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

We sifted through the papers to find the best opinion reads so you wouldn't have to.

Who Failed The People Of UP?

P Chidambaram, in his column for The Indian Express, calls Uttar Pradesh a "failed-state," probing the status-quo in UP with respect to some "universally accepted human development indicators," and statistics in the areas of health, education, crime, and unemployment.

He uses the numbers to indicate a worsening of matters in the state on multiple counts, pointing out that 'Mr Adityanath’s model of governance is deeply flawed.'

P Chidambaram observes,

Mr Adityanath’s model of governance is deeply flawed. He speaks loudly and carries a big stick. The model is based on a dangerous mix of authoritarianism, caste hegemony, religious hatred, police excesses and gender violence. The political vocabulary is filled with words like ‘encounter’, ‘bulldozer’ and ‘80 versus 20’. The BJP has the dubious distinction of trying to prove the hypothesis that ‘religion is the opium of the masses’.

P Chidambaram in The Indian Express

Up For Grabs

In his article for The Telegraph, Mukul Kesavan argues how the ongoing battle in Ukraine could be understood "as a contest between two transnational entities, the Russian Federation on the one side and the European Union on the other."

He traces the history of Ukraine in relation to Russia and USSR, noting that the Russian model of inclusion is based on "historical ownership" and is one of the primary drivers behind its invasion of Ukraine.

Kesavan notes:

Putin’s designs on Ukraine have very little to do with the influence of the extremist Right in that country. Putin wants Ukraine partly because he wants a buffer state between Russia and the threat of NATO encroachment and partly because he believes Ukraine is historically a part of the Russian empire. The Russian Federation’s national identity under Putin has defaulted to its Czarist past. Russian identity was, paradoxically, both hegemonic and suppressed through the life of the Soviet Union.

Mukul Kesavan in The Telegraph

Inside Track: A David vs Goliath Battle in UP

In her column 'Inside Track' in The Indian Express, Coomi Kapoor notes the distinction between the personalities of the political heavyweights Yogi Adityanath and Akhilesh Yadav, in light of the demanding campaign of the Uttar Pradesh elections.

Kapoor also speaks of the development of alternate plans by the Congress in Uttarakhand, the tussle between the Kerala Governor and Chief Minister over a pension policy, and the expose of the NSE chief by a journalist couple.

Kapoor writes,

An early riser, Adityanath begins his day at 4 am with pujas, interacts with officials from 6.30 am and attends rallies from 9.30 am. He winds up only at 9 pm and this is followed by a series of work-related meetings. The easy going Akhilesh has other interests besides politics and pujas. He is a family man, a sportsman fond of badminton, football and even tennis. But in the last two months he has devoted himself entirely to the campaign. The crowds are enthusiastic, but he still has a lot of catching up to do. He is campaigning practically single-handedly. The strain of his gruelling schedule is beginning to tell. The normally good-natured Akhilesh is increasingly belligerent towards the media.

Coomi Kapoor in The Indian Express

Guns and Sunflowers

Upala Sen, in her column for The Telgraph, attempts to draw a relationship between flowers and war in view of the present tumult in Ukraine, citing examples from the Afghan crisis and the coup in Myanmar.

She points out the usage of the flower as a metaphorical tool in the different phases of war, as was done by the Afghan artist Shamsia Hassani.

Sen reflects,

There is something about flowers and war. Last August, in the run-up to the fall of Kabul and thereafter, Afghan artist Shamsia Hassani did a series of drawings of a young woman and the dandelion. The dandelion is a flower commonly found across Central Asia. In one drawing, the fallen grenade seems to be sputtering florets of the dandelion. In another, posted immediately after the fall of Kabul, a Taliban fighter is seen standing tall. Whether he blends into the dark background or the darkness congeals into him is for you to decide.

Upala Sen in The Telegraph

The World Must Do More To Put Pressure On Russia

Pratap Bhanu Mehta, in his column for The Indian Express, grieves the lack of concern for Ukraine as a nation amid the Russian invasion of the country.

Observing that "the appetite for doing what it takes to put pressure on Putin is not yet in evidence," Mehta argues that the West will have to ramp-up its sanctions on Russia in the long run in order for them to be effective.

