#ICYMI TheTribuneOpinion: Punjab’s unfolding crises and India’s shifting geopolitical landscape
The border state of Punjab dominated the Edit and Op-Ed pages of The Tribune this week, from its land acquisition policies to its fight against drugs and the stand of the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) on its water war with Haryana. Former Manipur Governor and ex-DGP, J&K, Gurbachan Jagat’s article Punjab must up the ante against drugs brings to light the failure of successive governments in Punjab to curb the menace. Not a single commission was ordered to inquire into the causes and effects of the drug menace that kept smouldering through decades, he writes. The people were left to deal with it on their own. No listed study has been carried out at the state level to go into its root cause — factors involving social and economic forces and mental health issues, he further writes.
Urbanisation leads to a plethora of problems, and if the government policies are not in sync with it, unregulated development may impact the intended benefits. That’s exactly what has happened in Punjab, where 24,311 acres of agrarian land in 32 villages has been acquired by the government. The state government has not synchronised the land pooling policy with the Land Acquisition Act. There is no indication that the government is following the provisions of the 2013 Act, says ex-CRRID Director General Sucha Singh Gill in his Op-ed piece Transparency missing in Punjab’s land pooling plan.
With extremes of temperature becoming a normal feature around the globe, Zerin Osho writes in her article Fields to furnaces: Cutting climate risks in Punjab that a new class of pollutants known as short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) are playing an important role in the heatwave conditions in Punjab. The state’s agriculture, transport, industry, livestock and waste sectors are the main culprits. The silver lining is that Punjab, with the kind of data it has gathered, has the capability to approach the problem with solutions that can serve as a lesson for the other states too, she writes.
Continuing with Punjab’s woes, former Punjab Chief Principal Secretary Suresh Kumar writes in his Op-ed piece, BBMB’s foundation lacks federal and legal legitimacy that the foundation of the BBMB is constitutionally fragile. The water management body was intended only as a temporary solution for inter-state river governance during the reorganisation of the state of Punjab, he writes. He also gives further details of its procedural and legal shortcomings and what can be done about them.
From Punjab, let’s move to our western neighbours. With the US inviting Pakistan army chief Gen Asim Munir, now Field Marshal, to the US Army’s 250th anniversary parade in Washington DC, the big question that arises is what happened to the famed strategic partnership between the US and India, The Tribune Editor-in-Chief Jyoti Malhotra asks in her article Why US is falling for Pakistan’s charms. The US has realised that the Pakistani military establishment‘s potential to harm is far larger than its potential to do any good, she avers.
Meanwhile with Israel pounding Iran’s nuclear facilities, former Indian Ambassador to Iran raises an important point in his Op-ed A flashpoint: Will Iran cross nuclear Rubicon? A comprehensive attack was impossible without using the airspace of several Arab nations, he writes, while discussing its geopolitical dimensions.
Finally, dissecting the ban on Awami League party from contesting 2026 elections, independent journalist Sushma Subramanian in her article No end to uncertainty in Bangladesh writes that the speculation of return to democracy have been put to rest in our eastern neighbourhood. The transition to an elected government is not going to bring about political stability in Bangladesh with one party not in fray at all.
Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (retd) writes about another eastern neighbour of ours in his Op-ed piece The dragon’s shadow on India-Pak conflict. He writes that China has economic interests in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. These are critical arteries for the China-Pakistan economic corridor, which in turn is the backbone of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
A minor conflict of a different kind is coming to the fore from the US – the fallout of the Musk-Trump showdown that may have implications on future space missions. Elon Musk’s SpaceX is a centrepiece in America’s space infrastructure but if the spat between Trump and Musk continues, it will not only slow down SpaceX’s growth but also create gaps in the national capabilities of the US. While their conflict is rooted primarily in politics and ego clashes, it raises larger strategic questions for national space agencies like NASA, writes science commentator Dinesh C Sharma in his article Private agencies in space race has its perils.
And lastly, how can the Indian political landscape be overlooked? With the Modi-led NDA government completing 11 years in power and winning one Assembly election after another in the past eight months or so, the BJP is looking to conquer new frontiers. The only challenge for him remains in the east and the south now, where West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala have remained impregnable for the BJP but Modi is not the one to give up, says senior journalist Radhika Ramaseshan in her Op-ed piece Modi 3.0 not averse to doing a climbdown.
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