#ICYMITheTribuneOpinion: Is the BJP pandering to its women voters and how India can make an opportunity of the H-1B visa crisis

With the upcoming Assembly poll in Bihar, the state grabbed much of the headlines in the last few weeks — first the SIR, then Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s vote chori allegations against the BJP in cahoots with the Election Commission of India. Next came Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s big bonanza for the BJP’s most crucial votebank — women. He transferred Rs 10,000 each to 75 lakh women in Bihar which amounts to Rs 7,500 crore. Contrast this with Rs 1,600 crore relief package the PM promised Punjab. No questions are being asked why the PM is being so generous to women in Bihar, writes Editor-in-Chief Jyoti Malhotra in her Edit piece There’s something special about Bihar. The fact is that PM Modi has literally forged a ‘women constituency’ unabashedly tempting women voters with sops in states going to the polls — Lado Lakshmi in Haryana, Ladki Bahin in Maharashtra, Ladli Behna in Madhya Pradesh, Mahila Samriddhi Yojana in Delhi and Mahtari Vandana in Chhattisgarh, she writes.

The news of the prohibitive $ 1,00,000 hike in H-1B visa fee had young techies on tenterhooks with years of investment in education, competitive exams and student loans hinging on the ability to secure a US job. Besides, America risks squandering its magnetic pull for talent with such a step while Canada, Australia and several European nations, including Germany, are already seizing the opportunity, writes The Tribune Deputy Editor Harvinder Khetal in her Op-ed piece Who can afford the $ 1,00,000 US dream now?

Another question that arises is whether more jobs would be offshored due to the H-1B visa fee hike, says senior financial journalist Sushma Ramachandran in her Op-ed piece H-1B visa crisis, a perfect storm for Indian IT industry. It should offset the creation of an enabling environment for the vast pool of STEM graduates and this is the time when both the government and industry must join hands, she adds.

The heart-breaking news of the death of 52-year-old singer Zubeen Garg who drowned in Singapore left every household in Assam grief-struck. The appeal of his songs transcended religion, ethnicity, language and region, says independent journalist Sanjoy Hazarika in his Edit piece Assam seeks justice for its Zubeen. When ULFA declared a ban on Hindi songs at the Bihu festival celebrations, Zubeen did not bow down to the cultural policing. Once on stage, when chided for not wearing the Brahmin sacred thread, he proclaimed in Assamese, “I have no religion, no caste, I am a human being”. The hordes and hordes of people who gathered for his funeral bore a testament to his humane spirit.

As we commemorate 60 years of the 1965 war, the re-release of the autobiography of one of the most revered officers of the Indian Army Lieutenant General SPP Thorat brought back the memories of the man whose clarity of vision, had it been heeded, might have altered the trajectory of India's military story in the 1960s, probably the 1965 war wouldn’t have even happened. Giving details, military historian Shiv Kunal Verma writes in his Op-ed piece Thorat, the soldier who saw 1962 coming, history turned cruel when Prime Minister Nehru, swayed by his faith in Lt Gen BM Kaul, orchestrated the appointment of Gen Pran Thapar as army chief — a pliant figure. Thorat, inconveniently professional and blunt, was cast aside. Had he been made the Chief in 1961, the Army would have been commanded by a professional who had diagnosed the Chinese threat with accuracy.

Talking about defence issues, Pakistan has signed a defence pact with Saudi Arabia which has turned the spotlight on Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. If the Saudis see the accord as a hedge against a possible threat from Israel, it would make little sense without bringing Pakistan’s nuclear capability into the equation, says former High Commissioner to Pakistan Sharat Sabharwal in the Edit piece A whiff of the Islamic bomb. Also, according to the joint statement, “Any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both.” What does that mean for India? Whenever Pakistan finds itself on a surer footing with its key international partners, it tends to be more adventurous towards India. So, India will have to keep a close eye on the evolving situation and security ties in West Asia, as it has developed multi-faceted relations, including defence cooperation, with all countries in the region, he writes.

Pakistan was in the news in India for another reason when during the Asia Cup India-Pak match, one of the players mimicked gunfire gesture while another made a pantomime depicting the downward trace of a falling aircraft.  Former Mumbai cricket team captain Shishir Hattangadi writes in his Op-ed piece India-Pak cricket, no longer allowed its innocence that a boy does not invent the gesture of firing a gun. He has seen it, somewhere, applauded. When he carries it into his celebration, he is not creating anew; he is reflecting.  Last Sunday, cricket became more than cricket; it became a mirror. And what it showed was not grace, nor rivalry in its best form, but provocation, he writes. It showed a culture in which symbols of violence are carried easily, in which gestures are heavier than cover drives.

Coming to science and technology, have you heard of a bodyguard satellite? It is a dedicated, smaller satellite deployed to escort and protect a high-value asset such as a military, communications or reconnaissance satellite. A potential to jeopardise space assets during a conflict has triggered a global scramble for defensive solutions. That is where a bodyguard satellite has emerged as a viable option, says IISER Visiting Professor TV Venkateswaran in his Op-ed piece Why ‘bodyguard satellites’ are necessary. ISRO has made veiled indications that planning for India's bodyguard satellites is under way, he writes, although Japan has announced plans to build bodyguard satellites by 2029.