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.

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It is Too Early to Tell

In his weekly column for The Indian Express, former Union Minister P Chidambaram critiques how the India-China clashes have not been allowed to be discussed in Parliament even once in the last four years.

Chidambaram's comments come in light of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan.

"My favourite anecdote about Mao Tse Tung is his answer when asked what will be the impact of the French Revolution on human history. Mao, reportedly, thought for a while and said, 'It is too early to tell'," writes the senior Congress leader.

"A sad reflection on our democracy is that the India-China clashes were not allowed to be discussed in Parliament even once in the last four years. On the patrolling deal, Defence experts have advised caution; the Congress has raised pertinent and obvious questions; and other Opposition parties have been silent. Will the October consensus lead India and China to a comprehensive negotiated solution? It is too early to tell."

P Chidambaram, The Indian Express

Building BRICS for a De-dollarised World Order

Seshadri Chari, in his column for the Deccan Herald, writes about aspects of the BRICS summit and why they need closer attention.

"The 16th BRICS summit at Kazan, in Russia, might turn out to be a watershed moment, not only for the 15-year-old institution but also for the global economy. Three important aspects of this summit merit closer attention and greater understanding as they are likely to have a deep impact and influence on the emerging world order, geopolitics and geo-economics," says Chari.

A key agenda of the summit involved the provision of an alternative currency model to end the supremacy of the American dollar, de-dollarisation, new trade policies, and the usage of local currencies. This necessitated building a consensus among the founding members, the other new members as well as several emerging economies who were special invitees to the summit. One of the important talking points was the all-pervasive USD which was accepted by consensus as a global exchange and payment settlement currency at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944, replacing Bancor, a supranational currency conceptualised and proposed by John Maynard Keynes."

Seshadri Chari, Deccan Herald

What Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s Entry Into Electoral Politics Means for Congress

In her weekly column for The Indian Express, senior journalist Tavleen Singh writes about Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's entry into electoral politics and the significance of the move for the Congress party.

"Polls and common sense indicate that Priyanka Gandhi is certain to become the MP from Wayanad. It is a seat that the Congress Party has never lost, so it would take an unexpected calamity for her to lose despite her own charisma and her family name. What I am personally no longer sure of is whether the Gandhi name still has the ability it once had to ensure that the Congress Party kept winning elections," writes Singh.

"It is my considered opinion that the family’s vaunted charisma faded long ago, or Narendra Modi would not have won a full majority twice. Rahul Gandhi has lost so many elections in so many states since 2014 that it is hard to believe that those in the Congress Party who are serious politicians and not courtiers have not noticed that Indian voters are no longer swayed by charisma in the way they once used to be."

Tavleen Singh, The Indian Express

In Gaza and Beirut, the Echoes of a Tragic Past

In the Hindustan Times, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, former Governor of West Bengal, weighs on the impact of wars in Gaza and Ukraine on their children.

"Diplomacy has its compulsions, Indian diplomacy no less. That is realpolitik. But humanity has its compulsions, Indian humanity has no less about real-life, real death. Tagore and Korczak speak out today, whoever else does or not, from the depths of India’s soul and Poland’s. They say: “For God’s sake, for Yahweh’s sake and Allah’s, for Ishvar’s, Ramlalla’s and Krishna Kanhaiya’s, if you know what motherhood and childhood are, halt, halt, whatever and all that leads to the murder of innocents carried out in the name of whatever…sovereignty, territory, which are nothing but vainglory and self-lust.”

Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Hindustan Times

My Son’s Patriarchy Is Different From Mine

Shah Alam Khan, a professor at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), reflects on the evolution of civilisational patriarchy in light of the Kolkata's RG Kar case and the Hema Committee findings.

In his column in The Indian Express, Khan writes, "In my childhood, I hardly remember the male members of my family speak of patriarchy in a manner in which I feel it is urgent to discuss the issue with my son. They all were quite liberal people who believed in the emancipation of women. Most were comfortable with their daughters and sisters joining feminist movements and political parties; there was no bar on interfaith marriages. But patriarchy still prevailed."

