CIVIL EDUCATION

WORLD HISTORY PYQ UPSC GS1

2026-10-10T17:13:01.883+05:30

UPSC SYLLABUS WITH PYQ

GS I: भारतीय विरासत और संस्कृति, विश्व का इतिहास और समाज

भारतीय विरासत और संस्कृति-

1. भारतीय संस्कृति में प्राचीन काल से आधुनिक काल तक के कला के रूप, साहित्य और वास्तुकला के मुख्य पहलू शामिल होंगे।

आधुनिक भारत का इतिहास और स्वतंत्रता आंदोलन एवं आजादी के भारत-

1. 18वीं सदी के लगभग मध्य से लेकर वर्तमान समय तक का आधुनिक भारतीय इतिहास-महत्वपूर्ण घटनाएँ, व्यक्तित्व, विषय।

2. स्वतंत्रता संग्राम- इसके विभिन्न चरण और देश के विभिन्न भागों से इसमें अपना योगदान देने वाले महत्वपूर्ण व्यक्ति/उनका योगदान।

3. स्वतंत्रता के पश्चात् देश के अंदर एकीकरण और पुनर्गठन।

विश्व का इतिहास-

1. विश्व के इतिहास में 18वीं सदी की घटनाएँ यथा औद्योगिक क्रांति, विश्व युद्ध, राष्ट्रीय सीमाओं का पुनः सीमांकन, उपनिवेशवाद, उपनिवेदवाद की समाप्ति, राजनीतिक दर्शन शास्त्र जैसे साम्यवाद, पूँजीवाद, समाजवाद आदि शामिल होंगे, उनके रूप और समाज पर उनका प्रभाव।

विश्व एवं भारत का भूगोल-

1. विश्व का भौतिक भूगोल की मुख्य विशेषताएँ

2. विश्वभर के मुख्य प्राकृतिक संसाधनों का वितरण (दक्षिण एशिया और

भारतीय उपमहाद्वीप को शामिल करते हुए)।

3. विश्व (भारत सहित) के विभिन्न भागों में प्राथमिक, द्वितीयक और तृतीयक क्षेत्र के उद्योगों को स्थापित करने के लिए जिम्मेदार कारक।

4. भूकंप, सुनामी, ज्वालामुखीय हलचल, चक्रवात आदि जैसे महत्वपूर्ण भू- भौतिकीय घटनाएँ।

5. भूगोलीय विशेषताएँ और उनके स्थान-अति महत्वपूर्ण भूगोलीय विशेषताओं (जल-स्रोतों और हिमावरण सहित) और वनस्पति एवं प्राणि-जगत में परिवर्तन और इस प्रकार के परिवर्तनों के प्रभाव।

भारतीय समाज-

1. भारतीय समाज की मुख्य विशेषताएँ।

2. भारत की विविधता।

3. महिलाओं की भूमिका और महिला संगठन।

4. जनसंख्या एवं संबद्ध मुद्दें।

5. गरीबी और विकासात्मक विषय।

6. शहरीकरण, उनकी समस्याएँ और उनके रक्षोपाय।

7. भारतीय समाज पर भूमण्डलीकरण का प्रभाव।

8. सामाजिक सशक्तिकरण, सम्प्रदायवाद, क्षेत्रवाद और धर्म निरपेक्षता।

विश्व का इतिहास टॉपिक अनुरूप पिछले वर्ष के प्रश्न

1. विश्व के इतिहास में 18वीं सदी की घटनाएँ यथा औद्योगिक क्रांति, विश्व युद्ध, राष्ट्रीय सीमाओं का पुनः सीमांकन, उपनिवेशवाद, उपनिवेदवाद की समाप्ति, राजनीतिक दर्शन शास्त्र जैसे साम्यवाद, पूँजीवाद, समाजवाद आदि शामिल होंगे, उनके रूप और समाज पर उनका प्रभाव

PYQ(YEAR)

2014

1. विश्व में घटित कौन-सी मुख्य राजनीतिक, आर्थिक और सामाजिक गतिविधियों नें भारत में उपनिवेश-विरोधी संघर्ष को प्रेरित किया? (150 शब्द)

What were the major political, economic and social developments in the world which motivated the anti-colonial struggle in India?

2. 1956 में स्वेज़ संकट को पैदा करने वाली घटनाएँ क्या थीं? उसने एक विश्व शक्ति के रूप में ब्रिटेन की आत्म-छवि पर किस प्रकार अंतिम प्रहार किया? (150 शब्द)

What were the events that led to the Suez Crisis in 1956? How did it deal a final blow to Britain’s self-image as a world power?

3. लेनिन की नव आर्थिक नीति 1921 ने स्वतंत्रता के शीघ्र पश्चात् भारत द्वारा अपनाई गई नीतियों को प्रभावित किया था। मूल्यांकन कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

The New Economic Policy- 1921 of Lenin had influenced the policies adopted by India soon after independence Evaluate.

2015

1. क्या कारण था कि औद्योगिक क्रांति सर्वप्रथम इंग्लैण्ड में घटी थी? औद्योगीकरण के दौरान वहाँ के लोगों की जीवन-गुणता पर चर्चा कीजिए। भारत में वर्तमान में जीवन-गुणता के साथ वह किस प्रकार तुलनीय है? (200 शब्द)

Why did the industrial revolution first occur in England? Discuss the quality of life of the people there during the industrialization. How does it compare with that in India at present?

2. किस सीमा तक जर्मनी को दो विश्वयुद्धों का कारण बनने का जिम्मेदार ठहराया जा सकता है? समालोचनात्मक चर्चा कीजिये। (200 शब्द)

To what extent can Germany be held responsible for causing the two World wars? Discuss critically.

2016

1. पश्चिम अफ्रीका में उपनिवेश-विरोधी संघर्षों को पाश्चात्य-शिक्षित अफ्रीकियों के नव संभ्रांत वर्ग के द्वारा नेतृत्व प्रदान किया गया था। परीक्षण कीजिए। (200 शब्द)

The anti-colonial struggles in West Africa were led by the new elite of Western-educated Africans. Examine.

2017

1. मलय प्रायद्वीप में उपनिवेश उन्मूलन प्रक्रम में सन्निहित क्या-क्या समस्याएँ थीं? (150 शब्द)

What problems were germane to the decolonization process in the Malay Peninsula?

2019

1. स्पष्ट कीजिए कि अमरीकी एवं फ्रांसीसी क्रांतियों ने आधुनिक विश्व की आधारशिलाएँ किस प्रकार निर्मित की थीं। (250 शब्द)

Explain how the foundations of the modern world were, laid by the American and French Revolutions.

2021

1. “दोनों विश्व युद्धों के बीच लोकतंत्रीय राज्य प्रणाली के लिए एक गंभीर चुनौती उत्पन्न हुई।“ इस कथन का मूल्यांकन कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

“There arose a serious challenge to the Democratic State System between the two World Wars.” Evaluate the statement.

2023

1. विश्व के विभिन्न देशों में रेलवे के आगमन से होने वाले सामाजिक-आर्थिक प्रभावों को उजागर कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Bring out the socio-economic effects of the introduction of railways in different countries of the world.

2024

1. यह कहना कहाँ तक उचित है कि प्रथम विश्वयुद्ध मूलतः शक्ति-संतुलन को बनाए रखने के लिए लड़ा गया था? (250 शब्द)

How far is it correct to say that the First World War was fought essentially for the preservation of balance of power?

2. भारत में हस्तशिल्प और कुटीर उद्योगों के ह्रास के लिए इंग्लैण्ड की औद्योगिक क्रांति कहाँ तक उत्तरदायी थी? (250 शब्द)

How far was the industrial Revolution in England responsible for the decline of handicrafts and cottage industries in Indian?

2025

1. समकालीन विश्व के लिए फ्रांसीसी क्रांति की निरंतर प्रासंगिकता है। स्पष्ट कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

The French Revolution has enduring relevance to the contemporary world. Explain.

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MODERN HISTORY: Nation Movement, India after independence pyq topicwise

2026-10-01T20:07:38.514+05:30

UPSC SYLLABUS WITH PYQ

GS I: भारतीय विरासत और संस्कृति, विश्व का इतिहास और समाज

भारतीय विरासत और संस्कृति-

आधुनिक भारत का इतिहास और स्वतंत्रता आंदोलन एवं आजादी के भारत-

3. स्वतंत्रता के पश्चात् देश के अंदर एकीकरण और पुनर्गठन।

विश्व का इतिहास-

विश्व एवं भारत का भूगोल-

1. विश्व का भौतिक भूगोल की मुख्य विशेषताएँ

2. विश्वभर के मुख्य प्राकृतिक संसाधनों का वितरण (दक्षिण एशिया और

भारतीय उपमहाद्वीप को शामिल करते हुए)।

भारतीय समाज-

1. भारतीय समाज की मुख्य विशेषताएँ।

2. भारत की विविधता।

3. महिलाओं की भूमिका और महिला संगठन।

4. जनसंख्या एवं संबद्ध मुद्दें।

5. गरीबी और विकासात्मक विषय।

6. शहरीकरण, उनकी समस्याएँ और उनके रक्षोपाय।

7. भारतीय समाज पर भूमण्डलीकरण का प्रभाव।

8. सामाजिक सशक्तिकरण, सम्प्रदायवाद, क्षेत्रवाद और धर्म निरपेक्षता।

आधुनिक भारत का इतिहास और स्वतंत्रता आंदोलन एवं आजादी के भारत टॉपिक अनुरूप पिछले वर्ष के प्रश्न

1. 18वीं सदी के लगभग मध्य से लेकर वर्तमान समय तक का आधुनिक भारतीय इतिहास-महत्वपूर्ण घटनाएँ, व्यक्तित्व, विषय।

PYQ(YEAR)

2014

1. पानीपत का तीसरा युद्ध 1761 में लड़ा गया था। क्या कारण हैं कि इतनी अधिक साम्राज्य-प्रकंपी लड़ाईयाँ पानीपत में लड़ी गई थीं? (150 शब्द)

The third battle of Panipat as fought in 1761. Why were so many empire-shaking battles fought at Panipat?

2. भारत में अठारवीं शताब्दी के मध्य से स्वतंत्रता तक अंग्रेजों की आर्थिक नीतियों के विभिन्न पक्षों का समलोचनात्मक परीक्षण कीजिए।

(150 शब्द)

Examine critically the various facets of economic policies of the British in India from mid-eighteenth century till independence.

3. किन प्रकारों से नौसैनिक विद्रोह भारत में अंग्रेजों की औपनिवेशिक महत्वकांक्षाओं की शव-पेटिका में लगी अंतिम कील साबित हुआ था? (150 शब्द)

In what ways did the naval mutiny prove to be the last nail in the coffin of British colonial aspirations in India?

4. जबकि अंग्रेज बागान-मालिकों ने असम से हिमाचल प्रदेश तक शिवालिक पर्वतमाला और निम्न हिमालय के साथ-साथ चाय बागान विकसित किए थे, परिणाम में वे दार्जिलिंग क्षेत्र से बाहर सफल नहीं हुए। स्पष्ट कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Whereas the British planters had developed tea gardens all along the Shivaliks and Lesser Himalayas from Assam to Himachal Pradesh, in effect they did not succeed beyond the Darjeeling area. Explain.

2016

1. यह स्पष्ट कीजिए कि 1857 का विप्लव किस प्रकार औपनिवेशिक भारत के प्रति ब्रिटिश नीतियों के विकासक्रम में एक महत्वपूर्ण ऐतिहासिक मोड़ है। (150 शब्द)

Explain how the Uprising of 1857 constitutes an important watershed in the evolution of British policies towards colonial India.

2017

1. सुस्पष्ट कीजिए कि मध्य-अठारहवीं शताब्दी का भारत विखंडित राज्यतंत्र की छाया से किस प्रकार ग्रसित था। (150 शब्द)

Clarify how mid-eighteenth century India was beset with the spectre of a fragmented polity.

2. परीक्षण कीजिए कि औपनिवेशिक भारत में पारंपरिक कारीगर उद्योग के पतन ने किस प्रकार ग्रामीण अर्थव्यवसथा को अपंग बना दिया। (250 शब्द)

Examine how the decline of traditional artisanal industry in colonial India crippled the rural economy.

3. आधुनिक भारत में, महिलाओं से संबंधित प्रश्न 19वीं शताब्दी के सामाजिक सुधार आंदोलन के भाग के रूप में उठे थे। उस अवधि में महिलाओं से संबद्ध मुख्य मुद्दे और विवाद क्या थे? (250 शब्द)

The women’s questions arose in modern India as a part of the 19^th century social reform movement. What were the major issues and debates concerning women in that period?

