Attack Policy; Prachanda Power; Meta Mauling

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Opinion Watch          

Attack Policy

The Asian Age has advised the Congress in its Editorial to counsel party leader Rahul Gandhi to shun personal attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The daily also reasoned that the political discourse should focus on policies and certainly not personalities.

Stating that Modi is the uncrowned king of the BJP, the daily sought to remind the Congress that the prime minister makes most of the gains out of the personal attacks aimed at him. Faulting the Congress for being obsessed with Modi as a person, the daily opined that the onus on policy discourse to sift nine years of governance lies solely with the Opposition.

The daily may be justified for its reasons if politics of the day was played out from the text book. But that is not the case. The Congress lobbed too many personal attacks on Modi, and yet won Karnataka Assembly polls hands down. Indian politics since the days of late Indira Gandhi, who was abused as ‘goongi gudiya (dumb doll)’ has seen personal attacks as the main mantra, and even Rahul Gandhi has been called ‘Pappu’.

Prachanda Power

Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, the prime minister of Nepal, is a politician of several seasons, and The Indian Express in its Editorial has hailed him for his deftness in dealing with India while on four-day official tour. Even while his government is supported by China sympathizer K P Sharma ‘Oli’, the daily opined that Prachanda has steered himself closer to New Delhi.

The Noida-based daily stated that India has agreed to buy 10000 MW of electricity from Nepal, as hydropower remains the cornerstone of the bilateral relations. Also, the daily underlined that Prachanda’s India visit was preceded by Presidential assent to a bill which will allow citizenship to women who marry Nepali men, which may act as red rag for China, as Beijing sees this as a way of allowing Tibetans to settle in the Himalayan nation.

Indian diplomacy may be applauded for blunting Chinese to gain strategic depth in Nepal even while envoys from Beijing remain engaged with the Nepali leaders, besides holding significant influence in the media published from Kathmandu. Nepal and Bangladesh must know from examples of Sri Lanka and Pakistan that the cost of becoming playground for big powers is only ruined grassland.     

Meta Mauling

The Telegraph has hit out at Meta, Facebook, in its Editorial for turning down demands for probe in excessive hate contents in its Indian operations. The daily in its Editorial put the onus on the founder Marc Zuckerberg for blocking the demands for probe.

The Kolkata-based daily lamented that the platform meant for promoting networking has become a fertile ground for promotion of hate. The daily also claimed that Meta is a willing partner of the ruling dispensation in dropping guards against hate.

Meta is being hauled in Europe for lapses, and only parliament scrutiny can stop from tech-platform from exercising undue influence in shaping opinions.   

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