Daily Hindu Editorials

👉To understand why we don’t, it is important to understand its origins in the colonial regime👈 Among all the players who strutted and fretted across the stage during the recently concluded Karnataka elections, it is the Governor of the State, Vajubhai Vala, who emerged with least credit to his name. His decision to first invite the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to take a stab at forming the government was perhaps a legitimate exercise of his constitutional discretion (albeit without any recorded reasons for ignoring the post-poll Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) alliance’s claims to having an absolute majority). However, the invitation was extended at 9 p.m., and the swearing in fixed for 9.30 a.m. the next day, ostensibly to ward off any judicial challenges, and present a fait accompli. His decision to grant B.S. Yeddyurappa 15 days to prove his majority, when the latter himself asked for only a week, was troubling enough for the Supreme Court to intervene and order an immed...

👉There must be a thorough inquiry into the lead-up to the deaths in Thoothukudi👈 The protest against the copper smelter plant of Sterlite Copper in Thoothukudi has witnessed its deadliest turn so far, with the death of 12 people in police firing. It was clear the movement would put up a show of strength on May 22, the 100th day of this phase of protests — in fact, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court had predicted that it was “likely to trigger a law and order situation” and declared that the “protesters do not have any intention of conducting a peaceful protest”. Yet, the Tamil Nadu government failed to gauge the intensity of what was coming. It is a tragic irony that such an angry and violent demonstration could have been staged at a time when the plant is not operational and after the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board refused to renew its consent to operate. It raises questions about the government’s failure to drive this point home forcefully, and casts a doubt about t...

👉Philip Roth was unmatched in his unflinching depiction of post-War America👈 Philip Roth, who has died at 85, was a titan of post-War literature — by some assessments, the greatest of his generation. Across more than 30 books, he chronicled the best and worst of America, looking things in the eye and telling it like it was, writing about flawed beings, their dreams and nightmares, sexual and other predicaments. Themes of betrayal, love and loss, alienation, the struggle between political correctness and the desire to let go of all inhibitions were common to his oeuvre. Together with Saul Bellow and John Updike, Roth was considered the unflinching observer of 20th century America. Steeped in acerbic humour, which increasingly turned black, several of his best novels, including the American trilogy (American Pastoral, I Married a Communist and The Human Stain) were written in a stunning late-career resurgence. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Pastoral (1997) told the story of Seymour Irv...

👉India must calculate ‘its green GDP’ to factor in the value of the environment in its growth👈 A few years ago, India suffered a cost of $550 billion, about 8.5% of GDP, due to air pollution, according to a World Bank report; the cost of externalities such as water pollution and land degradation were possibly far higher. Through commodity exports, we effectively transfer natural capital to our trade partners, raising the risk of desertification and land being degraded significantly. Within a century, our food production could see a loss of 10-40% if these trends continue. So when we crow about GDP growth, we should also consider the decline in natural capital in our national accounts. 👉Estimation is a challenge The idea of having a national account for wealth accrued over a year is accepted in most major economies. Such national accounts (GDP, net national product, gross savings) provide a measure of an economy’s performance and form the basis for socio-economic policies...

👉When a child faces brutality, in or outside the family, society’s contract with its own spirit is violated👈 Judicial hearing in the Kathua rape and murder case has been shifted out of Jammu and Kashmir, where the incident occurred, to Pathankot in Punjab. This has raised the hope that justice will be served. However, it is worth examining what justice means in cases where the victim of a heinous crime is a child. After each case of rape, including the rape of small girls, the demand for justice is raised. This demand is, of course, right. In the media, one often hears and reads that the victim’s parents want justice to be served without delay. In many cases, people are known to have come out on the streets to demand police action and justice. Now that an ordinance has been issued to enable the judiciary to award the death penalty to rapists of small girls, we can expect quicker protests for demanding justice. 👉The meaning of justice In general, the idea of justice doe...

👉When all opinion is converted into strict binaries, the possibility of a common ground recedes further👈 An intriguing audio clip where one set of listeners swears it can hear ‘Yanni’ and another swears it’s ‘Laurel’ has become the Internet’s most contentious topic since the famous gold-or-blue dress war that erupted in 2015. The New York Times has chipped in with an online tool to show how shifting the audio to higher or lower frequencies can change what you hear. For the record, I hear ‘Yanni’ and it doesn’t change even when I move the slider to the extreme, ‘Laurelest’ left. Scientists and audiologists have explained the phenomenon as an auditory illusion comparable to visual illusions such as Rubin’s vase, where people see either a vase or two faces in profile. 👉Ignoring nuances While these illusions are fascinating in themselves, what is striking is the ambiguity they represent. As each individual insists she hears ‘Laurel’ or ‘Yanni’ and nothing else, the audio clip ...

👉#MeToo without due process could subvert the goals and values of the rule of law, including equality and transformative justice👈 The legal system has failed women in India. In two recent cases, we saw even lawmakers and enforcers becoming perpetrators of sexual violence or defending the accused. The chilling details of the Kathua and Unnao cases are telling but perhaps only the tip of the iceberg. It is in this context that those who support anonymous lists such as the list of “sexual harassers in academia” have debunked the call for “due process”. They argue that due process has done too little for women who have chosen to complain against sexual harassment. There is little hope from mechanisms such as the Internal Complaints Committee established under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act of 2013, which, in effect, rely on due process principles like the presumption of innocence and a standard of proof beyond reasonable do...