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.

The best opinion pieces from across newspapers this Sunday, curated just for you.

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The Spectre Never Went Away

In his opinion piece for The Indian Express, P Chidambaram critiques the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's (RSS) enduring goal of establishing a Hindu rashtra and argues that this vision fundamentally contradicts India’s constitutional secularism.

Drawing parallels with historical theocracies, he outlines how the RSS has consistently worked towards goals such as repealing Article 370, building the Ram temple, and potentially replacing the Constitution with one based on the Manusmriti.

On Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar and RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale calling the addition of words such as 'secular' and 'socialist' to the Preamble as 'unconstitutional', Chidambaram writes: "The word ‘secular’ is anathema to the supporters of Hindu rashtra but can a plural, diverse, multi-religious and democratic country be anything but secular? I admire the French who are pre-dominantly Catholic but fiercely secular. The other word ‘socialist’ has no fixed meaning; it is often used to describe a welfare state and the BJP cannot deny that India is a welfare state. The addition of the words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ did not radically alter the basic structure of the Constitution."

Two Upstarts

In The Telegraph, Mukul Kesavan draws parallels between India’s Arvind Kejriwal and New York’s Zohran Mamdani, noting both are outsider politicians who built grassroots support by championing the working poor.

"Comparing Kejriwal and Mam­dani might seem arbitrary given the differences in their biographies. Mamdani is a migrant, he is affirmatively Muslim in a political context that marginalises Muslims and, at thirty-three, is something of a political prodigy. He served his political apprenticeship as a three-term member of the New York state assembly," Kesavan writes.

He adds, "Kejriwal had a prior career in the civil services and had been one of the moving spirits behind the campaign for the Right to Information Act. It is reasonable to say that he used (and then sidelined) Anna Hazare to capture the public imagination. Kejriwal’s political calling card was his anti-corruption crusade for an ombudsman or Lokpal. It was aimed at the Congress which had dominated Delhi’s assembly politics for fifteen years. Sheila Dikshit had been Delhi’s chief minister through that period and Kejriwal successfully targeted the corruption in staging the Commonwealth Games to make the case for himself as the incorruptible new broom. Not for nothing is the electoral symbol of the AAP a jhadu."

Bihar Electoral Rolls Revision — Another Idiotic Exercise

Senior journalist Tavleen Singh, in her column for The Indian Express, criticises the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar as a tone-deaf, bureaucratic exercise that ignores the state's deep poverty. Drawing from her visit to a Musahar (mouse-catcher) community, she highlights how many residents lack basic necessities—let alone the multiple documents now required for voter verification. She questions the need for this exercise when Aadhaar was previously pitched as a universal ID.

She writes, "We need to ask why our political leaders and high officials are so removed from the realities of India that they have not noticed that the people of Bihar are nearly all too poor to get more documents to prove their identity."

"An Opposition leader in Bihar has referred to this latest scheme as ‘votebandi’ and compared it to ‘notebandi’. It is a valid comparison. That other exercise was supposed to cleanse India of ‘black money’ and forever end the ways in which ‘black’ money was used to fund terrorism, corrupt politicians and other such things. So millions of very poor Indians were forced to queue for hours in the sun to exchange their old notes for new."

Tavleen Singh in The Indian Express

Watchdog's Whimper

Valay Singh, Sarab Lamba, and Nidha Parveen — in their article for The Telegraph — highlight that State Human Rights Commissions (SHRCs), created more than two decades ago to act as regional watchdogs, are now virtually defunct due to chronic underfunding and understaffing.

They write: "Now over two decades old, the promise of SHRCs as close-to-the-ground, independent watchdogs safeguarding the dignity and the rights of every individual remains unrealised. In too many states, they have become symbolic institutions — there in form but not in impact. For these bodies to fulfil their constitutional promise, they must be revitalised with greater transparency, stronger leadership, independent budgets, a full complement of skilled staff, and active public outreach. Otherwise, they risk becoming one more broken link in a justice system that is already struggling to serve those most in need."

Walking a Mile in Amma’s Shoes

In this Indian Express column, Yamini Nair reflects on the strength and selflessness of her 75-year-old mother, a homemaker who managed every aspect of their household without help.

When her mother suffered a fall and was bedridden for the first time in over 40 years, Nair rushed home and stepped into her shoes — only to realise the physical and emotional toll of unpaid domestic labour.

