The Right Choice
Mukul Kesavan, in his piece for The Telegraph, paints a vivid picture of Shashi Tharoor's "conventional" rise to success as a politician, while inspecting his chances (or the lack thereof) of winning the Congress presidential elections against Mallikarjun Kharge. Kesavan opines that "the case against Tharoor virtually writes itself," but in the "unlikely" event that the Congress MP emerges victorious, the grand old party will appear less dead than it currently does.
"Tharoor was the kind of student who, in an American context, would have been voted 'the most likely to succeed' by his peers. Given middle-class definitions of success in the mid-Seventies, Tharoor's career fulfilled that early promise. Instead of the Indian Administrative Service, he set his sights on a global bureaucracy and nearly became the secretary-general of the United Nations. When desi fiction in English boomed in the aftermath of Midnight's Children's critical success, Tharoor rode that wave too with his contemporary take on the Mahabharata, The Great Indian Novel."Mukul Kesavan, in his piece for The Telegraph
Neglect Duty, Start Controversy
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, in his latest piece for The Indian Express, dissects Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's allegation that Tamil Nadu alienates the languages of Hindi and Sanskrit at the school level. Drawing from her own experience, the FM recently alleged that the TN government continued to discriminate against students who studied these languages. Chidambaram, however, disagrees:
"The official education policy of the government of Tamil Nadu is that it rejected the three-language formula and followed the two-language formula: Tamil and English in government schools. Both the DMK and the AIADMK have stuck to this policy. However, Hindi is offered as a language in thousands of aided and non-aided private schools and the government does not interfere with their decision. Besides, there are 1,417 schools affiliated to the CBSE, 76 affiliated to ICSE and 8 affiliated to IB. There are 41 Anglo-Indian schools. There are also 51 Kendriya Vidyalaya schools of the central government. All of them offer Hindi as a subject."P Chidambaram, in his piece for The Indian Express
The Courtier's Rebellion
In her column for The Indian Express, Tavleen Singh asks the one question that politicians and political observers have been asking for the past week: How did Gehlot do it? Singh suspects that Gehlot's "betrayal" could be the beginning of the end of the Gandhi dynasty's control over the grand old party.
"If the Congress Party could not defeat the BJP in Uttar Pradesh after fantastical untruths, ineptitude, and communal polarization, it was proof that the Dynasty had lost its magical allure. Courtiers saw this and quietly started making personal exit plans. Then when the Chief Minister of Punjab was forced to resign because Rahul and Priyanka were convinced that a clownish former cricketer was better, it came for many courtiers as final proof of extreme political idiocy. The clownish sportsman they chose over Amarinder Singh is now in jail, and the man that the Gandhi children made interim chief minister fled to Canada after the Congress Party lost Punjab to the Aam Aadmi Party."Tavleen Singh, in her piece for The Indian Express
Moonlighting When the Sun Shines
Leher Kala, in her piece for The Indian Express, discusses moonlighting, a hot topic in IT and startup circles, and discusses why companies must come to terms with employees taking up side gigs. She goes on to laud "the current crop of 20-somethings," who are happy with switching things around and taking chances.
"Pertinently, people taking on extra work are rarely answering an inner calling, Elon Musk style; it's a decision to ensure ends meet. If there's anything Covid taught us, it' that job security is a laughable myth. After mass layoffs in almost every field post 2020, the messaging internalised is best beware, and watch out for yourself. It's precisely because of the state of the chaotic world that some forward thinking organizations have reluctantly conceded, it’s unfair to fire employees for taking on more to get by."Leher Kala, in her piece for The Indian Express
A New Direction for Abortion Law in India?
In her piece for The Times of India, Gauri Pillai talks about the latest Supreme Court judgment on abortion, which rules that all women, whether married or unmarried, are entitled to safe and legal abortions till 24 weeks of pregnancy. Pillai says that the ruling "opens the doors" for other constitutional avenues on abortion, but ponders over whether it could actually lead to a "wholesale reimagination of India's law on abortion."
"...the significance of the judgment goes far beyond its applicability to unmarried women seeking abortions. It is an omnibus decision, speaking to a range of concerns besieging India’s law on abortion. Sure, the court does not resolve each of them fully. However, it was not its role, in this case, to do so. Even so, it provides helpful baselines for intervention for future litigants grappling with the law..."Gauri Pillai, in her piece for The Times of India
Deja Pooh
Writing for The Telegraph on Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra, Upala Sen points out how despite the rich history of Mahatma Gandhi's marches during the independence movement, "the power of the walk means little to thousands of Indians."
"Mr Gandhi’s padayatra is, of course, a different genre of the political walk. Of course, it is self-serving. It is about resuscitating the Congress party. There is also this thought that it is a deliberate walk away from a certain version of the Congress. And yes, all those places he is not walking through, do not make sense. Catcalls such as the CPM’s “Bharat Jodo or Seat Jodo” do. There is a good chance that this will be another great opportunity the Congress will be unable to mine, while a big-vision rival party will launch an app, a patrioticmeter, which you will be required to download and walk."Upala Sen, in her piece for The Telegraph
Voting in the UNSC on Russian Referenda
SD Pradhan, in his column in The Times of India, discusses the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war – how the rhetoric from both sides was only escalating the conflict and limiting peaceful dialogue. However, the fact that other nations have extensively called for peace is a "silver lining," he adds.
"The negotiations would not be easy as both would stick to their views. While India has neither explained the meaning of ‘totality of the situation’ nor the turn of events, it means taking into account the promises given to Russia since the dissolution of Soviet Union, the apprehensions of all the parties in the conflict and the need for bringing an end to the conflict."SD Pradhan, in his piece for The Times of India
In war on Hate Speech, Err on Side of Freedom
On the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Pavan K Varma, in his piece for Deccan Chronicle, elucidates the need to properly define hate speech and points out how it is "antithetical" to the principles that the Father of the Nation lived by.
"...who is to interpret what hate speech is? If this initial power is with the government and its law enforcing agencies, it greatly widens their scope of arbitrary punitive action. We have seen this happen in other laws like the draconian sedition law, and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Since 2014, sedition cases have been filed against 405 people, a 28 per cent increase compared to UPA rule. Of these, 149 cases have been slapped on those who have made 'critical' or 'derogatory' comments against Prime Minister Modi, and 144 against those who have made such comments against UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath."Pavan K Varma, in his piece for Deccan Chronicle
Gandhi Jayanti – a Day of Platitudes and Homilies
Chidanand Rajghatta, in his piece for The Times of India, poignantly describes what Gandhi Jayanti means for Indians today and how 2 October is often reduced to a "day of platitudes and homilies." He further writes about Gandhi's "long and deep" ties to the United States, a country he has never visited.
"My own favorite Gandhi statue is the one in front of the Indian Embassy in Washington DC. It is sculpted by Gautam Pal and is mounted on red Ilkal granite from my home state Karnataka. U.S Congress had to legislate to authorize the statue to get around local DC laws and it was dedicated by Vajpayee and Clinton during the former’s state visit in 2000."Chidanand Rajghatta, in his piece for The Times of India
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