‘OBC’ Congress; Home Truths; Drum Beating
Opinion Watch
‘OBC’ Congress
The Congress is gung-ho on other backward castes, with the party seeking to cover up for the lost decades in quick times while pressing for quota within quota (women reservation). The Telegraph in its Editorial has delved into the urgency of the grand old party to get into poll shape, noting that the OBC vote base is estimated to be 40 per cent of the population, while the Congress lost its grip as vote share slipped from 24 per cent among dominant OBCs and 27 per cent among non-dominant OBCs in the 1996 Lok Sabha polls to 13 and 15 per cent respectively in the 2019 general elections. The Kolkata-based daily underlined that the BJP during the same time span improved its tally from 22 and 17 per cent respectively in same sub-groups to 30 per cent and 43 per cent.
Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi had indeed been regretful of not pushing for OBC quota in previous avatar of women reservation bill. But he may need to study politics more, for the BJP made inroads into the vote base by not promising reservation.
Home Truths
South is South and North is North in the world order and the two disaggregated blocks have too many divergent interests to join hands together – this is the theme of The Asian Age Editorial on External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s lamentations that the world is still full of double standards. The New Delhi-based Delhi has taken a flight to the Canada-India row, and slammed the moral hectoring of the US on transnational killing by reminding bloody hands of Washington in regions of Latin America, West Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere. Yet, the divergence just after the much-acclaimed G20 Leaders’ Summit is intriguing, suggested the daily.
Years ago Pranab Mukherjee was stunned to receive a call from Hillary Clinton the moment he checked into a hotel in Washington, pressing for FDI in retail, and she was told that the then Finance Minister is on a private visit to the US. Did India clearing purchase of Sukhoi fighter jets bring the US to play the dirty CIA game?
Drum Beating
Under the watch of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP and party’s MPs have perfected the art of amplifying propaganda to stay ahead in perception battle with rivals. Deccan Herald in its Editorial examined the debate of the BJP MPs and also the Opposition in hailing the Chandrayaan-3 Mission and found that they were patting some other backs and certainly not of the scientists of the ISRO. For the BJP MPs, the ISRO’s laurels began tumbling with Modi at the helm, opined the Bengaluru-based daily, and for the Congress, the grand edifice of Indian science was laid by first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
It must also not be forgotten that the BJP MP rained the abuses, ostensibly inspired by Gangs of Wassepur’, during the discussion on Chandraan-3 Mission’s success only.
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