Rahul does not know 'F' of foreign policy but keeps raising questions: BJP
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Mint
26 minutes ago
- Mint
New Zealand is right to atone for its colonial crimes in the Pacific
In London recently, Penny Wong, Australia's foreign minister, called on Britain to face up, in the Indo-Pacific, to the uncomfortable realities of its colonial past. Ms Wong's forebears were from ethnic-Chinese communities that laboured in British Borneo's perilous mines. Colonial stories, she said, 'can sometimes feel uncomfortable—for those whose stories they are, and for those who hear them.' Some in Britain's ruling Conservative Party objected furiously to Ms Wong lecturing Britain on how to grapple with its past. Yet she raised an issue that will not go away. Britain has declared its intention to seek much deeper trade and security ties in the Indo-Pacific region. It is unlikely to succeed, Ms Wong intimated, in what she called 'the most consequential region of our time', unless Britain faces up to how an often-abusive history colours its relations there. Understanding the past, she said, 'enables us to better share the present and the future. It gives us the opportunity to find more common ground.' Patricia O'Brien, a historian of colonialism at Georgetown University and the Australian National University, emphasises the point in an excellent piece in the Diplomat, a foreign-affairs magazine: 'Reckoning with colonial pasts, in current times, makes for good diplomacy.' Britain and other former colonisers might consider this especially worthwhile if they wish to criticise the region's new imperial power, China, on firm moral ground. Britain, alas, is a past master at failing to reckon with its history. Among numerous illustrations, it has serially bungled its approach to atoning for its imperial slavery in the Caribbean, where its king remains the head of state of eight countries. Yet Britain is by no means the only power in the Indo-Pacific with a sordid past. During the Pacific war of 1937-45, imperial Japan massacred civilians, forced Chinese and Koreans into slave labour and conscripted tens of thousands of Korean and other 'comfort women' into military brothels. Japan's relations with its neighbours are still bedevilled by that history. In the South Pacific, where white-British colonies, including Australia, became colonisers themselves, colonial wrongs remain a political minefield. But recent experiences there show how it is possible for countries to pick a way through it. New Zealand, in particular, is an exemplary apologiser. An apology from a state is quite different from one offered by an individual. Meaningful political apologies are extended by the many to the individual—to victims of slavery, for instance, or to their descendants. There is, notes Hiro Saito of Singapore Management University, a performative dimension to the act. But the performance counts for nothing if the actors are not sincere. Few could fault New Zealand for apologetic sincerity. In 2002 Helen Clark, then the prime minister, issued a moving apology for her country's past mistreatment of Samoa. It included banishing its leaders and causing the death of over a fifth of the population, after New Zealand allowed a ship carrying Spanish flu to dock at the island-territory. Her apology was met with Samoan rituals of forgiveness. 'Unfinished business', as Ms Clark called it, can only be settled with the victims' agreement. Last August another New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, volunteered an ifoga, a public display of humiliation and apology, for her country's racist 'dawn raids' in search of Pacific Islanders who had overstayed their work visas in the 1970s. Chris Finlayson, a former New Zealand attorney-general who negotiated dozens of apologies and financial settlements with iwi, Maori tribes, says: 'If the Crown simply breezes in and says we're sorry, they don't accept it.' Apologies have to be specific and attuned to the victim's sensitivities. 'It is acknowledgment that certain things happened in history…and a promise that there will be a different way [in future].' It helps perhaps that modern diplomatic apologies chime with a South Pacific tradition of atonement, of which tabua, polished sperm whales' teeth used as gifts, are emblematic. Only in January the new prime minister of Fiji offered one to Kiribati. Yet even when such props are unavailable, doing the right thing is surely advisable. Not least because when states say sorry they are thinking more about opening up the future than closing down the past. At a time of bleak geopolitical contestation, there is a virtuous logic to that which even hard-headed strategists should keep in mind.
