Gathering of crowds at the Place de la Bastille doesn’t herald a French revolution, or why would have Wordsworth so nostalgically recalled: “Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive/ But to be young was very heaven”? Our newspapers seem to have run short of that ‘sense of history’. A left turn towards a moderately Socialist government in France appears ‘historical’ enough for the papers. The Socialist challenger, François Hollande, defeated Conservative incumbent, Nicolas Sarkozy to become France’s new President (a victory after 22 years for the party). Papers were jostling for reporting their share of French democratic history with headlines as stark or as vivid as Socialist Hollande Edges Out Sarkozy (The Hindu, May 7, 2012), France Turns Left, Boots Out Sarko (The Times of India, May 7, 2012). However, it was in their editorial judgments that the papers revealed their own standpoints on the shifting sands of European politics.

Taking note of the churning, Indian Express (IE) raised the bogey with an edit (Now What? IE, May 8, 2012), which commented: “Hollande’s victory prompts fears that the eurozone’s fiscal compact is in danger”. The Times of India (TOI) had its laissez faire heart in place (French Evolution, TOI, May 8, 2012), as the paper said: “Hollande and Merkel may find it hard to break the ice. While Hollande gripes against Germany’s unpopular budget-tightening measures, Merkel may find him light on detail… Hollande’s chants of French exclusivity are worrying. France rode the globalisation wave when it reaped dividends; protectionist trade talk when the going gets tough won’t cut even the French mustard.” However, The Hindu linked the victory to some evident symptoms in the French body politic, as it observed (France Backs Hollande, The Hindu, May 8, 2012): “Mr. Hollande’s low-key approach, which includes a commitment to higher taxes for large corporations and high earners, served him well against the self-promotional style of Mr. Sarkozy. In effect, the country’s 44.5 million voters have shown that they are generally more concerned about unemployment and the maintenance of a mixed economy – which has made France one of the world’s most powerful and successful post-war economies.” Writing a piece for the Hindustan Times (HT), Pramit Pal Chaudhri sounded sceptically cautious (A taste of Hollandaise‎, HT, May 8, 2012): “France is the pivot State between a stagnant and a reforming Europe. But it is not clear which side François Hollande is on.”

Moving from Paris to Delhi. The Rashtrapati Bhawan race for a titular role turned a bit sedate this week. The speculation spree in the papers got a much-needed break and the political desks were neither sending signals on the shortlist nor floating new names. Perhaps the break was well-filled by a historically probing and politically insightful piece on the evolving dynamics of the institution of Presidency. Though writing for the paper after quite sometime, JNU-based political scientist Niraja Gopal Jayal came up with an incisive contribution to the political discourse on the opinion page.  (A Suitable President, IE, May 8, 2012).

The Air India pilots’ stir, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee putting General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR) on the backburner for one year, Hillary’s interaction with political top brass in Delhi, the Centre deciding to withdraw the 2G review petition and the Supreme Court directing the Centre to eliminate Haj subsidy in 10 years were the major stories (in terms of proportionate space) on the front pages of the papers. Interestingly, the Finance Minister’s announcement of a one year halt to the implementation of GAAR got a near-unanimous approval in the editorial commentary of the papers. However, The Hindu added a caveat with the suggestion that the fiscal compensation for this delay should be done through the revenue side of government finance.

For media discourse, you can bank on P Sainath to provide you something that runs through intersecting labyrinths of agrarian political economy and the commercial tapestry of mainstream media (Reaping Gold Through Newsprint, Gold, The Hindu, May 8, 2012).

Sanal Edamaraku’s police investigation exposed some faultlines in the rational core of our jurisprudence and Praveen Swami deftly exposed those in his timely and trenchant defence of the eminent voice of reason (India’s God Laws Fail The Test Of Reason, The Hindu, May 7, 2012).

Taking a long view of the contemporary is increasingly getting restricted to few names on the Opinion pages. It is refreshing to read Patna-based scholar, Shaibal Gupta sharing column space in the Opinion pages of the national press. His piece (Regional Goes International, IE, May 9, 2012) on the emerging federalism in India’s foreign policy sought to identify some evolving strands in international relations. And yes, when was the last time pedagogy and textbooks got their due on opinion page? Long back. It took a brilliant piece by an educationist of the stature of Krishna Kumar (Peace Demands An Educated Imagination, The Hindu, May 8, 2012) to place the seminal significance of textbook writing in the realm of bilateral bonds and humanist vision. Reading illuminated.

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