A newspaper and its dare

In times of journalistic crises, a reminder of the power it can exercise

- AMITABH RANJAN

DURING THE PRESENTATION of the Uttar Pradesh Budget in February, the chief minister and the Opposition got into a spat. This was about the non-availability of the Budget's Urdu translation whereas translations in English and a few regional languages were available. The CM's remark had its trademark trajectory when he said the Opposition leaders send their kids to English school while settling for Urdu for the vast majority of Muslim students to become maulvis. He may have a point there. It is, however, not difficult to see through this facade—an all-too-familiar tendency of 'othering' a community coupled with a lack of understanding of India's many pluralities.