Daily Voices - September 11, 2020

Here's today's collections of op-ed pieces from leading English dailies. Thanks for your suggestion to include opinion pieces from a few digital-first publications as well.

HINDUSTAN TIMES

The battle in Indian finance | HT Editorial. While the debate is framed as one between banks and debtors, focus on the bigger picture

The evidence against Donald Trump | HT Editorial. Mr Woodward’s revelations in his new book Rage and the growing number of Covid-19 cases in heartland America could just tip an election that is on a knife’s edge — or the point of a hypodermic syringe

India will have to make hard choices | Manjari Chatterjee Miller. (Manjari Chatterjee Miller is associate professor of International Relations, Frederick S Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University, and a research associate at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, University of Oxford) The United States has long wanted it to act as a counterweight to China. Will Delhi do so?

On India’s stage, the theatre of the absurd | Rajdeep Sardesai (Rajdeep Sardesai is a senior journalist and author). Key actors — political parties, media, viewers, investigative agencies — have failed in their duty

To achieve the objectives of NEP, focus on teachers | Satya Narayan Mohanty (Satya Narayan Mohanty is a former education secretary, Government of India). For the new paradigm of education we are seeking, a complete overhaul is needed. Here are six ways forward

Where Indians and Indians in US diverge | Yashwant Raj. Indians in the US, an estimated 1.8 million Indian-Americans who are eligible to vote, are a completely different story. Many of them, who do not share the enthusiasm of their Indian relatives and friends for the US president

The ordinance raj of the Bharatiya Janata Party | Derek O’Brien (Derek O’Brien is the parliamentary leader of the Trinamool Congress in the Rajya Sabha). By increasingly resorting to ordinances, the Centre has flouted democratic norms and undermined the spirit of parliamentary democracy

The Way We Were: A long-gone author’s timely tips for life on the road | Poonam Saxena. Mohan Rakesh didn’t book tickets in advance and make hotel reservations. He went where the road led, and kept going.

THE TIMES OF INDIA

Smoke signals: After Australia the wildfires blaze havoc in America. Climate change cannot be ignored | TOI Editorial. The climate signals that have already been there are increasingly scaling up into catastrophes, which mean costlier cycles of recovery. We can no longer see these as black swans, or devastating events that are highly improbable. 

Sham, shame: Political parties show no inhibitions turning agencies they control into kangaroo courts | TOI Editorial. BMC’s demolition of alleged illegal alterations in Kangana Ranaut’s building at incredibly short notice indicates political motivation. 

Next driver of growth? Covid pandemic offers unique opportunity for radically reforming India’s healthcare system | Amitabh Kant (The writer is CEO, NITI Aayog). The ongoing pandemic has given us a unique opportunity to transform India’s health system, which needs to be prioritised and escalated through infrastructure, investment and manpower. 

India Can Be The Guru Of All Nations | Narendra Joshi (Speaking Tree). Swami Vivekananda emphasised that each nation has a destiny to fulfil, a message to deliver, a note to play in the march of nations and when it does that, it serves self and the entire world. For India, the theme has been spirituality, oneness of all existence and pursuing of that divine destiny, cherishing at the same time, all diversity....

THE INDIAN EXPRESS

Crisis & safety net | Indian Express Editorial. In uncertain environment, EPFO must align itself with interest rates in broader economy, avoid risks.

Monsoon twist | Indian Express Editorial. Temporal distribution of rain may be a problem. But government resolve of freeing agricultural markets must not waver.

#OscarsSoDiverse | Indian Express Editorial. More diversity in movies would be very welcome. But it need not be a math sum.

On GST compensation, the way out requires states to come forward to work with Centre | Sushil Kumar Modi (The writer is Deputy Chief Minister, Bihar). It is heartening to note that the Centre has not reneged on its promise to find ways to compensate the states for loss of revenue. I think the states should come forward and work with the Centre in the true spirit of cooperative federalism that the Council has come to be known for these past few years.

Pranabda struck a chord with people of Bangladesh with his wisdom and warmth | Farooq Sobhan (The writer is Former Foreign Secretary, Bangladesh and former High Commissioner to India). Pranabda will always be fondly remembered by Bangladesh’s 165 million people as our special jamai who did so much for Bangladesh from the time of our Liberation war until his death.

Society that lives in denial of its trauma and rage will turn on itself, as we have turned on Rhea Chakraborty | Amrita Dutta. Whether or not Rhea is guilty of something more grievous than possession of a few grams of marijuana is for an investigation to find out, but the demonisation of even her most humane responses — why did she say sorry to Sushant’s body? why was she taking him to psychiatrists? — is the sign of a collective moral failure.

Democracy in question: If questions are disallowed in Parliament, more will be asked outside it | Salman Khurshid (The writer is a senior Congress leader). National parliaments do not dispense with questions even at the time of war. If questions are disallowed in Parliament, many more will be asked outside it. If the questions can lead to greater unity of national purpose, the government will do itself and the nation a great injustice by attempting to stifle them.

An army of helpers could be raised to facilitate transactions, complete transformation | Bhagwan Chowdhry (The writer is Professor of Finance and Executive Director of Digital Identity Research Initiative (DIRI) at the Indian School of Business (ISB) and a Research Professor at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). As people begin to build trust interacting with Didis, many would slowly learn how to carry out digital transactions on their own. Also, young women who become Didis will not only earn some money on the side, their experience with helping more and more people successfully will build their confidence and make them stand-out for more attractive formal jobs.

