Best of BS Opinion: Survival of the friendliest, seeds of a bleak future

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday announced that the government will repeal all three controversial farm laws. Besides affecting the agriculture sector, this move could potentially halt the economic reforms agenda of the government.   

Here is the best of Business Standard's opinion pieces for Saturday.

The prime minister’s credibility as a reformer is in tatters now because of the old albatross, the need to win everywhere: In UP and other states, writes TCA Srinivasa-Raghavan

The repeal of the three farm laws leaves the economy worse off than before because of the political implications, writes Devangshu Datta

However, the state of reforms is not the only worrying point at the moment.

It is hard to think of another time, post-Independence, when a Cabinet-ranked official would ask police officers to go to war against civil society. The only exception would be the period of Indira Gandhi’s Emergency rule. It is even harder to imagine another time, including the Emergency, when a four-star general from an army immersed in discipline would welcome the lynching of (presumably mob-identified) “terrorists”. That such statements can be made in all seriousness marks one of the transformations in India under Narendra Modi, writes T N Ninan

QUOTE 

 

“I urge all agitating farmers to go back to their families and villages and let's start a new beginning.”

 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi