Lakhimpur again, Dalit girls hanged; SC to review 10 pc EWS quota; EU stings Google
Opinion Watch
Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh shocked the national conscience of the country again. On this occasion, two minor Dalit girls were found hanged on a tree, while the police claimed to have cracked the case in top speed, apprehending six accused.
The Pioneer in its Editorial lauded the police action, while embedding “the good thing about the police response so far has been the cops’ earnestness in apprehending rather than encountering the accused persons”. That was daily’s potshot at the state gaining notoriety for allegedly encountering criminals accused of heinous crimes.
But the key concern of The Pioneer was to ask the politicians to stop scoring brownie points over such incidents, as the daily named the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Amit Malviya for tweeting the names of the Muslim accused while he questioned the silence of the opposition parties.
The daily also mentioned Rahul Gandhi’s lament in a tweet over remission of the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case, while building a case for undiluted focus on law and order situation.
The crux of the matter remains, as revealed by the report of the National Crime Research Bureau in its 2021 Report, that crime against women has only been leaping exponentially despite Parliament enacting the so-called tough laws.
SC to review 10 pc EWS quota
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the Central government’s resolve to bring in 10 per cent reservation for the economically weaker sections from the general category at the Ram Lila Ground ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
A Supreme Court Bench headed by the Chief Justice of India UU Lalit would hear the review of the 103rd Constitution amendment Bill on three counts – any deviation from Constitution’s basic structure, any Constitutional lapse in applying benefits in admissions to private unaided educational institutions, and if exclusion of already reserved categories violating basic structure of Constitution.
The Hindu in its Editorial argued that the Modi government had hastily brought in the law without due diligence. It also questioned the Rs 8 lakh income ceiling for the EWS category.
The Hindu finds merits in litigants’ claims that 10 per cent EWS quota actually means reservation for the forward castes.
The Chennai-headquartered daily, which is widely known to hold ideas which have lived their times and are now redundant, offers a half-cooked Editorial on reservation system in the country, which essentially is a fraud, for the benefits are pocketed by those who have already benefited, with the intent of the Constitution evidently negated in the face of the timidity of the political class to review the reservation policy in the country.
EU stings Google
The technology companies by nature create businesses of monopoly, testing the limits of the laws of the sovereign countries, while in the course becoming too big to be touched even by big nations.
The search engine giant Google is facing the music by the European Union, stated The Economic Times in its Editorial, with courts upholding antitrust rulings in two of three cases that imposed a total of 8.25 billion pounds in fines.
The daily commented that the big tech companies continue to escape similar scrutiny in the US, which essentially is the home turf for many such tech giants.
The ET calls for a debate on innovation versus dominance, noting that technology allows for concentration of market power. The daily advocates that dispersing innovation across markets and economies would be one way to counter the malaise.
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