Best of BS Opinion: Saudi strategy, Trump tactics, and Ray's robots

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

We’ve all seen the scene: a smug cat, unbothered, brushing past a vase that crashes dramatically to the floor. The cat looks up at you, wide-eyed, as if the wind did it. Not them. Never them. It’s a moment so common it’s become meme material. But once you spot this sly disavowal in the feline kingdom, you start seeing it everywhere. Today’s stories are wildly varied but similar. The vase? Oh, it fell on its own. Let’s dive in. 

Take Saudi Arabia. As Javier Blas writes, Riyadh has made a stunning shift — from oil-price hawk to price-suppressor. Officially, it’s about disciplining unruly Opec+ partners. But scratch that surface and you’ll find five other vases wobbling: hedging against Russia, anticipating Iran’s comeback, subtly nudging the US shale. Each explanation denies the wreckage left behind. The oil cat’s not sorry. It’s strategic. 

 

Speaking of Trump, Mihir S Sharma reminds us how the original vase-knocking populism has turned blame-shifting into a political superpower. Undermining institutions? That’s media bias. Wrecking party structures? That’s voter love. The more chaotic his presidency gets, the tighter his grip becomes. Like all master cats, he causes the mess but walks away unscathed, purring approval into the echo chambers of fringe loyalists. 

But not every cat knocks over vases just to win. Some want to rebuild the room. Pope Francis, as Antara Haldar writes, is a rare figure challenging capitalism not with equations, but with empathy. His economics is moral, spiritual and a call for dignity over dividends. In a world of technocrats, Francis meows differently, and the echo is divine. 

Markets know this slyness well. As Devangshu Datta notes, traders navigate events that may happen (tariff wars) and those that crash out of nowhere (border conflicts). Each brings tremors without clear authorship. Is it policy? Is it chance? Is it both? When India’s growth or defence sector jolts upward, who claims credit and who whispers, “it wasn’t me”? 

Even fiction isn’t immune. Atanu Biswas revisits Sujoy Ghosh’s Anukul, where Satyajit Ray’s robot doesn’t just serve but judges, acts, and kills — all while staying eerily silent. Was it programmed morality? A glitch? Or a machine’s quiet decision to let others debate why? 

Stay tuned!