Kartavya Path: Modi & his art of rewriting; EC takes on electoral corruption; India now 5th biggest stock market
Opinion Watch
Editorial Note: Only three topics have been touched upon, because matters commented upon by dailies were already covered here previously.
India Gate and its lawns for decades have seen India’s evolution as a democratic nation, sometimes chaotic and occasionally orderly too. The icon of courage Subhash Chandra Bose finally gets his rightful position after decades of willful amnesia by pacifist historians and their political patrons.
The Pioneer in its Editorial calls the statue of Bose installed under a canopy near the India Gate most authentic and realistic, while also commenting that honouring Netaji on Kartavya Path is an act of undoing the wrong.
The daily quoted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s lament that India could have attained greater heights if the nation had walked on Netaji’s path.
The Pioneer also hoped that the Central Vista would become a place where the people and the Indian state would commingle. Indeed, scores of people were beaten by the police on these very lawns when they gave vent to their anguish against crime against the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder in 2013.
The Indian Express has largely focused on Modi’s speech, with emphasis on the “erase and create” theme, while cautioning the opposition parties, who abstained from the occasion, to listen to Modi’s words carefully since he is crafting something which is not just bound by politics and policy.
Significantly, none of the dailies have seized upon the significance of the moment, which was witnessed by the entire diplomatic corps, in the context of Indian great strides in the global order that is sharply fluid.
EC takes on electoral corruption
In election season, unheard of political parties suddenly come alive to give cover to the mainstream political parties, principally as a detour against the unrealistic expenditure ceilings of candidates.
The Times of India has sought to make a sense of the IT raids against registered unrecognized political parties.
The daily has lauded the action, seeing it as part of the clean up operations by the Election Commission.
ToI quoted the EC data to state that unrecognized political parties have grown by 300 per cent in two decades to 2,796, while only one-third of them had contested the 2019 general elections.
The EC indeed had identified 111 such parties in June this year, but larger electoral reforms. To address the monstrous issue of money power still lack attention. Besides, how is that politics is the last refuge of people who don’t have other means of livelihood?
Also, how is it that social thugs and criminals easily swim in the political waters, while the morally upright and educated lot watch from the sidelines?
India now 5th biggest stock market
Indian stock market has taken the fifth position after the US, China, Japan and Hong Kong.
The Economic Times very quickly douses the euphoria, noting that it’s not about wealth creation but destruction in several countries following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The daily has also acknowledged that inflation in India has been checked but growth prospects remain grim. Also, it added that people are channeling their savings into the equity market.
The comments of the ET are substantiated by the explosive expansion of the Dmats in the country. But worrisome is the fact that, as noted by the ET, that Indian corporates have hardly boosted their earning potential.
In fact, the Indian corporate world is reaping the rich dividends of largesse by the late Finance Minister Arun jaitely who lowered corporate tax.