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

A curation of the best op-ed articles from across the web and The Quint, for your Sunday morning chai session. 

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India
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1. NaMo or No More?

Likening the Rahul Gandhi-led Congress’ win in three out of the five states, which went to polls recently, to the unexpected victories of former British prime ministers Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher, Meghnad Desai, in his column for The Indian Express, speaks about how the results of these elections should be a wake-up call for BJP to rise out of its complacency. Desai also warns Congress of not falling prey to old patterns – as can be seen from the party’s choice of chief ministers in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

“Every election must be fought as a new one. The BJP should think it is fighting for its life. Else it will find itself out. It should recall that the best Atal Bihari Vajpayee could get was 182 seats and then lost the 2004 election. Modi got a hundred more seats in 2014 on the promise of inclusive development. Even so, Narendra Modi should not take a second term for granted. Never trust the Indian voter to give you an easy time. The BJP should start the 2019 campaign with the assumption, as a projection from the state election results, that it could lose 100 seats. Its task then is to minimise this projected loss. The Congress could get 100 more seats. Not the ones the BJP loses but overall.”
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2. A Hundred-Day Journey

For Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, BJP will indeed fight back with all that it has got in the next hundred days but the ruling party has failed to realise why it lost the Hindi heartland. In his column for The Indian Express, Chidamabaram says that instead of tackling important issues such as farmers’ distress, unemployment, and women’s security, etc, the BJP’s narrative is based on spreading fear in the hearts of citizens.

“Mr Adityanath was a tireless campaigner like Mr Narendra Modi and addressed more rallies than Mr Modi did. When such a person speaks — and speaks only — of protecting the cow, building a Ram temple, erecting the tallest statue of Lord Ram, renaming states and cities, banishing Muslim leaders from their states, etc, he does not convey a message of hope or development or security. On the contrary, he raises the spectre of constant conflict, violence, riots, and polarisation and division of society, and drives fear into the hearts of average citizens. Such fear, in my view, is a potent factor behind the voting behaviour of the very poor: they can live with poverty and betrayed promises of development, but they cannot live in a situation of perpetual conflict.”
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3. The Warning Signs Are Loud & Clear

Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) is slowly drifting into anarchy, writes former National Security Adviser MK Narayan in his column for The Hindu. Referring to political deadlock in the state due to four years of a "mismanaged" BJP-PDP alliance, Narayan says that the number of militant attacks have extended to North and Central Kashmir, apart from South Kashmir, which has often been the epicentre of violence.

“Four years of mismanaged politics have plunged J&K into its worst ever cycle of violence and confusion. Kashmir today is not merely volatile, but is drifting inexorably into anarchy. Violence is the dominant factor. The numbers of militants and security personnel killed dominate newspaper headlines. Over the past three years, South Kashmir had been the main epicentre of violence, but more recently, North and Central Kashmir have also emerged as violence prone. This year has witnessed some of the highest levels of violence since 1989. Areas such as Srinagar which had previously been declared a ‘militancy free zone’ have again witnessed a series of militant attacks.”
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4. Messiah Modi?

Why has ‘Modi Magic’ died? It’s possibly because the Prime Minister acts more like a ‘messiah’ than a leader, writes Tavleen Singh in her weekly column for The Indian Express. Modi’s belief that he is above mortals can be seen from his actions – from demonetisation to not holding a single press conference all of it has led him to a politically vulnerable spot, the column reads.

“Political leaders face problems that messiahs do not for the simple reason that political leaders can admit to making mistakes. A messiah cannot. So Modi has chosen to stay away from pesky journalists by not holding a single press conference in the past four years. Instead, like a messiah, he has chosen to communicate directly with the people through a radio monologue called Mann ki Baat. These monologues have now been compiled into a book. If Modi had stepped off his messiah pulpit and looked at Indian realities with the eyes of a political leader, he would have noticed that things were not going all that well for his party. He would have noticed that it was wrong to be so disdainful, of the only party that can challenge him, as to declare that he wanted to build an India that was rid of the Congress party.”
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5. It is Behenji Who Will Decide What Form the Alliance Takes With Cong

Despite Congress’ win in the Hindi heartland, not all opposition leaders are happy with party President Rahul Gandhi, writes Coomi Kapoor in her column for The Indian Express. The Congress would have fared even better in these states if BSP Supremo Mayawati had agreed to ally with the party, she writes.

