Jagdeep Dhankar in Rajya Sabha hot seat; India & US-China decoupling; Chinese spy ship dares mapping Indian Ocean
Opinion Watch
Principal job of the Vice President of India is to preside over the sittings of the Rajya Sabha as the Chairman of the House.
Rajya Sabha being the representation of the strength of political parties in states invariably remains a challenge for the ruling parties.
That makes the role of the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha crucial.
The Indian Express, The Times of India and Deccan Herald have carried editorials on the victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party nominee Jagdeep Dhankar in the Vice President election.
The IE noted that Dhankar’s victory margin endorses him as a leader to hold the high office, while the Opposition has again been exposed for its lack of unity.
The daily reminded Dhankar’s frequent run-ins with the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government, while reminding that the office of Vice President has his illustrious predecessors such as philosopher-cum-statesman S Radhakrishnan and even M Venkaiah Naidu gained a semblance of respect from all the political parties.
ToI read Dhankar’s victory as yet another assertion of the electoral and political might of the BJP.
“With no particular political significance to these posts, President and Vice President, regional parties recognize that an opposing vote isn’t worth the trouble of antagonizing the Centre,” noted ToI, while making sense of the likes of the BJD, YSRC voting for the BJP nominee.
“…the combativeness that he showed as the Governor of West Bengal in dealing with Mamata Banerjee’s government would have been considered as desirable in managing the Rajya Sabha. This is unfortunate, because the ability for accommodation, and not confrontation, should be considered the prime quality for the presiding officer of a House,” argued DH.
The common theme in comments of all the newspaper concur that Dhankar should rise to the occasion to retrieve the Rajya Sabha from ruckus.
India’s chances in US-China decoupling
China has suspended military and climate talks with the U.S. in the wake of the visit of the Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan.
ET believes that this could be an opportunity for India, while also on a somber note recalled that China had taken similar action in 2010 also when Barack Obama was the U.S. President, and there had been no economic impact in their relations.
The daily exhorts the government to strive for Indian to strengthen relations with like-minded countries who share common values, while tapping on the goodwill enjoyed by the Indian expatriates.
A low carbon pathway and ensuring stability should form basis of the relationships, suggested the daily.
India has scaled up its climate commitments by 2030. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Europe visits in March and June showed that India is being considered key to the global response to climate change.
Yet, India to seize the benefits of de-coupling of China-U.S. trate relations, and not let the gains go to Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, would require mammoth scaling up of manufacturing bases, skilling of the manpower, onboarding the states for structural reforms. Sadly, all such aims are only in discussions.
Chinese spy ship dares mapping Indian Ocean
Sri Lanka isn’t only financially bankrupt, but the island nation seems to have lost its moral halo as well.
For over four months, India has been the help next door for Sri Lankan people, supplying daily essentials, including foodgrains, medicines, besides extending financial aid to the tune of USD 3.8 billion to stabilize Colombo’s finances, yet the Chinese spy ship, the Yuan Wang 5, dared to map the Indian Ocean for military purposes.
IE has called it ‘Colombo’s self-goal’, arguing “Delhi has a really serious problem with Colombo’s do-we-care attitude”.
The spy ship is indeed a military vessel, and Sri Lanka tried to cover up its operations, calling its voyage as research vessel.
The Chinese military never had access to the Indian Oceans, and the bid is indeed to take advantage of Sri Lankan strategic bankruptcy to map Indian assets in the nearby waters.
The daily also rightly recalled that Sri Lanka had last January in similar attempt sought to test patience of India by awarding renewable projects on three islands in close vicinity to Tamil Nadu.
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