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.

Nothing like a cup of coffee and your Sunday morning reads.

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Hate Speech Thrives and Divides

In his column for The Indian Express, P Chidambaram, explains why several controversies around “food, dress and prayer in Karnataka” have been kicked up and how they form part of a carefully designed campaign to polarise voters before the Assembly elections of 2023.

Chidambaram writes:

“To put it shortly, Hindus, Muslims and Christians — as well as followers of other faiths — have peacefully co-existed with each other…Until the BJP entered Karnataka...The BJP faces a State election in 2023. Its governments have been non-performers and its position in Karnataka is quite shaky. Opposition parties have learnt to build protective walls to counter Operation Lotus.”

He adds, “Hence, the need to build another narrative that can polarise the voters and attract the majority of the Hindu votes. The BJP has enough evil geniuses who have the capacity to craft state-specific strategies: one such strategy is the deliberate effort to kick up controversies around food, dress and prayer in Karnataka.”

Further writing about the rising hate speech in India and the silence of some on it, Chidambaram concludes, “Amidst growing intolerance, the studied silence of the highest authorities of the country is not a mere lapse of governance."

Bulldozing Justice

Writing on the recent violence that erupted in Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone and the hasty demolitions that followed, Tavleen Singh, in her column for The Indian Express states, “What we saw in Khargone was the law of the jungle. The Home Minister of Madhya Pradesh defended what happened on the grounds that those who throw stones will have their homes reduced to stones."

Singh asks Madhya Pradesh's Home Minister as to what he would say to "the old lady whose picture appeared on the front page of this newspaper last week?"

She adds, "Hasina Fakhroo is in her sixties and clearly too old to be a rioter, but her house was reduced to rubble before she could prove that it was built under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.”

Singh adds that once officials are given the right to bulldoze the homes of suspected rioters and the right to seize the properties of alleged offenders, the rule of the jungle is established.

However, stating that the rule of the jungle has often been in use in India, she points out the difference and writes:

“What has changed since Narendra Modi took office is that somehow it is always Muslims that end up spending months in jail in cases that are bailable. It is shameful that this happened to a standup comedian for a joke he had not cracked. Shameful that student leaders and journalists, nearly always Muslims, spend months in jail on usually dubious charges. Let us then ask what happens to a country in which senior political leaders and high officials show total disdain for the rule of law on the fallacious grounds that the process of justice takes too long. The answer is that they are in clear violation of the Constitution of India, and the consequences are grim. When the rule of law is weakened, it weakens democracy because the rule of law has to be sacrosanct in democratic countries.”

Grim Future

Making a case for Muslim citizens to be passing through the most difficult phase in independent India, Asim Ali, in his column for The Telegraph, points out that the “anti-Muslim mobilisation is now organically embedded in the grassroots and is de-linked from the electoral cycle.”

He adds that the mobilisation “has also acquired a momentum of its own and is relatively free of centralized control, as was demonstrated by the outbreak of riots in multiple states during Ram Navami celebrations.”

Ali points out that the pessimism about the future of Muslims is worsened by two more realities:

• "One, the BJP’s dominance of the country is a long-term phenomenon, demonstrated again and again by its success in the recent assembly elections."

• "Two, the democratic institutions of the country — Opposition parties, bureaucracy, media, civil society organizations and, allegedly, the judiciary — do not have the capacity (and sometimes even the will) to as much as slow down the pace of this anti-Muslim juggernaut, let alone stop it."

Further, answering whether Indian Muslims can reach an accommodation with the BJP on a national level, Ali gives three reasons why that is unlikely:

"The BJP does not recognize any Muslim leadership at the state or the national level that can act as intermediaries…The BJP seeks not the conservation of Hindu religion but its domination vis- à-vis Muslims which makes it harder to accommodate Muslims...there is no other community that can take the place of Muslims as targets for majoritarian mobilisation."

All Victims of the Russian Invasion Need Help

“The only lasting solution to the war in Ukraine and its assault on the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world is peace,” writes Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, in his column for The Indian Express.

Guterres explains that apart from the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine, the war has also launched a “silent assault on the developing world” and the “crisis could throw up to 1.7 billion people — over one-fifth of humanity — into poverty, destitution and hunger on a scale not seen in decades.”

He adds that while most of the world has displayed its solidarity with Ukraine, "there is no sign of the same support for the 1.7 billion other potential victims of this war."

"Ukraine and the Russian Federation provide 30 per cent of the world’s wheat and barley, one-fifth of its maize, and over half of its sunflower oil. Together, their grain feeds the poorest and most vulnerable people, providing more than one-third of the wheat imported by 45 African and least-developed countries. At the same time, Russia is the world’s top natural gas exporter, and second-largest oil exporter. But the war is preventing farmers from tending their crops while closing ports, ending grain exports, disrupting supply chains and sending prices skyrocketing."

Antonio Guterres in The Indian Express

Calling on the global community to "speak with one voice" and support the UN's plea for peace, Guterres reveals that "the United Nations’ own life-saving operations are under severe strain. The World Food Programme has warned that it faces the impossible choice of taking from the hungry to feed the starving. It urgently needs $8 billion to support its operations in Yemen, Chad and Niger."

Dilwale and Dulhanias

With the knot tied between Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor, Upala Sen, in her column for The Telegraph, writes about how Bollywood weddings have impacted the “idea and packaging of marriage”.

