Daily Hindu Editorials

Indian activists echo American conservatives of the 1930s, but Aadhaar is the best tool to administer the subsidy regime The United States enacted the landmark Social Security Act in 1935, giving birth to the Social Security Number (SSN). The debate leading up to the Act was highly contentious, as conservative Republicans/Congressmen declared, “Never in the history of the world has any measure been brought in here so insidiously designed as to prevent business recovery, to enslave workers, and … opens the door and invites the entrance into a political field of a power so vast, so powerful, as to threaten the integrity of our institutions....” Christian fundamentalists joined the crusade by proclaiming that SSN was the very Mark of the Beast prophesied in Revelation 13:17: “…no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” 🔷  Safety nets The fearmongering ultimately failed to imp...

The process to remove Justice Shukla shows the importance of in-house mechanisms With an in-house committee concluding that a judge of the Allahabad High Court had committed judicial impropriety serious enough to warrant his removal, the subject of corruption in the higher judiciary is in the news. Justice Shri Narayan Shukla had come under adverse notice before a Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra last year. The Bench had found he had violated a restraining order from the apex court by allowing the GCRG Memorial Trust, Lucknow, to admit students. The Supreme Court observed that the Bench headed by Justice Shukla had violated judicial propriety. The CJI formed a three-member committee, comprising Chief Justices Indira Banerjee of the Madras High Court and S.K. Agnihotri of the Sikkim High Court and Justice P.K. Jaiswal of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, to examine his conduct. The committee has now found substance in the allegations and that the judge had ...

The American President has confused everybody with his State of the Union speech In delivering his first State of the Union speech on Capitol Hill, President Donald Trump spoke of many small victories that he chalked up to his administration’s record over the past year. Yet the biggest surprise to many may have been the fact that they saw before them a Commander-in-Chief who unwaveringly stuck to the script and eschewed his usual provocative style on social media. While “Twitter Trump” has lashed out at Democrats on immigration reform and the federal government shutdown earlier in January, “Teleprompter Trump” issued a generous call for bipartisanship in policymaking. Where Mr. Trump has actively promoted, on social media, Russian involvement in resolving problems with North Korea, Syria, Ukraine and terrorism, he said in his Congressional address that Russia and China were rivals that challenged U.S. economic interests. Most strikingly, Mr. Trump assured ...

Last week, the Supreme Court directed the Centre to constitute a tribunal within a month to adjudicate the Mahanadi river water dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh. The Centre had resisted constituting a tribunal, instead advocating a political resolution through talks. During the recent winter session of Parliament, the Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari had even asked Odisha to engage with Chhattisgarh through his or the Prime Minister’s office. Odisha, however, insisted on a legal route. Why was the Centre unsuccessful in getting Odisha to the table? It is time we invest in right, credible and institutionalised practices for enabling inter-State mediation, coordination and cooperation. 🔷  Political rationalities To be clear, there is little doubt about substantive reasons for contention over the Mahanadi between Odisha and Chhattisgarh. The States’ escalation of the dispute for pursuing their respective interests is legitimate. However, the und...

Savers in India need a far simpler tax regime for financial products that doesn’t distort their freedom to choose Bumping up the household savings rate and nudging savers to park their surpluses in financial assets have always been high on the agenda of Indian Finance Ministers. Fully aware of this, different arms of the financial services industry — insurers, banks, intermediaries, mutual funds — usually present a long laundry list of Budget demands. This year has been no exception. But it is accommodating such piecemeal demands over the years that has led to such a complicated and inconsistent smorgasbord of tax rules for investors. This does them more harm than good. It may be desirable for the Finance Minister to refocus on the big picture policy objectives on savings, to rework the tax incentives around them. Here are some ideas that may uncomplicate life for savers, if they figure in the Budget. 🔷  Omnibus 80C India is an aspirational economy and...

Local government elections this month will have a bearing on the coalition government in Colombo Sri Lanka’s local government elections, scheduled to be held on February 10, have elicited the interest of a national election, and with good reason. This is the first time the country will go to the polls in about three years since the President Maithripala Sirisena–Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe combine rose to power promising “good governance”, giving voters a chance to say what they think of the performance of the government they elected to office. Further, the two coalition partners in government — Mr. Sirisena’s-led Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and Mr. Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) — are contesting the island-wide local polls separately, with their campaigns laying bare the deep fissures and insecurities within the coalition government. Inevitably, the outcome will impact the future course of the government in th...