Best of BS Opinion: Striking terror, sealing deals, and shaping debate

Business Standard

08-05-2025

Have you seen a bear rub its back on a tree? Like the ones shown on Discovery Channel or BBC's famous documentary Planet Earth? The bear leans into the bark, groaning in pleasure, swaying with abandon. It's a slow, deliberate motion, an ancient ritual. But the tree, scarred and ageing, sways under the weight. The bear doesn't notice. To it, this is just relief. One push too hard, and it'll fall. Not just fall, but tip a delicate balance of things around it — disturb nesting birds, crush saplings, maybe even trigger a landslide. The bear doesn't mean harm. But force, even when casual, can be consequential. Let's dive in.
India's Operation Sindoor marks a sharp, strategic response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. Nine terror camps across the LoC and in Pakistan were hit with precision. No civilian or military targets. No escalation. Just a clear message. But like that bear's backrub, it leaves the tree of regional peace trembling. As our first editorial notes, the challenge now lies not in firepower but in poise, in preventing border flare-ups, holding diplomatic ground, and raising the international cost of Pakistan's terror policy. One wrong move though, and that fragile tree of regional stability could give way.
Then comes the UK-India Free Trade Agreement, a historic handshake, according to both governments. Tariffs down, opportunities up. Indian goods get smoother access to UK markets, and British whisky and lamb will find new fans here. Yet, visa issues remain thorny and major chapters are still pending, highlights our second editorial. It's a promising start, but the bear must now navigate a forest of unsteady trees.
M Govinda Rao brings clarity to the just-released 2025 State Performance Rankings. On paper, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Karnataka lead. But the bark peels when you look closer. Human development is underplayed, fiscal optics are misleading, and poorer states often look better than they are. It's a beauty contest judged by blurry rules and the outcomes, while decorative, may change little on the ground. The tree might look upright on paper, but its roots tell a different story.
Meanwhile, Kanika Datta returns to 'Operation Sindoor' from an economic lens. While the strikes might soothe public anger, the bigger picture is less rosy, she writes. Investment jitters, fragile tourism in Kashmir, and weak FDI inflows all ask whether retribution, however surgical, can ever be growth-friendly.
Finally, Aditi Phadnis reviews The Fight for the Republic, a posthumous collection of Sitaram Yechury's essays. Edited by Prabhat Patnaik, it reads like a warning: if inequality and majoritarianism keep rubbing against the soul of India, the cracks may grow too deep to ignore. Welfare without redistribution, nationalism without justice is a forest where the oldest, tallest trees are falling silently.
Stay tuned!