Monsoon Misery; Blood Votes; Carpe Diem
Opinion Watch
Monsoon Misery
Experts have long warned that the Climate Change affects rains most, and Monsoon in particular, and The Economic Times in its Editorial said that India this month received 33 per cent less rainfall, and deficit in some states is to the extent of 95 per cent. The daily warned that the lower agri outputs may put pressure on prices, as rice and rice products are already costlier by 5-`15 per cent.
At a time when 47 per cent population depends on farm income and half the farm land is Monsoon dependent, the business daily argued for reimagining Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) – to develop and restore water bodies. The daily also noted that the climate resistant seeds are equally important.
In 2014, in his first speech in the Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that his government would carry on with the MGNREGS as a symbol of abundant failure of the Congress governments. Nine years later, the flagship rural scheme is still on the discussion table for utilization for tangible outcomes.
Blood Votes
The Asian Age has come down heavily on the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government in West Bengal for allowing violence to mar the Panchayat elections. It stated that six people have lost their lives so far in West Bengal.
The daily also opined that the refusal of the Supreme Court to intercede in the Calcutta High Court ordering deployment of the Central forces for Panchayat elections puts Banerjee in a spot. The daily giving accounts of violence in the past, during Ram Navami celebrations and other occasions, also said that this is not the first time the West Bengal Police have cut a sorry figure.
The general opinion on the street in West Bengal is that the state police have mortgaged law and order to the Trinamool Congress cadres. That West Bengal remains a killing field in elections is loud indictment of Banerjee that she is just another face of the violent Leftists of the past in the state.
Carpe Diem
After the decision of the Reserve Bank of India to withdraw the Rs 2000 notes, the people lavishly pampered them by spending the pink note in restaurants and petrol pumps. The people in Argentina, said The Indian Express in its Editorial, are spending their last wads of cash in restaurants as inflation is fast eroding the value of currency.
The Noida-based daily recalled the phrase ‘Carpe Diem’ of Roman poet Horace to make a sense in the behaviour of the people – it’s far better to trust in the here and now, then the unknown future. The daily on a serious note stated that poverty rose by over 39 per cent in the second half of 2022.
Instance are galore of what happens if the value of cash erodes, and what are the future shocks in store for the people. Even with cash in hand, the people found no use of them when the national lockdown was imposed.
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