2018

1. अंग्रेज किस कारण भारत से करारबद्ध श्रमिक अन्य उपनिवेशों में ले गए थे? क्या वे वहाँ पर अपनी सासंस्कृतिक पहचान को परिरक्षित रखने में सफल रहे हैं? (250 शब्द)

Why indentured labour was taken by the British from India to other colonies? Have they been able to preserve their cultural identity over there?

2. ‘भारत में महिलाओं के आंदोलन ने निम्नतर सामाजिक स्तर की महिलाओं के मुद्दों को संबोधित नही किया है।‘ अपने विचार को प्रमाणित सिद्ध कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

“Women’s movement in India has not addressed the issues of women of lower social strata. Substantiate you view.

2021

1. यंग बंगाल एवं ब्रह्म समाज के विशेष संदर्भ में सामाजिक-धार्मिक सुधार आंदोलनों के उत्थान तथा विकास को रेखांकित कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Trace the rise and growth of socio-religious reform movements with special reference to Young Bengal and Brahmo Samaj.

2022

1. अधिकांश भारतीय सिपाहियों वाली ईस्ट इंडिया की सेना क्यों तत्कालीन भारतीय शासकों की संख्याबल में अधिक और बेहतर सुसज्जित सेना से लगातार जीतती रही? कारण बताएँ। (150 शब्द)

Why did the armies of the British East India Company mostly comprising of Indian soldiers win consistently against the more numerous and better equipped armies of the ten Indian rulers? Give reasons.

2. औपनिवेशिक भारत की अठारवीं शताब्दी के मध्य से क्यों अकाल पड़ने में अचानक वृद्धि देखने को मिलती है? कारण बताएँ। (150 शब्द)

Why was there a sudden spurt in famines in colonial India since the mid-eighteenth century? Give reasons.

2019

1. 1857 का विप्लव ब्रिटिश शासन के पूर्ववर्ती सौ वर्षों में बार-बार घटित छोटे एवं बड़े स्थानीय विद्रोहों का चरमोत्कर्ष था। सुस्पष्ट कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

The 1857 Uprising was the culmination of the recurrent big and small local rebellions that had occurred in the preceding hundred years of British rule. Elucidate.

2. उन्नसवी शताब्दी के ‘भारतीय पुनर्जागरण और राष्ट्रीय पहचान के उद्भव के मध्य सहलग्नताओं का परीक्षण कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Examine the linkages between the nineteenth century’s ‘Indian Renaissance’ and the emergence of national identity.

2023

1. भारत में औपनिवेशिक शासन ने आदिवासियों को कैसे प्रभावित किया और औपनिवेशिक उत्पीड़न के प्रति आदिवासी प्रतिक्रिया क्या थी?

How did the colonial rule affect the tribes in India and what was the tribal response to the colonial oppression?

2025

1. महात्मा ज्योतिराव फुले के समाज सुधार प्रयासों और लेखन ने समाज के लगभग सभी उपेक्षित तबकों की समस्याओं को छुआ है। चर्चा कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

Mahatma Jotirao Phule’s writings and efforts of social reforms touched issues of almost all subaltern classes. Discuss.

2026

1. भारत में औपनिवेशिक प्रशासन और शिक्षा पर मैकाले मिनट के प्रभाव की विवेचना कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Discuss the impact of Macaulay’s Minute on colonial administration and education in India.

2. 2. स्वतंत्रता संग्राम- इसके विभिन्न चरण और देश के विभिन्न भागों से इसमें अपना योगदान देने वाले महत्वपूर्ण व्यक्ति/उनका योगदान।

PYQ(YEAR)

2015

1. महत्मा गाँधी के बिना भारत की स्वतंत्रता की उपलब्धि कितनी भिन्न होती? चर्चा कीजिए। (200 शब्द)

How different would have been the achievement of Indian independence without Mahatma Gandhi? Discuss.

2. अपसारी उपागमों और रणनीतियों के होने के बावजूद, महात्मा गाँधी और डॉ. बी. आर. अम्बेडकर का दलितों की बेहतरी का एक समान लक्ष्य था। स्पष्ट कीजिये।

Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, despite having divergent approaches and strategies, had a common goal of amelioration of the downtrodden. Elucidate.

2016

1. स्वतंत्रता संग्राम में, विशेष तौर पर गाँधीवादी चरण के दौरान महिलाओं की भूमिका का विवेचन कीजिए। (200 शब्द)

Discuss the role of women in the freedom struggle especially during the Gandhian phase.

2. स्वतंत्रता के लिए संघर्ष में सुभाषचन्द्र बोस एवं महत्मा गाँधी के मध्य दृष्टिकोण की भिन्नताओं पर प्रकाश डालिए। (200 शब्द)

Highlight the differences in the approach of Subhash Chandra Bose and Mahatma Gandhi I the struggle for freedom.

2017

1. क्या कारण था कि उन्नसवीं शताब्दी के अंत तक आते-आते ‘नरमदलीय’ अपनी घोषित विचारधारा एवं राजनीतिक लक्ष्यों के प्रति राष्ट्र के विश्वास को जगाने में असफल हो गए थे? (150 शब्द)

Why did the ‘Moderates’ fail to carry conviction with the nation about their proclaimed ideology and political goals by the end of the nineteenth century?

2. पिछली शताब्दी के तीसरे दशक से भारतीय स्वतंत्रता की स्वप्न दृष्टि के साथ सम्बद्ध हो गए नए उद्देश्यों के महत्व को उजागर कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

Highlight the importance of the new objectives that got added to the vision of Indian independence since the twenties of the last century.

2018

1. वर्तमान समय में महात्मा गाँधी के विचारों के महत्व पर प्रकाश डालिए। (150 शब्द)

Throw light on the significance of the thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi in the present times.

2019

1. गाँधीवादी प्रावस्था के दौरान विभिन्न स्वरों ने राष्ट्रवादी आन्दोलन को सुदृढ़ एवं समृद्ध बनाया था। विस्तारपूर्वक स्पष्ट कीजिए।

Many voices had strengthened and enriched the nationalist movement during the Gandhian phase. Elaborate.

2020

1. लॉर्ड कर्जन की नीतियों एवं राष्ट्रीय आंदोलन पर उनके दूरगामी प्रभावों का मूल्यांकन कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Evaluate the policies of Lord Curzon and their long term implications on the national movement.

2. 1920 के दशक से राष्ट्रीय आंदोलन ने कई वैचारिक धाराओं को ग्रहण किया और अपना सामाजिक आधार बढ़ाया। विवेचना कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

Since the decade of the 1920s, the national movement acquired various ideological strands and thereby expanded its social base. Discuss.

2021

1. नरमपंथियों की भूमिका ने किस सीमा तक व्यापक स्वतंत्रता आन्दोलन का आधार तैयार किया? टिप्पणी कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

To what extent did the role of the Moderates prepare a base for the wider freedom movement? Comment.

2. असहयोग आन्दोलन एवं सविनय अवज्ञा आन्दोलन के दौरान महात्मा गाँधी के रचनात्मक कार्यक्रमों को स्पष्ट कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

Bring out the constructive programmes of Mahatma Gandhi during Non-Cooperation Movement and Civil Disobedience Movement.

2023

1. महत्मा गाँधी और रवीन्द्रनाथ टैगोर में शिक्षा और राष्ट्रवाद के प्रति सोच में क्या अंतर था? (150 शब्द)

What was the difference between Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore in their approach towards education and nationalism?

2024

1. वे कौन-सी घटनाएँ थीं जिनके कारण भारत छोड़ो आंदोलन शुरू हुआ? इसके परिणाम को स्पष्ट कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

What were the events that led to the Quit India Movement? Point out its results.

2026

1. गाँधीवादी आंदोलनों का महत्व उनके द्वारा संगठित जनसमूहों में निहित था। स्पष्ट कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

The significance of the Gandhian movements lay in the masses they mobilized. Elucidate.

3. स्वतंत्रता के पश्चात् देश के अंदर एकीकरण और पुनर्गठन।

PYQ(YEAR)

2014

1. क्या कारण है कि भारत में हरित क्रांति पूर्वी प्रदेश में उर्वरक मृदा और जल की बढ़िया उपलब्धता के बावजूद असलियत में उससे बच कर आगे निकल गई? (150 शब्द)

Why did the Green Revolution in India virtually by-pass the eastern region despite fertile soil and goo availability of water?

2015

1. स्वतन्त्र भारत के लिए संविधान का मसौदा केवल तीन साल में तैयार करने के ऐतिहासिक कार्य को पूर्ण करना संविधान सभा के लिए कठिन होता, यदि उनके पास भारत सरकार अधिनियम, 1935 से प्राप्त अनुभव नहीं होता। चर्चा कीजिये। (200 शब्द)

It would have been difficult for the Constituent Assembly to complete its historic task of drafting the Constitution for Independent India in just three years but for the experience gained with the Government of India Act, 1935. Discuss.

2016

1. क्या भाषाई राज्यों के गठन ने भारतीय एकता के उद्देश्य को मजबूती प्रदान की है? (200 शब्द)

Has the formation of linguistic States strengthened the cause of Indian Unity?

2017

1. स्वतन्त्रता के बाद अनुसूचित जनजातियों के प्रति भेदभाव को दूर करने के लिए, राज्य द्वारा की गई दो मुख्य विधिक पहलें क्या हैं? (150 शब्द)

What are the two major legal initiatives by the State since Independence, addressing discrimination against Scheduled Tribes?

2018

1. चर्चा करें कि क्या हाल के समय में नये राज्यों का निर्माण, भारत की अर्थव्यवस्था के लिए लाभप्रद है या नहीं है। (250 शब्द)

Discuss whether formation of new states in recent times is beneficial or not for the economy of India.

2021

1. भारतीय रियासतों के एकीकरण की प्रक्रिया में मुख्य प्रशासनिक मुद्दों एवं सामाजिक-सांस्कृतिक समस्याओं का आकलन कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Assess the main administrative issues and socio-cultural problems in the integration process of Indian Princely States.

2022

1. राज्यों एवं प्रदेशों का राजनीतिक और प्रशासनिक पुनर्गठन उन्नसवीं शताब्दी के मध्य से निरंतर चल रही एक प्रक्रिया है। उदाहरण सहित विचार करें। (250 शब्द)

The political and administrative reorganization of states and territories has been a continuous ongoing process since the mid-nineteenth century. Discuss with examples.

2025

1. राज्यतंत्र. अर्थव्यवस्था. शिक्षा और अंतर्राष्टीय संबन्धों के विषय में आजादी के प्रारम्भिक काल में भारत के सुदृढ़ीकरण की प्रक्रिया को रेखांकित कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

Trace India’s consolidation process during early phase of independence in terms of polity, economy, education and international relations.

2026

1. भारतीय राज्यों का भाषाई पुनर्गठन नीचे से उठे जन-दबाव द्वारा संचालित था। टिप्पणी कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

Linguistic reorganization of Indian States was driven by popular pressure from below. Comment.

2. भारत में योजनाबद्ध अर्थव्यवस्था का मॉडल अपनाया गया ताकि औपनिवेशिक शासन द्वारा छोड़े गए क्षेत्रीय असंतुलनों को मिटाया जा सके। टिप्पणी कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

The model of planned economy was adopted in India to address the regional imbalances left behind by colonial rule. Comment.

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UPSC MAINS GEOGRAPHY SYLLABUS WITH PYQ

2026-09-20T23:41:00.249+05:30

UPSC SYLLABUS WITH PYQ

GS I: भारतीय विरासत और संस्कृति, विश्व का इतिहास और समाज

भारतीय विरासत और संस्कृति-

आधुनिक भारत का इतिहास और स्वतंत्रता आंदोलन एवं आजादी के भारत-

3. स्वतंत्रता के पश्चात् देश के अंदर एकीकरण और पुनर्गठन।

विश्व का इतिहास-

विश्व एवं भारत का भूगोल-

1. विश्व का भौतिक भूगोल की मुख्य विशेषताएँ

2. विश्वभर के मुख्य प्राकृतिक संसाधनों का वितरण (दक्षिण एशिया और

भारतीय उपमहाद्वीप को शामिल करते हुए)।

भारतीय समाज-

1. भारतीय समाज की मुख्य विशेषताएँ।

2. भारत की विविधता।

3. महिलाओं की भूमिका और महिला संगठन।

4. जनसंख्या एवं संबद्ध मुद्दें।

5. गरीबी और विकासात्मक विषय।

6. शहरीकरण, उनकी समस्याएँ और उनके रक्षोपाय।

7. भारतीय समाज पर भूमण्डलीकरण का प्रभाव।

8. सामाजिक सशक्तिकरण, सम्प्रदायवाद, क्षेत्रवाद और धर्म निरपेक्षता।

विश्व एवं भारत का भूगोल विषय अनुरूप पिछले वर्ष के प्रश्न

1. विश्व का भौतिक भूगोल की मुख्य विशेषताएँ

PYQ(YEAR)

2014

1. क्या कारण है कि संसार का वलित पर्वत तंत्र महाद्वीपों के सीमांतों के साथ-साथ अवस्थित है? वलित पर्वतों के वैश्विक वितरण और भूकंपों एवं ज्वालामुखियों के बीच साहचर्य को उजागर कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Why are the world’s fold mountain systems located along the margins of continents? Bring out the association between the global distribution of fold mountains and the earthquakes and volcanoes.

