Thorny Crown; Ghoshi Ghost; Pulses’ Pain
Bharat Mandapam; UP CM Yogi Adityanath; Farmer sowing pulses
Opinion Watch
Thorny Crown
The G20 Leaders’ Summit by all accounts is one of the biggest multilateral events hosted by India in several years, and The Telegraph in its Editorial https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/crown-of-thorns-editorial-on-indias-presidency-of-the-g20-and-the-diplomatic-challenges-involved/cid/1964855 has argued that it’s a thorny crown for New Delhi to work out joint communique amid a shadow over its possibility as China-Russia block spars with western nations. The Kolkata-based daily made passing reference to heads of states of China, Argentina, and Russia missing in action – a first for so many. It laid much focus on prospects of joint communique, arguing that India has challenges aplenty to make a fine balance to the demands of the western and the eastern blocks.
The Indian presidency of G20 has already been a grand success and a vote of support has come from former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Notwithstanding the joint communique, India has become the most potent voice of the Global South (developing nations), and the recent G7 Summit in Japan taking up the issue of growing sovereign debts of small nations is a proof of New Delhi shaping the global agenda.
Ghoshi Ghost
It’s most foolhardy to over interpret byelections on the face of circumstantial evidences of the past, but The Hindu in its Editorial https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/one-nation-many-elections-the-hindu-editorial-on-the-seven-by-elections-their-political-signals/article67285725.ece has argued that there is something to probe in the outcome of the polls as the Opposition block won four and the BJP could get only three seats. The Chennai-based daily spotlighted the outcome of the Ghoshi bypoll where Dara Singh of the BJP lost the constituency to the Samajwadi Party despite Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath lending the electoral punch. It also shed light on the Trinamool Congress gaining strength in West Bengal amid persisting alliance paid in the Congress and the Left.
The ghost of Ghoshi may haunt the BJP, for the outcome has gone against the trend that the ruling party gets it easy in bypoll. The BJP’s losing ground in West Bengal is also part of a pattern since 2019.
Pulses’ Pain
Food inflation in July was 11.51 per cent, and The Indian Express in its Editorial https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/price-pressure-8931113/ has suggested that there may not be an immediate relief as prices of pulses are galloping. The Noida-based daily argued that the prices are firming up on account of less acreage of 1.1 million, and also because of the production shortfall in Canada, Australia, Mozambique, and Myanmar.
The daily has rightly called for proactive measures to ease import, but it must be underlined that pulses’ prices were on fire in 2015 and the situations appear to have not improved substantially.
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