| It’s now official. The truth about the current relationship between the RSS and the BJP, which was being discussed in grapevine terms so far, is now a matter of record, wrote Vivek Deshpande. And BJP president JP Nadda let it out. So, where is this “separation” between the RSS and the BJP headed? We will have to wait until the election results are out. If Modi wins a majority, then the RSS would find the going tougher for itself as the patriarch. But if he fails, then the RSS will have the last laugh. It could then pave the way for its regaining pride of place as the Sangh Parivar patriarch.
Congress is stuck in a ‘sarkari party’ rut, even after being out of power for a decade, wrote Amit Ahuja. It constantly needs the state to produce loyalty among voters and attachment to the party. To maintain its electoral success, Congress, then, needed to be in power. It lacks ground game. The Bharat Jodo Yatra is the first serious effort by the party to rediscover the importance of mass mobilisation. But look at what the BJP does. When in government, the BJP relies on the state to advance its mobilisation agenda; however, mobilisation is not confined to elections—it is continuous. Unlike the Congress, the BJP has remained in mobilisation mode between elections.
The public anger over the Pune Porsche fatal accident is well-placed. But this kind of moral outrage erupts only when urban people-like-us die, wrote Karanjeet Kaur. Indians are dying everywhere in preventable tragedies. In train accidents, sewers, firecracker factories and heat waves. It would serve us well to remember that someday, we can all be victims of the same systemic negligence that allows a juvenile to drive a death machine on our streets. And in the end, the price of our selective empathy is paid for in human lives.
There has been a striking surge in the number of minority education institutions in India since 2009, over 1,000 annually, wrote Dilip Mandal. For example, six DPSs have minority status — three in Karnataka, two in Madhya Pradesh and one in Chhattisgarh. What changed in 2009? Some elite schools could be using their minority status as a way to avoid following the EWS quota mandated by the Right to Education Act.
There’s a lesson from our ancient empires that is very relevant today, wrote Anirudh Kanisetti. Angkor shows us that we need to build and maintain resilient systems, and accurate climate models that are prepared for catastrophe. The Romans and Kushans remind us to take public health seriously, and not to leave everything to the gods. The Harappans suggest that smaller cities might be better adapted to changing climate. The Chola aristocracy is a warning that inequalities will worsen. And the Gupta empire’s collapse hints at what’s coming in future decades: failing harvests, migrations, pandemics, and decreasing trade.
The western coastline of Karnataka with its pristine beaches and balmy sun should be on the Indian tourism map just like Kerala and Goa are, but isn’t, wrote Shubhangi Misra. The problem could be that the people of coastal Karnataka are still not fully convinced that they should share their beaches with the whole wide world.
Haryana tried to fix its chronic son-preference culture and skewed sex ratio by buying brides from other northern and eastern states. That served them well briefly. But now, its dirty secret is out. These ‘mol ki bahuen’ are complaining that they are not being treated as family members and are humiliated. Sagrika Kissu recently documented this growing anger among the bought brides of Haryana. One bride recently stopped former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar during his election campaign and asked for justice. |
