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

In his weekly column for The Indian Express, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram reflects on how far the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has come along. He draws attention to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's number of visits to Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Pakistan.But then he also talks about China which "infuriated" PM Modi and rendered him "helpless" as he has allowed China to "dictate the policies of India," adding that through ignoring our neighbourhood, we have paid a price.India's declining influence in the South Asian region is a self-inflicted injury. Mr Modi's foreign policy is striving to acquire a sheen by projecting India as a 'peace broker' in world affairs. Witness the burst of activity and meetings with the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, the US, France and others, attendance at G20, UN Summit and QUAD. While Mr Modi has our best wishes, we may also remind him that his policy on the neighbourhood is being described as Neighbourhood Last or Neighbourhood Lost.Chidambaram in The Indian ExpressTavleen Singh in her column for The Indian Express argues that many politicians and high officials get away with their "hanky-panky" because the people are selective about the yardstick used to judge officials, elected and unelected.She states that it is not totally the fault of political leaders and high officials that they lack a sense of ethics and integrity, but "our fault for accepting their bad behavior so casually."To be fair, since Narendra Modi became prime minister, the agencies charged with stopping corrupt practices have been pursuing his political opponents zealously. This hounding stops when, either out of fear of ending up in a jail cell or bankrupting the family business, they join the BJP. Privately, they admit that they had no choice. But never publicly. When Modi came to power, he promised that he would punish corrupt officials. And he has, but in such choosy fashion that his credibility is low.Taveel Singh in The Indian ExpressTracing Shashi Tharoor's love for words, Karan Thapar in the Hindustan Times talks about Tharoor's new book 'A Wonderland of Words: Around the Word in 101 Essays.'Thapar says that Tharoor has written about Indianisms, explained the difference between British and American English but it's chapters on figures of speech such as paraprosdokians, spoonerisms and malapropisms that he enjoyed the most.Shashi defines paraprosdokians as a figure of speech in which “the latter part of a sentence or phrase … is surprising or unexpected, in a way that prompts the reader to rethink the first part or understand it differently”. Here’s one example: “Hospitality is the art of making guests feel at home when you actually wish they were.” I’d say paraprosdokians are an ideal form of wit for politicians. They’re funny yet inoffensive. Stalwarts of the Congress Party could use this one to attack the BJP: “Going to a temple doesn’t make you a Hindu any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.”Karan Thapar in Hindustan TimesIn this piece for the Business Standard, Aditi Phadnis zeroes in on how the Arvind Kejriwal arrests, protests in Delhi where Atishi were detained made no reverberations anywhere in Punjab, which leads one to suggest that all was not well between Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal.Adding that cabinet reshuffle in Punjab within days of Kejriwal's release insinuated that it was not Mann but the party bosses who were pulling the strings.As the campaign for the Assembly elections in neighbouring Haryana carries on apace, Mr Mann is quite visible, testifying to his personal appeal among voters. But the performance of the Punjab government is below par. And when you add to that Mr Mann’s own ambitions in relation to his party chief, Arvind Kejriwal, maybe some course correction is needed. Before anything else, Mr Mann needs to get his act together and tone up governance in the state.Aditi Phadnis in Business StandardIn his weekly column for The Times of India called 'Swaminomics,' Swaminathan SA Aiyar writes about how in the new term of the current ruling government, things are changing on the executive, legislative and judicial front in terms of being more receptive to criticism and giving bail in the Delhi liquor policy case."Opposition parties and NGOs screamed that an unstoppable Hindutva steamroller was going to crush secular democratic values and silence all dissent, with the complicity of institutions supposed to be checks," he wrote.Another notable Supreme Court verdict stayed ‘bulldozer justice’, retribution by some state govt to selectively raze allegedly illegal constructions of those accused of certain crimes without following due process....Hopefully, that trend is changing. Cynics say it is too early to jump to conclusions. But the new outlook of the judiciary has given people heart.Swaminathan SA Aiyar in The Times of IndiaIn his column for the Deccan Herald, Congress leader Praveen Chakravarty takes down the 'One