From the Urdu Press: Dhankhar-Alva battle and Revdi culture war to unparliamentary duels and Hamid Ansari row | Political Pulse News,The Indian Express
Roznama Rashtriya Sahara says that Murmu’s candidature even forced TMC to adopt a curious position, which saw Sinha despite having been its erstwhile leader skipping his campaign in Bengal. ‘This is the art of politics and its myriad colours, where nothing is what appears on the surface, and where there could never be any certainties,’ it writes.
As the polling for the Presidential election concluded, the stage was set for the ruling BJP-led NDA’s candidate Droupadi Murmu to become the first tribal President of India. Battle lines were also drawn for the upcoming Vice Presidential poll, with the joint Opposition pitting Congress veteran Margaret Alva against the NDA’s pick Jagdeep Dhankhar. Meanwhile, the Monsoon Session of Parliament got underway on the expected stormy note, with both the government and the Opposition bracing for a bristling, protracted showdown. The Urdu dailies were packed with these reports even as they unpicked their different strands and multiple layers to give their readers perspectives too.
Siasat
In its first leader on July 17, the Hyderabad-based daily Siasat writes that India has witnessed a shift in governments’ priorities over the last few years, with some dispensations now rolling out various relief and welfare measures for the people, who are appreciating the same. It has often been the case that governments have gone out of their ways to ensure ease of doing business for corporates and industrial houses — especially players who provide funds for their parties — giving lands for their industrial units, providing them with power and water at concessional rates, making news laws or rules for them, and even letting them pile more burdens on public, the daily states, adding that some changes have however been observed in the situation in recent years.
“Although the trend of offering sops and concessions to industrialists has intensified, some ruling parties have now also come out to provide some relief in various forms to the public in their states, which include measures such as free electricity and water up to certain levels, pension for widows and elderly women, free bus rides for women, upgrading of facilities and standards in government schools and hospitals, scholarship for foreign education and setting up of skill training centres for youth,” the editorial says, claiming that the BJP has often raised objections to such freebies. “And now Prime Minister Narendra Modi has himself taken exception to these measures, calling it ‘revdi (sweets) culture’ and claiming that it is dangerous for the development of the country,” it states. “The reality is that if people get relief and live contented lives, this would rather stabilise things and ensure faster development. Crony capitalism is affecting development. Corporates have been given loans worth thousands of crores, but instead of paying them back some businessmen are fleeing the country. Instead of Indians’ black money returning to the country, the public money is being transferred overseas. A select band of corporates and industrialists is being handed out public assets ranging from airports to railways, telecommunication to ports.”
Describing the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP as a “leading party dedicated to providing relief to public”, the daily cites the example of Delhi, listing various freebies and welfare measures taken by the party’s government. “Rather than objecting to the politics of welfarism, the need of the hour is to actually promote and boost it,” it claims.
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