Sidda-Shiva Congress; Searing Seasons; Thai Triumph
Opinion Watch
Sidda-Shiva Congress
The Congress stuck to the pre-poll plot in Karnataka to back its political mainstay Siddaramaiah for the post of the chief minister, and The Pioneer and other dailies have called the decision a fine balance. The dailies recalled a pre-poll survey which had shown Siddaramaiah as most popular face of the party, while the state unit chief DK Shivakumar has been beset with the corruption charges.
The Pioneer cautioned the Congress to be careful with its populism, noting that the party’s five guarantees in Karnataka will come at an annual cost of Rs 62,000 crores, which would take the fiscal deficit beyond five per cent against 2.6 per cent currently. The Noida-based daily called for a fine balance between politics and economics.
It’s easy to make populist announcements to win elections, and the Congress is certainly not overly worried about the fine principles of economics. Outgoing Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had presented a Rs 3 lakh crore Budget in March, and the Congress now wants to spend one-fifth amount on freebies. This must worry all.
Searing Seasons
The benign La Nina has taken a backseat and fearsome El Nino is here, while The Asian Age in the backdrop of the warning of the United Nations said that the next five years would be hottest, as the global average temperature will top with 1.5 degree centigrade above the pre-industrial base. The daily in reference to warnings of scientists said that 2024 could even be worse in terms of extreme weather events.
The daily has rued that more people in India would die of the extreme heat. It counselled that the climate mitigation efforts be accelerated.
The world and particularly the developed countries are to be blamed for abandoning commitments on climate change, as $100 billion financing for mitigation efforts remain on paper. But the Global South, including South Asia, is bearing the brunt of the climate change, and deforestation coupled with excessive exploitation of fossil fuel are taking the humanity to disaster.
Thai Triumph
The cocktail of monarchy and military has undermined the democratic rights of the people of Thailand for years, but The Telegraph has said in its Editorial that the electoral verdict which has given popular support to Move Forward Party (MFP) is a harbinger for change. Pita Limjaroenrat, leader of the MFP, along with Thaksin Shinawatra of Pheu Thai Party, said the Kolkata-based daily, would be in a position to lead an eight-party alliance to form the government.
The daily said that the verdict may help the people to finally gain freedom from the military proxy ruler of the country. Yet, it stated that the Upper House of parliament is full of the nominees of the military.
Freedom from military rulers is tough to gain, and Thailand has seen several of popular mandates negated by the alliance of military and monarchy. The new government in Thailand should foremost break the political teeth of monarchy and military.
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