Brother Bhutan; Riot Returns; Dampening Delusions
Opinion Watch
Brother Bhutan
The Economic Times has counselled the government in its Editorial that India should provide structure to its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy during the three-day visit of Bhutan’s king Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk to New Delhi. The business daily mentioned Bhutan Prime Minister Lotay Tshering’s interview to the Belgian newspaper, La Libre, over the border talks with China, which surprised many.
The daily suggested that India’s template for Bangladesh and Sri Lanka should be the basis for engagement with the neighbours. Besides hydropower, the daily stated that climate change and trade should be given due centrality in the bilateral ties.
China has built deep assets in India’s neighbourhood on the basis of its deep pocket. Sri Lanka woke up from China nightmare only after it officially defaulted on foreign debt serving obligations. India, as External Affairs Minister said, should bring ‘lifting tide of economic prosperity’ to the centre stage of the ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy.
Riot Returns
The Asian Age has said in its Editorial that the incidents of communal violence in Bihar and West Bengal are blot and the respective state governments must crack their whips. The daily rapped West Bengal and Bihar chief ministers Mamata Banerjee and Nitish Kumar respectively for the spate of riots in Howrah, Sasaram and Biharsharif, stating that they nurse prime ministerial ambitions but utterly lack the administrative skills.
The daily also faulted the policy to continue with sensitive areas mapping for religious processions in areas dominated by people of other religion, saying that it reeks of the British-era communal divide. The newspaper sought action in equal measures against the arsonists and the police personnel who failed in their duty to enforce rule of law.
The state of better law and order is the precondition for economic progress. West Bengal and Bihar remain the worst states on the economic parameters, because the ruling political elites in the two states have kept their law enforcement agencies inefficient and even incompetent to the tasks on hand. Even criminals have better arms than the policepersons there, writ of workers of political parties run more than the police on the street.
Dampening Delusions
The Indian Express has asked the Akal Takht Jathedar to guard from the delusional disorder of the fugitive Amritpal Singh, who is slipping away from the reach of the Punjab Police quite effortlessly. The Noida-based daily has cautioned the Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh against Amritpal Singh’s “hectoring for Sarbat Khalsa” pm Baisakhi.
The daily has said that the fugitive Khalistani is suffering from delusion, referring to his drawing parallel with the 10th Sikh master, Guru Govind Singh. The daily, however, noted that the religious clergy of the Sikhs no more has the appeal of the past.
The Punjab Police should not have taken so many days to call the bluff of the thug who came from Dubai under mysterious circumstances to play fire with religion. He should have by now been nabbed and booked under the existing IPC.
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