Wounding Wrestlers; Big Brother; Erdogan’s Turkey
Opinion Watch
Wounding Wrestlers
The Pioneer in its Editorial has opined that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statements in his speech for the inauguration of the new parliament are at variance with the treatment meted out to agitating wrestlers, who have levelled charges of sexual misconduct against the Bharatiya Janata Party MP Brijbhushan Sharan Singh. The daily has also said that the way Singh is being shielded also strikes a discordant note with claims of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of being tough on law-breakers.
The Noida-based daily reminded that Singh was in the past charged with a TADA case — the Terrorist and Disruptive (Prevention) Act — for allegedly sheltering an aide of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. The daily, noting that Bahubalis like Singh seldom face laws, also wondered what stops the Modi government from acting against the MP who has been levelled serious allegations by India’s Olympics medal winners.
The way the government has treated the wrestlers is bizarre, for Union Minister Anurag Thakur had held talks with them initially but the ploy was to tire them out by forming a committee headed by PT Usha. It’s indeed a pity that political considerations outweigh agonies of women Olympians.
Big Brother
The US leadership is aged and the largest economy of the world still lives in the last century by threatening to slap sanctions against countries at whims and fancies, and The Telegraph has hauled Washington over the coal for threatening Bangladesh with sanctions if free and fair election was not held in the Islamic country.
The Kolkata-based daily slammed the statement of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that his country would sanction Bangladeshi officials who are found to be responsible for not holding free and fair election. The daily underlined the hypocrisy of the US, saying that Washington turns blind eyes to the democratic delinquencies in allies such as Thailand and Pakistan where the military elites hold democracy hostage to their guns.
The US must smell the change in the world and stop behaving like an imperial power. Bangladesh with 170 million population was ravaged with killings and rapes by Pakistani army when the US was watching as a spectator and it was only India which rose to the call of the humanity.
Erdogan’s Turkey
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, 69, will now extend his over 20-year-old rule in Turkey, now Turkiye, after winning another election to become the longest serving president of the Islamic country after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The Asian Age has in its Editorial expanded Erdogan’s slogan of ‘One nation, one flag, one motherland, one state” to include ‘one supreme leader”.
The daily said that the conservative Erdogan has won the poll despite the stiff challenges by rightist Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who had promised to throw the Syrian refugees out of the country. It also noted that the ambition of Turkey to become a member of European Union on the claim of being a Nato member will still not be easy.
It may be curious to find out why Erdogan won despite heavy toll of the people in the wake of devastating earthquakes and inflation at record high. Or, the people love his image of a strongman and promise of heralding a century of Turkey.
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