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

In his column for The Indian Express, P Chidambaram writes on what may have broken the cordial ties between the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Jagdeep Dhankar, who quietly stepped down from the post of India's Vice President earlier this week. He resigned at 9.25 pm on Monday night, citing "medical advice" without farewell or fanfare and no party or MP implored Dhankhar to withdraw his resignation.The idea of a motion to impeach Justice Yashwant Varma had germinated in a meeting of the Congress parliamentary strategy group on July 15. Signed by 63 members, the Opposition left Mr Dhankhar no choice but to admit the motion on July 21 (while a similar government-inspired motion had been lodged in the Lok Sabha on the same day). The motion forced Mr Dhankhar to act on the motion to impeach Justice Shekhar Yadav that he had held back for seven months. The speculation is that Mr Dhankhar’s decisions on the two motions broke the camel’s back. I disagree; the two motions were light straws. Obviously, there were more.P Chidambaram for The Indian ExpressIn a column for The Times of India, Anup Surendranath argues that the acquittal of 12 men in the 2006 Mumbai blasts case exposes a deeply flawed investigation that failed both the wrongly convicted as well as the victims' families, leaving them waiting for justice. In this piece, he writes how systematic assessments of terror investigations has shown that this is a broader pattern.NCRB data shows that UAPA cases had a 72% acquittal rate between 2014-22. These numbers don’t reflect the long years of suffering inflicted on the accused and their families as their cases crawled through the justice system. The intentional lethargy of our criminal justice system is not the only concern. It is also the failure of judicial institutions to apply basic scrutiny to foundational procedural protections and questions of evidence. When it comes to terror offences, we seem to be playing by different rules. The ever-growing clamour for ‘exceptions’ in criminal law to deal with terror offences cloaks prejudice and impunity in the language of legality.Anup Surendranath for ToIIn her column for The Indian Express, Tavleen Singh writes about the ongoing Parliament session and the Opposition leaders walking out of it to protest. She argues that instead of complaining ad nauseum about the Election Commission, if our Opposition starts recruiting better people into their ranks, they would today have been in a much better position to win elections. Change can come only when we start electing better leaders. It came for a while in Narendra Modi’s first months as prime minister. There was the Swachh Bharat campaign that transformed rural sanitation and the building of rural roads, but then these efforts got dwarfed by the Hindutva cultural revolution. The building of temples became more important than the building of the tools that help people living in extreme poverty escape from it.Tavleen Singh for The Indian ExpressIn his column for The Times of India, SD Pradhan argues that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's recent visit to China may have risen hopes of improving bilateral relations between the two nations, but there are serious challenges hindering such a movement. These include China's aggression along Arunachal and Ladakh, using Pakistan against India's interests, and viewing India as a safe haven for Tibetan separatism. Both are neighbours and have deep economic linkages. The bilateral trade has increased significantly in recent years with total trade exceeding US$ 125 billion, notwithstanding India’s efforts to reduce its dependence on China. Jaishankar rightly stated that the world is witnessing more conflicts, competition, coercion, and economic instability, which demand urgent efforts to stabilise the global order, derisk various dimensions and address long-standing challenges that threaten our collective interests.SD Pradhan for ToIIn his column for The Guardian, Alex De Waal writes about starvation in Gaza and how it is not only the biological phenomenon of the body wasting away but also the death rattle of society. Although the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an organisation backed by the US and Israel, has images of food being distributed in an orderly fashion, it is in deep contrast to the footage filmed by Palestinian journalists, of the desperate scramble for the little aid still provided through the UN.To get these rations, people must camp out in the rubble – ready to rush to the gates at a moment’s notice, and running the gauntlet of the Israel Defense Forces’ military posts. They know that the only means IDF soldiers have for crowd control is firing live ammunition – even when they’re not shooting to kill. When the GHF speaks of “secure distribution sites”, it’s referring to how it controls its packages up to the point of handing them over, not to how it safely delivers them to the neediest. How will the overstressed