Daily Hindu Editorials

🏫 The plan to give select universities autonomy and create a multi-tier academe is a crisis for our democracy Moments of crisis often create moments for rethinking, when the basic concepts and institutions we employ are subject to critical scrutiny. Such a crisis haunts the idea of the nation state, the vision of democracy and, at another level, our model of the university. Such a crisis of change also produces a mimicry of original concepts, with mediocrity retailed as excellence, status confused for quality, and a few narrow indicators defining the existence of the new paradigm. Mediocrity in mimicking excellence subverts the very essence of the institution. One witnesses such antics masquerading as reform as one watches the struggle of the Indian university over the autonomy issue. 👉 The grammar of reform Merely labelling such a process will not do. Protest must be accompanied by scholarship which exposes in detail the logic and mechanics of the rituals of approp...

💥The court must re-examine the SC/ST Act verdict, but in an atmosphere of calm The loss of nine lives in violent protests against the Supreme Court ruling introducing safeguards against misuse of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, is tragic. Clearly, both the Centre and State governments were caught unawares by the scale and intensity of the protests. The government has sought an urgent review, in an attempt to dispel the impression that its own stand was responsible for the Division Bench laying down fresh guidelines on handling complaints under the Act. From the day of the court ruling, what was a matter of concern was the nature of the message the Bench might have conveyed to marginalised and oppressed sections. Norms to safeguard the innocent against false complaints may not have been so unpalatable as the serious implications of the finding that there is large-scale misuse of the SC/ST Act. Proceeding on this premise, the court r...

💥Apart from an inquiry into the latest violence, there must be an aid package for the territory Protests last week along Gaza’s border with Israel, which turned violent with Israeli troops killing 18 Palestinians, were long in the making. Gaza, the 225 sq km strip of land where over two million people live, has been under an Israeli blockade for over a decade. In recent years, Egypt has also joined the blockade, practically cutting off the strip from the rest of the world. The flow of both goods and people into and out of Gaza is heavily restricted. Life has become miserable under these conditions, and it is not an exaggeration when the territory is called one big open-air prison. Recent sanctions by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority have not helped matters. Despite international calls and repeated warnings by rights groups, Israel has not eased its restrictions on the strip. It says they are in place for “security reasons” — the ruling Hamas is designated a terrorist gro...

💥The Speaker has enough powers to restore order in the Lok Sabha and act upon a notice for a no-trust vote Think of the day in 1997 when Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda had to face a no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha. Now imagine the following situation. Some MPs from one of the numerous parties disrupt the proceedings by storming the well of the House and showing placards. The Speaker expresses that he is unable to conduct the House and adjourns for the day. Repeat this for several days. The Prime Minister continues to hold his office. Would this be a legitimate government? This is not a mere academic question. About three weeks ago, several members of Lok Sabha gave written notices to the Speaker for a no-confidence motion against the current council of ministers. The rules of procedure require the Speaker to verify whether 50 Members of Parliament support the motion by asking them to stand at their seats and taking a count. Since March 16, the Speaker has every day...

💥Forging a China-India-Pakistan-Bangladesh axis would be a game changer for all of South Asia At the heart of South Asia’s poor integration is India-Pakistan rivalry, further complicated by China-Pakistan proximity and India-China hostility. A new dimension has been added with souring of Pakistan-Bangladesh relations and the India-China tug of war over Bangladesh. Time has come to make a paradigm shift in South Asia’s regional integration strategy. Politics and religion aside, across India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (IPB) there are common sociocultural bonds and people-to-people connectivity remains positive. 👉Caught in a tangle Today the big three of South Asia are caught up in a complex quagmire, both within and beyond the region. The remaining five — i.e. Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan — are paying the price of regional disintegration caused by unresolved puzzles having roots in the China-IPB (CIPB) axis. If the big three can have a strategic p...

🌲The Keonjhar forest department has chosen dense forest in Rangamatia village as the site for compensatory afforestation projects, sparking conflicts with the community. The Compensatory Afforestation Fund is a deeply flawed and unjust mechanism Last month, Minister of State for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Mahesh Sharma informed Parliament that his Ministry has collected over ₹50,000 crore in a Central compensatory afforestation fund (CAF). This money is to be used though the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) Act, 2016 or CAF, a purported mechanism to offset forest loss. Before issuing forest clearances to a mine, dam or industry, the Ministry fixes a monetary value for the forest that is to be destroyed and collects this as “compensation”. The funds are to be then used to “afforest” alternative land. 👉Indicator of destruction The fund’s growth over the past decade is a measure of the forest destruction under way in India. It is also a potent indic...

👉An alliance of regional parties will need the support of a national party The rapid approach of the 2019 general election has prompted speculation on the possibility of regional parties forming a non-Congress, non-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance, referred to as the ‘Third Front’. Arguments have also been posed against this idea, including that such a combine would lack stability, and that regional leaders who harbour ambitions to rule from New Delhi do not possess a truly pan-Indian vision. There is no doubt that regional parties such as the Trinamool Congress, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Samajwadi Party (SP), and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) cannot form a government on their own, since the numbers do not add up. Another problem is that certain non-Congress, non-BJP parties are incompatible bedfellows within a broader alliance. Although unexpected alliances have occasionally occurred, such as between the SP and the BSP, the D...