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

In his weekly column for The Indian Express, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram discusses how US President Donald Trump's protectionist tariffs violate global trade norms and critiques India's reactive response to them.India needs the support of friendly countries in its fight just as other countries need the support of India in their fight. Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and the European countries are India’s best allies in the tariff war launched by the United States. The wiser course appears to be to persuade these countries to form a collective and press America to negotiate with the collective of countries and reach a comprehensive agreement that will ensure that the world’s economic growth is promoted and sustained.P Chidambaram, The Indian ExpressIn his piece for Deccan Herald, Gopichand Katragadda draws a parallel between today's world leaders' complacent, reactive approach to climate change and the 'Bronze Age Collapse', where, he writes, environmental factors such as droughts played a crucial role in the downfall of advanced societies.Several factors likely contributed to the demise of Bronze Age civilisations, collectively painting a picture of chaos and uncertainty. The primary elements include – Climate change and environmental stress: Ice cores and sediment analysis evidence suggest a prolonged drought around 1200 BC. This environmental stress led to crop failures and resource scarcity, forcing communities to migrate or fight over dwindling supplies...So what can we learn from 1200 BC in 2025? The echoes of the Bronze Age Collapse resonate with today's challenges. As modern civilisation grapples with climate change, technological disruptions, and migration crises, the lessons from 1200 BC are a stark reminder of the consequences of neglect and complacency.Gopichand Katragadda, Deccan Herald"Is Indian politics going through a silly season? Why do all our political leaders have a nervous breakdown every time someone takes a dig at them?" asks Tavleen Singh in her weekly column for The Indian Express.Reflecting on the absurdity of Indian politics, where a comedian faces arrest for a joke while political leaders engage in petty vendettas, she argues that this distraction serves as a smokescreen for pressing national issues.As someone who loves conspiracy theories, I am beginning to believe there is a strategy behind this attempt to cause mass hysteria and headlines over some silly issue or other. If we start discussing serious political issues, we will have to confront the possibility that the economic boom of the past few years is over and that we are now on the verge of a downturn. This is not just because of Trump's tariffs but they do not help. If the economic slowdown gets worse, then there could be real problems for the prime minister who has cultivated the image of being the leader who is going to make the Indian economy the third largest in the world.Tavleen Singh, The Indian ExpressIn the Hindustan Times, Abhishek Asthana writes that the best way to contribute to humanity is not through charity but by creating financial privilege for your children, allowing them to pursue their passions without the burden of financial constraints.He argues that this, in turn, fosters innovation, legacy building, and self-actualisation in future generations, shifting the focus from a cycle of survival to one of groundbreaking achievements.One would say, there are plenty of underprivileged kids who pursued physics, went for their PhDs, committed themselves to research, and became professors with a rich Google Scholar profile, doing well in their labs (yet struggling on matrimonial websites). But they are very few. A lot of us couldn’t survive the delayed gratification of a PhD, purely due to depleting bank reserves, and accumulating compound interest.Abhishek Asthana, Hindustan TimesIn his piece for Deccan Chronicle, diplomat Pavan K Varma says that the use of "bulldozer justice," despite the Supreme Court's clear orders, is a troubling reflection of state overreach and authoritarianism."The manner in which politicians and political parties are disregarding the principles enshrined in the Constitution, and the express directions of the SC, threatens to demolish the democratic fabric of our nation. Bulldozer justice is the symbol of this demolition," he writes.The SC must urgently take action against those who have impudently made a mockery of its express directives and haul them up for contempt of court. Unless those who defy its writ, and the provisions of the Constitution, are given exemplary punishment, the same “jungle raj” of misuse of power will continue. The bulldozer is a machine; it has no conscience. But those who wield it must.Pavan K Varma, Deccan ChronicleIn her piece for the Indian Express, Sumana Roy reflects on the fading presence of the 'shayar' in Hindi film songs and how it symbolises a broader decline of the poet's role and importance in contemporary culture. "The history of this ejection of the poet from the Hindi film song and the English literature department is similar and simultaneous," she writes.In the Hindi film Saajan (1991), whose release coincided with the inauguration of economic liberalisation in India (and perhaps also the institutionalised import of a Euro-American literary theory into the country’s English literature departments), the poet Aman, played by Sanjay Dutt, writes under the pseudonym “Saagar” and finds himself conflicted about revealing his identity to two people, both of whom can actually be seen as arms of market forces — the woman he loves, who also owns a bookstore and the patron whose family has adopted him. In Pyaasa, the poet was displaced from the stage by the publisher, the reason he had to sing: “Yeh mehlo, yeh takhto, yeh taajon ki duniya” from the back of the auditorium. In Saajan, the woman mistakes the patron for the poet and falls in love with him. It is the best summary of both the disappearance of the poet and the literary culture we find ourselves in: Where the entrepreneur is more powerful than the poet.Sumana Roy, Indian ExpressIn The Observer, Simon Tisdall writes that the US under President Donald Trump is not the first time the country has caused trouble for its allies."How healthy – and desirable – is this partnership? Has it caused more problems than it's worth?" He asks.As I write my last foreign affairs commentary for the Observer, I look back over nearly 50 years and wonder, firstly, at the false narrative, not confined to Donald Trump, that American altruism is exploited by “freeloading” European Nato allies. What tosh! US troops and missiles are based here primarily to defend the US. Since 1945, Washington has viewed Europe as its first line of defence against Russia. Germany was the US’s preferred cold war battlefield, Britain its airfield. Perish the thought that Americans might actually fight on their own soil (except against each other). US wars are typically waged in faraway places. That’s why the 1962 Cuba missile crisis came as such a shock.Simon Tisdall, The Observer"All those who believe in secularism and the Constitution seem to be in deep slumber," writes former Union External Affairs Minister and Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha in the Indian Express.While examining the state of secularism in India, he reminds the reader that "India is not and cannot be a theocratic state".By incorporating these provisions in the Constitution, India established itself as a secular state without any ambiguity or doubt, though the word “secularism” was not mentioned in the Constitution. It was incorporated in the Preamble of the Constitution by the 42nd Amendment carried out during the Emergency. The validity of that amendment has recently been upheld by the Supreme Court of India. Though it was incorporated in the Constitution during the Emergency, it was not tainted as such. India, therefore, is not and cannot be a theocratic state.Yashwant Sinha, Indian ExpressIn his weekly column for the Hindustan Times, journalist and author Karan Thapar critiques the judiciary's flawed in-house accountability system, calling it ad hoc, informal, and self-serving.There are many instances where the misconduct of judges is discussed in public, but in-house proceedings against them have never been initiated. Equally, there are cases where allegations against a judge have been made but the in-house mechanism has not been activated...Now, when you’re talking about the conduct and behaviour of judges, you can’t avoid the question how are they chosen? Clearly, the collegium system is not working perfectly. We need something else.Karan Thapar, Hindustan TimesMind Your JokesPM Modi Has Little Choice Than to Deal with Trump's Way or the HighwayNo One Feel Any Sympathy for Rhea ChakrabortyIndia vs Volkswagen: 'Tax Terror', Corporate Greed, or Systemic Failure?America Can Copy China’s Policies, But Americans Can Never Clone Chinese WorkersWomen Soldiers in BSF Are Flaunted as 'Trophies', but Equality Will Take Time

BECOME A MEMBER

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.

Mr Modi Stoops, Will He Conquer?

Read Latest News and Breaking News at The Quint, browse for more from opinion

Topics: Sunday View