Double Jeopardy; Tribal Appeasement; Vaulting Ambition

Opinion Watch          

Double Jeopardy

The Economic Times in its Editorial has said ‘Jugaad (short cuts)’ will not work as the twin forces of Monsoon and the western disturbances unleash fury of the nature in the northern states. The daily said that while Delhi is now ‘Jheelon ka shahar (city of pond)’, nearly 700 roads in Himachal Pradesh and 100 in Uttarakhand are blocked due to mudslides.

The business daily quoted a report of the Centre for Science and Environment to claim that there had been some or other natural calamities during 242 of the 273 days during January-September 2022. It called upon the government to give up the “Ostrich Mentality” and plan for extreme weather events.

Memories of the 2013 Uttarakhand horror have been refreshed, as hotels and vehicles are swept away by the furious march of rivers whose banks were being encroached to build hotels in the hills. Indeed, no lessons had been learnt as infrastructure works have been carried out in a manner as if mountains and trees are enemies of the people.

Tribal Appeasement

The Telegraph has ripped apart the moral halo of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on its loud politicking over the Uniform Civil Code (UCC). The daily opined that the claims of the uniformity have been killed by party leaders exuberant loud-thinking that tribal in the Northeast would be exempted from the ambit of the uniform codes.

The Kolkata-based daily accused the ruling BJP of indulging in tribal appeasement, while politically exploiting the plank of Muslim appeasement. It stressed that the BJP abandoned the idea of uniform codes after voices of protests were aired in Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland.

The UCC dealing with marriage, divorce, adoption, inheritance, etc., aims to remove discriminatory practices, including gender, and thus it was too timid on the part of the parliamentary panel chairman Sushil Kumar Modi to have thrown the towel at the first sign of red eyes. The objectives of the codes to remove discriminations must be enforced for tribal also through the autonomous hills council, as practices such as underage marriage of girls cannot be condoned for any reason.

Vaulting Ambition

The Asian Age in its Editorial has taken a satirical swipe on the ‘vaulting ambition’ of the BJP in south of Vindhyanchal, southern parts of the country. The daily opined that while the BJP has learnt to beat regional parties in the Hindi heartland, the saffron outfit is struggling in southern states.

The New Delhi-based daily argued that the southern states are least receptive to the Narendra Modi-led government’s welfare appeal as they already have long experience of stable politics, populism, better law and order, etc. Under the charge of Modi, the BJP had unleashed its horses to run in all directions in line with mythical practice of ‘Ashwamedh Yagna’. But the horses refuse to cross the Vindhyanchal, and those in Karnataka are fighting themselves.  

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