Indian Express
26 minutes ago
- Indian Express
‘Direct attack on credibility': Mumbai court on BJP leader Narayan Rane's statements about Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Sanjay Raut
In a detailed order, a Special Court in Mumbai has rejected BJP leader Narayan Rane's revision appeal challenging the summons to him in a defamation case filed by Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut, and said the statements made cannot be part of a political discourse or dissenting views. The court passed the order on Wednesday, and the detailed order was made available on Thursday. Raut had filed a defamation suit against Rane after the latter allegedly claimed at the Konkan Festival in Mumbai's Bhandup in 2023 that Raut's name was not on the voters' list in 2004, when the Sena leader was elected as a Member of Rajya Sabha. Special Judge S R Navander said, '…the statement that the complainant (Raut) had committed fraud and would have to go to jail is vague, unsubstantiated, and cannot be said to have been made in good faith or with due care and attention. The statements were made without supporting material, thereby indicating malice and an intent to tarnish the complainant's reputation.' Rane had also claimed that it was at his behest that Raut got nominated, and he had extended help, including spending money, for the Sena leader to get elected. In April 2025, a magistrate court said that there was a prima facie case of defamation and issued a summons to Rane. Rane had sought that the order be set aside, stating that the comments resulted from political discourse and differing views, as they are long-standing political rivals. He also said that no proof was given on how it had caused any damage to Raut's reputation. Appearing for Raut, lawyer Sarthak Shetty had submitted that the statements made about the Sena (UBT) leader's name not being included in the voters' list were false, and produced the list from 2004. While Rane had cited orders of the Supreme Court which had quashed multiple complaints made over opinion-based statements, the special court said Rane's remarks directly attacked Raut's 'honesty and credibility' in public life.
The Hindu
26 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Farmers being misled on urea shortage: BJP
The BJP has accused the Congress Government of sowing the seeds of doubt into the minds of farmers in Telangana about the purported shortage of urea for the Rabi season, even when the Centre had actually supplied three lakh metric tonnes more. Addressing the farmers' wing (Kisan Morcha) of the party, during a meeting of its office-bearers at the State BJP office here on Thursday, party president N. Ramchander Rao said that the 'urea shortage bogey' is being created by the ruling party only to reap the benefit during the forthcoming local body polls. The BJP chief charged the government with spreading falsehoods when the Centre had supplied 12.02 lakh metric tonnes of urea for the 24-25 agriculture season, when the demand was just 9.5 lakh metric tonnes. In fact, under the Modi Government, necessary steps were taken to provide ample supply of fertilizers to farmers across the country and also in dealing with black marketers with an iron hand, unlike the UPA regime 'where farmers were forced to stand in queues for obtaining it', he added. Yet, the Congress Government here wants to mislead farmers and to cover up its own failures in not ensuring proper payment of Rythu Bharosa, which has been cut from the promised ₹15,000 during the elections to ₹12,000, but now ₹6,000 is being credited into farmers' accounts, he said. Mr. Ramchander Rao also said that the farmers' welfare scheme payment was made last month only after the High Court had directed the local body polls to be held by September end. It has been 19 months since the Government has come to power but there has been no movement to provide the farm insurance which would help the famers during natural calamities under the PM Fasal Bima Yojana and following the BRS Government in this connection, he said. The former MLC also questioned the government about the Bhu Bharati module replacing the controversial Dharani of BRS regime and said it is marked with technical glitches. 'Farmers are forced to run around registration offices for justice still and there is a lack of accountability from the administration side. We should go to the local level and highlight farmers' grievances,' he advised the wing. The BJP leader said such is the sad financial condition in the State that retired employees are being denied benefits and made to run from pillar to post. General secretary G. Premender Reddy, farmers' wing national executive member G. Madhusudhan Reddy and others were present. Medak tour Mr. Ramchander Rao will tour Medak district and participate in various programmes, organised by the BJP, in Narsapur, Chegonta, Medak, and Toopran, on Friday, said a press release.