"From cooking, cleaning and being an alarm clock for my brother and me, to buying things for the house and taking care of her terrace garden and the small farm where coconut trees, plantains and other species thrive — she did this all by herself. Even when she hit her 70s, she refused to hire a house help, ignoring our repeated requests," Nair writes.

She adds, "It crushed me to see her in hospital, but duty took precedence over emotions. The days in hospital were manageable, though I was sleepless due to the constant monitoring of her IV drips and the machines with varying decibel levels that were attached to her. Painkillers and sedatives helped her wade through the toughest of days."

Only Good Faculty Can Bring Colleges Up to Speed

In his opinion piece for The New Indian Express, Dinesh Singh argues that India’s higher education can only improve by attracting and retaining quality faculty. Without strong teachers, colleges can’t progress. It calls for better pay, research support, and academic freedom to build world-class institutions, warning that expanding student intake without enhancing teaching quality will lower standards.

"I know of several mathematical research institutes that have been set up with the specific mandate of fostering blue sky research. In principle this is indeed a commendable policy but what bothers me is the fact that there has been no major course correction based on genuine assessment of the needs of the nation. I am disappointed to state that these institutions have not really helped the cause of mathematics," he writes.

"A country like India has had many pressing and important needs for the applications of mathematics. Unfortunately, most of these venerable research institutes have failed to take cognizance of this. The way I see it, they have essentially used precious resources for developing and researching mathematics of the mostly pure kind which has not led to any important tangible gains for the wellbeing of the nation."

Dinesh Singh in The New Indian Express

Can Celebrities Protect Their Personalities?

In his column for the Deccan Herald, law professor Nigam Nuggehalli explores how Indian celebrities are turning to courts to protect their image from unauthorised use, especially via AI. Legal remedies, such as dynamic injunctions, highlight growing recognition of personality rights—though debates persist whether these stem from privacy or property law. Arijit Singh’s case exemplifies this evolving landscape.

"Legal scholarship in this area grapples with some difficult conceptual issues. For example, Nina Nariman, a lawyer, has discussed legal remedies for celebrities in terms of property rights and personality rights. She notes that legal scholars and judges are divided on the issue of how to protect personality rights," Nuggehalli writes.

He adds, "Some jurists base these rights on the right to privacy of an individual. An individual deserves to be left alone, and an extension of leaving him alone is not to exploit his personality in any manner. Some other jurists believe that privacy alone can’t justify the legal remedies in celebrity exploitations; they believe that a person protecting his personality rights must be asserting a property right."

1965 War, Friendships, Resolve, and Romance

In The Tribune, Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi (retd) recounts the 1965 Indo‑Pak war through personal anecdotes of camaraderie among soldiers, spotlighting unlikely friendships that blossomed amid combat. He reflects on the unwavering resolve and resilience of troops, many enduring serious injuries yet remaining steadfast. Through touching vignettes, he also highlights lighter, human moments that punctuated the brutality of war.

He writes, "It was the time of war, as it is today, but exactly 60 years back. It was the 1965 India-Pakistan War. The common notion is that it was fought for 22 days in September, but in actuality, the war, initiated by Pakistan, was fought in three parts, all interlinked. There was no casus belli for that war, as it was contrived by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, then the Foreign Minister of Pakistan, and a few Generals of the Pakistan army, who persuaded a reluctant President Ayub Khan to approve their plans."

The Taste of Erasure: On Class, Caste and Culinary Amnesia

Abhijit Banerjee, in the Times of India, explores the concept of “culinary amnesia”—how caste invisibly shapes food culture and memory in India. Bengal’s rich Dalit food traditions remain unrecognized despite significant SC/ST populations in Kolkata. In contrast, JNU foregrounds caste through identity-assertive food practices, prompting broader reflection on class, power, and erasure.

He writes, "Growing up in Kolkata in the 1970s, caste was not a big part of my life. You knew it existed of course, from the bride wanted ads and occasional distasteful references to somebody being chhoto jaat (lower caste) as an explanation for their ‘misbehaviour’. But mostly, we lived in the comfortable world of Banerjees and Mukherjees, Ghoshes and Boses, Sens and Sahas, barely aware of the differences in caste."

Banerjee adds, "Caste was unavoidable in JNU. Starting with a classmate who introduced himself and added, brahman, with an ‘r’ creeping into the final ‘n’. He added, like you. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I was a mere half-caste, a product of a proscribed union. Caste was everywhere: from very abstruse discussions of the role of caste in Marxist analysis (not clear) to whether there were actually hostel mafias that enforced caste segregation (also not clear), we talked about it all the time."

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