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

We sifted through the papers to find the best opinion reads, so you won't have to.

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No Unemployment in India!

Contradicting the celebratory narrative around India’s high GDP growth and low inflation in his article for The Indian Express, P Chidambaram explains how widespread vacancies in government and quasi-government sectors are being misrepresented as an absence of unemployment in India.

I have good reasons to state that there are no takers for jobs. Data shows that for hundreds of thousands of vacancies in the government and quasi-government sector, there are no takers. Despite good pay (and the 8th Pay Commission will improve it), dearness allowance, annual increments, promotions, job security, medical benefits, HRA, Transport Allowance and other allowances, leave benefits, advances and loans, and Unified Pension Scheme, young men and women are not inclined to take the jobs — sanctioned by the government but vacant. What will you conclude from this extraordinary situation other than there is no unemployment and no takers for jobs?

P Chidambaram, for The Indian Express

Drawing on official data, the former finance minister points to a large number of sanctioned posts lying vacant, despite lucrative pay and benefits. The government’s denial of job losses, compounded by policy shocks such as demonetisation, has only aggravated the nation’s distress.

The Real Reason Most Indian Cities Are Among Worst Governed Global Cities

Reflecting on the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation election in her column for The Indian Express, Tavleen Singh contends that India lacks true municipal governance. She highlights the absurdity of a chief minister taking credit for a civic triumph, by comparing it with New York, where mayor Zohran Mamdani wields actual executive authority.

Last week, when the results came for the election to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, it was the Chief Minister of Maharashtra who made it clear that he was the hero of this victory. Nobody saw the incongruity. Did you? Did you while watching the results stop for a moment and think that it was absurd that a chief minister should be exulting in a municipal victory? When Zohran Mamdani became Mayor of New York city, it was his victory and his alone and if he does not deliver on the promises he made, he alone will be held responsible. The buck stops with the mayor in most major cities in the world but in our colonial system of governance this does not happen. So municipal governance simply does not exist. Everything is controlled by chief ministers who have many other things to attend to.

Tavleen Singh, for The Indian Express

Yet to shed its colonial hangover, India’s administrative framework sees mayors being reduced to ceremonial figures, whilst power lies with unelected commissioners. This structural failure is among the root causes of the appalling state of urban life, manifest in sprawling slums, decaying hospitals and the lack of basic necessities like affordable housing.

Judiciary Key in Restoring the Health of Institutions

In his column for Deccan Chronicle, Pavan K Varma questions whether investigative agencies like the CBI and ED disproportionately target the opposition parties before elections, undermining their mandate of impartiality. Whilst corruption probes cannot be halted to suit India’s electoral schedule, the former diplomat highlights a recurring pattern of pre-election action against opposition parties.

Are the Enforcement Directorate (ED), and other investigative agencies, selective in targeting the Opposition when elections are due? Prima facie, the ED’s response — and that of the BJP — has theoretical validity: Action in matters of corruption cannot be timed to electoral phases; if wrongdoing is apparent, it must be pursued regardless of the political calendar; the majesty of the law cannot be arbitrarily suspended to suit the convenience of anyone. But, is it only a coincidence then that, in a clear pattern, Opposition parties have been regularly targeted before elections, while the ruling party at the Centre has almost never been subjected to such coercive scrutiny?

Pavan K Varma, for Deccan Chronicle

Citing examples such as the raid on the I-PAC office ahead of the elections in West Bengal, alongside similar action against AAP and DMK leaders prior to elections in Delhi and Tamil Nadu respectively, Varma contends that the trust in democratic fairness has eroded. He calls for urgent structural reforms to ensure all anti-corruption measures are universal, neutral and insulated from political influence.

Behold Donald of Deliria!

Writing for The New York Times, Maureen Dowd delivers a scathing portrait of Donald Trump’s second term as the US President, where his attraction to chaos has now hardened into an obsession with force. Once sceptical of foreign wars, Trump now revels in military actions abroad, whilst also tolerating internal political violence.

Trump Redux is infatuated with drone strikes and airstrikes, tumescent with the power of the world’s greatest military, hungry to devour the hemisphere in one imperialistic gulp. He plucked the dictator of Venezuela out of his compound to plunder that country’s oil. He’s threatening Iran with military action. He demands that protesters in Iran not be killed, while stoking tension against protesters in Minnesota. He has infuriated Denmark, formerly one of the most pro-American countries in Europe, by warning he will strike a deal to get Greenland “the easy way” or will get it “the hard way.” He threatened on Friday to slap tariffs on nations that resist his effort to grab Greenland. His belittling boasts about swallowing Canada helped drive our nicest neighbor into the arms of China.

Maureen Dowd, for The New York Times

Dowd argues that actions such as suggesting elections are dispensable and international law is inessential show that Trump is no longer driven by policies or principles, but by ego and greed. With power justified by the President’s personal morality, the columnist warns that the USA is staring into one of its most perilous phases yet.

Trump’s Real Estate Mindset and Its Global Consequences

In the wake of US President Donald Trump’s actions in Venezuela, Gurucharan Gollerkeri reflects on the precarious position of smaller states in his column for Deccan Herald. Likening their plight to that of defenceless commoners against predatory land sharks, Gollerkeri contends that the traditional mechanisms of restraint, such as the UN Security Council, have proven to be impotent against a superpower’s transgressions.