2. इंडोनेशियाई और फिलिपीनी द्वीपसमूहों में हजारों द्वीपों के विरचन की व्याख्या कीजिए।

Explain the formation of thousands of islands in Indonesian and Philippines archipelagos.

2016

1. वर्तमान संदर्भ में दक्षिणी चीन सागर का भू-राजनीतिक महत्व बहुत बढ़ गया है। टिप्पणी कीजिए। (200 शब्द)

South China Sea has assumed great geopolitical significance in the present context. Comment.

2017

1. महासागरीय लवणता में विभिन्नताओं के कारण बताइए तथा इसके बहु-आयामी प्रभावों की विवेचना कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

Account for variations in oceanic salinity and discuss its multi-dimensional effects.

2019

1. पर्वत पारिस्थितिकी तंत्र को विकास पहलों और पर्यटन के ऋणात्मक प्रभाव से किस प्रकार पुनःस्थापित किया जा सकता है? (250 शब्द)

How can the mountain ecosystem be restored from the negative impact of development initiatives and tourism?

2020

1. परि-प्रशांत क्षेत्र के भू-भौतिकीय अभिलक्षणों का विवेचन कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Discuss the geophysical characteristics of Circum-Pacific Zone.

2021

1. हिमालय क्षेत्र तथा पश्चिमी घाटों में भू-स्खलनों के विभिन्न कारणों का अंतर स्पष्ट कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Differentiate the causes of landslides in the Himalayan region and Western Ghats.

2. भारत को एक उपमहाद्वीप क्यों माना जाता है? विस्तारपूर्वक उत्तर दीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Why is India considered as a subcontinent? Elaborate your answer.

3. विश्व की प्रमुख पर्वत श्रृंखलाओं के संरेखण का संक्षिप्त उल्लेख कीजिए तथा उनके स्थानीय मौसम पर पड़े प्रभावों का सोदाहरण वर्णन कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

Briefly mention the alignment of major mountain ranges of the world and explain their impact on local weather conditions, with examples.

2022

1. प्राथमिक चट्टानों की विशेषताओं एवं प्रकारों का वर्णन कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Describe the characteristics and types of primary rocks.

2. ‘दक्कन ट्रैप’ की प्राकृतिक संसाधन सम्भावनाओं की चर्चा कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Discuss the natural resource potentials of ‘Deccan Trap’.

3. क्षोभमण्डल वायुमंडल का एक महत्वपूर्ण परत है जो मौसम प्रक्रियाओं को निर्धारित करता है। कैसे? (250 शब्द)

Troposphere is a very significant atmospheric layer that determines whether processes. How?

2023

1. फियॉर्ड कैसे बनते हैं? वे दुनिया के कुछ सबसे सुरम्य क्षेत्रों का निर्माण क्यों करते हैं? (150 शब्द)

How are the fiords formed? Why do they constitute some of the most picturesque areas of the world?

2. दक्षिण-पश्चिम मानसून भोजपुर क्षेत्र में पुरवैया (पूर्वी) क्यों कहलाता है? इस दिशापरक मौसमी पवन प्रणाली ने क्षेत्र के सांस्कृतिक लोकाचार को कैसे प्रभावित किया है? (150 शब्द)

Why is the South-West Monsoon called ‘Purvaiya (easterly) in Bhojpur Region? How has this directional seasonal win system influenced the cultured ethos of the region?

3. भारत की लंबी तटरेखीय संसाधन क्षमताओं पर टिप्पणी कीजिए और इन क्षेत्रों में प्राकृतिक खतरे की तैयारी की स्थिति पर प्रकाश डालिए। (250 शब्द)

Comment on the resource potentials of the long coastline of India and highlight the status of natural hazard preparedness in these areas.

2024

1. ऑरोरा ऑस्ट्रेलिस और ऑरोरा बोरियालिस क्या है? ये कैसे उत्प्रेरित होते हैं? (250 शब्द)

What are aurora australis and aurora borealis? How are these triggered?

2025

1. चर्चा कीजिए कि ग्रह के महाद्वीपों और महासागरीय बेसिनों के आकार और माप (साइज) में, क्रस्टल द्रव्यमानों की टेक्टोनिक गतिविधियों के कारण, परिवर्तन कैसे होते हैं। (250 शब्द)

Discuss how the changes in shapes and sizes of continents and ocean basins of the planet take place due to tectonic movements of the crustal masses.

2. विश्वभर के मुख्य प्राकृतिक संसाधनों का वितरण (दक्षिण एशिया और भारतीय उपमहाद्वीप को शामिल करते हुए)।

PYQ(YEAR)

2014

1. विश्व में लौह एवं इस्पात उद्योग के स्थानिक प्रतिरूप में परिवर्तन का विवरण दीजिए। (150 शब्द) (2014)

Account for the change in the spatial pattern of the Iron and Steel industry in the world.

2. विश्व के संसाधन संकट से निपटने के लिए महासागरों के विभिन्न संसाधनों, जिनका उपयोग किया जा सकता है, का आलोचनात्मक मूल्यांकन कीजिए। (150 शब्द) (2014)

Critically evaluate the various resources of the oceans which can be harnessed to meet the resource crisis in the world.

3. उभरते प्राकृतिक संसाधन समृद्ध अफ्रीका के आर्थिक क्षेत्र में भारत अपना क्या स्थान देखता है?

How does India see its place in the economic space of rising natural resource rich Africa?

2015

1. भारत अलवणजल (फ्रेश वाटर) संसाधनों से सुसंपन्न है। समालोचनापूर्वक परीक्षण कीजिए कि क्या कारण है कि भारत इसके बावजूद जलाभाव से ग्रसित है।

India is well endowed with fresh water resources. Critically examine why it still suffers from water scarcity.

2. उत्तरध्रुव सागर में तेल की खोज के क्या आर्थिक महत्व हैं और उसके संभव पर्यावरणीय परिणाम क्या होंगे?

What are the economic significances of discovery of oil in Arctic Sea and its possible environmental consequences?

2016

1. भूमि एवं जल संसाधनों का प्रभावी प्रबंधन मानव विपत्तियों को प्रबल रूप से कम कर देगा। स्पष्ट कीजिए। (200 शब्द)

The effective management of land and water resources will drastically reduce the human miseries. Explain.

2. सिंधु जल संधि का एक विवरण प्रस्तुत कीजिए तथा बदलते हुए द्विपक्षीय संबंधों के संदर्भ में उसके पारिस्थितिक, आर्थिक एवं राजनीतिक निहितार्थों का परीक्षण कीजिए। (200 शब्द)

Present an account of the Indus Water Treaty and examine its ecological, economic and political implications in the context of changing bilateral relations.

3. भारत में अंतर्देशीय जल परिवहन की समस्याओं एवं सम्भावनाओं को गिनाइए। (200 शब्द)

Enumerate the problems and prospects of inland water transport in India.

4. भारत के सूखा-प्रवण एवं अर्द्धशुष्क प्रदेशों में लघु जलसंभर विकास परियोजनाएँ किस प्रकार जल संरक्षण में सहायक हैं?

In what way micro-watershed development projects help in water conservation in drought-prone and semi-arid regions and India?

2017

1. प्रतिकूल पर्यावरणीय प्रभाव के बावजूद, कोयला खनन विकास के लिए अभी भी अपरिहार्य है। विवेचना कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

In spite of adverse environmental impact, coal mining is still inevitable for development. Discuss.

2018

1. भारतीय प्रादेशिक नौपरिवहन उपग्रह प्रणाली( आई. आर. एन. एस. एस.) की आवश्यकता क्यों है? यह नौपरिवहन में किस प्रकार सहायक है? (150 शब्द)

Why is Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS) needed? How does it help in navigation?

2. भारत आर्कटिक प्रदेश के संसाधनों में किस कारण गहन रुचि ले रहा है? (150 शब्द)

Why is India taking keen interest in resources of Arctic Region?

3. “भारत में अवक्षयी (डिप्लीटिंग) भौम जल संसाधनों का आदर्श समाधान जल संरक्षण प्रणाली है।“ शहरी क्षेत्रों में इसको किस प्रकार प्रभावी बनाया जा सकता है? (250 शब्द)

“The ideal solution of depleting ground water resources in India is water harvesting system.” How can it be made effective in urban areas?

4. भारत में महत्वाकांक्षी जिलों के कायाकल्प के लिए मूल रणनीतियों का उल्लेख कीजिए और इसकी सफलता के लिए, अभिसरण, सहयोग व प्रतिस्पर्धा की प्रकृति को स्पष्ट कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

Mention core strategies for the transformation of aspirational districts in India and explain the nature of convergence, collaboration and competition for its success.

2019

1. क्या प्रादेशिक संसाधन आधारित विनिर्माण की रणनीति भारत में रोज़गार की प्रोन्नति करने में सहायक हो सकती है? (150 शब्द)

Can the strategy of regional resource-based manufacturing help in promoting Demployment in India?

2. जल प्रतिबल (वॉटर स्ट्रैस) का क्या मतलब है? भारत में यह किस प्रकार और किस कारण प्रादेशिकतः भिन्न-भिन्न है? (250 शब्द)

What is water stress? How and why does it differ regionally in India?

3. दक्ष और किफायती (ऐफोर्डेबल) शहरी सार्वजनिक परिवहन किस प्रकार भारत के द्रुत आर्थिक विकास की कुंजी है? (250 शब्द)

How is efficient and affordable urban mass transport key to the rapid economic development of India?

2020

1. हिमालय के हिमनदों के पिघलने का भारत के जल संसाधनों पर किस प्रकार दूरगामी प्रभाव होगा? ( 150 शब्द)

How will the melting of Himalayan glaciers have a far-reaching impact on the water resources of India?

2. वर्तमान में लौह एवं इस्पात उद्योगों की कच्चे माल के स्रोत से दूर स्थिति का उदाहरणों सहित कारण बताइए। (150 शब्द)

Account for the present location of iron and steel industries away from the source of raw material, by giving examples.

3. भारत में सौर उर्जा की प्रचुर संभावनाएँ हैं हालांकि इसके विकास में क्षेत्रीय भिन्नताएँ हैं। विस्तृत वर्णन कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

India has immense potential of solar energy though there are regional variations in its development. Elaborate.

4. भारत के वन संसाधनों की स्थिति एवं जलवायु परिवर्तन पर उसके परिणामी प्रभावों का परीक्षण कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

Examine the status of forest resources of India and its resultant impact on climate change.

2021

1. शहरी भूमि उपयोग के लिए जल निकायों से भूमि-उद्धार के पर्यावरणीय प्रभाव क्या हैं? उदाहरणों सहित समझाइए। (150 शब्द)

What are the environmental implications of the reclamation of water bodies into urban land use? Explain with examples.

2. विश्व में खनिज तेल के असमान वितरण के बहुआयामी प्रभावों की विवेचना कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

Discuss the multi-dimensional implications of uneven distribution of mineral oil in the world.

2022

1. ‘दक्कन ट्रैप’ की प्राकृतिक संसाधन सम्भावनाओं की चर्चा कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Discuss the natural resource potentials of ‘Deccan Trap’.

2. भारत में पवन उर्जा की संभावना का परीक्षण कीजिए एवं उनके सीमित क्षेत्रीय विस्तार के कारणों को समझाइए। (150 शब्द)

Examine the potential of wind energy in India and explain the reasons for their limited spatial spread.

3. रबर उत्पादक देशों के वितरण का वर्णन करते हुए उनके द्वारा सामना किए जाने वाले प्रमुख पर्यावरणीय मुद्दों को इंगित कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

Describing the distribution of rubber producing countries, indicate the major environmental issues faced by them.

4. अपर्याप्त संसाधनों की दुनिया में भूमंडलीकरण एवं नए तकनीक के रिश्ते को भारत के विशेष सन्दर्भ में स्पष्ट करें। (250 शब्द)

Elucidate the relationship between globalization and new technology in a world of scarce resources, with special reference of India.

