Daily Hindu Editorials

The attack on schoolchildren captures the state’s failure to stand up to vigilantism The attack on a bus carrying schoolchildren on Wednesday must serve to jolt State governments across north India out of their hands-off approach to acts of vandalism by way of protests against the film Padmaavat. It took admirable presence of mind on the part of the driver to steer the children out of harm’s way when foot soldiers of the Karni Sena attacked the bus in the Haryana township of Gurugram. But coming at the end of days of violence in at least six States by protestors purporting to be upholding Rajput honour, this is the image India must confront: a busload of children ducking for cover as the state looked away. The image collectively frames the abdication of State governments in maintaining law and order in the face of violence by the rag-tag Karni Sena. For months, many of them have played an encouraging role in keeping up protests against the film, with the Chief Ministers of ...

The Lavates’ request is unlikely to be heeded as India is not comfortable with the idea ➡️Yes || Flavia Agnes Article 21 of the Constitution gives me the right to life, but I also interpret it as giving me the right to take away my life. The right to life includes the right to live with dignity. When you are in pain, that dignity is lost and you are forced to rely on your kith and kin for support. Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code prescribes punishment for attempting suicide. It is an offence, but it should not be one. You could die, but if you survive, you should get counselling, not go to jail. Narayan Lavate (88) and Iravati Lavate (78) from Maharashtra say that they do not wish to be a burden on society in their old age. They don’t have children and their siblings are no more, they say. They argue that spending the country’s scarce resources on keeping them alive, the old and ailing alive, is a criminal waste. This is simple logic. They also as...

The decision of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) to start talks for another coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) will calm nerves across Europe. Since September’s inconclusive parliamentary election, efforts to form a coalition government for the continent’s largest economy have reached nowhere. The SPD, whose vote share came down by 5 percentage points since 2013, initially decided to sit in the opposition and focus on reviving the party. But after months of talks between the CDU and the Green Party to form a government collapsed, sections within the SPD pushed for another coalition bid, which was finally okayed by 56.4% of the delegates in an extraordinary party conference in Bonn last week. Defending the coalition proposal, SPD leader Martin Schulz said working with Ms. Merkel allowed the party to resist right-wing populism in Europe while championing workers’ rights at home through government policies. He said a p...