Nation First

After a laudable show of unity by the Indian government and the Opposition on the terrorist attack in Pahalgam on 22 April and the subsequent Operation Sindoor to take on cross-border terrorism and Pakistan’s collusion in it, the two sides of India’s political establishment appear to be squandering the good will earned and are now showcasing their disunity and enmity towards each other.

- SRI AUROBINDO

Even a national crisis of monumental proportions for which precious lives have been snuffed out, fails to prompt them to rise above their familiar partisan politics. The spectacle of a fight between the government at the Centre and the Congress over the nomination of leaders to visit countries in an outreach programme to present India’s case in the conflict lowers the country’s image before the international community. In another development, a minister belonging to the ruling BJP from Madhya Pradesh has disgraced the nation with his purported derogatory remarks on a woman army officer, who became a prominent face of Operation Sindoor. The court is seized of the matter and has directed the police to lodge an FIR against the minister. On the other hand, a professor of a reputed university has been arrested in BJP-ruled Haryana for airing remarks that he believes did not breach any laws of the land as alleged by the police and the Haryana State Commission for Women (HSCW). The Supreme Court agreed on 19 May to urgently hear the matter.