1. Stop bashing Muslims, and start focusing on positive Hindutva
Begin your morning this Sunday with an interesting twist to the Hindutva debate by Journalist/writer Aakar Patel who questions if the ruling party BJP’s Hinduvta ideology is focused on Muslims rather than benefitting Hindus.
“Hindutva is essentially negative. It offers nothing constructive to Hindus, who are 80% of Indians. Let me explain what I mean. The three classic Hindutva thrusts, the issues which built the party over the decades, do not concern Hindus but address others. The issues are Ayodhya (Muslims must not keep their mosque), Uniform Civil Code (Muslims must not keep their personal law) and Article 370 (Muslims must not keep their constitutional autonomy).
What will Hindus like me get out of these demands? Nothing I can think of. Those who properly study it realise that Hindu rashtra can only be brought about by the mistreatment of others. Hindutva is like status anxiety in reverse. It is anxious about lowering the lot of others. When its gaze is turned inwards it has nothing to say,” writes Aakar Patel in his regular column Aakarvani for TOI.
2. Is govt cooking up economic growth data?
After an initial round of cheer for increased GDP figures last week, experts and economists asserted that the GDP growth may actually be a result of the Fudged Data.
Explaining the ‘differences’ Swaminathan Aiyar in his regular column Swaminomics writes:
The aam aadmi may not know what exactly GDP is, or how it is measured. It can be measured as the total value of goods and services produced in a period. It can also be measured as the sum of all spending and investment in that period. Economic theory tells us that the two figures should be the same. Yet in practice there are a thousand difficulties in collecting accurate data on every item produced or consumed. This typically leads to differences in the two measurements.
Explaining how fudging the data seems a bleak and wasteful effort for any government he writes, “Politicians will invent figures without a second thought, but will not spend any time and energy (with the risk of an expose) in trying to manipulate a decentralized data apparatus into concocting figures systematically. None of this means that Indian data is good. We need a new revamped system. But even if a revamped system lowers GDP growth from 7.9% to say 6.9% or even 5.9% in the last quarter, India will still be among the fastest-growing countries in the world.”
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3. Across the aisle: Gross domestic product or puzzle?
On the issue of GDP figures, former Finance minister P Chidambaram offers a flip side of the argument in his column for the Indian Express. He writes, “No amount of rationalisation can change the reality that is felt every day by the citizens --CPI inflation upwards of 5 per cent, no new visible investment and no additional jobs on offer. The average person is therefore stunned when he is told that the GDP had grown at 7.6 per cent.”
To clear the ‘statistical illusion’ what he offers as a solution is:
Reconstruct the GDP numbers using the old, conventional data and release them alongside the numbers using the MCA21 database...there is no harm in publishing, at least for a few years, GDP numbers using the old method and the new method. The CSO should complete the following table and restore credibility to the whole exercise.
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4. Fifth column: No more Sanskriti schools
Opposing the idea of building Sanskriti schools across India for the benefit of bureaucrats’ children when their parents get transferred out of Delhi, columnist Tavleen Singh in the fifth column writes:
Since taxpayers subsidise this institution, the Sanskriti School should either be forced to have a more egalitarian admissions policy or be privatised. What we definitely do not need is for taxpayers to pay for more schools of this kind while the children of ordinary Indians go to the worst schools in the world.
While the HRD minister Smriti Irani has denied any such proposal by her ministry, Tavleen Singh writes a note of caution:
When a new education policy comes to be, we must hope for a sincere attempt to make school education more egalitarian. And one way to achieve this is by making it compulsory for officials and elected representatives to send their children to government schools.
5. India Needs Uniform Civil Code; Topi Politics a Villain
Voices of Islamic fanatics can be heard once again over the babble of “secularism in danger”, writes Kanchan Gupta in Pioneer. This when the Supreme Court of India has engaged itself with the contentious issue of Muslim Personal Law over the regressive practice of ‘triple talaaq’.
