A selection of the best news reports, analysis and opinions published by ThePrint this week.
Dear Rahul, soft Hinduism can be a winner, but not with soft nationalism
Rahul Gandhi is fighting BJP’s hard Hindutva with soft Hinduism. But fighting hard nationalism with soft nationalism will be disastrous, writes Shekhar Gupta in his weekly column, ‘National Interest’.
Marriage stopped her from going to IIT, but she still became ISRO’s top engineer
In her first interview since being appointed director of ISRO’s human flight programme, control engineer V.R. Lalithambika says she owes her interest in science to watching rocket launches with her grandfather at home. The ISRO veteran says the safety of the astronauts the agency aims to send to space is her sole focus.
IAS has now become a customer service, pleasing politicians and businessmen
In this opinion piece, K.B.S. Sidhu says the IAS has morphed into the ICS: Indian Customer Service. The job of an IAS officer, at any level, is now to tackle a wide-variety of irate customers. But the tools in their hands are outdated and obsolete, and also their authority to do anything is quite nebulous and often open to post-facto and frequent questioning by multiple agencies with 20/20 hindsight.
Why Modi govt & Army picked this general to protect borders with China & Pakistan
Soldier-diplomat Lt Gen. Yogesh Kumar Joshi assumed charge of a crucial Army corps covering borders with both China and Pakistan over the weekend – a selection that indicates the importance the Modi government attaches to the sensitive region less than a year before general elections, writes Sujan Dutta.
Aadhaar, Babri: CJI Misra has to deliver 10 landmark judgments in 18 working days
CJI Dipak Misra is less than a month away from the end of his controversial tenure, but in that he could well alter India’s future. He has 18 working days (from 3 September onwards) left, in which he has to deliver landmark judgments, including settling the Aadhaar issue, the politically-charged Ram Janmabhoomi/Babri Masjid, among others, reports Ritika Jain.
10 IAS, IFS and other civil servants who made it big in politics
Chhattisgarh IAS officer O.P. Choudhary joins a long list of those who made the switch. He signed up with the BJP at CM Raman Singh’s behest. Ratnadeep Choudhary takes a look at 10 other civil servants who’ve gone down this path and succeeded, starting with one of Choudhary’s new political rivals.
‘If you can’t cook, stop eating’: what husband of India’s airline hero Neerja told her
Aneesh Bhanot, brother of India’s airline hero Neerja, reveals in his book his sister’s plight in marriage that left her starved of both finances and food.