Dangerous Dice; Haunting History; Finnish Flip
Opinion Watch
Dangerous Dice
The Hindu has warned that conviction of former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi could become a dangerous precedent, calling it bizarre on ground that the judicial magistrate justified maximum punishment because of the status of the Opposition leader.
The Congress appeal among others is also against the trial court’s conclusion that Rahul Gandhi’s Kolar statement was against 13 crore people with Modi surname, while law mandates defamation to be against determinate set of people or individuals, said the Chennai-based daily, adding that section 499 of the IPC indeed also mentions collections of people who may also be aggrieved.
The Congress challenge to Rahul Gandhi conviction may itself become a precedent and defining moment. There is habit of politicians and vested interests filing cases all across the country. A jurisprudence touchstone may work as torchlight for the lower courts.
Haunting History
The Asian Age has come down heavily against the rationalization of the history text books by the NCERT, accusing it of depriving the class XII students of the relevant history knowledge of four centuries when the Sultanate and Mughals ruled India. The daily reasoned that India commanded one-fourth of the global GDP when the British set foot in India, and the students may not know of the administrative measures of the period.
The daily, while noting the lament of the Right groups that history textbooks had been disproportionately influenced by the Left thinkers, faulted cutting the syllabus to fit into the intellectual worldview of the ruling political class. It counselled the government while “you can create history, you must accept the past, and certainly don’t wrestle with history”.
Indian education system has for decades been substandard, because the czars who lord over the curriculum are more interested in indoctrination to suit their political interests. This wrestling between the Right and the Left leaves students as the only victims.
Finnish Flip
The Economic Times has said in its Editorial that Vladimir Putin is driving the enlargement of NATO after Finland became the 31st member of the military group. The business daily has attributed violations of the rules-based international order by Russia and China for driving countries into the military groupings.
It noted that while Finland shares 1340 km border with Russia, the country had stayed neutral all along the Cold War. The daily has argued that Putin instead of weakening Nato has rather strengthened it. It noted that the US-led alliance is gaining strength all because of the foolhardy Russian invasion of Ukraine.
But Russia’s grouse that Nato is threatening its security also gains legitimacy, and the facts the US itself is a principal violator of the rules-based international order is well documented with its illegitimate war in Vietnam, Iraq, and also its egg on face intervention in Afghanistan. India must walk own path, and should not even give ears to the advocacy of any semblance of alliance with any superpower.
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