2023

1. आज विश्व ताजे जल के संसाधनों की उपलब्धता और पहुँच के संकट से क्यों जूझ रहा है? (150 शब्द)

Why is the world today confronted with a crisis of availability of and access to freshwater resources?

2. भारत में मानव विकास आर्थिक विकास के साथ कदमताल करने में विफल क्यों हुआ? (250 शब्द)

Why did human development fail to keep pace with economic development in India?

2024

1. छोटे शहरों की तुलना में बड़े शहर प्रवासियों को क्यों आकर्षित करते हैं? विकासशील देशों की स्थितियों के आलोक में इसकी विवेचना कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Why do large cities tend to attract more migrants that smaller towns? Discuss in the light of conditions in developing countries.

2. जनसंख्या शीत (डेमोग्राफिक विन्टर) की अवधारणा क्या है? क्या यह दुनिया ऐसी स्थिति की ओर अग्रसर है? विस्तार से बताइए।

What is the concept of a ‘demographic winter’? Is the world moving towards such a situation? Elaborate.

3. गंगा घाटी की भूजल क्षमता में गंभीर गिरावट आ रही है। यह भारत की खाद्य-सुरक्षा को कैसे प्रभावित कर सकती है? (250 शब्द)

The groundwater potential of the gangetic valley is on a serious decline. How may it affect the food security of India?

2025

1. उपयुक्त उदाहरणों के साथ, भारत में सौर उर्जा उत्पादन के पारिस्थितिक और आर्थिक लाभों की संक्षेप में व्याख्या कीजिए।(150 शब्द)

Explain briefly the ecological and economic benefits of solar energy generation in India with suitable examples.

2. विश्व के अपतटीय तेल भंडारों के वितरण का भौगोलिक स्पष्टीकरण दीजिए। वे तटवर्ती तेल भंडारों से किस प्रकार भिन्न हैं? (250 शब्द)

Give a geographical explanation of the distribution of off-shore oil reserves of the world. How are they different from the on-shore occurrences of oil reserves?

3. भूमि, मिट्टी और जल संसाधनों के विशेष संदर्भ के साथ गंगा नदी बेसिन में जनसंख्या वितरण और घनत्व पर चर्चा कीजिए (250 शब्द)

Discuss the distribution and density of population in the Ganga River Basin with special reference to land, soil and water resources.

2026

1. दक्षिणी एशिया में जल संसाधन, सम्पत्ति और विवाद का स्रोत दोनों है। उदाहरण देते हुए इस कथन का परीक्षण कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

“Water resources are both an asset and a source of conflict in south Asia.” Examine this statement giving examples.

2. भारत में मानवजन्य भूमि-उपयोग परिवर्तनों के प्रमुख कारकों और उनके भौगोलिक परिणामों का विश्लेषण कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

Analyze the major drivers of human-induced land-use changes in India and their geographical consequences.

3. विश्व (भारत सहित) के विभिन्न भागों में प्राथमिक, द्वितीयक और तृतीयक क्षेत्र के उद्योगों को स्थापित करने के लिए जिम्मेदार कारक।

PYQ(YEAR)

2016

1. प्रादेशिकता का क्या आधार है? क्या ऐसा प्रादेशिक स्तर पर विकास के लाभों के असमान वितरण से हुआ, जिसने कि अंततः प्रादेशिकता को बढ़ावा दिया? अपने उत्तर की पुष्टि कीजिए। (200 शब्द)

What is the basis of regionalism? Is it that unequal distribution of benefits of development on regional basis eventually promotes regionalism? Substantiate your answer.

2017

1. दलहन की कृषि के लाभों का उल्लेख कीजिए जिसके कारण संयुक्त राष्ट्र के द्वारा वर्ष 2016 को अन्तर्राष्ट्रीय दलहन वर्ष घोषित किया गया था। (150 शब्द)

Mention the advantages of the cultivation of pulses because of which the year 2016 was declared as the International Year of Pulses by the United Nations.

2. पेट्रोल रिफ़ाइनरियाँ आवश्यक रूप से कच्चा तेल उत्पादक क्षेत्रों के समीप अवस्थित नहीं हैं. विशेषकर अनेक विकासशील देशों में। इसके निहितार्थों को स्पष्ट कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

Petroleum refineries are not necessarily located nearer to crude oil producing areas, particularly in many of the developing countries. Explain its implications.

3. सूचना प्रौद्योगिकी केन्द्रों के रूप में नगरों की संवृद्धि ने रोज़गार के नए मार्ग खोल दिए हैं। परन्तु साथ में नई समस्याएँ भी पैदा कर दी हैं। उदाहरणों सहित इस कथन की पुष्टि कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

The growth of cities as I. T. hubs has opened up new avenues of employment, but has also created new problems. Substantiate this statement with examples.

2018

1. ‘नीली क्रांति को परिभाषित करते हुए भारत में मत्स्यपालन की समस्याओं और रणनीतियों को समझाइये। (250 शब्द)

Defining blue revolution, explain the problems and strategies for pisciculture development in India.

2. भारत में औद्योगिक गलियारों का क्या महत्व है? औद्योगिक गलियारों को चिह्नित करते हुए उनके प्रमुख अभिलक्षणों को समझाइये। (250 शब्द)

What is the significance of Industrial Corridors in India? Identifying industries corridors, explain their main characteristics.

2019

1. उत्तर-पश्चिमी भारत के कृषि आधारित खाद्य प्रक्रमण उद्योगों के स्थानीयकरण के कारकों पर चर्चा कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Discuss the factors for localization of agro-based food processing industries of North-West India.

2020

1. नदियों को आपस में जोड़ना सूखा, बाढ़ और बाधित जल परिवहन जैसी बहु-आयामी अन्तर्सम्बन्धित समस्याओं का व्यवहार्य समाधान दे सकता है। आलोचनात्मक परीक्षण कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

The interlinking of rivers can provide viable solutions to the multi-dimensional inter-related problems of droughts, floods and interrupted navigation. Critically examine.

2021

1. गोंडवानालैंड के देशों में से एक होने के बावजूद भारत के खनन उद्योग अपने सकल घरेलू उत्पाद (जी. डी. पी.) में बहुत कम प्रतिशत का योगदान देते हैं। विवेचना कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Despite India being one of the countries of the Gondwanaland, its mining industry contributes much less to its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) percentage. Discuss.

2. भारत के प्रमुख शहरों में आई. टी. उद्योगों के विकास से उत्पन्न होने वाले मुख्य सामाजिक-आर्थिक प्रभाव क्या हैं? (250 शब्द)

What are the main socio-economic implications arising out of the development of IT industries in major cities of India?

2022

1. समुद्री धाराओं को प्रभावित करने वाली शक्तियाँ कौन सी हैं? विश्व के मत्स्य उद्योग में इनके योगदान का वर्णन करें। (250 शब्द)

What are the forces that influence ocean currents? Describe their role in fishing industry of the world.

2. अंतर्राष्ट्रीय व्यापार में जलसंधि व स्थलसंधि के महत्तव का उल्लेख कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

Mention the significance of straits and isthmus in international trade.

2023

1. 1960 के दशक में शुद्ध खाद्य आयातक से, भारत विश्व में एक शुद्ध खाद्य निर्यातक के रूप में उभरा। कारण दीजिए। (250 शब्द)

From being net food importer in 1960s, India has emerged as a net food exporter to the world. Provide reasons.

2024

Why do large cities tend to attract more migrants that smaller towns? Discuss in the light of conditions in developing countries.

What is the concept of a ‘demographic winter’? Is the world moving towards such a situation? Elaborate.

2025

1. गैर-कृषि प्राथमिक गतिविधियाँ क्या हैं? ये गतिविधियाँ भारत में भौगोलिक विशेषताओं से किस प्रकार संबंधित है? उपयुक्त उदाहरणों के साथ चर्चा कीजिए (150 शब्द)

What are non-farm primary activities? How are these activities related to physiographic features in India? Discuss with suitable examples.

2. स्थानीय और क्षेत्रीय योजना बनाने में जी.आई. एस. और आर. एस. तकनीकों के साथ कृत्रिम बुद्धिमत्ता (ए. आई.) और ड्रोन का प्रभावी ढ़ंग से उपयोग कैसे किया जा सकता है? (250 शब्द)

How can Artificial Intelligence (AI) and drones be effectively used along with GIS and RS techniques in locational and areal planning?

2026

1. भारत में जलवायु-अनुकूल (क्लाइमेट-स्मार्ट) कृषि एवं खाद्य सुरक्षा को हासिल करने में उपग्रह-आधारित तकनीकियों की भूमिका का विश्लेषण कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

Analyze the role of satellite-based technologies in achieving climate-smart agriculture and food security in India.

2. “वैश्विक व्यापार का केन्द्र अटलांटिक प्रदेश से हिन्द-प्रशांत (इण्डो-पैसिफिक) प्रदेश की ओर धीरे-धीरे स्थानान्तरित हो रहा है।“ इस कथन का परीक्षण कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

“The centre of global trade is gradually shifting from the Atlantic region to the Indo-Pacific region.” Examine this statement.

4. भूकंप, सुनामी, ज्वालामुखीय हलचल, चक्रवात आदि जैसे महत्वपूर्ण भू- भौतिकीय घटनाएँ।

PYQ(YEAR)

2014

1. असामान्य जलवायवी घटनाओं में से अधिकांश एल-नीनो प्रभाव के परिणाम के तौर पर स्पष्ट की जाती हैं। क्या आप सहमत है? (150 शब्द)

Most of the unusual climatic happenings are explained as an outcome of the El-Nino effects. Do you agree?

2. उष्णकटिबंधीय चक्रवात अधिकांशतः दक्षिणी चीन सागर, बंगाल की खाड़ी और मैक्सिको की खाड़ी तक ही परिसीमित रहते हैं। ऐसा क्यों हैं? (150 शब्द)

Tropical cyclones are largely confined to south China Sea, Bay of Bengal and Gulf of Mexico. Why?

3. भारतीय उपमहाद्वीप में घटती हुई हिमालयी हिमनदियों/ग्लेशियरों और जलवायु परिवर्तन के लक्षणों के बीच सम्बन्ध उजागर कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Bring out the relationship between the shrinking Himalayan glaciers and the symptoms of climate change in the Indian sub-continent.

2015

1. महासागरीय धाराओं की उत्पत्ति के उत्तरदायी कारकों को स्पष्ट कीजिए। वे प्रादेशिक जलवायुओं, समुद्री जीवन तथा नौचालन को किस प्रकार प्रभावित करती हैं? (200 शब्द)

Explain the factors responsible for the origin of ocean currents. How do they influence regional climates, fishing, and navigation?

2. मुंबई, दिल्ली और कोलकाता देश के तीन विराट नगर हैं, परन्तु दिल्ली में वायु प्रदूषण, अन्य दो नगरों की तुलना में कहीं अधिक गंभीर समस्या है। इसका क्या कारण है? (200 शब्द)

Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata are the three mega cities of the country but the air pollution is much more serious problem in Delhi as compared to the other two. Why is this so?

3. आप कहाँ तक सहमत हैं कि मानवकारी दृश्यभूमियों के कारण भारतीय मानसून के आचरण में परिवर्तन होता रहा है? चर्चा कीजिए। (200 शब्द)

How far do you agree that the behaviour of the Indian monsoon has been changing due to humanizing landscapes? Discuss.

2016

1. वायु संहति की संकल्पना की विवेचना कीजिए तथा विस्तृत क्षेत्री जलवायवी परिवर्तनों में उसकी भूमिका को स्पष्ट कीजिए। (200 शब्द)

Discuss the concept of air mass and explain its role in macro-climatic changes.

2. हिमालय भूस्खलनों के प्रति अत्यधिक प्रवण हैं। कारणों की विवेचना कीजिए तथा अल्पीकरण के उपयुक्त उपाय सुझाए। (200 शब्द)

The Himalayas are highly prone to landslide. Discuss the causes and suggest suitable measures of mitigation.

3. भारत के प्रमुख नगर बाढ़ दशाओं से अधिक असुरक्षित होते जा रहे हैं। विवेचना कीजिए। (200 शब्द)

Major critics of India are becoming more vulnerable to flood conditions. Discuss.

2017

1. भारत में बाढ़ों को सिंचाई के और सभी मौसम में अन्तर्देशीय नौसंचालन के एक धारणीय स्रोत में किस प्रकार परिवर्तित किया जा सकता है।? (250 शब्द)

In what way can floods be converted into a sustainable source of irrigation and all-weather inland navigation in India?

