This special edition of Cut The Clutter, straight from the Siliguri corridor, details the strategic importance of the narrow strip of land in West Bengal, and how it’s a vital link connecting the Northeast to the rest of India.
We now live in a world order that will keep shifting. India must use this window. This also means we remain disciplined enough not to be knee-jerked into reacting to what Pakistan sees as its moment in the sun.
A writer can decide what is right or wrong in their own narrative, but somehow people lose that same freedom when they speak for something real, like saving the lives of thousands of goats that would otherwise be killed. The writer can passionately argue over where Haleem should be served or how its pairing with Dosa is culturally inappropriate. But the moment a group voices concern and asks to avoid Haleem altogether, not out of bias but to prevent mass slaughter, it suddenly becomes communal.
This piece is well…just intellectually lazy. Dismissing the boycott as ‘bigotry’ without actually engaging with the argument behind it is weak opinion writing. Strong commentary should dismantle the opposing view, not just label it and move on.
The food-as-unity trope is also a tired cliché in Indian secular writing. People can share a meal and still harbour deep prejudices — culinary overlap doesn’t resolve communal tensions, and invoking it as though it does feels like a shortcut. So-called “binding over food” is trivial and glorifying it as some larger civilisational argument is indeed a stretch.
A writer can decide what is right or wrong in their own narrative, but somehow people lose that same freedom when they speak for something real, like saving the lives of thousands of goats that would otherwise be killed. The writer can passionately argue over where Haleem should be served or how its pairing with Dosa is culturally inappropriate. But the moment a group voices concern and asks to avoid Haleem altogether, not out of bias but to prevent mass slaughter, it suddenly becomes communal.
This piece is well…just intellectually lazy. Dismissing the boycott as ‘bigotry’ without actually engaging with the argument behind it is weak opinion writing. Strong commentary should dismantle the opposing view, not just label it and move on.
The food-as-unity trope is also a tired cliché in Indian secular writing. People can share a meal and still harbour deep prejudices — culinary overlap doesn’t resolve communal tensions, and invoking it as though it does feels like a shortcut. So-called “binding over food” is trivial and glorifying it as some larger civilisational argument is indeed a stretch.