Best of BS Opinion: Fragile democracy, IBC set to resume, and more

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

As the Delhi Police cyber cell prepares to arrest two more youngsters for allegedly colluding with foreign forces to “tarnish India’s image” Indian leaders would do well to heed US President Joe Biden’s warning that democracy is fragile and must always be defended. Given that free speech is the cornerstone of healthy democracy, Biden’s warning assumes added importance. The evidence presented in the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump has highlighted how easily democracy can be suborned to authoritarianism and demagoguery, says the second edit here. A further reminder of the fragility of democracy lies in military coup in Myanmar. But, as political scientist Min Zin has argued, democracy in that country could survive if the deposed government and its backers create a concrete plan to foil the military’s divide-and-conquer strategy. Read it here

Here are the other views on the opinion page today
 

The resumption of the IBC process will be a step in the right direction, but the overall climate for the resolution of stressed assets in the system is likely to suffer with the Budget announcement that an asset reconstruction company and an asset management company would be set up to manage and dispose of stressed assets. Privileging this structure over the IBC process amounts to kicking the stressed assets can down the road, the top edit argues. Read it here
 

The 15th Finance Commission has accomplished a remarkable job given the clumsy and normatively biased terms of reference with which it had to work, writes Rathin Roy in this assessment of the report. Read it here

QUOTE OF THE DAY

‘Nikita, Shantanu, Disha created the toolkit document, the aim was to tarnish India’s image’

Delhi Police