Editorial
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| | Flip-flop over FMs' meeting | | The NDA-government owes an explanation to the people why the meeting between India, Pak Foreign Ministers is cancelled | | | The cancellation of the meeting between Indian and Pakistani Foreign Ministers Sushma Swaraj and Shah Mahmood Qureshi in New York next week within a day of its announcement is unfortunate. The initiative for announcing the meeting between the two Foreign Ministers was taken by India and the latter took no time in cancelling it citing recent attacks in Jammu and Kashmir by militant groups and stamps issued by the Pakistani postal services glorifying one of the militants killed two years back. The reasons cited by the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson do not justify the backtracking on a diplomatic initiative at this stage when grounds were being prepared for resumption of stalled dialogue process between India and Pakistan on all issues including Kashmir after the new regime took o... |  | |
| | MARGINALIA | | Congress dying itself in shades of saffron | | | By Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal | |
| | BJP's absolute penchant for Hindutva politics with cows, temples and minority bashing dominating the political scene in the last four year is more than evident. But where exactly does Congress stand? Busy trying to cobble up opposition unity and wooing regional partners is fine but does Rahul Gandhi's Congress have an alternate vision of politics for India? Or is it riddled with a dilemma that tempts the Congress leaders to alternate their professed claims of secularism with the occasional donning of cloak of saffron?
Mahatma Gandhi had famously said that religion cannot be separated from politics. He wasn't talking about domination of any particular religion or adoption of religious rituals as part of politics but about religious values that must inform body politic of the country as w... | | |
| | | Bhagwat's 'new' Bhagwa | | RSS chief's words may appear soft, deep down they mean the same thing but much depends on what the actions are | | | RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's address at the end of a three-day conclave on Wednesday is significant. Whether it constitutes a departure from the past, the answer to that question is both a yes and a no. There were several things he said which sounded different from RSS' past positions including his own. For instance, from his previous remarks of reviewing reservations, he emphatically declared his support for the caste-based reservations, averring that these were meant to address the existing social inequalities. He added that RSS was opposed to caste-based politics, an oft-parroted mantra that the saffron brigade has been using against caste groups mobilizing support on grounds of prevailing culture of oppression. Where does the RSS stand with respect to that oppression, giving the constant... | | |
| | | Raghuram Rajan's suggestions | | Former RBI Governor's advice on preventing a financial crisis in near future must be heeded by the central government | | | The BJP-government appears to have refused to learn any lessons from the previous experiences of having faced financial crisis not on one but many occasions in the post-demonetisation scenario in the last two years. The financial experts have been cautioning the centre on this issue for the past many years particularly the last four years. The former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan's note of caution on the next financial crisis that could be building up needs to be taken in all seriousness, the issue deserves by the central government. In fact, during his tenure as the RBI Governor, Raghuram has been speaking of lowering the Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) of the Public Sector Banks (PSBs), which have been showing an upward trend mainly during the past four years when some of them have been unde... | | |
| | | Corporate mis-governance, scams | | The corporate governance and scandals have started tumbling out of BJP-govt's cupboard before the election year | | | The season of corporate mis-governance, financial scandals and absence of top and board level accountability during the past four and a half years under the BJP-government is likely to appear too small if the new level of irresponsibility in corporate working is taken into consideration. This is particularly so in the case of Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FC), a private company, promoted by some of the government-owned banks, reporting outstanding liabilities of almost Rs One lakh crore in the first week of September. The phenomenon has already been described as an equivalent of America's Lehman Brothers and Co, which reported bankruptcy a few years ago with the top management going underground eating the funds belonging to the people and the financial institutions wit... | | |
| | | Crackdown on private schools | | De-recognition of 2 schools in Srinagar is arbitrary, unjust and unfair to students | | | Jammu and Kashmir government's latest crackdown on private schools, beginning with the de-recognition of two prominent private schools in Srinagar for "exorbitant fee hike and non-compliance of orders" from the Department of School Education is a misplaced and misguided step, even though there may be genuine reasons to conclude mal-practices by these institutions. If for nothing else, suspending recognition of schools mid-session, when the final examinations are just a month or two away amounts to playing with the careers of students. The government directive that the students of these schools be adjusted in nearby government schools, which are already over-crowded and bogged down with problems of poor infrastructure and ill-staffed, for the conduct of the forth-coming examinations, is sh... | | |
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