Home News India Sunday View: The Best Weekend Opinion Reads, Curated Just For You
Sunday View: The Best Weekend Opinion Reads, Curated Just For You
We sifted through the papers to find the best opinion pieces so that you wouldn't have to.
The Quint
India
Updated:
The best opinion pieces from across newspapers this Sunday, curated just for you.
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(Photo: Flickr)
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Inside Track: Clueless Aide
In this week's dose of political gossip, Coomi Kapoor, in her column for The Indian Express, talks about how it is KC Venugopal, and not Rahul Gandhi, who veteran Congressmen grumble about, Ashok Gehlot's long record of cutting his rivals to size, gangster Vikas Dubey's bureaucratic connections and how his death has triggered a caste sentiment, and finally, how West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, like her predecessor, the CPI(M), is changing her views about historical leaders to pacify regional sentiments.
It is not merely those concerned about human rights who are upset at the manner in which Dubey was eliminated, many of Dubey’s caste brethren feel so even more strongly. In UP, gangsters may break the law but they are also viewed as protectors of their own biradiri. The late V P Singh, a Thakur like Yogi Adityanath, learnt this the hard way. As UP CM in 1980-82, he launched a much publicised anti-crime drive, but it backfired politically as it was perceived as targeting only non-Thakur criminals. Mayawati exploited the anti-Thakur polarisation to forge a Brahmin-Scheduled Caste alliance. So strong are caste allegiances that in the Assembly elections of 2017, Yogi Adityanath won for the BJP all the Assembly segments in Gorakhpur district except for Chillupar, where Vinay Shankar Tiwari, son of don Hari Shankar Tiwari, was victorious on a BSP ticket. Of course, even gang lords bow to the ruling dispensation, regardless of its caste profile. For instance, Independent MLA Amanmani Tripathi, son of jailed former SP don Amarmani Tripathi, shared a dais with Yogi Adityanath in 2017.
Coomi Kapoor in The Indian Express
Why So Much Rests On Winning The Exam Lottery
In her column for The Times Of India, Amulya Gopalakrishnan talks about how the system of mass exams, once introduced to bring "parity" among ranks and classes, has now become a narrow window of opportunity that pushes the advantaged to an even better life.
The mass examination is only what educationist Krishna Kumar called a “symbolic corrective”. It is a way of rationing a scarce resource (higher education) in a socially acceptable manner to a large population. Their ideological function is to act as competitive measures of merit, at the end of various kinds of school experiences. The whole point of exams was to bring merit into societies of rank and status. In British India, it was the mass exam for civil services that suggested ‘fairness’ to the small Indian middle class, as opposed to being selected by the superior officer’s gut feeling, character analysis and so on. But what is merit? Is it your own pure and singular achievement, something that springs from your brow alone? Or is it also an artefact of your family background, you being in a big city or a small village, whether you had good teaching and mentorship, whether you had the leisure to study uninterrupted by other duties.
Amulya Gopalakrishnan in The Times Of India
Let Not Young India’s Hopes, Aspirations Die With Sushant
The death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput a month ago, has now gone beyond just being the death of a movie star. Rajput's rise to fame from his humble beginnings is a story of fulfilling ambitions that many young Indians will relate to. In his column for The Times Of India, Chetan Bhagat says that it is our collective responsibility to ensure that young India does not lose its aspirations.
People’s social media posts and videos on Sushant have sadness, anger and frustration, all at the same time. For someone who had a relatively short film career, why did his death create so much reaction? This is because Sushant’s suicide could represent something larger — the death of Indian aspiration. Sushant was an outsider who moved up the ranks the hardest possible way. First, the Patna boy studied for engineering like all good middle-class boys are expected to do. From engineering college, he went to acting school and did theatre. He became a background dancer. He did TV serials and dance reality shows. Finally, he got a break in a small Hindi movie based on the Gujarat riots. That movie became a hit and Sushant eventually had a film career. It normally doesn’t happen that way in India. Star kids get big breaks in big launch movies. Sushant was different. His rise in the last decade represented the new aspirational India
Chetan Bhagat in The Times Of India
No Time For Toppling Governments
The last week was all about the political crisis in Rajasthan and the constant conjectures on what (now suspended) Congress leader Sachin Pilot's next move is going to be. But, is the middle of pandemic really the time to be thinking of toppling governments? Tavleen Singh asks in her column for the The Indian Express.
So, on a day of heavy rain, bad news about Covid-19 and bad news from Ladakh about the Chinese not exactly ‘disengaging’, when news came of political instability in Rajasthan, I felt real disgust. Whoever the politicians are who are responsible for trying to bring down a major state government in such an awful time, they are clearly men who have no sense of patriotism, honour or duty. Since calling people ‘anti-national’ is so fashionable these days, let me add that the whole lot fall into this category. Shame on them! If this was not a topical column I would not bother writing about them. Alas, I have no choice.