Chronicling the consistent dilly-dallying by political parties on the issue of uniform civil code he writes,”the farce of equality has played out so long, the perversion of secularism has been so far-reaching, that any debate is now meaningless. It remains to be seen if the Supreme Court is successful in achieving what successive Governments have spectacularly failed to achieve: Imposing, ruthlessly, with neither exception nor exemption, one law for all citizens of India.
6. Out of my mind: Getting there
In his regular column for the Indian Express, Lord Meghnad Desai points that Narendra Modi’s visit to the USA has brought the relationship between the two democracies on a ‘sure path after nearly 70 years of false starts, bad odour and needless controversy.’
“Manmohan Singh was the first Indian Prime Minister to develop a personal rapport with an American President. Bush was impressed by Manmohan Singh’s deep knowledge of the New Testament and helped India overcome the sanctions of the NSG. For this, he was challenged by the Left... Modi is now cementing that relationship. He has no Oxbridge prejudices to hinder him. He is genuinely fond of America. Indians have prospered there and many of them supported Modi when he was a pariah to the Congress.”
Concluding that there is much more that can be achieved between the two countries Desai writes:
The USA was the country where two of India’s most radical leaders studied – B R Ambedkar and Jayaprakash Narayan. There is and should be much synergy culturally and politically between the two.
7. Reclaiming medicine’s nobility
With parents threatening suicides and nation wide debate on NEET, is it time the medical education in India is standardised? “We need a separate body to oversee the sanctioning of permissions to medical colleges to run various courses in a transparent manner, write Dr. Jayakumar Menon a neuropsychiatrist and Dr. Tony George Jacob a Professor of Anatomy from AIIMS in a comment piece for The Hindu.
Arguing that standardisation will lead to a culture of good practices the experts write, “Much like the NEET formula, it would work well if various specialist bodies like the Association of Physicians of India, Association of Surgeons of India, Indian Psychiatric Society, and the Indian Medical Association (IMA) are taken along in developing the curriculum and conducting standardised exit exams for postgraduate courses. These changes to the medical system could go a long way in bringing back the prestige, nobility and honour previously reposed in the service.”
8. Inside Track: Reclusive minister
In his weekly column Inside Tracks journalist Coomi Kapoor, brings the ‘insides’ of defence minister Manohar Parrikar and Congress’ play-out in UP. He begins by telling us how, “Arms dealers and middlemen find it extremely difficult to meet Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. He is careful in giving appointments at his South Block office. Also he keeps away from the Capital’s party circuit. On weekends, the minister normally travels back to Goa.”
The next in line is Kapil Sibbal who seems to have gained a lot from ‘loosing power.’ “In the space of two years, former Congress minister Kapil Sibal’s assets have gone up from Rs 114 crore to Rs 184 crore. Sibal is today one of the busiest lawyers in the Supreme Court and commands huge fees for each appearance. While others in the Congress were down in the dumps after the UPA defeat in 2014, for top lawyers in the party, achhe din arrived in monetary terms.”
His inside into the congress circuit also tell us how, “Congress poll strategist Prashant Kishor has been given a free hand in poll preparations for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, barring three constituencies. Kishor has been told to keep off the Gandhi family’s fiefdom of Amethi, Rae Bareli and Sultanpur. These are the exclusive preserve of Priyanka Gandhi and her handpicked team.”
9. Kamaraj Plan in Congress?
Is Congress all set to implement the ‘Kamaraj Plan’?
An umpteenth time Rahul Gandhi is again expected to take charge of the congress party. In Daily Pioneer Hari Shankar Vyas writes , “there has been a long-standing debate in the Congress that Rahul Gandhi should be given the command of the party and the organisation should be restructured according to the Kamaraj Plan. The plan suggests that senior Congress leaders should resign from their posts and devote all their energy to the revitalisation of the party. Leaders who are a part of Rahul’s team are now gearing up for the modifications.”
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