From the Urdu Press: ‘Insinuation of any Muslim opposition to Op Sindoor is baseless… Both Govt and Oppn must cease such politics'

Indian Express

2 days ago

Over the past week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited several states, including poll-bound ones like Bihar and West Bengal, to launch various development projects and address rallies. The PM's tour dominated coverage in the Urdu press. In Bengal, while highlighting the success of Operation Sindoor, the PM targeted the Mamata Banerjee government for allegedly fostering violence, corruption and lawlessness in the state. The sharp reactions of top Opposition leaders also made headlines in the Urdu dailies. While Mamata alleged that Modi was looking to gain 'political mileage' out of Operation Sindoor, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge asked him to 'focus on the enemy instead of self-boasting' and recuse himself from 'election blitz'.
Commenting on the war of words between the Modi government and the Opposition days after the ceasefire between India and Pakistan, the Hyderabad-based Siasat, in its June 2 editorial, points out that in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack and the consequent Operation Sindoor, the entire country stood unitedly against Pakistan and its sponsorship of terrorism against India. 'The entire country staunchly backed Operation Sindoor and hailed our armed forces for conducting it against terror bases in Pakistan. The Opposition also threw its weight behind the government over its every retributive action against Pakistan. But now, it seems politics has started heating up in the name of Operation Sindoor,' the edit says. 'Attempts are being made to garner political dividends from the success of a military operation. This is unfortunate – there should not be any politics over national security.'
The daily said Union Home Minister Amit Shah, while addressing BJP workers in Kolkata, accused Bengal CM and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee of 'opposing Operation Sindoor to appease the Muslim votebank'. 'Two points must be flagged here. One, whether it is Mamata or any other party in the country, everyone has fully supported Operation Sindoor and offered their tributes to the armed forces. And two, any insinuation that there was any Muslim opposition to Operation Sindoor is completely false and baseless — because every Muslim in the country has condemned the horrific Pahalgam attack and rallied round Operation Sindoor against Pakistan.'
The editorial notes that all the citizens of the country are proud of the accomplishments of our armed forces. Notwithstanding the bid to raise political temperature in Bengal, which is headed to the Assembly polls early next year, the fact remains that everyone cutting across political and community lines has spoken out in unison against the Pahalgam outrage besides calling for teaching Pakistan a lesson, it says. 'Both the government and the Opposition must desist from making any play over national security for their narrow political gains. The prevailing atmosphere of unity and harmony in the country must not be vitiated.'
Highlighting Niti Aayog CEO BVR Subrahmanyam's announcement that India has now overtaken Japan to become the fourth-largest economy in the world, ranked behind the US, China and Germany, the Mumbai-based Urdu Times, in its May 28 leader, says it is a moment of celebration. 'But the government's key policy body seems to have jumped the gun as it turns out India is set to overtake Japan's economy soon,' the editorial says. Another aspect of this discourse is the point that there is a massive gap between the average income and living standards of the people of the two Asian countries, it notes. India is a low-middle-income developing economy with a per capita income of $2,880, while Japan is a developed, albeit weakening, economy with a per capita income of $33,900.
The daily says that despite India's impressive GDP, the inequalities between the rich and the poor in the country are vast and stark. As per the World Inequality Report, the top 1% of India's population accounts for a significant portion of the nation's wealth. 'A majority of our people have very low income. Poverty is rampant in households across rural and urban parts of the country, where people face various challenges to make ends meet in their daily lives,' the edit says, adding that this is reflected in the government's initiative to hand out free ration to 80 crore people.
Referring to the widening rifts within the first family of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), Siasat, in its June 1 editorial, states that in the run-up to the 2023 Telangana Assembly polls the Congress had accused the then incumbent BRS of 'colluding' with the BJP to checkmate it. The BRS and the BJP had rejected these allegations with each of them accusing, in turn, the other two of having forged a 'tacit understanding', the edit says. 'The buzz about a deal between the BRS and the BJP had gained traction during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections when the BRS was accused of helping the latter. The polls saw the BJP winning eight of the 17 seats (as against the ruling Congress's eight) in the state.'
The daily says that BRS president and ex-chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR)'s daughter and party MLC K Kavitha has said that during her incarceration in prison last year in connection with the Delhi liquor scam case, she was approached with a proposal about the BRS's merger with the BJP, which she said she outright rejected. 'Although senior BJP leaders have not validated Kavitha's claim, BJP MLA T Raja Singh has echoed it while taking aim at his own party leaders,' it says.
The editorial states that in her 'leaked' May 2 letter to KCR, Kavitha herself underlined that he had shied away from targeting the BJP in his address at the BRS' plenary event in April while just attacking the Congress, which she said fuelled speculation about the party's plan to align with the BJP in future. 'The BRS could not reject the row as mere allegations levelled by its political rivals as it has arisen out of Kavitha's remarks. The BRS and KCR should clear the air over the party's equations with the BJP,' it says. Every party is entitled to join hands with any other player, but it must be done transparently as all parties are accountable to the people who are the final arbiter in a democracy, the edit adds.