From politics to education, the changing of the guard in the Congress government in Karnataka to the NEET-CBSE rows and youth protests — the Urdu dailies covered multiple grounds over the week, spotlighting the concerns and anguish of millions of young students and their families. The dailies also kept the focus on the fraught political situation in West Bengal turning more volatile in the first month of the first-ever BJP government.Referring to Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar’s elevation as a successor to CM Siddaramaiah, the New Delhi edition of Inquilab, in its May 31 editorial, says the development indicated that the Congress high command was no longer in a mood to let itself be held hostage to the intra-party power struggle and factional feuds in the state. “The Congress leadership seems to have learnt an essential lesson by its failures to tackle similar tussles in some other states in the past, such as between Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot in Rajasthan, or between Bhupesh Baghel and T S Singh Deo in Chhattisgarh, when the party was ruling these states,” it states. The Congress had paid the price for not having resolved those festering conflicts, choosing instead to capitulate to the brinkmanship of certain party satraps, the edit says. This time, however, the party leadership took a decisive stand, pushing Siddaramaiah to step down and make way for his deputy as per their unofficial power-sharing arrangement.AdvertisementThe daily points out that Vokkaliga heavyweight Shivakumar, popularly known as DKS, who had started his political innings with the Congress’s student wing NSUI, has been a staunch loyalist of the Nehru-Gandhi family. “In 2019, when DKS was sent to Tihar jail in a case, Sonia Gandhi had herself gone there to meet him,” it notes. DKS has also proved to be a key troubleshooter for his party through its various crises over the years, the edit says. “Another factor that went in favour of DKS is that at 64 he is a younger leader than Siddaramaiah, 77, who has already surpassed the seven years and 238 days record of Congress stalwart Devaraj Urs for being the longest serving Karnataka CM.”The editorial notes that the Congress leadership had been drawing a lot of criticism from media and other quarters in recent years for its apparent inability to put its act together. “However, the party has now smoothly resolved the protracted tug of war between its two top leaders in a crucial state, whose credit has been given to Rahul Gandhi’s strategy and prudence. Rahul is getting inclined towards taking decisions quickly and promoting younger leadership in the party,” it says. This was seen recently after the Tamil Nadu election results when the Congress lost no time in joining hands with Vijay following his TVK’s stunning victory. This was also reflected in Kerala, where the Congress leadership picked V D Satheesan, instead of Rahul’s close aide K C Venugopal, as the CM of the newly elected party-led government, the edit adds.SIASATFlagging the political violence that has erupted in Bengal in the wake of the BJP’s sweep of the Assembly polls, which ended the 15-year rule of the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC), the Hyderabad-based Siasat, in its June 1 editorial, writes that the BJP had claimed after the poll results that the state will henceforth witness “the politics of badlav (change) instead of the politics of badla (revenge)”. “This pledge however seems to have been flipped, going by the prevailing state of affairs in Bengal. While the new era of change has yet to begin, the politics of vendetta appears to be gathering pace in the state,” it says, adding that in two separate incidents of violence, senior TMC MPs, Abhishek Banerjee and Kalyan Banerjee, faced attacks from goons. “While the BJP has maintained that it has nothing to do with these incidents, linking them to irate public protesters, these attacks are disturbing. Abhishek had gone to meet the family of a TMC worker killed allegedly in the post-poll violence. It seems he was assaulted by slogan-shouting miscreants in a planned way. There was no police presence there.”AdvertisementThe daily says it is unfortunate that just a few weeks after the BJP assumed power, the “politics of retribution” seems to have intensified in Bengal. “A question arises as to whether the BJP’s promise of ushering in a new politics was just a slogan to mislead the people,” the edit asks. The TMC leadership has been alleging that a large number of its party offices have been vandalised and its workers attacked in different parts of the state even as the police are watching these violent incidents like “mute spectators”, it says.The editorial points out that the BJP secured Bengal’s mandate by vowing to ensure better lives for its people and that the party “must focus on fulfilling these commitments”. Bengal politics has always been marked with the menace of political violence, the edit says. “With the Opposition MPs coming under attack now, the government cannot wash its hands of such incidents by merely attributing it to mob violence. The administration and police machinery must take responsibility to uphold law and order. The BJP central leadership should also make its intervention to improve the grim situation of the state.”URDU TIMESyou may likeHighlighting the controversies engulfing the education sector, such as the NEET-UG paper leak and the CBSE On-Screen Marking (OSM) row, the Mumbai-based Urdu Times, in its June 2 leader, says the crisis in education stems from its “rampant commercialisation”. “Education has always been considered a vital service meant to foster aware, progressive and empathetic citizens. The rot in our education system set in when it was cynically converted into business,” it states.Referring to the NEET leak which led to the cancellation of the exam affecting over 20 lakh students, the editorial points out that lakhs of rupees allegedly changed hands to secure leaked question papers. “If the medical entrance exam is tainted by such irregularities, what could be expected of those aspirants allegedly involved in them — how good a doctor he would become, what could be expected of his skills?” it asks.While the CBI has arrested 13 accused people, including paper translators, subject experts and intermediaries, in connection with the NEET scam, the CBSE OSM row has now erupted, the daily says. Despite the OSM glitches involving the CBSE, students are being asked to pay hefty charges to access their answer sheets for verification or re-evaluation. “The irregularities in our education system have put a question mark on the future of a large section of students. The government must crack down on all accused who are bent on playing with the lives of our children. It should also take measures to curb the bids to turn education into just business.”