Nation One Election' (ONOE) idea by calling it a classic case of "for the BJP with a hammer of centralisation, everything looks like a 'one nation' nail."He states that the fact that ONOE bogey is mooted yet again by the Modi government belies their fundamental comprehension of India's diversity and federal structure, the reasons for the proposal being fallacious and shallow. "ONOE is an answer searching for a question," he writes.The problem of one or two 'national' parties is not the problem of the nation. If Modi or Rahul Gandhi feel compelled to campaign in every state across the country for state elections, that is the prerogative of the BJP or the Congress. That does not mean 'governance' is getting impacted because they choose to campaign for their party in every state. A Mamata Banerjee or a Chandrababu Naidu or any other regional leader doesn't feel the need to campaign in elections beyond their states. The very foundational premise for ONOE is flawed because it confuses the problems of 'national' political parties as national problems of the country.Praveen Chakravarty in Deccan HeraldIn this column for the Deccan Chronicle, Anita Katyal writes about Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah who are known to be old family friends seem to have some differences this election season in Jammu and Kashmir.Moreover, she talks about Priyanka Gandhi who seems to be absent during the ongoing assembly elections. "Much to the relief of despairing party leaders," she finally addressed a rally in Jammu on Saturday and might also be seen during the electoral battlefield in Haryana, she says. Concluding, she also talked about another protest brewing in Kolkata after the decision to discontinue the 150-years old tram service.Omar Abdullah is miffed that the Congress has not focused enough on the Jammu region where it is in direct contest with the Bharatiya Janata Party and that Rahul Gandhi has campaigned in constituencies where their parties are engaged in a “friendly fight”. On his part, Rahul Gandhi is unhappy that despite the electoral pact between their parties, the National Conference has encouraged a number of candidates from its ranks to contest as independents against Congress candidates.Anita Katyal in Deccan ChronicleIn this column for The Times of India, Vanya Vaidehi Bhargav, an author and historian argues the harm personality cult politics does to a nation and its people. She poses important questions like: "At what point does democratic support turn into undemocratic veneration? And what is wrong with veneration and worship in politics anyway? Must it be considered undemocratic?"It may not be a coincidence, therefore, that — despite what personality cults may have us deny — a 2021 report by the Sweden-based Varieties of Democracy Institute saw India drop 23 percentage points on its democracy index, being listed (alongside Brazil, Turkey, and US) among 25 ‘autocratising nations’. Given that Rahul Gandhi had then expressed concern about the erosion of Indian democracy, he must discourage even mild forms of personality-based politics, which can marginalise issues and values and further damage Indian democracy. Similarly, Atishi should refocus people’s attention on governance issues that won AAP support in the first place.Vanya Vaidehi Bhargav in The Times of IndiaIn this column for the Hindustan Times, TM Krishna pays homage to veteran musician TK Murthy, now 101 years old and he represents one of the great schools of mrdangam. He writes:"For those who may not have heard his name, let me introduce him. Murthy represents one of the great schools of mrdangam. He has adorned stages across the globe and collaborated with the who’s who of Indian classical music. One musician with whom he had a continued aesthetic partnership was MS Subbalakshmi."Murthy was unusual in other ways. He was musically active at a time when many musicians preferred not to share the stage with women. The reasons for not doing so consisted of the usual tropes used by all men. Right through his career, Murthy not only shared the stage with MS Subbulakshmi, but also with many other women. I have heard through the musical grapevine that the fact that he was constantly accompanying MS Subbulakshmi was even used as an excuse to say that he was unavailable for other’s concerts. None of this deterred Murthy. He went on with his music and life, as he saw fit.TM Krishna in Hindustan TimesMore From The QuintLebanon: With Nasrallah Killed, Hezbollah's Leadership is in DisarrayLaddu Row: Jagan Has Averted a Big Showdown by Cancelling Tirupati VisitThe Challenges of Journalism in Exile in Cuba, Nicaragua and VenezuelaManipur: The '900 Kuki Militants' Mystery and Withdrawn 'Intelligence'Supreme Court Further Toughens the Law Against Child Pornography in IndiaWhy PM Modi Should Attend the SCO Summit in PakistanJ&K Elections: People Voting for Jobs, Do Not Want a Return to Agitations

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.

Neighbourhood First to Last to Lost

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

Topics: Sunday View opinion columns Opinion Pieces