“Eventually, it is Behenji who will decide what form the alliance takes. She may have grudgingly given her support to Congress governments in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, but Mayawati has not forgiven the Congress for rejecting her demands for a tie-up in Rajasthan and MP on her terms. She remains adamant that in an electoral alliance in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress can at best expect eight seats, since the party won two seats and six Congress candidates came second in 2014. The formula is unacceptable to the Congress, particularly as in some of the seats, such as Ghaziabad and Lucknow, the BJP was ahead by huge margins.” 
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6. Centre & States Should Work With Cohesion

There has to be a balance of power between the autonomy of the states and the overriding powers of Centre, in order for India to maintain a federal structure and protect its diversity, writes Mark Tully in an opinion piece for the Hindustan Times. If this balance is encouraged, then it would break the age-old criticism of the Constitution being “unbalanced”in the favour of the Centre, he writes.

“The conclusion of the state elections is a good time to consider the health of Indian federalism, to question whether the division of power between the central government and state governments is skewed in favour of the Centre. India needs to be federal to live with its diversity, to prevent the central government becoming over-mighty, to devolve responsibility to the lowest level at which it can effectively be exercised, and to allow states to develop as they choose.”
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7. Farming in a Warming World

A country like India, with its “agro-climatic settings” stands to fall prey to the severe consequences of climate change, write Naveen P Singh and Bhawna Anand in an opinion piece for The Hindu. Considering the abnormalities in weather that the country has been facing for the past four years – especially in terms of rainfall – there is a need to foster the process of climate adaptation in agriculture by bringing about a complete change in the country’s decision-making culture, they write.

“India, with its diverse agro-climatic settings, is one of the most vulnerable countries. Its agriculture ecosystem, distinguished by high monsoon dependence, and with 85% small and marginal landholdings, is highly sensitive to weather abnormalities. There has been less than normal rainfall during the last four years, with 2014 and 2015 declared as drought years. Even the recent monsoon season (June-September) ended with a rainfall deficit of 9 percent, which was just short of drought conditions. Research is also confirming an escalation in heat waves, in turn affecting crops, aquatic systems and livestock.” 
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8. Because I Speak Two Languages

Political parties and mainstream media have a lot to do with the somewhat enforced barrier between the Tamil and Malayalam languages, Tamil poet Sukumaran writes for The Indian Express. As a speaker of both tongues, he expresses the need to do away with this cultural divide.

“The cultural background of a people speaking a particular language is determined by factors such as media and politics. The solution to a crisis like Mullaiperiyar (the dam dispute between Kerala and Tamil Nadu) is achievable, considering the technological advancements and the space for dialogue. Yet, politicians want to prolong it for the sake of politics. For that, the other culture is conceived as an enemy culture.”
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9. RBI’s Job isn’t to Help Ruling Party in Bringing ‘Acche Din’

Shaktikanta Das’ appointment as the new RBI governor may have been to do with the fact that BJP wanted a more “pliable candidate” to help it win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, writes SA Aiyar in a column for The Times of India. Following the party’s defeat in the five-state elections, it needs a last-minute economic spurt, spearheaded by Das, to win back lost favour from the masses, he says.

“Let us not mince words. One reason for the government changing the RBI Governor is to get a more pliable candidate who will help it win the general election in May 2019. There are also other technical issues on which former Governor Urjit Patel had locked horns with Finance Minister Jaitley. Much has been written about the technical issues, but not enough about the electoral connection.The BJP’s defeat in last week’s state elections highlighted its vulnerability in the 2019 general election. Narendra Modi came to power promising “achhe din” through plentiful jobs created by faster economic growth. Alas, job growth has been modest and GDP has not accelerated significantly. Voters are sourly anti-incumbent. The BJP needs a last-minute economic spurt to improve its electoral chances.”
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