Sen writes:

"For years, it was taboo in Bollywood to have a married star. The men delayed it or denied it, and the women had no choice but to retire thereafter or settle for comeback productions by acolytes or the husband himself, which usually sank without a trace. Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma were possibly the first to bring marriage out of the Bollywood closet. They also brought into the whole affair an element of fun and individuality. Remember the advertisement for an apparel brand they appeared in just before the wedding? It also worked as a wedding teaser. The wedding itself was hosted in Tuscany. And the visuals focussed on the laughing couple first and the finery after. The Priyanka-Nick, Ranveer-Deepika weddings that followed belong to this template. And now, Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor have gone and wed in their balcony, sealed it with a public kiss, set aflutter a billion imaginations. Ek chutki sindoor ka responsibility tum kya jaano, Ramesh Babu?"

The Message Behind BSP's Loss in UP Polls

Stating that the Uttar Pradesh election verdict is a “latent function of deep communal and casteist mobilisation…being camouflaged under the garb of development and good governance”, Vivek Kumar, in his column for The Indian Express, explains why the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) lost its voters in the recently concluded elections.

"The caste prejudice in Indian politics is not only towards the BSP’s Mayawati. Take Congress’s Charanjit Singh Channi. In Punjab polls. Jat Sikhs and Hindus did not vote for Channi although he is a well-educated and seasoned politician. It is established fact that in Punjab, the Akalis and the Congress come to power alternatively, and the Jat Sikhs, Hindus and Dalits have voted for the Congress for 70 years. However, this time, AAP weaned away Jats, Hindus and non-Ravidasis and Ramdasis from Congress by projecting a Jat Sikh as CM."

Vivek Kumar in The Indian Express

Kumar adds, "Then what is the way forward for BSP? The answer lies in the fact that the BSP is not only a political party, it is a social movement. Losing and winning an election is part of the movement and till the gaps in democracy are filled, BSP will remain relevant."

He concludes that the BSP “has to reinvent its old ideology and identify elements which exploit Bahujans in institutions of governance, education, production and social life. It has to repeat its 2007 performance to provide representation to Bahujans in institutions of governance to strengthen democracy.”

Hum Kyaa Chahte? Aazaadi!

In his column for The Telegraph, Sankarshan Kumar analyses the word ‘azaadi’ and what its pursuit means.

Kumar writes:

“Is that a good word, though? Aazaadi? Or a safe word? It is worth a ponder and a little more. Some get felicitated for it. Some just get killed. Aazaadi is such a treacherous cry. It does different things to different people. You cry aazaadi! and you’re lauded. You cry aazaadi! and you get lammed. What is it about this word whose mahotsav they say it is?”

Further expanding on what 'aazaadi' means for Kumar, he writes, "I do know and understand that my aazaadi to swing my arm stops where your nose begins, that’s understood. Aazaadi is not limitless; conditions apply. But they should be reasonable, naa, those conditions. It cannot be that shouting aazaadi is a good thing for one and a bad thing for another. You want aazaadi to worship your heroes, I want aazaadi to worship mine. You want aazaadi to tear into my heroes, I want aazaadi to rip into yours. Play the game fair, level the field. Then call it a mahotsav, and see what vigour we bring to the celebration of it."

Corporates Get Real on Climate Change Targets

Writing on climate change, Gurbir Singh, in his column for The New Indian Express, points out how climate change, from being the stuff of protests outside company headquarters, has “moved into the boardrooms, as shareholders and investors demand definitive targets to reduce emissions.”

“The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has estimated to limit global warning to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, an average of 6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide will have to be removed each year from the atmosphere by 2050. Currently, only a measly 10,000 tonnes of Co2 have been captured to date,” Singh writes.

Expanding on how litigation has become a valid tool to counter climate change, Singh adds:

“The new initiatives by the big corporates to limit greenhouse gases (GHG) and phase out the fossil fuel industries, is not exactly spurred by philanthropic objectives; it is to limit the looming costs being imposed by activist litigation. Over the last few months, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released a series of startling reports, penned by the world’s most accomplished climate scientists, on how close we are to a man-made environmental disaster. The third and concluding report – Mitigation of Climate Change – released recently, validates litigation as a tool, to confront the fossil fuel industry and prod local governments."

A Difficult Life

Expanding on the social reality of transgenders in India, “loaded with prejudice and disdain”, Sudhirendar Sharma, in his column for The Hindu, writes:

“As guided aversion plays on our psyche, we often view transgenders who come knocking at our car windows in crowded intersections as beggars. We overlook their immense emotional resilience and incredible physical endurance. They persist against unimaginable odds while showering blessings and good wishes on others. In recent times, however, some transgender people have jumped the social barricade by establishing themselves as beauticians and politicians. However, for the sizeable number who come from lower middle-class backgrounds, such opportunities are few and far between.”

Questioning why transgenders have not been socially accepted, Sharma delves into Hindu mythology and writes, “Going by legend, when Lord Rama was exiled to the forest, he told those following him, “Men and women, please wipe your tears and go away.” Most left but a group of people stayed behind, at the edge of the forest, because they were neither men nor women. They were the transgender persons who waited in the woods for 14 years until Lord Rama returned, which won them a special place in Hindu mythology. Pleased with their devotion, Lord Rama blessed them to bless others on various auspicious occasions such as childbirth and marriage…With the tallest statue of Lord Rama being erected to resurrect mythology, leaving those who were blessed by him to remain unblessed is unfair.”

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