Some things to Reconsider

  https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/debunking-the-myth-of-job-creation/article69924144.ece “Minimum Government and Maximum Governance” was the English couplet that powered the Modi juggernaut in 2014. Another line from the same sonnet was, “Government has no business to be in business.” Those lines weren’t policy; they were poetry. In Amit Shah’s own vocabulary, they were jumlas . And like most poetry in politics, they have aged into parody. Common sense tells us: when schemes multiply, so does discretion . Eligibility thresholds, definitions, continuity tests, pay-out schedules—each becomes a lever in the hands of the bureaucracy. Markets stop being a free actor, ingenuity is replaced by compliance, talent becomes a footnote, and entrepreneurship is reduced to a function of a bureaucrat’s enthusiasm or whim. Even with the best intentions and the clearest rules, someone in an office still decides who qualifies and who doesn’t. That someone is not “the market” —it is the Ba...

  https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/fix-the-flaws-on-rahul-gandhis-stolen-elections-allegation-and-the-election-commission-of-india/article69910219.ece The Hindu’s August 9th editorial nods politely to Rahul Gandhi’s “voter list fraud” allegations, but it tiptoes around the real culprit — the rotting foundation of India’s democratic architecture. This isn’t just about flawed lists; it’s about a ruling party that has weaponised appointments, bent laws, and turned neutral constitutional offices into extensions of its own party office. Let’s start with the Election Commissioners. In a fair system, the man should command the confidence of the whole political spectrum. But this government decided such lofty ideals were for sissies. When the Supreme Court suggested a balanced selection committee, the BJP tossed the idea into the dustbin and wrote a new law to keep total control. Result? A Commission that looks like an old boys’ club of retired babus from the Amit Shah finishin...

  https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/indias-diplomacy-is-measured-not-mute/article69780623.ece Lewis Carroll once quipped, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” It seems Priyam Gandhi-Mody, in her recent op-ed, has taken that advice a bit too literally. With the enthusiasm of a Bhakt moonlighting as a strategist, she argues that India’s silence on global affairs is proof of rising diplomatic maturity. “India speaks when it matters,” she declares. Allow me to disagree — robustly. Let’s begin with the absurd. Amit Shah, in full campaign mode, not so long ago claimed that “Modi ne war rukwa dee” — that the Prime Minister stopped the Russia-Ukraine war. Never mind that the war hasn’t paused for a second. Neither Moscow nor Kyiv remembers this magical intervention. And yet, we are told this is what “measured” diplomacy looks like — restraint wrapped in gravitas. I call it what it is: a strategic muzzle, saffron-tinted and politically convenient. ...