Pratap Bhanu Mehta notes:

The first round of sanctions that the US and the EU have announced seem astonishingly tepid; it does not even attack Russian offshore finance fully. Exempting Russian energy and food from any sanctions seems designed to inflict minimal pressure on Russia and almost no cost on the West. But will this only embolden Putin? Or can one do an optimistic reading that they still signal the willingness to give Putin a way out. But if Putin’s occupation of Ukraine continues for long, then sanctions will have to be ramped up or the West loses face totally.

Pratap Bhanu Mehta in The Indian Express

No Glass Ceilings Were Broken To Write This

In her article for The Indian Express, Mehr Gill uses the conversation between two characters in an animated show as a ploy to find a middle ground between the feminist and anti-feminist positions as in the current discourse, examining the need for women to strive to meet some pre-determined aspirations.

Mehr Gill contends,

If non-allegiance to the movement is admitted, it will likely be at the risk of offending the custodians of women’s rights. Acknowledging that contemporary wisdom has become stale and platitudinal is the first step in changing this. To take an example, one often reads about the under-representation of women in top positions in white-collar spaces. But why is so much importance given to getting promoted? Has ambition become so banal and generic, another hand-me-down idea? Is there no other meaning in working?

Mehr Gill in The Indian Express

Gill rejects the notion of terming women who climb ladders everyday 'special,' emphasising that "the idea is for women to find out what they are good at and not to aspire for something they think they should be good at."

Truth, Lies & Propaganda

Tavleen Singh, in her article for The Indian Express, argues against PM Modi's allegations of the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party fuelling the migrant exodus during the pandemic, questioning if he has "become a victim of his government’s propaganda".

Singh cites Barkha Dutt's book as the documentary proof of the crisis that befell the migrants, asserting that unless the mistakes made are "acknowledged, we are doomed to repeat these mistakes in the future."

Tavleen Singh notes:

Does the Prime Minister not know what happened? Does he not know that millions of our poorest citizens were forced to walk hundreds of kilometres to their villages because they were made homeless and jobless overnight by his first lockdown? Does he not know that nobody could have been buying train tickets because the trains had stopped along with all other means of public transport? Has he become a victim of his government’s propaganda?

Tavleen Singh in The Indian Express

India’s Doctor Deficit: Let’s Not Use Band-Aids For Bullet Wounds

Pranay Kotasthane, in his piece for The Times Of India, assesses the problems plaguing the medical education space in India, in light of the recent news of a large number of medical students being stranded in Ukraine.

Noting that there exist "unreasonable restrictions for setting up medical colleges," he proposes 'radical liberalisation of the medical education' as the only option in improving the availability of quality medical education in the country.

Kotasthane writes,

Most people think the solution is simple — the Union government must establish more medical colleges. They discount the fact that the size of the problem goes beyond the capacity of the government — fiscal and administrative. Enlisting the support of the market is necessary for India to have a shot at meeting the doctor deficit. So, the PM is right in saying that the private sector can help. But the solution lies in his government’s hand. A radical liberalisation of medical education in India is the only option. The problem of ‘bad’ commercialisation can only be solved by more liberalisation. All other solutions are akin to putting a band-aid on a bullet wound.

Pranay Kotasthane in The Times Of India

India Can Leverage Water Treaty To Pressure Pak on Terrorism

Brahma Chellaney, in his piece for The Times Of India, builds a case for India to use its water treaty with Pakistan in order to force the neighbouring country to mend its ways on terrorist activities.

Chellaney argues that India could withdraw from the treaty on the grounds of 'Pakistan’s use of state-reared terrorist groups,' or 'condition further consultations to Pakistan’s verified severing of ties with terrorist groups.'

Brahma Chellaney notes:

The Indus treaty remains a millstone around India’s neck. India should be seeking to mitigate the burdens of a treaty that carries no benefits for it but which emboldens Pakistan’s sponsorship of cross-border terrorism. Pakistan repays India’s unparalleled water generosity with its self-avowed ‘War of a Thousand Cuts’. How can India allow its water largesse to be repaid with blood?...A scofflaw Pakistan wants rights without responsibilities. It demands eternal Indian water munificence while its military sustains export of terrorism to India.

Brahma Chellaney in The Times Of India

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