Daily Hindu Editorials

💥If we base our view of the world on quantitative trends over history rather than on news, we will get a different picture of the state of humanity, says the cognitive psychologist💥 Professor Steven Pinker is a cognitive psychologist at Harvard University. His popular science books have dwelt on how we learn language and how our mind makes sense of the world. In his latest book, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress, he argues that the ideals of the European Enlightenment have played a key role in making the 20th century the most prosperous one in human history. In this interview conducted over the telephone, he says that pessimism from threats including terrorism and right-wing populism is largely unwarranted. Excerpts: 👉You’ve been a professional observer and analyst of language, psychology and cognitive science, and your early popular science works have focussed on these. However, since The Better Angels of Our Nature, you seem increas...

💥It’s one of the few among large democracies still using the death penalty and is brazenly attacking minorities, says the Secretary General of Amnesty International Salil Shetty, the Bengaluru-born human rights activist who directed the United Nations Millennium Campaign to help push its development goals, has served as the Secretary General of Amnesty International, the London-headquartered NGO, since 2010. With the Arab Spring, the revelations by WikiLeaks, the European refugee crisis, and the spread of nationalist, populist forces globally, his tenure has seen tumultuous times. Faced with a rapidly changing world, including the rise of social media, Mr. Shetty has sought to bring about changes to Amnesty International. This includes efforts to “decolonise” it and make it a more global network of activists. The focus on local issues has brought Amnesty into regular confrontations with governments, including in India where in 2016 it faced accusations of sedition over a Kas...

💥 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...

💥RJD leader says 2019 and 2020 election will be fought between his party and the BJP in Bihar as the Chief Minister’s party will be reduced to a non-entity With the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) retaining the Jehanabad Assembly seat and the Araria Lok Sabha seat in the recent byelections in the first electoral contest after party supremo Lalu Prasad was sent to prison in the fodder scam cases, 28-year-old Tejashwi Yadav has underscored his position as party leader. At his official residence at 5 Deshratna Marg in Patna, Mr. Yadav speaks of the byelection results and the consequent incidents of communal violence in the State. 👉How do you see the Araria and Jehanabad results? Both Araria and Jehanabad were not the traditional seats of the RJD and we’ve been sometimes winning, sometimes losing them in the previous polls. But this time, our candidates not only retained both the seats with comfortable margins but even our vote share increased substantially. And all this happen...

💥The general secretary of the CPI(M) on why the party lost in Tripura and the road map for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections Earlier this month, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) lost the Assembly elections in Tripura, where it held power continuously for 25 years, to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The result, which leaves the party ruling only in Kerala now, was “unexpected”, says Sitaram Yechury, the general secretary of the CPI(M). Mr. Yechury examines the reasons for the surprise defeat; speaks of the struggles that led to the successful farmers’ rally in Maharashtra that was organised by the All India Kisan Sabha, the party’s peasant wing; and talks about the disagreements within the CPI(M) on what its political line should be for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Excerpts: 👉Did the CPI(M) not foresee a shift in its vote base in Tripura? As far as we are concerned, it was an unexpected result. Tripura became the number one literate State [in 2013, ahead of Kerala]. ...

💭Rauff Hakeem Xenophobic forces have mobilised themselves and seem to have identified a new enemy in post-war Sri Lanka, says the cabinet minister Rauff Hakeem is the Minister of City Planning and Water Supply in Sri Lanka’s national unity government and the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, a prominent Muslim political party. A lawyer and a senior parliamentarian, he represents Kandy district, which recently witnessed violent attacks by Sinhalese mobs that claimed at least two lives and destroyed many mosques, Muslim-owned shops and homes. The episode has left the island’s Muslim minority, who make up about 10% of the population, in shock. Speaking to The Hindu at Dharussalam, his party headquarters in Colombo, Mr. Hakeem situated the violence within the larger political scape of Sri Lanka after the civil war ended in 2009, with the armed forces crushing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, as well as in the global context of growing Islamophobia. Excerpts: 👉How do yo...

The former Chief Election Commissioner on the problem with electoral bonds, the unnecessary controversy over EVMs, and electoral reforms needed Various electoral reforms are currently being debated, from improving transparency in party funding to holding simultaneous elections. In a wide-ranging conversation, former Chief Election Commissioner (2010 to 2012) S.Y. Quraishi addresses these issues. He also talks about, among other things, the challenge posed by electoral bonds, the concerns over the tampering of electronic voting machines (EVMs), and the problems with the first-past-the-post system. Excerpts: Electoral bonds, as announced by the Union Finance Minister, hold the promise of making political funding transparent, which has been a long-standing demand of the Election Commission (EC). Do you think electoral bonds are the solution? When the Finance Minister began his Budget speech, he said without transparency in political funding, free and fair elections are not possible...

The results of the Rajasthan byelections signal growing restlessness among the voters, says the former Karnataka Chief Minister Former Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna quit the Congress last year and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He said then that he was saddened that “all they want is managers and not grassroots leaders with experience.” In this interview, the 85-year-old leader, who was also External Affairs Minister (2009-2012) and Governor of Maharashtra (2004-2008), speaks of the challenges facing the BJP before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, argues that identity politics won’t work in Karnataka, and explains why Bengaluru is failing to expand. Excerpts: 🔹The BJP suffered a setback in the Rajasthan byelections. How do you read those results? These are alarm bells for the BJP. The bypoll results in Rajasthan, I think, are the initial signs of growing restlessness among the voters. I think the BJP will have to do some introspection. It has ...

A second referendum is not a good idea, says the campaigner who took the British government to the Supreme Court over Brexit Gina Miller, née Gina Singh, was thrust into the spotlight in 2016 after a London court appointed her as the lead claimant in a case that attempted to ensure that the British government sought parliamentary approval before triggering Article 50, Britain’s formal notification of withdrawal from the European Union (EU). Born in Guyana, with part Indian ancestry, and the daughter of that country’s former attorney general, Ms. Miller pursued a number of campaigns before the one on Brexit, including one to increase greater transparency in the British financial services industry. The backlash she faced from sections of the right in Britain after the court accepted her arguments on the need for parliamentary approval have not prevented her from continuing to be a vocal progressive voice on Brexit-related issues, sexual harassment, and the £1 billi...