Rampaging Rahul; Outing Opposition; Ungreening India
Opinion Watch
Rampaging Rahul
The Pioneer has faulted former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi for “spiteful” insinuations against Union Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar over the issue of China. Gandhi has been unrelenting in his accusations that “China invaded India and took 2000 sq kms of territory”. The daily also stated that Gandhi has been attacking government over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks that “nobody has entered India, and not a single inch of India has been taken”, arguing that it has compromised the Indian heft in the negotiations. The daily also faulted Gandhi for his utterances on foreign soil.
Consensus that domestic politics is not raked on foreign soil was broken by Modi, as he gave political speeches in several of addresses to the Indian diaspora, castigating Congress. Thus, Gandhi is following in Modi’s footsteps only. Secondly, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party turned border issue and actions on Pakistan into election agenda in 2019, and so Gandhi has every legitimate right to question the ruling dispensation on matters concerning the line of actual control with China. The fact that India-China LAC is now a domestic issue is surest insurance against any misadventure by babus in their negotiations with the Chinese authoritarian regime.
Outing Opposition
After Satyendar Jain, former deputy chief minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia is also now in the judicial custody. He’s not alone, for there are several Opposition leaders who are either in prison or have come out of jails on bails on charges of corruption. The Asian Age in an Editorial has opined on the joint Opposition protestation with Modi in their letter. Congress wasn’t party to the letter. “We hope that you would agree that India is still a democratic country,” the daily quoted the Opposition letter to Modi. The daily, while stating that there cannot be a democracy without Opposition, castigated the government for “misusing the agencies”. The daily also stated that the state leaders, who were party to the Opposition leader to Modi, should also reflect how they have also been guilty of misuse of the agencies.
The misuse of the investigative agencies is surely not the discovery of Modi or the BJP. They may at best be accused of perfecting the art. The rot is deeper. India is a vibrant democracy. But ironically the leading lights of the political systems are mostly undemocratic in their conducts, as they lord over in the fashion of zamindars.
Ungreening India
The Indian Express has claimed that Forest Survey of India is designating campuses of AIIMS, IITs, and government’s bungalows as forest cover. The daily as part of an investigation in association with the international consortium of investigative journalists has revealed the creeping ambiguities in the way forest cover in the country is being mapped. India has officially added 1500 sq kms of forest cover.
The daily stated that 1600 sq kms of forest cover have been flattened in the last 10 years. Revelations have been widely known and seen every day.
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