Daily Hindu Editorials

💥The Supreme Court guidelines are welcome — but we need a strong law on ‘honour’ crimes Many crimes committed in the name of defending the honour of a caste, clan or family may have their origin in India’s abominable caste system, but there are other contributing factors as well. Entrenched social prejudices, feudal structures and patriarchal attitudes are behind what are referred to as ‘honour killings’. While these cannot be eradicated overnight through law or judicial diktat, it is inevitable that a stern law and order approach is adopted as the first step towards curbing groups that seek to enforce such medieval notions of ‘honour’ through murder or the threat of murder, or ostracisation. It is in this context that the Supreme Court’s strident observations against khap panchayats and guidelines to deal with them acquire significance. It is not the first time that the apex court has voiced its strong disapproval of khaps, or village assemblies that assume the authority to dis...

💥The bond rout is a warning as the Centre looks at ramping up spending ahead of elections More people are losing their love for Indian bonds. Foreign investors have been net sellers of over $1 billion in Indian debt this month, almost cancelling out inflows since the beginning of the year. Domestic investors were already spooked by a widening fiscal deficit, so foreign selling now has managed to add pressure on the market. The deserting of the Indian market by foreign investors comes at a time when the Centre is looking at tapping the bond market aggressively to finance its election-year spending. The yield on the benchmark 10-year bond has risen by almost 100 basis points since late-July amid lacklustre investor demand. The rise in yields is due to a variety of reasons that have pushed both foreign and domestic investors to re-price Indian sovereign bonds. For one, the government is expected to step up borrowing ahead of elections; in fact, the fiscal deficit targets for the cu...

💥 History and mythology both try to explain the past but while history relies on evidence, myths rely on fantasy and must be examined differently, says the scholar The role of a public intellectual is not easy, especially when it comes to interrogating the government in power and holding it accountable. What is the role of a public intellectual in India today? One of India's foremost historians and Professor Emerita at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Romila Thapar, answers this question and speaks of the attacks on secularism. She also talks about the attempts to blur the distinction between myth and history, whether by the government which has appointed a committee to prove that Hindu scriptures are not myths, or by citizens who last year protested against the film Padmaavat, claiming that it depicted ‘wrongly’ their ‘medieval queen’. Only by gathering knowledge can we understand how both history and myth inform historians but in different ways, she says. Excerpts: 👉A...

💥A Kerala village’s struggle against land acquisition highlights the larger debate on striking the right balance Some time in the 1990s the Colombian anthropologist Arturo Escobar produced a text titled Encountering Development. It was searing account of the attack on the native peoples of his continent by the power elites who had commandeered it. An Indian economist nourished by the idea of the liberating impact on the country of the Green Revolution and conscious of the role of the policies of the Nehru era in ending over a century of stagnation under colonialism, I had not given it much importance at that time. So it came as surprise to read of events in a corner of Kerala that corresponded quite closely, albeit on a far smaller scale, to what Escobar was alluding to. 👉Keezhattur’s case In the village of Keezhattur in Kerala’s Kannur district, a section of farmers is holding out against the announced, but yet to be implemented, acquisition of their farm land. ...

💥The government must file a review petition of the Supreme Court order in the SC/ST Act case India has over 180 million Dalits. A crime is committed against a Dalit every 15 minutes. Six Dalit women are raped every day. Over the last 10 years (2007-2017), there has been a 66% growth in crime against Dalits. Further, data from the National Crime Records Bureau on which the Supreme Court based its recent judgment that sought to protect public servants and private citizens from arbitrary arrests under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, show that the rape of Dalit women has doubled in the last 10 years. The figures represent only a tip of the iceberg since most Dalits do not register cases for fear of retaliation by higher castes. Even if a case reaches court, the most likely outcome is acquittal due to caste biases at every stage. 👉Why the dilution? Strangely, Justices A.K. Goel and U.U. Lalit in Kashinath Mahajan, adopting ‘pur...

💥The obsession for a male child in many parts of Asia can be changed. South Korea shows the way On the Vietnam Airlines flight to Hanoi, I did the opposite of what I usually do at take off — loosened my seat belt fully before I could buckle it. On most other flights I have to tighten the belt to make up for the passenger who occupied the seat before me. But the Vietnamese are so slender that one can only buy their elegant Ao dai at stores that say ‘foreigner sizes available’! Equally non-threatening are the streets full of two-wheelers in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Used to feeling extremely nervous at seeing groups of young men on two-wheelers in India, especially those that wave brightly coloured flags and matching scarves, it felt strange to have these Vietnamese young men negotiate my jaywalking without honking, without shouting slogans, and without baring their teeth. I am not sure if it was the men or their two-wheelers — mopeds and scooters rather than the more popula...

💥The government needs to tilt its green manufacturing mix in favour of nascent industries of the future  The Indian government is switching gears on solar energy. The 2018 Economic Survey identifies renewable energy as a champion sector under the Make in India 2.0 programme. India currently meets almost 90% of its annual requirement of solar panels through imports (mainly China), impeding the growth of a nascent domestic solar manufacturing sector. Policy support for the solar sector is increasingly focussed on domestic manufacturing, both in the form of capital subsidies and considerations of trade regulation. However, are these interventions the right signals to send to an already uncertain solar sector? Do they comply with the global trade regime? And will they keep our renewable energy (RE) ambitions on track? These questions warrant examination through four lenses. First, implementing trade remedies that have anti-competition implications has become commonplace, wit...