Sunday View: The Best Weekend Opinion Reads, Curated Just For You

Here is a compilation of the best opinion pieces across newspapers.

Keep the chai, forget the paper. Read the best opinion and editorial articles from across the print media on Sunday View.

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Inside track: Some Up, Some Down

It’s a Sunday so the first thing on your agenda should be to update yourself with all the political gossip of the week, courtesy Coomi Kapoor. In her column for The Indian Express, Kapoor talks about Ajit Doval’s precarious position in the Modi-2 regime, the lowdown on the Rafale ‘puja’, journalist Ashok Malik’s unwanted advice on the media, the BCCI elections and how the new Gujarat Bhavan in Delhi doesn’t yet have a cook!

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh sent word to the Indian ambassador in France that he wanted a pandit to be present when he landed in Bordeaux for the formal ceremony of officially handing over the first of the 36 Rafale jets manufactured for the Indian Air Force. The French authorities, alerted that a puja would be performed on the runway, made discrete inquiries as to what the procedure entailed. At the Dassault Aviation Centre, Rajnath, carried out the rituals of a shastra puja, the ceremony for worshipping weapons. He offered a coconut and flowers, while a lemon was placed under the aircraft wheel. Singh put kum kum on his finger to inscribe the auspicious figure ‘Om’ on the jet. The French witnessing the ceremony, including the Minister for Armed Forces, top army brass and senior officials of Dassault, heaved a sigh of relief. They had been informed that traditionally Indians inscribe a swastika during a puja. The swastika is an unhappy symbol for France since it evokes memories of Nazi occupation of the country during World War II.

Coomi Kapoor in <i>The Indian Express</i>

Sorry Abhijit Banerjee, High Taxes And Freebies Don’t Create Egalitarian Utopia

It looks like journalist Swaminatha Aiyar will soon become a not-so-liked person in Bengal, because it seems like he is not a big fan of economist and Nobel-winner Abhijit Banerjee. In his column for The Times Of India Aiyar takes on Banerjee for criticising the recent cut in corporate taxes but more importantly, for insinuating that economic journalists like himself did not oppose the tax-cut when it was announced. If you like a good argument on your Sunday mornings, this column is a must-read.

You question our claim that global investors are shifting from China to Vietnam and Bangladesh but not India because of our higher tax rates and input prices. You say better evidence comes from the US where different states levy different tax rates and yet high-tax states grow fast. However, the main US business taxes are federal and apply to all states. Second, states with huge historical advantages — California has Silicon Valley, New York is a global financial centre — can get away with high taxes because their lucrative giant industries will not shift. But smaller entrepreneurs have shifted in droves from California to low-tax Texas. Finally, American states compete fiercely with tax breaks to attract big projects, like Amazon’s second headquarters. US evidence actually proves that tax rates matter hugely.We journalists favour a tough tax administration that jails hundreds of crooked politicians and businessmen. That will improve tax revenue and equality far more than uncompetitive high taxes. &nbsp;

Swaminathan Aiyar in <i>The Times Of India</i>

The Response To Banerjee Is Telling

In his column for The Hindustan Times, Karan Thapar too discusses Abhijit Banerjee- specifically, the BJP’s response to him and his Nobel win. Senior party leaders like Piyush Goyal and Rahul Sinha faced massive criticism for their dismissal (and mockery) of Banerjee’s achievements, with one of them even dragging his French wife into the picture. In his column, Thapar asks if we, as people, have forgotten the fine line between what should be said aloud and what should simply never be expressed in public, freedom of speech notwithstanding.

I know it’s a provocative question but I believe it’s one that needs to be asked: Are we a gauche and graceless people? Do we have no idea of what should be spoken and what should be suppressed and never expressed? In the foolish belief we have a right to say what we want we often blurt out the silliest things.Believe it or not, this is how two senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) greeted the arrival of Abhijit Banerjee to India. He came within days of winning the Nobel Prize for Economics, but leading ministers and senior officials of the BJP were not just unimpressed but critical and often, downright rude. &nbsp;

Karan Thapar in <i>The Hindustan Times</i>

Out Of Mind: Beware The Voter

The most hotly discussed political topic this week was, of course, the Haryana and Maharashtra elections. While the BJP did form governments in both states, the performances of Sharad Pawar’s NCP and Dushyant Chautala’s JJP in Maharashtra and Haryana respectively left many, including those in the BJP, surprised. This after exit polls showed a BJP landslide in both states. Conclusion? Well, don’t take voters for granted- they can lie to politicians and pollsters, just like politicians and pollsters lie to them, says Lord Meghnad Desai in his column for The Indian Express.

Certain things are clear. Never take the voters for granted. Voters know not only how to use their vote but also how to lie to pollsters. There was a report of a BJP neta telling voters that his party had put a chip in the EVM which told them who had voted for which party. The Election Commission was going to examine him but it is not the first time this has been said. Maneka Gandhi said something similar during the general election. Either the voters do not believe in what they are told or they are not afraid of the consequences of their exercising their democratic rights. It is obvious that such talk does not enhances a party’s reputation with voters.

Lord Meghnad Desai in <i>The Indian Express</i>

Fifth Column: A Deluded Campaign

Even a Prime Minister who has just won a second term must not think of himself as invincible, says Tavleen Singh in her weekly column for The Indian Express. The BJP’s electoral numbers in the Maharashtra and Haryana elections prove that hyper-nationalism is now being rejected by the people even if the results show that BJP is forming governments in both the states, Singh asserts. And the BJP will do well to heed these elections as a warning.

