Cases Against PC, Letter-Writing Celebs Show Liberties Are at Risk
In a rather scathing article on how various agencies of governance and judiciary have failed and are continuing to do so, when faced with the task of protecting liberties, columnist Aakar Patel has opined that the mantra, "I have full faith in the judiciary", is formulated more out of fear than respect.
In his article for The Times of India, he has touched upon recent incidents like the arrest of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram and sedition charges against eminent personalities who wrote an open letter to the prime minister, to back his arguments.
Fifth Column: Hatred Harms India
In her weekly column for The Indian Express, journalist Tavleen Singh has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak on the attrocities on minorities and the way some people from his camp are encouraging the culture of it.
She has also argued that such remarks from "people on Narendra Modi’s team" bolsters Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's claim that India is being led by a "Hindu fascist".
It's Never a Good Sign if RBI Has to Reassure Consumers Their Money's Safe
In the wake of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) slashing repo rate for the fifth staight time and lowering growth forecast from 6.9 percent to 6.1 percent for the current fiscal year, senior business journalist Paran Balakrishnan has opined that the country's economy is "going to be stuck in the ICU for what could be a long time."
In his article for The Telegraph, Balakrishnan paints an overall picture of the current state of economy and takes cues from the central bank's recent policy meeting to highlight the uphill task it is currently facing.
PMC’s Brazen Crookery Shows Why Industrialists Should Not Own Banks
Addressing yet another crisis on the economic front, the scam in PMC Bank, senior journalist and columnist Swaminathan Aiyar made a case on why private businesses should stay away from owning banks.
Picking on the conflict of interest that has emerged in the initial investigations into the alleged wrongdoings in the bank, Aiyar in his article for The Times of India, argues how such arrangements end up in businessmen "milking depositors’ money for private ends".
How the World Sees India’s Kashmir Policy
Journalist Karan Thapar in his Sunday column for The Hindustan Times has opined that while the international community has largely regarded India's action in Jammu and Kashmir as an 'internal' one, it has been vocal against the "communications lockdown, detentions and allegations of human rights abuse."
He suggests that the question whether PM Modi's visit to the US and UN is a success or if Kashmir has been "internationalised to India’s disadvantage", does not have a clear-cut answer.
The Cities That Shaped Gandhi, the Cities He Shaped
The weekend following Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary, historian Ramachandra Guha, in his column in the Hindustan Times, contests the father of the nation's observation, “India lives in her villages”.
Guha, much of whose work is on Gandhi himself, presents his case by citing how the leader's life and work were prospered in urban areas, not just in India but in cities like London, Durban and Johannesburg, as well.
Plastic Will Choke India in the Long Run. Tackle It
Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not announce a ban on single-use plastic on 2 October, as was widely expected. Writing for The Hindustan Times, Kumkum Dasgupta explains why such a ban is difficult to impose, given the existing regulations and widespread use of single-use plastic in our daily life.
Apart from the infrastucture that India lacks in order to treat plastic waste, Dasgupta writed how millions of jobs and businesses too are intimately linked to the problem.
“What is most troubling is not the plastic challenge in cities because they would still have the first access to information, technology, funds, and expertise to tackle the problem. The real challenge lies in smaller towns and kasbahs, especially those tucked away in pristine areas, and ecotourism and adventure tourism destinations, especially when the government is opening up newer areas for tourism.”
Healthy Ageing Needs Public Health
In the light of the prospect of India's elderly population bulging to 20 percent by 2050, up from the current 8.5 percent, K Srinath Reddy, in an article in the New Indian Express, makes an argument that countries which coupled economic development to greater social equity reaped better benefits in terms of both total and healthy life expectancies in their populations.
Less-Than-Brilliant Science Fiction Offers More Joy That Mainstream Novels
For his Sunday piece for The Telegraph, columnist Mukul Kesavan chose to write about his liking and binge-reading habits of science fiction novels. He pulls out references from the entire range of such novels that he has read to argue that they "offer greater pleasures than most mainstream stand-alone novels paralysed as they are by the stasis of literary seriousness."
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