Protocol Precedents; Judging Justice; Cringy China
Opinion Watch
Protocol Precedents
The Asian Age has turned spotlight on a world of difference in the reception accorded to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Telangana and Tamil Nadu on the same day. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) once more showed his utter disregard to the protocol niceties, for which the daily sharply faulted him. The daily richly praised Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin for exhibiting warm cordiality in receiving the prime minister.
The daily, which is owned by Hyderabad-based Deccan Chronicle, reminded that KCR had quite warm relations with the BJP, as well as the prime minister between 2014 and 2018. All changed after 2018 when the BJP singled out Telangana for its big political push, noted the daily, while underlying that KCR’s boycott of the prime minister now for over one year can neither be condoned nor appreciated.
KCR’s public display of disregard to civility in relations to the Central government is certainly without a parallel. Shrinking space of dialogue between the ruling BJP and the Opposition parties is accounted for democratic deficiencies among the political actors.
Judging Justice
The Telegraph quoting the India Justice Report 2022 has stated that justice for all by 2030 may remain a tall claim due to prevailing capacity constraints. Prisons filled to 130 per cent capacity has 77 per cent under trials, said the Kolkata-based daily, adding that 70 of the litigants come from below the poverty line category.
It also stated that legal aid clinics have shrunken by 44 per cent between 2019 and 2021. Only Delhi and the Union Territory of Chandigarh allocate one per cent of annual expenditure on judicial administration. There exists 22 per cent vacancies of judges, which is 30 per cent in high courts, and also 25 per cent of the police stations are without CCTV cameras.
India has an extraordinary talent in coining slogans, and justice for all is in the league of several such lofty claims. The judicial and police reforms have just been academic exercises in the country. They just don’t fetch votes. But the governments should be pragmatic to know the social and economic costs of being deaf to efficient police and judicial administrations.
Cringy China
China is an opaque country, for it hardly offers scope of scrutiny for outsiders and even own people. The Hindu in its Editorial has said that China froze the visa of two India journalists as a counter measure against New Delhi curtailing visa tenure of Chinese scribes from one year to three months. A Xinhua reporter was expelled by India after he visited a Tibetan settlement without the permission of the government, added the daily.
The Chennai-based daily reminded that the principle of reciprocity should also mean similar freedoms for Indian journalists in China as is the case for Chinese scribes in India.
The Chinese opacity is legendary and in tune with its authoritarian regime. But irony is that world still courts China.
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