"The indexing of patriarchy is the problem of the modern world that my son will have to face more than me. His modernity is different from mine, so is his patriarchy. He lives in a world that is well aware of patriarchal practices but cunningly wants to wrap itself in a way that everything continues as is but on a simmer. Status quo on a slow burner. We now celebrate Mother’s Day. I told him the other day what Deborah Levy had written in her biography, Things I Don’t Want to Know (2013), 'We did not yet entirely understand that Mother, as imagined and politicised by the Societal System, was a delusion. The world loved the delusion more than it loved the mother'."

Shah Alam Khan, The Indian Express

Count the People, Don’t Discount Them

In the Deccan Herald, Ashwin Mahesh makes a case for "abandoning our notion that we have ‘too many people’ and embrace the idea that the citizens of our country are its biggest strength, not its weakness."

Mahesh writes, "We say to ourselves and to others that surely, a country of so many people belongs in the upper echelons of the world order. Our Prime Ministers and opinion-makers have long demanded a seat for India in the United Nations Security Council. The weight of our numbers has also been bolstered in the last thirty years by sustained economic growth. As a result, nowadays many geopolitical blocs seek India’s membership and participation. Big has been useful."

"In other ways, however, we have seen population as a burden, and perhaps the biggest obstacle to our development. Population control quickly became national policy; with so many to take care of, even now we tell ourselves that we are rolling boulders steeply uphill. This view is reinforced by the fact that within the country, the states with the highest population growth rates are considerably poorer than the ones that are growing slowly."

Ashwin Mahesh, Deccan Herald

The Incredible Courage of Sakshi Malik

In the Hindustan Times, Namita Bhandare writes about Sakshi Malik's memoire, Witness, co-authored by Malik and Jonathan Selvaraj.

Bhandare writes, "To see Sakshi Malik or Vinesh Phogat solely through the prism of their sensational protest against sexual harassment charges levelled against Wrestling Federation of India boss Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh is a disservice."

A state that does poorly on many gender indices, including sex ratio at birth, where the ghoongat or veil is still in place and where women are controlled by rigid social norms on who they can or cannot marry, has emerged as a crucible for women in sports.

Namita Bhandare, Hindustan Times

"Partly it’s because of the huge incentives the state offers to players, both by way of cash and also through government jobs. Partly it’s to do with infrastructure built at the district and even village level. And partly it’s because the state has a tradition of producing athletes. But mainly the credit goes to an earlier generation of women athletes who became role models for girls in villages and mohalla. The early pioneers broke glass ceilings and created the space for a new generation of aspirational girls," she adds.

Should Indian Diplomacy Be Faith-Based or Hard-Nosed?

Author and former diplomat, Pavan K Varma, in his column for the Deccan Chronicle, makes a case for why foreign policy must be a bi-partisan political issue.

"It must be squarely based on national self-interest, however much we camouflage it with idealistic posturing," Varma writes.

"Our foreign policy often lacks strong responses. For instance, when in 2008, China decided to give stapled visas to our citizens in Arunachal, which it illegally claims as its territory, and repeated the practice in 2023, instead of just protesting, our response should have been to give similar visas to Chinese of Tibetan origin. This is a language the world — and China — respects. On the other hand, sometimes without adequate reason, we act the bully, most noticeably with Nepal in 2015, when we blockaded the land-locked nation for over six months, creating great economic and humanitarian hardship, and thereby further strengthening China’ growing presence there."

Pavan K Varma, Deccan Chronicle

Give Me a Real Woman-Centric Film

In The Indian Express, Shalini Langer argues why she did not like Alia Bhatt's Jigra and how it does not meet the criteria to qualify as a 'woman-centric' film.

She writes: "Let me say at the outset: No, I did not like Jigra. The calculated acting, the clunky storyline, the much-too-clever references, the hamming jailor, the constant use of a father’s suicide in front of his young children as almost a scene filler, were just one part of it. What was most disturbing about this film — despite its very likeable actor, Alia Bhatt — was how it dispensed with morality as an inconvenient detail in the path of relentless revenge. And, all in the cause of 'a woman-centric film' — as is being drilled into anyone who dares question it."

You want to give me a woman-centric film? Don’t give me another angry young man. Give me the wrinkled Gisele Pelicot, felling her mass rapists in a French court, demolishing the silence around sexual abuse, by saying simply: “Shame must change sides.” So must heroism.

Shalini Langer, The Indian Express

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