Daily Hindu Editorials

👉Deep questions of equity are raging in India and the U.S. — hyper-nationalism is blurring the debate👈 Debates over taxation and representation have been central to the evolution of democracy over centuries. India and America, the biggest and oldest democracies, respectively, are in the midst of a renewed debate over these subjects in recent months, the repercussions of which will be felt decades into the future. 👉The two cases In the U.S., the Donald Trump administration’s decision to include a question on citizenship in the 2020 Census form is being challenged by several States and cities. Unlike India, the U.S. reallocates the 435 seats in the House of Representatives after each Census. This process of reapportionment also leads to a redistribution of the 538 electoral college votes that elect the President. Besides determining how many seats each State will have in the U.S. House, the Census will also determine allocation of federal, State, and local government fun...

👉The Congress and the JD(S) need to quickly resolve their differences over portfolio sharing👈 Quick and bold decisions are more often made during moments of crises than during periods of relative calm and quiet. After sealing a deal on a post-poll coalition in Karnataka even before the counting of votes drew to a close, the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) are unable to reach an understanding on Cabinet berths and portfolios almost a week after the coalition proved its majority on the floor of the Assembly. Other than on having H.D. Kumaraswamy of the JD(S) as the Chief Minister and G. Parameshwara of the Congress as the Deputy Chief Minister, the two parties have been unable to agree on the contours of the coalition government. The Congress, which was hurried into conceding considerable ground to the JD(S) by a fast-moving opponent in the Bharatiya Janata Party, is now driving a hard bargain on the strength of its own numbers. The reasoning is that the party, with twice as ...

👉The Election Commission must review the use of paper trail machines in the polling process👈 The high incidence of glitches in the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines in Monday’s by-elections should be a major cause of concern for the Election Commission of India. Fresh polling had to be ordered in dozens of booths in Kairana and Bhandara-Gondiya in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, respectively, as a consequence. Ever since the implementation of the VVPAT system last year, machine malfunction and subsequent delays in polling have been recurring issues. Close to 4.2% of the VVPAT machines deployed in the Karnataka Assembly elections this month developed glitches during the testing as well as polling processes. The overall fault rate was as high as 11.6% in the by-elections held in four parliamentary and nine Assembly constituencies on Monday. The ECI has suggested that these machines were more prone to malfunctioning due to their sensitivity to extreme weather condit...

👉Why the 20th anniversary of the Pokhran nuclear tests was so muted this month👈 Some anniversaries are celebrated with enthusiasm while others are merely observed. The muted response to the 20th anniversary of India’s nuclear weapons tests this past month puts this milestone firmly in the second category. It is a far cry from the triumphalism that overtook India 20 years ago. And yet, in crossing the rubicon (a phrase from that era) India took a gamble with the international nuclear regime that, despite the turbulent reception, has largely paid off. Even if India today is not quite at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)-sanctioned top table of the original five nuclear weapons states (NWS), it is not in the company either of the other two self-declared nuclear weapons powers, Pakistan and North Korea. Therein lies the rub. 👉No place at the top table Today India occupies a special position as a responsible state with advanced nuclear technology, to quote from the 200...

👉An objective evaluation of his performance as Prime Minister is long overdue👈 After the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) forged a surprise post-poll coalition in Karnataka, it is being suggested that Haradanahalli Doddegowda Deve Gowda, better known these days as the father of Karnataka’s new Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, could help build an anti-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition ahead of the next parliamentary election. These suggestions come 22 years after he was sworn in as the Prime Minister. The assessment of his prime ministership in the contemporary ‘national’ press was not positive. He was seen as an accidental Prime Minister, who slept through public functions. In the ‘national’ imagination, he remained a ‘regional’ leader, that too of a particular caste. Is this because his tenure was short-lived? Just 325 days, from June 1, 1996 to April 21, 1997. But this is unexceptional. He is among the six Prime Ministers who stepped down within a year. 👉Ten months...

👉The Catalan issue is uncharted territory in global politics👈 A new chapter has begun in the Catalan independence movement. On May 17, hardline separatist leader Quim Torra was sworn in as the President of Catalonia. He pledged only to be “faithful to the people of Catalonia” and made no reference to the Spanish king, the constitution or the flag. He later declared the Catalan government’s desire to continue the push for independence. Spanish Prime Minster Mariano Rajoy reacted to Mr. Torra’s election by issuing a warning that the Spanish constitution will be upheld and unlawful activities will not be condoned. In effect, Mr. Rajoy has taken steps he sees fit to ensure that the territorial integrity of his country is maintained. Mr. Torra was elected by the narrowest of margins — 66 votes to 65. The last three times the Catalans have voted — the regional elections in 2015, the referendum in October 2017 and the regional elections in December 2017 — have all resulted in pr...