From a tale of two speeches at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos in Swiss Alps to the decks being cleared for “mother of all deals” back home – the coverage of the Urdu dailies over the week was dominated by geopolitics and international trade, which have a crucial bearing on India’s roadmap ahead. The dailies highlighted US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace besides spotlighting Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s remarkable address. They also kept their focus on the European Union (EU) leaders’ visit to New Delhi to join the Republic Day celebrations as the chief guests and to attend the Summit to clinch the India-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
Referring to Donald Trump’s bid to launch the Board of Peace as part of the Gaza peace plan in the wake of a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, the Hyderabad-based Munsif, in its January 23 editorial, points out that while the US President has invited many countries to join his Board, a US $ 1 billion contribution would secure its permanent membership instead of a three-year appointment without any contribution requirement, which underlines Trump’s “business mindset”. “The contours of the originally-proposed Gaza peace panel also seem to have changed now as Trump’s Board apparently seeks to set up a new international platform not only for Gaza but also for managing other global conflicts,” it says. “Trump’s move is aimed at creating a new international body on his terms that would challenge the long-established multilateral institutions like the United Nations.”
The editorial notes that Trump has also invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to join his Board of Peace, among other world leaders, several of whom have done it. “India has been a votary of multilateralism and UN reforms – and a stable, rules-based international system has always benefited developing countries and middle powers. Now, India has to decide whether Trump’s Board is a panel for Gaza peace or an instrument for reinforcing the American control of the global order.”
The daily states that New Delhi has always cautiously maintained a policy of enlightened self-interest and strategic autonomy. It says that while the Board was envisaged as a part of Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza, its structure and mandate seem to be aimed at designing a parallel global framework, whose executive committee comprises leaders close to Trump. “For its part, the UN Security Council, in its resolution adopted in November 2025, had cleared the creation of a Board to oversee a transitional administration for stabilising and rebuilding the devastated Gaza Strip until 2027,” it notes. India should refrain from joining the Board as it may undermine its consistent policy and strategic interests, the edit says. “The Board may wade into conflicts beyond Gaza. In the India-Pakistan conflict in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack last summer, Trump has repeatedly tried to make his intervention. If the Board sticks to the UN’s mandate limited to Gaza leading to a two-State solution to the Israel-Palestine dispute, India may then not have any issues in signing on to it.”
INQUILAB
Highlighting Canadian PM Mark Carney’s speech at the WEF in Davos, the New Delhi edition of Inquilab, in its January 25 editorial, notes that before his transition to politics and his elevation to Canada’s top post, Carney had been a distinguished technocrat who handled several key posts as a central banker. It says that since his second inauguration as the US President on January 20, 2025, Trump has unleashed an upheaval in the world through his disruptive policy of threats and tariffs. “Fearful of consequences of standing up to such threats, many countries have remained non-committal, fighting shy of charting their own course,” it states, adding that in this backdrop, Carney, without naming Trump, told the world’s economic and political elite what ought to have been said.
The editorial says that “Carney underlined the crisis in the international order, saying the world is in the midst of a rupture, not a transition. He said the decline of the rules-based order has led to a situation where the strong do what they can and weak suffer what they must”. He urged the middle powers, that they must act together because “if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu”, the edit notes. “Carney’s address was honest, cogent and incisive, which got a standing ovation.”
The daily says the Canadian PM’s address would go down in history as a key speech of our time. “It blended sharp analysis and sagacity with moral courage and dissent. He urged middle powers to close their ranks and work together to build a new order on the basis of shared values and interests — and not surrender before the global hegemons.”
SIASAT
Flagging the rows over the Election Commission’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in nine states and three Union Territories, the Hyderabad-based Siasat, in its January 22 leader, points out that the SIR has been controversial since its roll-out starting with Bihar in June last year. “The exercise has been castigated on various grounds by different quarters including sections of people and political parties, who have called it hasty, high-handed and non-transparent,” it says. Hearing petitions challenging the SIR’s constitutional validity, the Supreme Court has now said that the EC’s power to carry out an SIR is “not unlimited” and that the exercise of the power must be “in conformity with principles of natural justice” and “transparent”.
The daily says that various issues with the process had come to light during the Bihar SIR too, with the names of several living persons deleted from the draft rolls for being dead, which was even highlighted by Rahul Gandhi. “The SIR must be done to ensure that voter lists are cleansed of any errors and that no ineligible person could figure in it. But what is more important is to ensure that no eligible elector is excluded from the rolls. It is thus imperative for the EC to conduct the exercise with complete transparency across the country,” it says. The right to vote is a fundamental democratic right for every citizen, whose disenfranchisement could not be allowed.
“There could not be any laxity or recklessness over such a serious issue, which the EC is displaying in its haste to wrap up the exercise in a short time. It has put intense pressure on the BLOs (booth level officers), who are struggling with it,” the edit says, noting that in UP alone about 3 crore voters’ names have been deleted from the draft rolls on various grounds. “The EC must review its functioning and apply necessary correctives to the SIR exercise to make it transparent and foolproof. It is a question of our country’s democracy whose protection is everyone’s responsibility.”