1. Across the Aisle: Navigating Through the Do’s and Don’ts
Every Budget is contextual; it is determined by the economy, politics and the government’s year in office. The NDA government’s fourth Budget will be presented at a time when the economy is slowing down and five crucial states go to polls, writes P Chidambaram in The Indian Express. At this point, he says, the government cannot afford to make any new promises.
... there will not be enough time to deliver tangible outcomes on any new promise and the time that remains has to be used to deliver on the old promises... The outlook for the world’s economy is uncertain. Two developments are likely: the US government may turn against free trade and overseas investments by American companies and the US Fed may raise domestic interest rates. Since November 2016, foreign capital has been flowing out of India. The budget must not send any signal that will accelerate the outflow.P Chidambaram
2. The Case Against Universal Basic Income
It is likely that the government is considering the implementation of a universal basic income scheme and that it will form an important part of this year’s Economic Survey. However, is it at all practical to introduce UBI in India?
Most of the suggestions in favour of UBI in India are made fiscally feasible with a number of assumptions. The first implicit assumption is that the amount of money being spent on various kinds of subsidies is justified, and the only issue is of targeting, which can be addressed by the transfer of basic income to every citizen. This is not correct. The widely quoted 2003 National Institute of Public Finance and Policy study showed that both Centre and state government subsidies amount to about 14% of GDP. The idea should be to reduce expenditure on non-merit subsidies and use the savings to boost capital spending that India badly needs.Rajesh Kumar, writing for the Mint
3. Trump’s No Ally of India, Handle Him With Care
Don’t get euphoric that Modi was fifth on the list of world leaders Donald Trump telephoned after assuming office, warns Swaminathan Aiyar in his Times of India column. Trump’s declaration of friendship to Modi is as significant as the former calling Pakistan’s Prime Minister Sharif a “terrific guy.”
Before phoning Modi, Trump called the president of Mexico, whom he has now kicked in the testicles by declaring that he will force Mexico to pay for the new border wall. Canada was higher on Trump’s phone list than India, and he has warned Canada that the NAFTA treaty must be renegotiated in America’s favour. Being high on Trump’s phone list is at best irrelevant and at worst a warning ... Trump wants “friends” that do his bidding. Doormats are most welcome. He is a raging bull, raging against his country’s relative decline.Swaminathan Aiyar
4. India Figures High in Trump’s Premier League, Make It Count
Disagreeing with Aiyar is Swapan Dasgupta, who writes in his Times of India column that there are only a few countries Trump “instinctively feels an empathy” towards, and that one of them is India.
There are certainly facets of Trump that warrant Indian concern, the most important being obstacles the IT industry may encounter in the event of visa restrictions. However, there are important points of convergence. These include the awareness of China’s hegemonic agenda in Asia, the zero tolerance of jihadi terror, exasperation with Pakistan’s unending duplicity and the promise to end America’s preachy, know-all attitude to internal developments of other countries. Above all, there could be a mutual appreciation of the importance attached to domestic capacity building by both countries.Swapan Dasgupta
5. While We're Taming Bulls, Let's Grab Another Law by the Horns
Writing in The Times of India, Twinkle Khanna asks why prominent citizens, spiritual leaders and Tamil political stalwarts who unite to protect something that they believe is ancient culture, cannot stand up for something that is not only ancient culture, but impacts millions of lives as well: LGBTQ rights.
Why, if Tamil Nadu’s successful agitators can get an ordinance allowing Jallikatu passed, can’t we bulldoze the government into changing other unfair legislations? Why don’t we show solidarity for another group that needs to be protected, and which is also part of our ancient history and culture? ... There are more than 2.5 million of our own indigenous species who need protecting ... who wish that stalwarts of the community come out to support them, and that ministers who work frantically to save archaic traditions wake up to the need for legislation that allows same-sex couples to live and love like everyone else.Twinkle Khanna
6. Fifth Column: Ballot Box Feudalism
Is it just me or have you noticed how elections in our proud democracy now resemble battles between medieval warlords? In Punjab we have the Badal dynasty fighting a real Maharaja and, in the vast and wondrous state of Uttar Pradesh we just witnessed a civil war in the Yadav dynasty. It has now been happily resolved with the Yadav prince teaming up with the Congress prince to take on the BJP. Is this democracy or an insidious form of feudalism? How have we come to such a pass that we in the media have accepted this new democratic normal with such equanimity?Tavleen Singh, writing for The Indian Express
7. Out of My Mind: India at 68
India became a sovereign republic on 26 January, 1950, but stayed within the Commonwealth with the British Crown at the helm. The Congress’ implementation of the transition to Independence was far more moderate than the once radical party had anticipated, writes Meghnad Desai in The Indian Express.
It could be argued that this conservative approach to full independence in 1950 has been a help rather than a hindrance ... India has lasted as a republic longer than many others. China’s first republic did not last even 40 years. Pakistan broke up. Even the US had to jettison its first Constitution within a decade and get a better one which guaranteed its continued existence for the next 225-plus years. One of these days, India will shed its colonial skin and become truly Indian.Meghnad Desai
8. Let’s Make Men a Part of the Solution to Gender Violence
Citing Donald Trump’s infamous views on women, Lalita Panicker asks, in her column in the Hindustan Times, whether the President of the Free World was taught by his parents, wives or daughters how women ought to be treated. Probably not, she says, because men are rarely a part of the discourse on issues that concern women - particularly violence against women.
Nothing can improve if we do not start thinking much more about involving men in gender justice. It is not that all men are resistant to the idea of playing a greater role in the fight against gender violence. They came out in huge numbers on Delhi’s streets when the gang rape took place in what was a spontaneous outpouring of grief for the young woman who fought so valiantly to live. For every man who thinks that involvement in female issue somehow reduces his masculinity or challenges his control, there are others who feel the opposite, who are willing to walk the extra mile for women’s rights.Lalita Panicker
9. The Indian Tribals: Adivasis Have Been Short-Changed at Every Turn
Reviewing Nandini Sunder’s new book, The Burning Forest, for the Hindustan Times, Ramachandra Guha writes that Adivasis remain “the section of Indian society most discriminated against.”
The Burning Forest aims to explore “what it means to be an adivasi citizen of India caught in armed conflict”. It documents the crimes of every side in this war; the villages burnt and looted by the Judum; the murders and rapes committed by them too. And it investigates the many instances of Maoist violence; their killings of policemen, politicians, and Judum leaders; their murders of village headmen and of alleged “informers” too.Ramachandra Guha
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