2. मानसून एशिया में रहने वाली संसार की 50 प्रतिशत से अधिक जनसंख्या के भरण-पोषण में सफल मानसून जलवायु को क्या अभिलक्षण समानुदेशित किये जा सकते हैं? (250 शब्द)

What characteristics can be assigned to monsoon climate that succeeds in feeding more than 50 percent of the world population residing in Monsoon Asia?

2018

1. मेंटल प्लूम को परिभाषित कीजिए और प्लेट विवर्तनिकी में इसकी भूमिका को स्पष्ट कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Define mantle plume and explain its role in plate tectonics.

2020

The interlinking of rivers can provide viable solutions to the multi-dimensional inter-related problems of droughts, floods and interrupted navigation. Critically examine.

2. भारत में दशलक्षीय नगरों हैदराबाद एवं पुणे जैसे स्मार्ट सिटीज़ भी सम्मिलित हैं, में व्यापक बाढ़ के कारण बताइए। स्थायी निराकरण के उपाय भी सुझाइए। (250 शब्द)

Account for the huge flooding of million cities in India including the smart ones like Hyderabad and Pune. Suggest lasting remedial measure.

2021

Differentiate the causes of landslides in the Himalayan region and Western Ghats.

2. 2021 में घटित ज्वालामुखी विस्फोटों की वैश्विक घटनाओं का उल्लेख करते उनके द्वारा पड़े प्रभाव को बताइए। (150 शब्द)

Mention the global occurrence of volcanic eruptions in 2021 and their impact on regional environment.

3. आर्कटिक की बर्फ और अंटार्कटिक के ग्लेशियरों का पिघलना किस तरह अलग-अलग ढंग से पृथ्वी पर मौसम के स्वरूप और मनुष्य की गतिविधियों पर प्रभाव डालते हैं? स्पष्ट कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

How do the melting of the Arctic ice and glaciers of the Antarctic differently affect the weather patterns and human activities on the Earth? Explain.

2022

1. भारतीय मौसम विज्ञान विभाग द्वारा चक्रवात प्रवण क्षेत्रों के लिए मौसम सम्बन्धी चेतावनियों के लिए निर्धारित रंग-संकेत के अर्थ की चर्चा करें। (150 शब्द)

Discuss the meaning of colour-coded weather warning for cyclone prone areas given by India Meteorological Department.

2023

1. उष्णकटिबंधीय देशों में खाद्य सुरक्षा पर जलवायु परिवर्तन के परिणामों की विवेचना कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Discuss the consequences of climate change on food security in tropical countries.

2024

1. समुद्री सतह के तापमान में वृद्धि क्या है? यह उष्णकटिबंधीय चक्रवातों के निर्माण को कैसे प्रभावित करता है? (150 शब्द)

What is sea surface temperature rise? How does it affect the formation of tropical cyclones?

2. ‘बादल फटने’ की परिघटना क्या है? व्याख्या कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

What is the phenomenon of ‘cloudbursts’? Explain.

3. ट्विस्टर क्या है? मेक्सिको की खाड़ी के आसपास के क्षेत्रों में अधिकतर ट्विस्टर क्यों देखे जाते हैं? (250 शब्द)

What is a twister? Why are the majority of twisters observed in areas around the Gulf of Mexico?

2025

1. जलवायु परिवर्तन और समुद्र स्तर में वृद्धि कई द्वीपों देशों के अस्तित्व को कैसे प्रभावित कर रही है? उदाहरणों के साथ चर्चा कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

How are climate change and the sea level rise affecting the very existence of many island nations? Discuss with examples.

2. सुनामी क्या है? वे कैसे और कहाँ बनती हैं? उनके परिणाम क्या हैं? उदाहरणों सहित समझाइए। (150 शब्द)

What are Tsunamis? How and where are they formed? What are their consequences? Explain with examples.

2026

1. फुजिह्वारा प्रभाव क्या है? उष्णकटिबन्धीय चक्रवातों के संचलन तथा तीव्रता पर पड़ने वाले इसके प्रभाव को समझाइए। (150 शब्द)

What is the Fujiwhara effect? Explain its impact on the movement and intensity of tropical cyclones.

2. मरुस्थलीकरण और भूमि अवनयन में वयुजनित प्रक्रियाओं की भूमिका की विवेचना कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Discuss the role of Aeolian processes in desertification and land degradation.

3. लू, चिनूक और फॉन हवाओं की, उनके पाये जाने वाले क्षेत्र, उनकी प्रकृति और जलवायविक प्रभावों के आधार पर, तुलना कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

Compare the Loo, Chinook and Foehn winds with respect to their regions of prevalence, their nature and climatic impacts.

PYQ(YEAR)

2015

1. पर्यटन की प्रोन्नति के कारण जम्मू और कश्मीर, हिमाचल प्रदेश और उत्तराखण्ड के राज्य अपनी पारिस्थितिक वहन क्षमता की सीमाओं तक पहुँच रहे हैं? समालोचनात्मक मूल्यांकन कीजिये। (200 शब्द) (200 शब्द)

The states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are reaching the limits of their ecological carrying capacity due to tourism. Critically evaluate.

2. आप कहाँ तक सहमत हैं कि मानवकारी दृश्यभूमियों के कारण भारतीय मानसून के आचरण में परिवर्तन होता रहा है? चर्चा कीजिए। (200 शब्द)

How far do you agree that the behaviour of the Indian monsoon has been changing due to humanizing landscapes? Discuss.

2017

1. हिमांक-मंडल (क्रायोस्फ़ीयर) वैश्विक जलवायु को किस प्रकार प्रभावित करता है? (150 शब्द)

How does the cryosphere affect global climate?

2018

1. समुद्री पारिस्थितिकी पर ‘मृतक्षेत्रों (डेड ज़ोन्स)’ के विस्तार के क्या-क्या परिणाम होते हैं? (150 शब्द)

What are the consequences of spreading of ‘Dead Zones’ on marine ecosystem?

2019

1. वैश्विक तापन का प्रवाल जीवन तंत्र पर प्रभाव का, उदाहरणों के साथ, आकलन कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Assess the impact of global warming on the coral life system with examples.

2. मैंग्रोवों के रिक्तीकरण के कारणों पर चर्चा कीजिए और तटीय पारिस्थितिकी का अनुरक्षण करने में इनके महत्त्व को स्पष्ट कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Discuss the causes of depletion of mangroves and explain their importance in maintaining coastal ecology.

3. महासागर धाराएँ और जल राशियाँ समुद्री जीवन और तटीय पर्यावरण पर अपने प्रभावों में किस-किस प्रकार परस्पर भिन्न हैं? उपयुक्त उदाहरण दीजिए। (250 शब्द)

How do ocean currents and water masses differ in their impacts on marine life and coastal environment? Give suitable examples.

2023

1. भारत में प्राकृतिक वनस्पति की विविधता के लिए उत्तरदायी कारकों को पहचानिए और उनकी विवेचना कीजिए। भारत के वर्षा-वन क्षेत्रों में वन्यजीव अभ्यारण्यों के महत्त्व का आकलन कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

Identify and discuss the factors responsible for diversity of natural vegetation in India. Assess the significance of wildlife sanctuaries in rain forest regions of India.

2026

1. टुण्ड्रा प्रदेश पारिस्थितिक दृष्टि से नाजुक लेकिन आर्थिक दृष्टि से महत्वपूर्ण है। इस कथन का आलचनात्मक परीक्षण कीजिए।( 150 शब्द)

“Tundra regions are ecologically fragile but economically important.” Examine the statement critically.

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UPSC MAINS SYLLABUS WITH TOPIC: GS1-Art and culture

2026-09-17T20:39:34.443+05:30

UPSC SYLLABUS WITH PYQ

GS I: भारतीय विरासत और संस्कृति, विश्व का इतिहास और समाज

भारतीय विरासत और संस्कृति-

आधुनिक भारत का इतिहास और स्वतंत्रता आंदोलन एवं आजादी के भारत-

3. स्वतंत्रता के पश्चात् देश के अंदर एकीकरण और पुनर्गठन।

विश्व का इतिहास-

विश्व एवं भारत का भूगोल-

1. विश्व का भौतिक भूगोल की मुख्य विशेषताएँ

2. विश्वभर के मुख्य प्राकृतिक संसाधनों का वितरण (दक्षिण एशिया और

भारतीय उपमहाद्वीप को शामिल करते हुए)।

भारतीय समाज-

1. भारतीय समाज की मुख्य विशेषताएँ।

2. भारत की विविधता।

3. महिलाओं की भूमिका और महिला संगठन।

4. जनसंख्या एवं संबद्ध मुद्दें।

5. गरीबी और विकासात्मक विषय।

6. शहरीकरण, उनकी समस्याएँ और उनके रक्षोपाय।

7. भारतीय समाज पर भूमण्डलीकरण का प्रभाव।

8. सामाजिक सशक्तिकरण, सम्प्रदायवाद, क्षेत्रवाद और धर्म निरपेक्षता।

भारतीय विरासत और संस्कृति टॉपिक अनुरूप पिछले वर्ष के प्रश्न

1. भारतीय संस्कृति में प्राचीन काल से आधुनिक काल तक के कला के रूप, साहित्य और वास्तुकला के मुख्य पहलू शामिल होंगे।

PYQ(YEAR)

2014

1. सिंधु घाटी की सभ्यता की नगरीय आयोजना और संस्कृति ने किस सीमा तक वर्तमान युगीन नगरीकरण को निवेश(इनपुट) प्रदान किए है? चर्चा कीजिए।(150 शब्द)

To what extent has the urban planning and culture of the Indus Valley Civilization Provided inputs to the present day urbanization? Discuss

2. गांधार मूर्तिकला रोमनवासियों की उतनी ही ऋणी थी जितनी कि वह यूनानियों की थी। स्पष्ट कीजिए।(150 शब्द)

Gandhara sculpture owed as much to the Romans as to the Greeks. Explain.

3. तक्षशिला विश्वविद्यालय विश्व के प्राचीनतम विश्वविद्यालयों में से एक था जिसके साथ विभिन्न शिक्षण-विष्यों(डिसिप्लिन्स) के अनेक विख्यात विद्वानी व्यक्तित्व सम्बन्धित थे। उसकी रणनीतिक अवस्थिति के कारण उसकी कीर्ति फैली, लेकिन नालन्दा के विपरीत, उसे आधुनिक अभिप्राय में विश्वविद्यालय नहीं समझा जाता। चर्चा कीजिए।(150 शब्द)

Taxila university was one of the oldest universities of the world with which were associated a number of renowned learned personalities of different disciplines. Its strategic location caused its fame to flourish, but unlike Nalanda, it is not considered as a university in the modern sense. Discuss.

4. सूफी और मध्यकालीन रहस्यवादी सिद्ध पुरुष(संत) हिन्दू/मुस्लिम के धार्मिक विचारों और रीतियों को या उनकी बाह्य संरचना को पर्याप्त सीमा तक रूपांतरित करने में विफल रहे। टिप्पणी कीजिए।(150 शब्द)

Sufis and medieval mystic saints failed to modify either the religious ideas and practices or the outward structure of Hindu/Muslim societies to any appreciable extent. Comment.

2015

1. ''भारत की प्राचीन सभ्यता, मिस्र, मीसोपोटामिया और ग्रीस की सभ्यताओं से, इस बात में भिन्न है कि भारतीय उपमहाद्वीप की परंपराएँ आज तक भंग हुए बिना परिरक्षित की गई हैं।'' टिप्पणी कीजिए। (200 शब्द)

The ancient civilization in Indian sub-continent differed from those of Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece in that its culture and traditions have been preserved without a breakdown to the present day. Comment.

2. 'भारत की मध्यपाषाण शिला-कला न केवल उस काल के सांस्कृतिक जीवन को सांस्कृतिक जीवन को, बल्कि आधुनिक चित्रकला से तुलनीय परिष्कृत सौंदर्य-बोध को भी, प्रतिबिंबित करती है।' इस टिप्पणी का समालोचनात्मक मूल्यांकन कीजिए। (200 शब्द)

Mesolithic rock cut architecture of India not only reflects the cultural life of the times but also a fine aesthetic sense comparable to modern painting. Critically evaluate this comment.

2016

1. प्रारंभिक बौद्ध स्तूप-कला, लोक वर्ण्य-विषयों एवं कथानकों को चित्रित करते हुए बौद्ध आदर्शों की सफलतापूर्वक व्याख्या करती है। विशदीकरण कीजिए।(200 शब्द)

Early Buddhist Stupa-art, while depicting folk motifs and narratives successfully expounds Buddhist ideals Elucidate.

