Across the Aisle: Behind the Celebrations: No Jobs, no Peace
Here with his report card on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s handling of roti, kapda and makaan issues in his first three years in power, is P Chidambaram in The Indian Express. He gives him a “modest score” and lists out failures of Modi’s government which were crucial to powering the engines of economic growth. From boosting bank credit to creating jobs to demonetisation, Chidambaram lists out shortcomings and campaigns which are mere slogans even three years later. At the end of it, he has a tangible agenda and some advice for Modi: “Don’t make room for hubris.”
[...] The government has not been able to revive investment (as a percentage of GDP) or boost bank credit or create jobs. Add to this agrarian distress, the structural problems in the delivery of education and health care, and the lamentable state of water supply, sanitation and electricity distribution, the picture is one of a largely unreformed economy.
Three Years of Modi Govt: Why PM is a Different Man to the one Sworn In
Karan Thapar has hit upon an epiphany while pondering about Modi’s contribution in his three years as India’s PM. He pens it down in Hindustan Times as such: Modi’s strengths become his weaknesses when it comes to the divided opinion people have about him. Bold foreign policy decisions flip over to be seen as authoritarian by his critics and because he is such a good orator, his silence on critical issues is even more deafening. Thapar says, all this aside, the Modi we know now is different from when he was sworn in; less ambitious, more pragmatic and why that’s not necessarily a good thing.
Meanwhile, in one important respect the PM is a different man to the one sworn-in three years ago. He no longer identifies himself with aspiration and the fulfilment of suppressed ambition. That, of course, was the promise that swept him to power but he now seems to have cast it aside. Instead, today, he’s become a tribune of the people. He identifies with the poor and the downtrodden. They are, of course, the majority and this explains the repositioning of his image. And who can say it doesn’t make undoubted political sense?
Fifth Column: Bad Times Ahead?
Tavleen Singh in The Indian Express has a factual correction to make for all those who think that communal violence has reached an all-time high under Modi given the unchecked proliferation of gau-rakshaks. “Nothing...compares with Operation Blue Star”, Singh begins her list, and ends it with L K Advani’s rath yatra to Ayodhya. Yet, liberals continue to be convinced that Modi is a fascist, for which Singh entirely blames Modi. He should be talking to the media much more, Singh opines, to change his image amongst “liberal journalists.”
Famous commentators remain even today who say, every chance they get, that there is an ‘undeclared Emergency’ in India and that goons have been given permission to take the law into their hands. Cow vigilantes roaming highways in search of Muslims and Dalits to hunt and kill help make the case that India has indeed slipped beyond the pale. But as a political commentator who remembers much worse times, I feel obliged this week to point out that there has been much less violence in the past three years than in ‘secular’ days of yore.
India’s Most Trusted
BJP’s National General Secretary Ram Madhav writes an exalting piece on Modi’s three years as PM in The Indian Express. While outlining significant achievements made by Modi– including decreasing communal violence in the country, increasing employment– Madhav says that Modi’s goal is not reform, but complete transformation. He touches upon a few problem areas that still exist, like Kashmir and Maoist insurgents, but quickly says these weren’t created by Modi’s government, only inherited.
In the West, it is said that “a society gets the government it deserves”, but in the Shanti Parv of the Mahabharata, explaining Raj Dharma to Yudhishtir, Bhishma says “Raja kaalasya kaaranam”, meaning “it is the king who is responsible for the times”. In our ancient wisdom, it is said that the rulers are held responsible for transforming societies. That is Modi today.
Gained in Translation: Why we Must Talk of Hashimpura
Author Vibhuti Narain Rai has a burden to share in his column in The Indian Express, this week. “Some experiences are like...debts on your shoulders,” he begins recounting the night of 22 May 1987, when he witnessed one of the most horrific custodial killings in independent India. He would go on to write a book about in in 2016, despite loved ones telling him to forget the incident as an anomaly. Narain refuses to forget, despite the emotional turmoil of recollecting and writing the stories of that night. “If we choose to forget one Hashimpura, many more will happen.”
As events unfolded, we would find out that the PAC, the armed wing of the Uttar Pradesh Police, had picked up dozens of Muslims from Hashimpura, a locality in the adjoining city of Meerut, and killed them in cold blood at two places on the Gang canal. In the midst of all the din and confusion, blood and flesh, emotions and prejudices, the writer beneath my uniform knew that one day I would write on this gory experience. That may be the only way to repay the debt which I owe because of the violence unleashed by my fellow khaki brethren.
