Best of BS Opinion: Singapore's spirit of democracy, Covid-19 crisis & more

Here's a selection of Business Standard opinion pieces for the day

The national consensus in India is fragile. The pandemic cannot do much about it. Nor can choosing our external enemies. Uddalok Bhattacharya sums up 

Why does keeping control of state governments matter? Read T N Ninan’s “Follow the money”  Read here
 

The Modi govt’s strategic policy-making remains a prisoner of historic obsessions and BJP’s electoral politics, says Shekhar Gupta  Read here

Sunanda K Datta-Ray tells you what India could learn from Singapore's spirit of democracy  Read here
 

Covid is getting from bad to worse and worse is still to come, says Rahul Jacob  Read here

TCA Srinivasa-Raghavan’s prescription: Lower taxes on individuals, give tariff protection to MSMEs, and have a single GST rate of 15 per cent.  Read here

QUOTE

Talks are underway to resolve the border issue (with China). Whatever progress has been made, the issue should be resolved. But, I cannot give a guarantee to what extent it will be resolved. I want to assure that no power in the world can touch even one inch of India’s land or can occupy it.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh