| There has been too much attention on Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin’s absence from the G20 this year. Rajesh Rajagopalan wrote that attendance is not the criteria by which the Indian effort should be judged. The purpose of the party is far more concerning than who attends it. The problem is, there isn’t a real understanding of the limitations involved in such multilateral efforts. Will it bring India closer to the goal of leadership of the Global South? Will India help prevent a new Cold War?
And what does a country do when it is not big enough to have strategic depth, asked former Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane. It has to look over its shoulder to artificially create that depth, within the neighbouring country or kingdom. The Maratha warrior, Chhatrapati Shivaji, was among the first to employ this strategy. What happens when a country has neither the luxury of strategic depth, nor a friendly neighbour? Faced with such a situation, the country must occupy territories beyond its own boundaries.
There is now a new Army ‘recommendation’ that urges soldiers to do social service during their leave. Lt Gen HS Panag (retired) wrote a scathing article criticising it: “On the face of it, the noble intent of the ‘social warrior’ policy cannot be faulted. However, closer scrutiny makes the scheme controversial both in concept and in execution.”
The week bubbled with two political controversies. ‘India, that is Bharat’ was one, and Udhayanidhi Stalin’s attack on Sanatana Dharma, likening it to a disease, was another. We published a range of opinion articles. Seshadri Chari wrote that the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) should understand that at the socio-cultural level, Tamil Nadu is no different from the rest of India. And there is a strong undercurrent of pro-Hindu sentiment in the country. Amana Begum wrote that advocates of unrestricted expression and those supporting Udhayanidhi’s views aren’t the same. The Indian Constitution doesn’t follow the French model of secularism but one of equal respect for all religions. Rameshwar Mishra Pankaj explained that Sanatana Dharma represents universal moral codes and righteousness. And that Gandhi referred to himself as a staunch Sanatani Hindu. Even Buddha occasionally referred to the religion he taught as Arya Dharma, Saddharma, and Sanatan Dharma.
Vir Sanghvi, on the other hand, wrote that we should stop pretending that the use of the word Bharat is a decolonisation project. Stop dragging the British into this, he wrote. The name India has been in existence since Alexander arrived. Dilip Mandal wrote this signals a tectonic shift in Indian politics from ‘Doon Schools and St. Stephen’s to Chhangamal Inter Colleges’. Ayesha Siddiqa weighed in on the India and Bharat question by saying Pakistanis always preferred to call us Bharat because of an existential insecurity. India was just too modern a name that signalled a successful, secular State.
In the rush to give the capital's monuments a makeover during G20, Vandana Menon found out that private contractors engaged by the Delhi government are doing a shoddy job that is actually damaging the heritage structures – painting over calligraphy, building café-like roofs and mounting light fixtures on fragile tomb walls.
Why has Pune been waiting for nearly two decades for an international airport? It is now a sizeable business city with IT and automobile giants. Over the years, as governments changed, so did plans. And that is holding the city’s ambitions back, Manasi Phadke wrote in ThePrint Ground Reports.
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