THE HINDU

Something rotten: On Sushant Singh Rajput death and the media mob | The Hindu Editorial. The death of Sushant appears to have laid bare deeply entrenched social prejudices

Drawdown in Iraq: On U.S. troop reduction | The Hindu Editorial. Jihadist groups should not be allowed to fill security vacuum after American troops leave

An agriculture-led revival as flawed claim | R. Ramakumar (R. Ramakumar is NABARD Chair Professor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai). The crisis in agriculture demands that the government announce a strong fiscal stimulus for the rural economy

The great greying of China | Yogesh Gupta (Yogesh Gupta is a former ambassador). There is evidence that the country’s aging population will incrementally impede its economic growth

How much is too much when collecting data for planning? | Varghese K. George. It is useful in delivering development outcomes, but technology has to be deployed carefully

A deepening rift | Mohammed Ayoob (The writer is University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of International Relations, Michigan State University). Estrangement between the BJP and the Shiv Sena has reached a point of no return

THE ECONOMIC TIMES

Fire & Ice: How to Tame Your Dragon | ET Editorial. The meeting between the foreign ministers of India and China made it clear that the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LoAC) and beyond is unlikely to defuse quickly or easily. 

Boosting Indian R&D and patent filing | ET Editorial. The figures reveal that nearly eight out of 10 of all patent applications filed in India over the last 13 years were made by researchers abroad. We clearly need to policy-induce innovation here, and Indian corporates must step up patenting and translational research.

EPF should diversify its asset classes | ET Editorial. The EPFO’s ultra-conservative investment pattern is the reason why it has failed to garner higher returns on workers’ savings. That must change.

Time-of-Day Tariffs For Renewable Power | ET Editorial. A path-breaking shift in the techno-economic paradigm in energy and transportation seems well underway. 

THE STATESMAN

Dangerous milestone | The Statesman Editorial. Indeed, warming of the Earth, to which the world belongs, has already ‘increased the odds of extreme events that are unprecedented in our historical experience’.

Trends in Belarus | The Statesman Editorial. As President Alexander Lukashenko seeks to crush the biggest challenge yet to his 26-year rule, the crackdown has left nearly all main organizers of antigovernment protests in detention or exile.

Food at risk | Jaydev Jana (The writer is a retired IAS officer). Industrial activities have recently concentrated on food. There are thousands of food additives such as flavourings, colourings, preservatives, emulsifiers and sweeteners present in the marketed processed food today. Some of the chemicals used are natural and approved but a great many are man-made and harmful

Fracking, not Covid, may decide American election | Sunil Sharan (The writer is an expert on energy and contributes regularly to publications in India and overseas). Fracking, also known as hydraulic fracturing, a relatively novel way to drill for oil and natural gas from sedimentary shale rock.

Primitive-brained, repulsive people | Rafia Zakaria (Originally published in The Dawn). (The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy). The author claims material that has recently come to light from Richard Nixon's presidency is an illustration of 'endemic racism' and should concern both Indians and Pakistanis equally.

THE WIRE

Period Leave: Gender Blindness Is Never the Same as Gender Equality | Garima Sahai (Garima Sahai is at the University of Cambridge where she wrote her doctoral dissertation on gender and labour in India. She has previously worked on gender and labour in India at the World Bank, and during her MPhil at the University of Oxford.) The argument of gender bias while hiring completely discounts the 'supply-side', where pain and difficulty in handling periods in the absence of clean toilets can be factors that discourage women from entering many jobs.

What Role Can the Global Indian Diaspora Play in the ‘New India’? | Sristy Agrawal, Rajashik Tarafder and Bedabrata Pain (Sristy Agarwal is pursuing her PhD in Quantum Computing at NIST, Boulder. Rajashik Tarafder is a doctoral student in Physics at Caltech. Bedabrata Pain is an ex-NASA scientist, inventor and an award-winning film-maker.) When people in India are being steadily deprived of the right to dissent, it is necessary to use space where similar constraints do not exist. The Global Indian diaspora in “free-er” countries can provide one such space.

THE PRINT

The ultimate goal of Rajnath Singh, Jaishankar’s Russia visit — move Moscow away from Beijing | Sheshadri Chari (The author is a member of the National Executive Committee of the BJP and former editor of Organiser. Views are personal). Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Russia and a stopover in Tehran indicates something is changing.

India in Ladakh is breaking ‘China is invincible’ myth. Pentagon needs to catch up | Tara Kartha (The author is former director, National Security Council Secretariat). It's worth remembering that even as the Soviet Union collapsed, Pentagon’s 1989 report was still extolling its prowess. The talk of China’s ‘rising’ power is a Beijing product.

India-China endgame in Ladakh looks costly unless both Modi and Xi get a face-saver deal | Snehesh Alex Philip. PM Modi and Chinese President Xi need a face-saver arrangement to ensure they are not seen as weak when they initiate total de-escalation and disengagement.

Mukesh Ambani is using his Rs 150 chutzpah to woo Jeff Bezos and his Amazon | Andy Mukherjee. For Mukesh Ambani to get into bed with Facebook, Google, and possibly even Amazon at the same time takes some chutzpah.

Why Modi remains world’s most popular populist while Trump, Putin, Johnson struggle | Mihir Sharma. Modi seems to understand something that Trump, Putin, Johnson and others do not about the relationship between a populist leader and voters.