Opinion & Edits

Inside Track: Learnt from a Master

Coomi Kapoor writes: Shah traces the story of Modi’s success as a poll strategist not to the Gujarat chief ministerial or 2014 campaigns, but way back to 1987, when Modi was given charge of the BJP campaign in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation polls.

Time for a re-set 

P Chidambaram wirtes: We cannot depart from the path of an open, liberal and market-based economy. That would be suicidal. Yet, we must take stock and, considering the global and domestic developments, re-set our economic policies. That requires the courage, clarity and speed of 1991

What Arivu’s fight and faith taught me

Everybody desecrates the past. Everybody endangers the future

Who is to blame? And is being divided over everything the only way?

It is unclear why RBI has hiked interest rates now

Rajeswari Sengupta writes: RBI’s surprise move raises questions over its objective. Its mandate is to target inflation, not shore up rupee

J&K poll constituencies are being redrawn to favour BJP

M Y Tarigami writes: In the first place, the exercise was carried out under the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019 and not in accordance with the Delimitation Act, 2002, which called for the 2001 census to be used as the basis for remapping poll constituencies.

How to tackle food inflation – and how not to

Ashok Gulati and Ritika Juneja write: Fear mongering over wheat production must not push the government towards an export ban, especially on cereals the prices of which are at an all-time high

This is how poverty in rural India came down

Amarjeet Sinha writes: There has been a pro-poor thrust in government programmes that involved building trust through community mobilisation

Sycophants are dangerous

Tavleen Singh writes: Sycophants have a place in autocracies where for a while they thrive by singing praises to the Dear Leader, but even there, they end up weakening him eventually instead of helping him become a better autocrat.

Why can’t politicians have fun? Seriously

Priyanka Chaturvedi writes: Politicians are censured and reprimanded for stepping out of some imaginary Lakshman Rekha that draws the line on how they can dress, talk and eat in public.

Citizen vs State vs Liberty

P Chidambaram writes: There is a deliberate and determined attempt to strike at the very foundations of the Indian State. There is a stealthy attempt to deprive the people of their liberty and inalienable rights by chipping at the margins

Who is afraid of Faiz Ahmad Faiz?

Naseeruddin Shah writes: The removal of Faiz’s verses from school textbooks indicates the chilling fact that protest of any kind is no longer permissible.

Inside track: Prashant Kishor’s culture shock

Coomi Kapoor writes: Despite warnings that the Congress is a quagmire, Kishor was willing to take a leap of faith because Priyanka Gandhi Vadra backed to the hilt his plan for revamping the party. But he discovered that the popular perception that the Gandhi family works as a single unit was incorrect.

If a robot can make every plate of food perfect in taste, what will be left for human beings to argue about?

Considering that human beings can rarely agree on what tastes good and what doesn’t — one man’s delicious Lakhavi biryani is another’s bland mess — what objective standards are there for a robot to perform this task?

J&K delimitation report raises more questions than it answers. Next step, polls

J&K has not had elected representatives since 2018. Governed by unaccountable bureaucrats, police and security forces, the real J&K is a far cry from the picture postcards of tourists at Dal Lake.

May 7, 1982, Forty Years Ago: UN Peace Proposal

Britain and Argentina have accepted a six-point proposal United Nations Peace proposal as a framework for renewed negotiations to end the battle for the Falkland Islands.

Don’t fall into the communal trap

Yashwant Sinha writes: The current economic situation is ripe for violence. But people should resist provocation, and administration must exercise a calming influence.

India’s dharmic democracy has ancient roots

Jayant Sinha writes: Concepts of ahimsa and dharma inspire the country to be a beacon of pluralism and democracy.

Bright prospects for India-France ties

Manjeet Kripalani and John Seaman write: PM Modi’s visit has cemented the relationship, highlighted new areas for cooperation.

Express View | Excess Bagga-ge: Everyone cuts a sorry figure in the arrest drama of Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga

Prickly AAP, zealous Punjab Police, Delhi and Haryana Police as their master’s voice

How to correctly count the Covid dead

Udaya S Mishra writes: There is a need to separate deaths due to Covid and those associated with it

Delimitation Commission fails people of J&K, hurts democracy

Haseeb Drabu writes: Delimitation Commission skews balance against central Kashmir, in favour of Jammu plains. It will hurt people of Kashmir, and Jammu

India must seize the trade opportunity opening now

Sachchidanand Shukla writes: The uncertain global economic environment calls for proactive policy actions to boost exports

Let’s make GST a good and simple tax

M Govinda Rao writes: Existing rate structure needs to be rationalised. There should be only two rates

May 6, 1982, Forty Years Ago: Pressure On UK

Amid international pressure to end the fighting for the Falkland Islands, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had a meeting with her war cabinet to discuss the loss of the destroyer H M S Sheffield knocked down by Argentine forces with at least 30 killed.

A passionate & lonely poet

Shiv Batalvi’s voice was one of self-effacement but it also mirrored his grief and yearnings

Express View: Data on deaths during pandemic underlines country’s healthcare system needs urgent upscaling

The proportion of people dying for want of medical attention increased from 34.5 per cent of all recorded deaths in 2019 to 45 per cent in 2020 — the largest single-year jump.

Express View | Elon Musk: Not such a free speech absolutist

Elon Musk suggests that Twitter may not stay free-for-all. The bottom line, it seems, trumps ‘free speech absolutism’