2. विजयनगर नरेश कृष्णदेव राय न केवल स्वयं एक कुशल विद्वान थे अपितु विद्या एवं साहित्य के महान संरक्षक भी थे। विवेचना कीजिए।(200 शब्द)

Krishndeva Raya, the King of Vijaynagar, was not only an accomplished scholar himself but was also a great patron of learning and literature. Discuss.

2017

1. आप इस विचार को, कि गुप्तकालीन सिक्काशास्त्रीय कला की उत्कृष्टता का स्तर बाद के समय में नितांत दर्शनीय नहीं है, किस प्रकार सही सिद्ध करेंगे?(150 शब्द)

How do you justify the view that the level of excellence of the Gupta numismatic art is not at all noticeable in later times?

2018

1. भारतीय कला विरासत का संरक्षण वर्तमान समय की आवश्यकता है। चर्चा कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Safeguarding the Indian art heritage is the need of the moment. Discuss.

2. भारत के इतिहास की पुनर्रचना में चीनी और अरबी यात्रियों के वृत्तांतों के महत्व का आकलन कीजिए।(150 शब्द)

Assess the importance of the accounts of the Chinese and Arab travellers in the reconstruction of the history of India.

3. श्री चैतन्य महप्रभु के आगमन से भक्ति आंदोलन को एक असाधारण नई दिशा मिली थी। चर्चा करें।(250 शब्द(

The Bhakti movement received a remarkable re-orientation with the advent of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Discuss.

2019

1. गांधाराई कला में मध्य एशियाई एवं यूनानी - बैक्ट्रियाई तत्वों को उजागर कीजिए। )150 शब्द(

Highlight the Central Asian and Greco-Bactrian elements in the Ghandhara art.

2. क्या हमारे राष्ट्र में सर्वत्र लघु भारत के सांस्कृतिक क्षेत्र हैं? उपयुक्त उदाहरण दीजिए। (250 शब्द(

Do we have cultural pockets of small India all over the nation? Elaborate with examples.

2020

1. शैलकृत स्थापत्य प्रारंभिक भारतीय कला एवं इतिहास के ज्ञान के अति महत्वपूर्ण स्रोतों में से एक का प्रतिनिधित्व करता है। विवेचना कीजिए। )150 शब्द(

The rock-cut architecture represents one of the most important sources of our knowledge of early Indian art and history. Discuss.

2. भारत के बौद्ध धर्म के इतिहास में पाल काल अति महत्वपूर्ण चरण है। विश्लेषण कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Pala period is the most significant phase in the history of Buddhism in India Enumerate.

3. भारतीय दर्शन एवं परंपरा ने भारतीय स्मारकों की कल्पना और आकार देने एवं उनकी कला में महत्वपूर्ण भूमिका निभाई है। विवेचना कीजिए। (250 शब्द(

Indian philosophy and tradition played a significant role in conceiving and shaping the monuments and their art in India. Discuss.

4. मध्यकालीन भारत के फारसी साहित्यितिक स्रोत उस काल के युगबोध का प्रतिबिंब हैं। टिप्पणी कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

Persian literary sources of medieval India reflect the spirit of the age. Comment.

2021

1. भक्ति साहित्य की प्रकृति का मूल्यांकन करते हुए भारतीय संस्कृति में इसके योगदान का निर्धारण कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Evaluate the nature of the Bhakti literature and its contribution to Indian culture.

2. मुख्यधारा के ज्ञान और सांस्कृतिक प्रणालियों की तुलना में आदिवासी ज्ञान प्रणाली की विशिष्टता की जाँच कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Examine the uniqueness of tribal knowledge system when compared with mainstream knowledge and cultural systems.

2022

1. स्पष्ट करें कि मध्यकालीन भारतीय मंदिरों की मूर्तिकला उस दौर के सामाजिक जीवन का प्रतिनिधित्व करती है। (150 शब्द)

How will you explain that medieval Indian temple sculptures represent the social life of those days?

2. भारतीय परंपरा और संस्कृति में गुप्त काल और चोल काल के योगदान पर चर्चा करें। (250 शब्द)

Discuss the main contributions of Gupta period and Chola period to Indian heritage and culture.

3. भारतीय मिथक, कला और वास्तुकला में सिंह एवं वृषभ की आकृतियों के महत्व पर विचार करें। (250 शब्द)

Discuss the significance of the lion and bull figures in Indian mythology, art and architecture.

2023

1. प्राचीन भारत के विकास की दिशा में भौगोलिक कारकों की भूमिका को स्पष्ट कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Explain the role of geographical factors towards the development of Ancient India.

2. वैदिक समाज और धर्म की मुख्य विशेषताएँ क्या हैं? क्या आप सोचते हैं कि उनमें से कुछ विशेषताएँ भारतीय समाज में अभी भी प्रचलित हैं? (250 शब्द)

What are the main features of Vedic society and religion? Do you think some of the features still prevailing in Indian Society?

3. सल्तनत काल के दौरान किये गये बड़े तकनीकी बदलाव क्या थे? उन तकनीकी बदलावों ने भारतीय समाज को कैसे प्रभावित किया था? (250 शब्द)

What were the major technological changes introduced during the Sultanate period? How did those technological changes influence the Indian society?

2024

1. ऋग्वैदिक से उत्तर-वैदिक काल तक सामाजिक और आर्थिक क्षेत्र में घटित परिवर्तनों को रेखांकित कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Underline the changes in the field of society and economy from the Rig Vedic to the later Vedic period.

2. दक्षिण भारत में कला व साहित्य के विकास में काँची के पल्लवों के योगदान का मूल्यांकन कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Estimate the contribution of Pallavas of Kanchi for the development of art and literature of South India.

3. ''हालांकि महान चोल शासक अभी मौजूद नहीं हैं लेकिन उनकी कला व वास्तुकला के क्षेत्र में उत्कृष्ट उपल्ब्धियों के कारण अभी भी उन्हें बहुत गर्व से याद किया जाता है।'' टिप्पणी कीजिए। (250 शब्द)

''Though the great Cholas are no more yet their name is still remembered with great pride because of their highest achievements in the domain of art and architecture.'' comment.

2025

1. हड़प्पा कालीन वास्तुकला के विशेष पहलुओं की चर्चा कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Discuss the salient features of the Harappan architecture.

2. अकबर के धार्मिक समन्वयता के प्रमुख पहलुओं का परीक्षण कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Examine the main aspects of Akbar's religious syncretism.

3. 'मूर्तिकारों ने चंदेल कला रूपों को जीवन की व्यापकता और लचकदार ओज से भर दिया।' स्पष्ट कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

'The sculptors filled the Chandella artform with resilient vigor and breadth of life.' Elucidate.

2026

1. मौर्य इतिहास के पुनर्निर्माण के लिए अशोक के अभिलेखों के महत्व का विश्लेषण कीजिए। (150 शब्द)

Analyze the importance of Ashokan inscriptions for reconstructing Mauryan history.

2. भारत में औपनिवेशिक प्रशासन और शिक्षा पर मैकाले मिनट के प्रभाव की विवेचना कीजिए।(150 शब्द)

Discuss the impact of Macaulay's Minute on colonial administration and education in India.

3. विजयनगर वास्तुकला अतीत की परंपराओं और समकालीन प्रथाओं के सम्मिलन का उदाहरण प्रस्तुत करती है। उदाहरणों के साथ स्पष्ट कीजिए। )250 शब्द)

Vijayanagara architecture exemplifies the amalgamation of past traditions with contemporary practices. Elucidate with examples.

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मॉण्टेस्क्यू की जीवनी

v इकाई की रूपरेखा

§ प्रस्तावना

§ जीवन परिचय

§ कार्य

§ अध्ययन पद्धति

§ योगदान

§ आलोचना

§ सारांश

v प्रस्तावना

हाल ही में उच्चतम न्यायालय द्वारा राष्ट्रीय न्यायिक नियुक्ति आयोग की स्थापना का प्रावधान करने वाले 99वें संविधान संशोधन अधिनियम, 2014 को असंवैधानिक घोषित किया जाना न्यायपालिका द्वारा संसद की कार्यपालिकीय शक्तियों में हस्तक्षेप करना संविधान के इस प्रावधान पर प्रश्न खड़ा करता है कि ‘कार्यपालिका और न्यायपालिका को अपने-अपने क्षेत्रों में पृथक रूप से कार्य करना’ (अनुच्छेद -50) चाहिए। पृथक्करणीयता का यह सिद्धान्त जो विश्व के विभिन्न देशों के संविधानों में विद्यमान है, यहाँ तक कि भारतीय संविधान का अभिन्न अंग है, समकालीन समाजशास्त्रीय दृष्टिकोण से अध्ययन करने वाले विचारक मॉण्टेस्क्यू के मस्तिष्क की उपज थी। मॉण्टेस्क्यू फ्रांस के एक राजनैतिक विचारक, न्यायविद्, दार्शनिक, इतिहासकार तथा साहित्यप्रेमी थे।

v जीवन परिचय

जन्मः 18 जनवरी, 1689, फ्रांस के ला ब्रेदे शहर में

निधनः 10 फरवरी, 1755, (66 वर्ष), फ्रांस के पेरिस में

पिताः जैक्स डी सेकेंडेंट(1654-1713)

माताः मैरी फ्रैंकोइस डी पेस्नेल(1665-1696)

पत्नीः जीन डे लार्टिंग

मॉण्टेस्क्यू का जन्म फ्रांस के बोर्डो शहर से 25 किमी. दूर श्चैतु द ला ब्रेदे में हुआ था।¹ इनके बचपन का नाम चार्ल्स लुईस डी सेकेंडेंट था। इनके पिता जैक्स डी सेकेंडेंट एक लम्बे कुलीन वंश के सैनिक थे। इनकी माता मैरी फ्रैंकोइस डी पेस्नेल थी, जिनकी मृत्यु हो गई, जब सेकेंडेंट 7 वर्ष के थे। इन्होने मृत्यु के पश्चात् अपनी विरासत में बेरोन का टाइटल सेकेंडेंट को दिया।² इनका मूल परिवार ह्यूगनॉट से था।³ इनकी माँ के मृत्यु के पश्चात् इन्हे कैथोलिक कॉलेज ऑफ जूली में भेजा गया, जो कि फ्रांसीसी कुलीन वर्ग के बच्चों के लिए मुख्य स्कूल था, जहाँ वे 1700 से 1711 तक रहे।⁴ उनके पिता की मृत्यु 1713 में हुई, तब उनका संरक्षण उनके चाचा बारेन डी मॉण्टेस्क्यू ने ले लिया।⁵ 1714 ई. में वे बोर्डो संसद के सलाहकार बने। वे प्रोटेस्टेंट के समर्थक थे⁶ और उनका विवाह प्रोटेस्टेण्ट जीन डे लार्टिंग से हुआ, जिनसे उनके तीन बच्चे हुए।⁷ 1716 में उनकी चाचा की मृत्यु के बाद उन्हें उनके टाइटल के साथ विशाल सम्पत्ति विरासत में मिली। तभी से उनका नाम चार्ल्स लुईस डी सेकेंडेंट से बेरोन डी ला ब्रेडे एट डी मॉण्टेस्क्यू हो गया।⁸

अप्रैल, 1728 में बार्विक के भतीजे लार्ड वाल्डेग्रेव के साथ उन्होंने यूरोप की यात्रा प्रारम्भ की, जिसमें उन्होंने ऑस्ट्रिया हंगरी व इटली की यात्रा की। अक्टूबर के अन्त में 1729 ई. में इन्होंने लॉर्ड चेस्टरफील्ड के साथ इंग्लैण्ड की यात्रा की, जहाँ वे फ्रीमेसन बन गए और वेस्टमिंस्टर के हॉर्न टावर्न लॉज में भर्ती हुए।^[9]

मॉण्टेस्क्यू उत्तरी अमेरिका के ब्रिटिश उपनिवेशों में स्वतन्त्रता के विजेता के रूप में जाने जाते थे। मॉण्टेस्क्यू मोतियाबिन्द से परेशान थे। 1754 के अन्त में उन्होंने अपने घर के पट्टे से छुटकारा पाने के इरादे से पेरिस का दौरा किया। और ला ब्रेडे से सेवानिवृत्त हो गये। वे जल्दी ही बीमार पड़ गए और तेज बुखार के कारण 10 फरवरी, 1755 में उनकी मौत हो गई। उन्हें पेरिस के एग्लीस सैंट सल्पीस में दफनाया गया। किन्तु फ्रांस में हुई क्रान्ति ने उनके अवशेषों के सभी निशान मिटा दिये।^[10]

v प्रमुख कार्य

§ ऐतिहासिक दर्शनः माण्टेस्क्यू की पुस्तक ‘रोमनों की महानता और उनके पतन के कारणों पर विचार’, 1734 ई. में प्रकाशित हुई। इसमें उन्होंने रोमन साम्राज्य के प्रारम्भ(753ई.पू.) से लेकर कुस्तुनतुनिया के पतन(1453ई.) तक का विवरण प्रस्तुत किया है।