The real peril of dealing with a real estate president is not that he wants to take territory. It is that he treats the world as a collection of assets rather than a community of peoples. In doing so, he accelerates a transition already underway: from a world organised around American leadership to one organised around American unpredictability. Small countries will suffer first, just as small landowners do. But they will also adapt – through coalitions, diversification, and cautious disengagement. The map will not be redrawn overnight. It will be redrawn slowly, through the withdrawal of consent.

Gurucharan Gollerkeri, for Deccan Herald

He observes that when geography and natural resources take precedence over international law, smaller nations risk being treated as mere assets by dominant powers. The former secretary to the government of India argues that the remedy lies in building strategic coalitions, reducing dependency and diversifying trade.

MAGA Fault Lines and Implications for India

Writing for Hindustan Times, Avinash Paliwal examines the intensifying polarisation and rising institutional erosion in the United States of America, under Donald Trump’s leadership. Events such as the Capitol attack by Trump’s supporters, and internal rifts within both the Republicans and the Democrats highlight America’s strained governance and rule of law.

Trump’s America is increasingly testing the legal and moral limits of power at home and abroad. It has opened many fronts at once. Something must give. When that happens, hubris is likely to pave way for fear in team Trump. That’s when the US will face its most dangerous moment. Trump is undoing the long-term American social contract, while maintaining short-term popularity and a devoted personality cult. This is true in all spheres — economics, politics, military, and society. Trump tariffs are protecting some industries but spiking consumer prices and threatening inflation. Still, the Democrats are failing to outmanoeuvre Trump on policy and popularity nationally, notwithstanding Zohran Mamdani’s historic mayoral victory in New York City.

Avinash Paliwal, for Hindustan Times

As US politics turn volatile, Paliwal expects the consequence to be significant for nations like India. The international relations researcher argues that America is on the brink of a political revolution, and India must be prepared for a phase of global uncertainty.

Adjusting to Delhi-NCR Pollution, With a Smile

In a critique of the Delhi upper-middle class’s outrage over air pollution crisis, Abhishek Asthana argues that the performative protests should be banned once and for all, as they have proven to be ineffective. Drawing on a decade-long personal experience in his piece for Hindustan Times, Asthana laments the futility of seasonal demonstrations and social media activism.

Each winter, Delhi residents protest — on social media and on-ground — and force the government to “do something”. In a bid to appear vigilant, the government then inflicts short-term experiments such as sudden vehicle emission controls that allow the traffic police the remit to extort thousands — a double whammy of pollution and punishing control measures. Vehicles are impounded. Construction work is hit. The AQI remains the same, a breeze blows and improves things. The rulers keep administering the bitter pill to us NCR residents — a mere placebo, though — in an attempt to assure us that things are going to improve.

Abhishek Asthana, for Hindustan Times

The tech entrepreneur argues that while pollution remains a grave concern, it has not proven to be an electoral deal-breaker, resulting in indifference from India’s ruling dispensation. The nation’s citizens and government are all, hence, caught in a cycle of outrage and amnesia, where the winter activism will soon make way for Holi celebrations and election fervour.

Ten Years After Rohith Vemula’s Death, Why Campus Reforms Still Fall Short

Writing for The Times of India on the tenth anniversary of Rohith Vemula’s death, Sumit Baudh questions whether Indian universities have truly transformed to protect young minds, or whether the proliferation of anti-discriminatory rules was aimed only at procedural compliance.

Ten years after Rohith Vemula’s death, the challenge before Indian universities is not merely to refine procedure, but to confront what their systems protect and reproduce. Anti-discrimination cannot remain an administrative function detached from teaching, curriculum, and institutional self-understanding. If grievance mechanisms are to matter, they must be accompanied by serious engagement with anti-caste knowledge, curricular accountability, and a willingness to recognise harm even when it is structural rather than personal. Otherwise, reform risks becoming ritual: rules without justice, and process without transformation.

Sumit Baudh, for The Times of India

The legal expert explains how caste-based exclusion is not merely a result of individual intent, but it is also embedded in academic practices. Without meaningful reforms such as curricular accountability and anti-caste knowledge, all rules will remain ritualistic.

The Crisis of Relationship Recession

Writing for The New Indian Express, Geetha Ravichandran examines the growing scepticism around marriage, calling it the global relationship recession. An institution that was once deemed indispensable and inevitable, marriage is now increasingly delayed or rejected, driven by evolving value systems.

Staying single is not a new phenomenon. There have been communities of monks and nuns over the ages. In the past, child widows, women who were considered ineligible due to financial circumstances or physical characteristics, were relegated to the fringes of society, sometimes denied even basic comforts of living. What is new is the conscious decision made by young individuals to stay single. Today’s women reject traditional imposed roles of a wife and mother and do not see these events as milestones to be achieved by a certain age. An increase in divorce rates also reflects the mismatch in expectations and changing norms.

Geetha Ravichandran, for The New Indian Express

The former bureaucrat contends that reduced human interaction, technology and alternate family structures, such as live-in relationships, have collectively reshaped societal attitudes. Marriage may not disappear altogether, but it is now a choice, as opposed to being a compulsion.

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