As someone who has supported Modi openly in this column, I was horrified to hear him virtually charge his political opponents with treason for opposing the removal of Article 370. Ask them, he said often, if they would dare bring it back. Sharad Pawar answered correctly that it made no difference to the people of Maharashtra whether this Article was there or not since destitute farmers from his state were not exactly ready to race off to buy land in the Kashmir Valley. The menace in the Prime Minister’s speeches was amplified by his faithful fellow traveller Amit Shah who gives that word a whole new dimension.

Tavleen Singh in <i>The Indian Express</i>

Where Will The Opposition To The Bjp Come From?

In his column for The Hindustan Times, Chanakya too talks about the Haryana and Mahrashtra polls and says that it provides an answer to the question- “If not BJP, the who?”. The country and the Opposition were left asking if a counter-force to Modi and the BJP could emerge after the Lok Sabha Polls, he says. These assembly elections and its results are an answer to that.

When the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) returned to power in May — with a bigger majority — there was a sense of deep pessimism that permeated across India’s Opposition parties. The disappointment at the defeat was natural, but it went beyond that. It suddenly seemed that the BJP, led by the formidable Narendra Modi, was electorally invincible. And India was headed towards a unipolar moment in its polity, where only one dominant party would continue to hold all levers of power. The BJP’s electoral dominance, geographical spread, organisational depth, and ideological acceptability has, indeed, grown exponentially. The pessimism was, therefore, understandable.But in a democracy, and in a large and complex democracy like India, the conclusion was also somewhat misplaced. Politics is a competitive process. Politics is a product of faultlines. Politics also manufactures those faultlines. And politics abhors a vacuum. The correct question was, therefore, not whether the BJP would have an opposition — but where would the opposition come from.&nbsp;

Chanakya in <i>The Hindustan Times</i>

World Is Taking Note That New India Is Not Living Up To Its Image

US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s sharp criticism of India’s actions in Kashmir in the US Congress this week gained a lot of traction on social media, and otherwise. In this week’s column for The Times Of India, Aakar Patel says that India’s “hypocritical” public image- that of a ‘tolerant’ nation, but with very little care for the minorities- is slowly but surely being exposed at the global level. And it’s time we do some damage-control.

It was excruciating to watch the studied clarity with which the American legislators arrived at an understanding of what India was doing to Muslims in Assam. The national register of citizens (NRC) was aimed at identifying who was not Indian? Correct. The absolute requirement was a full set of documents? Correct. The burden of proof for this was on the individual and not the state? Correct. Those who were suspected to be without them were locked up by India in concentration camps? Correct. There was a law that specifically excluded all but Muslims from these jails? Correct. Was it a “crackpot” idea or a serious legislation? It was a serious legislation.Even the bureaucrats of the Trump administration, wheeled out to defend India against this reckless slander from the liberals, found it impossible to. &nbsp;

Aakar Patel in <i>The Times Of India</i>

What Women Need In Post-Disaster Situations

Like in all socio-economic situations, during disasters too, women tend to be the worst affected of all affected. Sociologists over the years have referred to this as a ‘double-burden’ that women have to face. That is, an additional social disadvantage women face due to their gender, in addition to the other disadvantages faced by their extended social community. In her column for The Hindustan Times this week, Lalita Panicker looks into the Assam and Bihar floods and delineates why women should be looked at as a separate focus-group in any disaster situation.

Studies show that natural disasters tend to lower life expectancy more in women than in men. This has to do with their lack of physical ability to get to safety, their sacrificing their safety for their children and elders, and their cumbersome clothing. Apart from this, in the aftermath of a disaster, women are much more vulnerable to trafficking, rape, and violence. After the Nepal earthquake, there were reports of women and children being preyed upon by traffickers. Given the inadequate socio-economic resources available to them, women also find it more difficult to rebuild their lives after disasters. They have limited livelihood avenues, little access to loans, and little knowledge of relief and rehabilitation available to them.

Lalita Panicker in <i>The Hindustan Times</i>

When Headlines Beckon A Cab Driver Home

How powerful is the written word? Well, a guest column in today’s Times Of India by Shayonnita Mallick may give you a decent idea. Mallick pens down a heart-warming tale of a cabbie from Uttar Pradesh who stays connected to his home, wife and children through newspapers that are carefully stored and stacked in his car. If you need to a ‘feel-good’ piece to read this Sunday morning, this is it.

Originally from UP, he has been in Bombay since 1994. He is able to make enough to go home only twice a year — Farooq Sheikh’s Gaman comes to mind. That is over 300 days spent each year without his wife and children.That’s where this paper comes in, called Kesar Bhoomi or some name that eludes me now, it mostly carries news from the North. Every article feels like a trip back home, every headline a small postcard seated on which he returns to the walls to which he whispered his childhood dreams.I imagine him at Marine Drive, reading about a robbery in a backwater alley in UP. Cruising through Vashi, thinking of Diwali in his mohalla. Removed from the sky that makes night for his family, even their headlines make home feel closer. Like his taxi mirror — which reads, ‘objects in the mirror are closer than they appear’ — the stories in the paper are far further away than they appear. Yet for a few minutes on a Mumbai afternoon, they can be found on the other side of tightly closed eyelids. &nbsp;

Shayonnita Mallick in <i>The Times Of India</i>

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