अध्याय 1 से 10 में मॉण्टेस्क्यू ने कहा कि ‘धन, सैन्य शक्ति और विस्तारवादी नीतियाँ, जो कि अधिकांश ऐतिहासिक तथ्यों द्वारा रोम के लिए महान शक्ति का स्त्रोत थी, ने वास्तव में रोमन नागरिकों के नागरिक गुणों की भावना को कमजोर करने में योगदान दिया।‘ रोम के कई युद्धों का विवरण देने के बाद मॉण्टेस्क्यू ने दावा किया कि “राज्य की महानता से व्यक्तिगत भाग्य की महानता का कारण बना, चूंकि ऐश्वर्य नैतिकता में निहित है, धन में नहीं, रोमनों के धन ने जिसकी सीमाएँ बनी रहीं, एक विलासिता का उत्पादन किया प्रचुरता का नहीं।“^[11]

पुस्तक के शेष भाग में उन्होंने महान सम्राटों जैसे- टाइटस, नर्वट्रोजन, एंटोनिनस पायस, मार्कस ऑरेलियस और जूलिय द अपोस्टेट के नेतृत्व के कारण और क्रमबद्धता पर विवरण दिया है।^[12]

उन्होंने गणतन्त्र से साम्राज्य के परिवर्तन की चर्चा की, जिसमें सुझाव दिया कि यदि सीज़र और पॉम्पे ने गणतन्त्र सरकार को हड़पने का कार्य नहीं किया होता तो उनकी जगह कोई और करता। यह कारण सीज़र और पॉम्पे का उद्देश्य नहीं अपितु एक व्यक्ति का उद्देश्य था।

मॉण्टेस्क्यू ने राजनीतिक सिद्धान्तों के प्रतिपादन हेतु अरस्तू द्वारा अपनायी गई वैज्ञानिक यथार्थवादी, पर्यवेक्षात्मक एवं ऐतिहासिक पद्धति का प्रयोग कर उसे पुनर्जीवित किया इसलिए उसे ‘आधुनिक ऐतिहासिक शोध का जनक’ और ‘18वीं सदी का अरस्तू’ कहा गया है।

§ राजनीतिक दर्शनः

कानून की परिभाषाः मॉण्टेस्क्यू ने कानून की परिभाषा पूर्व में दिये गये अरस्तू(कानून, विवेक बुद्धि का आदेश है।), और बोदां व हॉब्स(कानून, उच्चतर शक्ति का आदेश) से भिन्न थी। मॉण्टेस्क्यू के आशय से “अपने सर्वाधिक सामान्य अर्थ में कानून वस्तुओं की प्रकृति से उत्पन्न होने वाले आवश्यक सम्बन्ध में हैं। इस अर्थ में सभी प्राणियों के अपने-अपने कानून होते हैं। ईश्वर का अपना कानून, भौतिक विश्व का अपना कानून, मानवोत्तर विश्व के अपने कानून, पशुओं के अपने कानून तथा मनुष्य का अपना कानून।“^[13]

इस परिभाषा के अनुसार दो बातें स्पष्ट होती हैं। एक तो यह कि प्रत्येक वस्तु के अपने अलग-अलग नियम होते हैं और दूसरी यह कि प्रत्येक वस्तु का दूसरी वस्तु से किसी न किसी प्रकार का सम्बन्ध होता है।

प्राकृतिक नियमः मॉण्टेस्क्यू कहते हैं कि मनुष्यकृत नियमों के निर्मित होने के पूर्व मनुष्य प्राकृतिक अवस्था में प्राकृतिक नियमों से नियन्त्रित था। ये प्राकृतिक नियम थे-

1. शान्ति और सुरक्षा की इच्छा;

2. मानव की अपनी भौतिक आवश्यकताओं को पूर्ण करने की आकांक्षा;

3. एक-दूसरे के साथ मिल-जुलकर रहने की प्रवृत्ति और

4. एक संगठित समाज बनाकर जीवन व्यतीत करने की इच्छा, जो मनुष्य में विवेक के कारण उत्पन्न होती है।

भावनात्मक कानूनः प्राकृतिक अवस्था के अन्त पर निर्मित होने वाले सामाजिक जीवन में मनुष्य के संघर्ष तीन प्रकार के थे, जिन्हें मिटाने के लिए मनुष्य द्वारा तीन प्रकार के भावनात्मक कानूनों का निर्माण किया गया-

1. अन्तर्राष्ट्रीय कानून;

2. राजनीतिक कानून और

3. नागरिक कानून।

शासन का स्वरूप और वर्गीकरणः मॉण्टेस्क्यू ने शासन के विभिन्न स्वरूपों और उसके आधारभूत सिद्धान्तों का वर्णन करते हुए उनका वर्गीकरण प्रस्तुत किया है। उन्होंने शासन के तीन मौलिक रूप माने हैं-

1. गणतन्त्र(Republic)- गणतन्त्र, वह राज्य होता है जिसमें सर्वोच्च शक्ति सभी नागरिकों अथवा उसके किसी एक भाग में निहित होती है।

i. लोकतन्त्र(Democracy)- सभी नागरिकों में सर्वोच्च शक्ति का निहित होना।

ii. कुलीनतन्त्र(Aristocracy)- नागरिकों के किसी एक भाग में सर्वोच्च शक्ति का निहित होना।

2. राजतन्त्र(Monarchy)- राजतन्त्र वह होता है, जिसमें एक ही व्यक्ति कुछ निश्चित कानूनों के अनुसार शासन का संचालन करता है।

3. निरंकुशतन्त्र(Despotic)- निरंकुशतन्त्र वह शासन है, जिसमें एक व्यक्ति बिना किसी कानून के स्वेच्छाचारी ढंग से शासन का संचालन करता है।^[14]

स्वतन्त्रता की धारणा और शक्ति-पृथक्करण का सिद्धान्त

स्वतन्त्रता की धारणाः मॉण्टेस्क्यू का 21 खण्ड में प्रकाशित प्रसिद्ध ग्रन्थ ‘कानून की आत्मा’ में जिन विषयों पर विचार व्यक्त किया गया है, उनमें सबसे महत्वपूर्ण विषय स्वतन्त्रता का है। स्वतन्त्रता की व्याख्या करते हुए मॉण्टेस्क्यू कहता है कि, “स्वतन्त्रता उन कार्यों को करने का अधिकार है, जिनकी अनुमति कानून देते हैं और यदि कोई नागरिक ऐसे कार्यों को कर सकता हो जिनकी अनुमति कानून नहीं देते हैं तो वह व्यक्ति स्वतन्त्रता प्राप्त नहीं रह जायेगा, क्योंकि उसके सभी साथियों को भी ऐसी शक्ति प्राप्त रहेगी।“^[15]

किन्तु मॉण्टेक्स्यू के अनुसार, “स्वतन्त्रता का अर्थ राजनीतिक सत्ता पर ऐसे प्रतिबन्धों से है जिससे किसी भी व्यक्ति को ऐसे कार्य करने के लिए कानून बाध्य नहीं करता है और न किसी को ऐसे कार्य को करने से रोका जा सके जिन्हें करने की कानून आज्ञा देता है।“^[16]

शक्ति-पृथक्करण का सिद्धान्तः इस सिद्धान्त का प्रतिपादन करते हुए उन्होंने लिखा है कि “प्रत्येक सरकार में तीन प्रकार की शक्तियाँ होती हैं। एसेम्बली, मजिस्ट्रेट और जुडिशियरी।“^[17] जिसको आधुनिक स्वरूप में व्यवस्थापिका, कार्यपालिका और न्यायपालिक माना जा सकता है।

मॉण्टेस्क्यू कहते हैं कि जब व्यवस्थापन तथा शासन अस्तित्व एक व्यक्ति या व्यक्तियों के समूह में निहित हो जाती हैं तो स्वतन्त्रता का कोई अस्तित्व ही नहीं हो सकता। अर्थात् मॉण्टेस्क्यू का आशय इस बात से है कि शासन की शक्तियों के एक ही स्थान पर होने से स्वतन्त्रता खतरे में पड़ जाती है। अतः व्यक्ति की स्वतन्त्रता की सुरक्षा के लिए व्यवस्थापन, शासन तथा न्याय सम्बन्धी सभी शक्तियों का पूर्णतः पृथक्करण होना चाहिए और किसी विभाग से सम्बन्धित अधिकारियों को यह अधिकार प्राप्त नहीं होना चाहिए कि वे अन्य विभागों की शक्तियों का अतिक्रमण कर सके या उनमें हस्तक्षेप कर सके।

v अध्ययन पद्धति

मॉण्टेस्क्यू समाजशास्त्रीय और ऐतिहासिक पद्धति के समर्थक थे। उन्होंने अपने पूर्व के लेखकों की निगमनात्मक पद्धति(लेखक द्वारा बुद्धि, तर्क व कल्पना के आधार पर पूर्वाग्रह निर्धारित कर अपने चिन्तन का लेख प्रस्तुत करना) का उपयोग न करके अनुभूतिमूलक दृष्टिकोण तथा पर्यवेक्षण पर आधारित वैज्ञानिक एवं ऐतिहासिक पद्धति को अपनाया। यह आगमनात्मक पद्धति है जिसका प्रयोग अरस्तू द्वारा किया गया था। मॉण्टेस्क्यू ने इसी पद्धति का प्रयोग करते हुए प्राचीन एवं समकालीन मानव इतिहास के अध्ययन और अनुभव के आधार पर अपने राजनीतिक सिद्धान्तों और मान्यताओं को निर्मित किया।^[18]

v योगदान

मॉण्टेस्क्यू की पहली देन विषय-वस्तु की दृष्टि से है। डनिंग उनकी तुलना प्लेटो, अरस्तू, एक्विनास, बोदां, सुअरेज आदि से करता है। मॉण्टेस्क्यू ने राज्य के मौलिक सिद्धान्तों का निरूपण करने के बजाय उन सिद्धान्तों का अधिक वर्णन किया जो उसके स्वरूप को निर्धारित करते हैं और उसकी सम्पूर्ण प्रेरणा के स्त्रोत हैं।

दूसरी देन राजनीतिशास्त्र के अध्ययन के लिए ऐतिहासिक और पर्यवेक्षणात्मक पद्धति के प्रयोग के रूप में है। यद्यपि मॉण्टेस्क्यू के पूर्व इस पद्धति का प्रयोग अरस्तू, मैकियावेली, बोदां आदि विद्वानों द्वारा किया जा चुका था किन्तु उन्हे पूर्णतः विकसित करने तथा व्यापक पैमाने पर उसका प्रयोग करने का श्रेय उन्हें ही जाता है।

राजनीतिशास्त्र में उनका सबसे बड़ा और अमूल्य योगदान स्वतन्त्रता और शक्ति पृथक्करण का सिद्धान्त है, जिसका प्रतिपादन करके उसने नागरिकों की स्वतन्त्रता से सुरक्षा की व्यवस्था की। आज विश्व के कई संविधानों में यह सिद्धान्त किसी न किसी रूप में विद्यमान है।

v आलोचना

यद्यपि व्यक्ति की स्वतन्त्रता की रक्षा की दृष्टि से शक्ति पृथक्करण का सिद्धान्त की उपयोगिता सर्वत्र आवश्यक है, किन्तु इनकी आलोचना भी निम्नलिखित आधार पर की जा सकती है-

शक्ति का पूर्ण पृथक्करण सम्भव नहीं- सरकार की आंगिक एकता की दृष्टि से सरकार एक शरीर के समान है और उसके शरीर के अंगों को पूर्ण रूप से पृथक नहीं किया जा सकता।

गैटिल कहते हैं कि- “शासन विभिन्न कार्य करने वाले कई अंगों से बनता है, किन्तु उनका एक साझा कार्य और उद्देश्य होता है जिसकी सफलता के लिए उनमें एकरूपता तथा सहयोग आवश्यक है। विभिन्न विभागों में पृथकता की एक दृढ़ रेखा नहीं खीचीं जा सकती।“