Tavleen Singh in The Indian Express
Cong Playbook: How To Alienate Loyalists, And Influence No One
Have the Gandhis asserted themselves by taking action against Rahul Gandhi? Well, there can be no assertion when there are no numbers, says Shobhaa De, in her piece for The Times Of India.
To assert oneself, one needs numbers. Who’s left in that tattered party? Hard to imagine that the Congress would turn into a relic so rapidly and be as roundly mocked by all. Especially since the seemingly impregnable BJP bastion continues to attract mega flak from critics, who are convinced it is not the party that represents young India’s aspirations. A smarter, shrewder Congress triumvirate than these three would have cashed in on the multiple, god-given opportunities to demolish the mythology around Narendra Modi’s triumphs. What did the trio focus on instead? Sacking and demonising two loyalists who had stuck by them through thick and thin for decades — Sachin Pilot and Jyotiraditya Scindia. Arrey, why take ‘panga’ with these guys who were previously viewed as chaddi-buddies?
Shobhaa De in The Times Of India
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No Lessons Learnt. Farewell, Congress
In the midst of the political turmoil in Rajasthan, there were also many questions raised on how the Congress party handles its younger leaders. In his piece for The Indian Express, Meghnad Desai talks about how this mismanagement by the top leadership will soon cause the Congress to self-destruct.
The Congress leadership chose to set aside young leaders in favour of the Old Guard. The young were the recent members of old dynasties while the Old Guard wanted to establish their dynasty. In a dynasty-run party, succession matters more than success. So when Jyotiraditya Scindia left the Congress and joined the BJP, it was a no-brainer that Sachin Pilot would go as well. So the next step will be the departure of Ashok Gehlot the way Kamal Nath went. Nothing will be done to prevent it. Neither by the push me-pull you Rahul Gandhi nor by the longest serving Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The gerontocracy of have beens who are the powers behind the throne(s) would rather let the party die than give up their power. The defeat of 2014 was not acknowledged nor has the second defeat of 2019 been admitted. The lack of urgency is pathetic.
Meghnad Desai in The Indian Express
Decoding The Crisis In The Congress
Staying with the Rajasthan crisis, Chanakya, in his/her piece for The Hindustan Times, says that the cracks in the Congress leadership had long formed. However, because the party was in power, they had the resources to cover up these cracks. Now with power not in their hands, the party is yet to figure out a way to tide over their leadership problems.
Even as it has found itself incapable of presenting a compelling counter-narrative to that of the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the party has been fractured from within by once-papered over cracks. Like many problems in organisations, the Congress’ issues start at the very top. Sonia Gandhi retreated after the 2014 Lok Sabha debacle (the party won 44 seats), but it took over three years for her anointed heir Rahul Gandhi to take charge as Congress president. He introduced his own ideas, created a team which had a mix of older and younger leaders, and ran energetic poll campaigns. But with the Lok Sabha defeat in 2019 (52 seats), he resigned, and appeared to blame everyone but himself. He suggested that neither he nor anyone from the Nehru-Gandhi family would take charge — but Sonia Gandhi returned as interim chief shortly after.
Chanakya in The Hindustan Times
The Congress Needs To Look At Its Own History
In his column for The Hindustan Times, Karan Thapar says that contrary to popular perception, the Congress party has elevated young leaders to the top in the past. The difference though, is that all these leaders were Nehru-Gandhis.
In fact, what most people forget is this would not have been the first time the Congress might elevate young leadership to the top. It did it so 1929 when a 40-year-old Jawaharlal Nehru became president. It happened again in 1966 when a 48-year-old Indira Gandhi was chosen as prime minister. History repeated itself 18 years later when Rajiv Gandhi, at 40, became India’s youngest prime minister. In fact, there’s one more example. In 2017, a 47-year-old Rahul Gandhi became the Congress president. So, for four generations Nehru-Gandhis have become Congress presidents — and on two occasions prime minister — while still in their forties.
Karan Thapar in The Hindustan Times
Allowing Communities To Manage Common Assets
Finally, end your Sunday with a piece that is not about the Rajasthan political crisis. Mark Tully, in The Hindustan Times, writes about community assets in India, such as village land, and why it is important that the management of these assets are left to communities and not handed over to governmental administration.
The Covid-19 pandemic has once again shown that we do indeed need less government if that means taking more government out of the hands of self-seeking politicians. But that does not mean Commons based on trusting each other’s decency are always the best form of governance. Bergman quotes the historian Tîne de Moor’s fitting summary of the place for trust. She calls for “institutional diversity” and goes on to say, “while markets work best in some cases and state control is better in others, underpinning it all there has to be a strong communal foundation of citizens who decide to work together.” Communal, of course, here means shared by all members of a community.
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