Best of BS Views: Choosing govt's Mahalanobis, protecting private sector

A call to protect the people from arbitrary exercise of the law, an appeal not to squeeze the private sector and some advice on choosing economic advisors to the government. Pallav Nayak sums up the views.

The government has been busy getting parliamentary approval for legislation that arms officials in multiple departments with extra powers to prosecute and arrest. As the government becomes more powerful, ordinary citizens must be reassured that statutory protections will work without having to appeal that the law hears them, writes T N Ninan.

P C Mahalanobis guided Jawaharlal Nehru's economic thinking. Who does Prime Minister Narendra Modi turn to for such advice? Modi needs new ideas which can only come from people with brains that are capable of rational thought, writes TCA Srinivasa Raghavan.

The ability to win elections is now the only morality that matters to political parties in India. Build a local vote bank and political parties will vie for you. Kuldeep Singh Sengar, Sanjay Sinh and Sakshi Maharaj are all accused of crimes, but that never created a bump in their path to political power, writes Shekhar Gupta.

The government is so short of money that it's looking around for soft targets that it can bully for more money. India can solve the problems of inequality and growth if it allows the private sector a sense of security that will permit it to mobilise investment, says Mihir Sharma.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The very definition of trade means that it’s not just you, you’re actually trading something with somebody else. And usually there are other people involved in that market. But yet, the fragile ego of this president, I think blinds him to that fact.” — US Senator Kamala Harris on Donald Trump's trade policies.