Haryana and Delhi sparring over ‘looting’ of oxygen tankers isn’t ugly parochialism. It’s an uglier, pass-the-buck, every-person-for-themselves meltdown. Seeking Central intervention in this is futile as Union ministers love bashing opposition-ruled states. Cooperative federalism is now just an embarrassing jumla. Only lousy leaders squabble when people are gasping for breath.
Stop blame game over Covid hot mess. Take ‘strategic time out’, politics can wait
The political and bureaucratic blame game over who is responsible for this hot mess of Covid second wave must stop. It’s time for cessation of hostilities. Learn from ongoing IPL and take a ‘strategic time out’. This is a public health crisis of unimaginable proportions. Politics can resume later.
India’s prisons are Covid hotspots. Most undertrials can be given bail
India’s overcrowded prisons are becoming Covid hotspots. These prisons are mostly filled with undertrials, not convicts. So, undertrials who are not in for heinous crimes should be given bail. This is a human rights matter and it will also ease the pressure on prison authorities struggling with poor medical services.
How does one reconcile what is happening between say Delhi and Haryana with this wonderful wave of nationalism that has washed over us in recent years. A more extreme manifestation – for people are literally asphyxiating, so state governments are bound to grab / snatch what is available for their own citizens – of the provincial impulse which leads Haryana to reserve 75% of private sector jobs paying upto 50,000 per month for locals. Many years earlier in Maharashtra, it was called sons of the soil. 2. We should not take our nationhood for granted. It cannot be rustled up by boyish anchors in TV studios. Indians must feel for one another. All the more at such testing times.
Monumental failures are taking place. After a period of relative somnolence, the higher judiciary is making its presence felt. At two ends of the subcontinent, in Delhi on oxygen, in Calcutta over the ECI’ failure to enforce Covid appropriate behaviour, honourable high courts are enforcing executive accountability. As it should be in a constitutional set up.