mother of hungry children, or elderly or disabled people, join this stampede? How would they run the gauntlet not only of those military posts but also of the gangsters keen to steal the most valuable foodstuffs for themselves, or to sell in the market? The GHF has no idea who is eating the rations. Theirs isn’t a formula for feeding the poorest. It’s the law of the jungle.Alex De Waal for The GuardianIn his column for Deccan Herald, S R Ramakrishna argues that shrinking public places in Bengaluru must be attributed not only to poor planning but also house owners wanting to encroach on public land by growing their gardens on footpaths and then fencing it off. Meanwhile, citizens are preoccupied with social media battles or convinced that service roads and footpaths are a waste of precious space.And if you want to insure against demolitions, you build a shrine or two along the way. A rare administration may demolish illegal buildings on a stormwater drain, but it would take a foolhardy government to pull down religious structures even if they are blocking our roads and causing traffic nightmares. Our planners and administrators from an earlier era imagined wide spaces for everyone. They drew parks, gardens, playgrounds and wide open spaces into their layout blueprints...But we live in an era when we like our spaces ‘optimised’, and think jostling is noble. We summon up all our nationalistic pride and denounce bus services and power supply if they don’t burn a small hole in our pockets.S R RamakrishnaIn his column for The New Indian Express, Anand Neelakantan argues that the series of structural disasters witnessed in the previous quarter are enough to mortify any construction professional. These include bridge collapses in Gujarat, Bihar, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Kerala. Neelakantan writes that these instances are symptomatic of a deeper malaise and a testament to corruption and zero accountability. Taxes are siphoned off our pockets by the fistful. With such revenue streams, one would expect pristine roads. However, the reality is a grim joke. The roads remain horrendous, riddled with defects, raising the simple question: Don’t we deserve better? Let’s break down what we pay: hefty registration fee, steep sales taxes on vehicles, relentless cess on fuel, and the ever-increasing toll charges. Isn’t that enough to create a world-class infrastructure? But sadly, the reality slaps us in the face. We are left with roads that are nothing short of treacherous, questioning where all our hard-earned money is being funnelled.Anand NeelakantanIn his column for The Telegraph, Ramchandra Guha reiterates that the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir was a "betrayal" of a constitutional promise made to its people. And that although the government had promised to restore full statehood to J&K in Parliament, six years down the line there is no sign of it being honoured. This delay is not a case of bureaucratic apathy, but of malign political intent. The Narendra Modi-Amit Shah government allocated just one month for the revision of the electoral rolls in Bihar. In Jammu and Kashmir, whose population is one-tenth of that of Bihar, it took them five years to organise elections. There was a reallocation of assembly constituencies which favoured Hindu-dominated Jammu at the expense of Muslim-dominated Kashmir. In Kashmir itself, the BJP sought to promote a third, and even a fourth, party as alternatives to the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party. The press within Kashmir was muzzled, with independent-minded journalists being harassed by the police, arrested, or forced into exile.Ramchandra GuhaIn her column for The New Indian Express, Anu Aggarwal writes that doctors across India are reporting up to 40 percent rise in young working professionals coming in with issues like persistent back pain, spinal misalignment, muscle stiffness, headaches, dry eyes, even early signs of heart strain. She attributes it to a sedentary lifestyle. And it’s not just from stress—it’s from sitting. All day. Every day. In front of a screen. New-age problems now come with new-age names: Tech Neck, Text Claw, Sitting Disease, Digital Fatigue, Dead Butt Syndrome. I wish I were joking. But this is where we are—overworked, over-connected, and out of alignment. The truth is, the body wasn’t designed to sit hunched in one place for 10 hours a day. And when we ignore what our body is trying to tell us—with little aches and creaks—those whispers can turn into real health crises. Anu AggarwalJagdeep Dhankhar’s Resignation Is No Surprise If You’ve Been Watching CloselyThe Consent Gap: Why India’s 'Progressive' Laws Still Fail SurvivorsNCERT, the Mughals, and the Making of a New National MemoryThe 'Saiyaara' Craze: Why Indians (Still) Can’t Resist Tragic Love StoriesOperation Sindoor Gave Pak Army a Comeback Script It Couldn’t Write Itself

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

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