The State-Tobacco Industry Collusion is Responsible for the Deaths of Millions
Vikram Patel has a bone to pick with the tobacco industry in Hindustan Times. Not only do they make products that have resulted in the death of millions, their use of deceitful and aggressive market strategies to push these products is now replicated by alcohol, food & beverages, sugar and even the fertiliser industry. Before you tell Patel that in a free market, the customer is free to make a choice, he has a line drawn in the sand as to how far the State should allow these companies to go.
The oil and coal industries actively rubbish the evidence on how its products are fuelling climate change, which in turn is leading to dramatic changes in food and water security and the spread of infectious diseases. The alcohol industry continues to target young people who are most vulnerable to the addictive and harmful consequences of drinking. The fertiliser industry peddles pesticides so innocuously that one would never guess that they are the leading method of suicide in our country and that their toxic residues taint our eco-system. The food and beverages industry sells products which poison our bodies with salt, sugar and the wrong kinds of fats, directly contributing to epidemics of diabetes and heart disease.
Out of my Mind: Living With Donald Trump
Meghnad Desai defends US President Donald Trump in his column in The Indian Express saying the American media is convinced he is up to no good despite whatever he does. In this succinct piece, Desai sums up Trump’s achievements in foreign policy from retaliating against Syria when news of Assad’s use of chemical weapons broke, to brokering a deal with China, to coming one step closer to solving the Israel-Palestine crisis.
Last week we saw Trump in his first visit abroad take up a firm stance against terrorism. He spoke to the Gulf countries and Saudi Arabia about separating Islam from jihadism. He singled out Iran, as being a State which supports terrorism. So it looks like there may be a coalition of Israel with the Arab countries in an anti-terrorist, anti-Iran front. This could also be the key to tackling the Israel-Palestine problem. If Trump could get that deal done, he would guarantee his place in history. Trump has reshaped American foreign policy within a hundred and fifty days. Not bad going, despite the media.
Inside Track: Dubious Age
For your weekly dose of inside news from the hallowed halls of the Parliament, here’s Coomi Kapoor writing for her column in The Indian Express. Find scoops on the who’s who at the Essel Group’s 90th anniversary party, an upcoming book on the victims of the Samba spy hoax, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s grudge and the latest on who leaked the story of Modi’s child marriage to the media.
A Gujarati pilgrim to Gangotri was impressed when he saw Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu standing in the queue just like everyone else. But what was not so impressive was Prabhu’s decision to fly to Gangotri by a special chopper of the Uttarakhand government. Originally he was scheduled to take a commercial flight to Dehradun and from there board a helicopter. The minister felt that two trips would be cumbersome. So a chopper was flown from Dehradun to Delhi to pick him up and fly him directly to Gangotri. The cost for the round trip: Rs 16 lakh.
Why I Miss the Good Old GP who Kept it Simple
In a nostalgic piece in The Times of India, author Ruskin Bond gives a shoutout to old-school doctors who would turn up at your house on short notice. It’s a light, heartwarming piece filled with anecdotes of his experiences with GPs while in Mussoorie and Dehradun as a child. Bond wonders why it is that as the world progresses more scientifically, people are getting sicker, only to have to line up for hours in a smart clinic somewhere. Not all things change for the better, he thinks.
Another friendly neighbourhood doctor who I miss is Dr Bisht. I had only to ring him up, to tell him I was in dire straits, and ten minutes later I would hear the splutter of his old scooter as it drew up below my steps. “Pulse is a bit fast today,” he’d say, after a brief examination. “It’s the blood pressure again. Don’t tell me you have fallen in love again?” “What’s that got to do with it, doctor?” “Falling in love always raises the blood pressure.”
From The Quint:
- BJP’s Dalit Outreach is Under Threat After Saharanpur Violence
- 3 Years of Modi Govt: Foreign Policy & The Rise of ‘Modi Doctrine’
- ‘Little Burhan’ Sabzar’s Nature Was a Contrast to Zakir Musa’s
- Every New ISIS Attack in Europe Has Diminishing Political Returns
- How I Saw Sachin’s Humility While Dealing With A Billion Dreams
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