy”. Dasgupta proves his hypothesis by placing the discussion in the context of the recent attempted coup in Turkey. Even though Erdogan was successful in restoring the popular, democratic government, the strong objections raised by the European Union on the quantum of retribution to be meted out to the planners of the coup proves that the military somewhere had the emotional support of the West.
(Source: The Times of India)
Meghnad Desai, in his column, picks at the real problem the BJP is facing as seen by a recent spat of “self-goals” against the Congress: Misreading the situation in Arunachal Pradesh, Navjot Singh Sidhu quitting the party, the Gujarat government maintaining eerie silence on the recent developments in Una and Dayashankar Singh, a BJP Vice-President in UP shooting his mouth off against Mayawati. While Amit Shah can win elections, and the RSS can provide foot soldiers, Desai comments that at the center there is only Modi and a handful of leaders who can truly understand and predict political trends, and that may not be enough to keep the winning streak going.
(Source: The Indian Express)
In his column, Swaminathan Aiyar, draws our attention to a vile, diversionary tactic our government is using to shield its corrupt politicians and bureaucrats, unprecedented anywhere else in the world. Despite all parties enthusiastically agreeing to the formation of an independent Lokpal to check corruption as demanded by NGOs led by Anna Hazare in 2013, the truth is even three years later, no Lokpal has been formed. To make matters worse, all public servants are required to file annual returns on assets owned by them, their spouses and their dependent children. There’s one catch: In June, the government quietly released a notice declaring any official related to an NGO which receives a grant of over one crore rupees from the government or Rs 10 lakh from a foreign organisation as a public servant.
(Source: The Times of India)
Tavleen Singh, in her column, calls it as it is: “The BJP today is facing a serious Dalit problem”. She runs through all the recent atrocities against Dalits by murderous cow vigilantes that have been met with the stony silence of Modi, despite social media, public and media furor. Singh compares the final blow to Dayashankar Singh comparing Mayawati to a prostitute, ironically so considering it was UP’s 71 seats that lead to Modi winning his majority for the first time in 30 years.
(Source: The Indian Express)
Jairam Ramesh, Congressman, MP and author of To the Brink and Back: India’s 1991 Story takes the reader down memory lane and revisits the days leading up to July 24, when then Finance Minister (FM) Manmohan Singh, in “jugalbandi” with the Prime Minister, Narasimha Rao managed to convince an entire government to approve of the most drastic economic reforms through sheer determination and utilisation of skill sets between the two. Ramesh’s piece is sprinkled with intriguing anecdotes, like the time the FM personally made an unscheduled appearance at the usual post-budget press conference to defend his proposal for hours on end, worried that uninterested officials may send the wrong idea out.
(Source: The Hindu)
In his article, former Union Minister Manish Tiwari, sheds light on an aspect of Indo-Pak relations often taken for granted. Tiwari suggests that maybe it is more than just border control, maybe at a person-to-person level all is not okay between Indians and Pakistanis. While those alive during the partition had strong emotions of nostalgia and longing to humanise the other, the generations now only have putrid accounts of war, rape and violence that have been handed down to them. Added to that is another truth: most Indians have not met a Pakistani and the same applies the other way around. Tiwari suggests easing of travel restrictions, among other seemingly trivial but genuine suggestions to bridge the partition.
(Source: The Asian Age)
To begin your Sunday on a lighter note, read Manas Chakravarty’s radical but long-due proposal: the government must include tax deduction for the wear and tear of the human brain that is used in the daily jobs we go to. For if machines are compensated for their continuous use, why not the limbs of footballers who make a living using those parts of their bodies? Chakravarty’s entertaining and legitimate musing ends with a radical analysis of T S Eliot’s famous poem, The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock: “In the room the women come and go, talking of the ITO.”
(Source: The Hindustan Times)
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