Best of BS Opinion: Fresh Covid worries, India's Afghan crisis, and more

Here are the best of Business Standard's opinion pieces for Thursday

Foreign Minister S Jaishankar’s back-to-back meetings on Afghanistan on the side-lines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation take place this week against the backdrop of a crisis for India created by an inchoate policy towards the country’s north-western neighbour. An ill-judged initial refusal to engage formally with the Taliban, the failure to build a viable politico-military opposition in anticipation of the US departure and a reliance on soft power has, in effect, delivered Afghanistan to Pakistan and its powerful sponsor China, argues our editorial.

It is revealing that key regional players like China, Iran and Russia have all engaged with the Taliban leadership and thereby accorded it political legitimacy. They have obviously calculated that the Taliban are the future rulers of Afghanistan who must now be relied upon to safeguard their interests, notes former foreign secretary Shyam Saran

For at least 30 years, India has desperately needed better-managed PSUs. To achieve this, sarkar must stop acting like the irresponsible among private-sector promoters, on whom the sarkar is piling on new regulations. India requires sarkar-mukt and board-yukt PSUs, writes R. Gopalakrishnan

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“You would appreciate that we must guard ourselves against complacency and laxity, which creep in as positivity declines. Instead, during the periods of low positivity, efforts must be stepped up to prevent any probable future surge”

Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla to states on Covid situation