शक्ति-पृथक्करण वांछनीय भी नहीं- यदि विभिन्न विभाग स्वतन्त्र रूप से कार्य करते हैं तो उनमें गतिरोध की सम्भावना उत्पन्न होती है, जैसे- वर्तमान में संसद कानून बनाकर कॉलेजियम व्यवस्था को समाप्त करना चाहती है, किन्तु यह उपबन्ध न्यायालय क्षेत्र में आता है इसलिए न्यायालय इस व्यवस्था को मानने से अस्वीकार करती है। साथ ही इससे न्यायापालिका के शक्तियों का भी हनन होता अर्थात् सरकार द्वारा नियुक्ति के कारण न्यायालय को सरकार के अनुसार कार्य करना होगा ऐसा न करने पर उनकी नियुक्तियों या योग्यता पर संवैधानिक उल्लंघन का भय बना रहेगा।

पृथकता के सिद्धान्त को लागू किये जाने से न्यायलय की निष्पक्षता समाप्त हो जायेगी।

v सारांश

मॉण्टेस्क्यू का जीवन एक सीधा-सादा एवं घटनारहित जीवन था। उन्होंने अपने जीवन का ज्यादातर समय अपने अध्ययन, लेखन व यात्रा में बिताया। मॉण्टेस्क्यू भले ही उस सदी का महत्वपूर्ण विचारक था लेकिन आज उसे केवल उसकी रचनाओं व लेखों की वजह से ही याद किया जाता है। जिसमें उनकी पुस्तक ‘कानून की आत्मा’ प्रमुख है। उनके जीवन के बारे सिर्फ यही कहा जा सकता है कि “ उसने जन्म लिया, वह जीवित रहा और मर गया।“^[19]

· सन्दर्भ

1. “बोर्डिस, फ्रांस

2. शोरेल, मॉण्टेस्क्यू, लन्दन, जार्ज रूटेज एण्ड सन्स, 1887 (उलान प्रेस पुनर्मुद्रण,2011), पेज.10

3. इलाइटेनमेण्ट कन्टेस्टेडः आधुनिक दर्शन और मानव की मुक्ति 1670-1752. ओयूपी आक्सफोर्ड, 12 अक्टूबर, 2006.

4. एग्रीएबल कनेक्शन्सः स्काटिश इलाइटेनमेन्ट लिंक्स विद फ्रान्स केसमेट पब्लिशर, 5 नवम्बर, 2012.

5. शोरेल(1887), पेज.12.

6. मॉण्टेस्क्यू लिबरेटिस्म एण्ड द प्राब्लम ऑफ यूनिवर्सल पॉलिटिक्स, कैम्ब्रज यूनिवर्सिटी प्रेस, 23 अगस्त, 2018;

सिविल रिलिजनः ए डॉयलाग इन द हिस्ट्री ऑफ पॉलिटीकल फिलास्पी, कैम्ब्रिज यूनिवर्सिटी प्रेस, 25 अक्टूबर, 2018.

7. शोरेल(1887), पेज.11-12.

8. शोरेल(1887), पेज.12-13.

9. सैण्टब्यूरी, 1911, पेज.776.

10. सैण्टब्यूरी, 1911, पेज. 777.

11. लोवेन्थल डेविड, रोमन की महानता व उनके पतन के कारणों पर विचार, 1834, अनुवादित नोट्स।

12. लोवेन्थल डेविड, रोमन की महानता व उनके पतन के कारणों पर विचार, 1834, अनुवादित नोट्स;

वोल्फिलैक-ऑगर, कैथरीन (सितम्बर, 2013). कंसिडरेसन सुर लेस कॉजेज डे लॉ ग्रैड्योर डेस रोमंस एट डे लेउर डिकेडेंस।

13. द स्पिरिट ऑफ लॉ, मॉण्टेस्क्यू।

14. जोन्स ओपन साइट, पेज. 232-233.

15. द स्पिरिट ऑफ लॉ, मॉण्टेस्क्यू, पेज. 154।

16. वही(Ibid), पेज. 154।

17. वही(Ibid).

18. डनिंग, ओपन साइट, पेज. 325.

19. द स्पिरिट ऑफ लॉ, वर्ल्ड ग्रेट क्लासिक्स सीरीज़, स्पेशल इण्ट्रोडक्शन, पेज.III.

THE HINDU EDITORIAL - MAY 26, 2022

2022-05-27T19:59:00.002+05:30

THE HINDU EDITORIAL – MAY, 26, 2022

Communal clouds

Kerala and its government must mobilize opinion against communalism of all hues

The slogans raised by a child at a rally in Kerala’s Alappuzha on May 21 were chilling not merely for the death threats that they make. The fact that an innocent child could be indoctrinated and tutored such that he could call for violence portends a communal storm that is making landfall in the State. Organizers of the rally, the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), disowned the slogans, but not in any reassuring manner. The Islamist group’s claim that its rally was to save the republic does not cut ice, considering its track record and the threatening posturing that it has engaged in, in recent years. It is merely using the democratic space and the prevailing environment of Hindutva upsurge to advance its dangerous, nihilistic communal agenda. At least five people have been killed in Kerala in SDPI-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) rivalry in the State in recent months. In April, in Palakkad, an SDPI worker and an RSS worker were killed within a span of one day; in December 2021, a State Secretary of the SDPI and a Bharatiya Janata Party OBC Morcha State Secretary were killed in Alappuzha in a similar pattern. This was preceded by the murder of an RSS worked in Palakkad, in November. All these killings were brutal in nature, and added an unmistakable communal hue to violence in Kerala unlike the occasional clashes between the RSS and the CPI(M).

The latest incident is not an isolated one. Muslim angst is being harnessed by extremist organisations that dismiss the Indian Union Muslim League, a constituent of the Congress-led United Democratic Front, as a futile political platform for the community. The BJP and the RSS are pushing hard to expand their presence in the State. A toxic cloud of communalism is enveloping the State, as Hindu, Christian, and Islamic groups, and devious politicians are trying to profit from disharmony. The Opposition Congress and the BJP have condemned the Alappuzha incident and criticized the ruling CPI(M) for its disturbing ambiguity on the issue. The Kerala police have filed an FIR in connection with the provocative slogans, but what is missing is a political message. Both in words and action, the Kerala government and the ruling Left Democratic Front led by the CPI(M) must make it clear that any call or mobilization for violence is unacceptable in the State. Political expediency must not be a determinant in responses to communalism. Along with strong administrative measures, Kerala must shore up all its inherent strengths through popular mobilization against communalism of all hues – Hindu, Christian or Muslim. The government must take the lead.

Unending tragedy

The U.S. must impose a ban on assault weapons, expand checks for gun ownership

The U.S. once again faced the grim consequences of its unwillingness to tackle gun violence at its source when a man shot dead at least 19 children and two adults, including a teacher, at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. The shooting marks the worst such attack in the U.S. since the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School attack in 2018, when a former student of the school in Parkland, Florida, opened fire, killing 17 people and wounding 17 others. A similar major shooting that led to outrage yet saw no permanent reform in guns laws occurred at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012, in which 20 first graders and six school employees perished. The Uvalde tragedy has also shaken the nation for it comes scarcely 10 days after a shooting at a supermarket store in Buffalo, New York, which officials described as a racist hate crime, claiming 10 lives. Overall, there have been at least 26 school shootings in 2022 alone and at least 118 incidents since 2018, according to reports that have tracked this statistic over the past four years. Last year witnessed 34 school shootings, the highest number during this period; there were 24 incidents each in 2019 and 2018 and 10 in 2020. Addressing the nation after the Uvalde attack, U.S. president Joe Biden made an urgent plea for common-sense gun control reform, saying, “When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?.. I am sick and tired of it. We have to act… these kinds of mass shootings rarely happen elsewhere in the world… It’s time to turn this pain into action.

Yet, it would be unrealistic to hope for meaningful change in the U.S.’s view on the Second Amendment, which assures citizens of the right to bear arms. Several Presidents, mostly Democrats, have tried and failed to get even basic gun control laws passed through congress. Former President Barack Obama, for example, came away frustrated after Capitol Hill rejected no fewer than 17 attempts by his White House to bring common-sense gun control to the floor of Congress. While conservative lawmakers seek to score political points by fiercely defending the constitutional right to bear arms, it is common knowledge now that at the heart of the U.S. Congress’s refusal to stamp out gun violence in schools and other public spaces is shadowy lobbying on Capitol Hill by the deep-pocketed and well-networked National Rifle Association and, along with them, the entire gun manufacturing industry. If Mr. Biden genuinely wishes to clamp down on this violence, which has ripped into America’s soul for several generations now, he may have no choice but to follow in Mr. Obama’s steps and use his presidential power of executive actions to enforce gun control measures. These should, at a minimum, include an assault weapons ban, expanded background checks for gun ownership and boosted funding for federal enforcement agencies regulating gun proliferation.

Driving the Balkanisation of India

There is an ascendancy of a political ideology with little understanding of the idea of India as a coalition of the willing

PULAPRE BALAKRISHNAN

One of the reasons for celebrating the completion of 75 years of India is that it has survived as long. At Independence there had been skepticism whether it would. The chief doubter was Winston Churchill, who claimed that India was no more than a geography, the peoples of which the British had helpfully brought under one umbrella through conquest. But as we celebrate India’s journey, it would do to recognise that today forces are at work that weaken its unity. In particular, two projects that appear to have the blessing of the present political dispensation at the Centre have the potential to actually destroy it.

The Gyanvapi issue

First, we watch with shock and awe the developments related to the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi. The court has been petitioned to allow Hindus to worship at what has for centuries been a mosque. Impartial observers state that there is incontrovertible evidence that the mosque was once a temple that was demolished at the orders of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. Now, we have the Places of Worship Act of 1991 that disallows a change of status of a religious structure. This ought to be sufficient to protect the mosque concerned from the threat of a change in its status as a site of worship for Muslims. But should we see this solely in legal terms? Should, if it comes to that, Indian Muslims of today be asked to vacate a mosque based on an act in the distant past that they are not responsible for? Should India’s Hindus not rise to a magnanimity that would reconcile them to the injustice done to their ancestors, heart-rending as it is even to imagine? Not only are they the overwhelming majority of this country now but they also have plenty of places to worship in.

From another democracy

Last year, the United States President, Joe Biden, even if he now enjoys a diminished popularity globally, made an important speech at Tulsa, Oklahoma. U.S., where he had gone to commemorate the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. He had said, “We do ourselves no favors by pretending none of this ever happened or it doesn’t impact us today, because it still does impact us today. We can’t just choose to learn what we want to know, and not what we should know. We should know the good, the bad, everything. That’s what great nations do. They come to terms with their dark sides….” Mr. Biden was suggesting that while Americans must remember, they must also move on without hoarding grievances. This message is valid for both the Hindus and the Muslims of India, depending upon the context.

There is something incomplete in the project of singling out Muslim rule in north India for a record of violence in our history. Though it is yet to be established whether the decline of the great Dravidian settlements of northern India was due to Aryan expansion or environmental causes such as drought, we have reason to believe that this expansion was not without violence. After all, verses in the Rig Veda invoke Indra, the Pre-eminent Aryan god, as the slayer of the “dasyu”, literally “the enslaved” inhabitants of India. All over northern India, there was still quite recently a pride expressed in the subjugation of the local population by the Aryans upon their arrival. But Hindu nationalism sits uncomfortably with such exultation, for it renders the Aryans foreigners in this land, without the legitimacy to define its cultural norms. The pattern of settlement in India whereby the Adivasi have been corralled into inaccessible spaces such as mountains or banished to the extremities of villages suggest that this was the result of a concerted move to exclude them from social life. This could not have been possible without the threat of violence.

Another project, of language

Speaking of the destruction of religious icons, there is evidence that the Aryans may not have been so ecumenical after all. Archaeologists who participated in the excavation on sites of Harappan civilization in western India have pointed to the deliberate destruction of remnants of the phallic symbol carved in stone. Admonition of the worship of shishnadeva, literally phallus god, may be found in the sacred literature of Vedic Hinduism. So, the destruction of the religious icons of conquered peoples in India is not confined to Islamic rule in north India. For some Indians, it dates back into our pre-history. This is not to even suggest a moral equivalence, for violence against any defenseless people is cowardly, but it does serve to bring some perspective into the debate about retributive justice related to the injustices of the past. It is the Adivasi amongst us who are least likely to have blood on their hands.

Aligned to the project of isolating the religious minorities of India is Hindu nationalism’s second project – that of establishing Hindi as the dominant language in the country. Purely a reflection of the will to dominate, it cannot be rationalized as the pursuit of retributive justice, and, unlike the other project, has unabashed state support. The issue has remained dormant in the country after a very mature settlement of it in the 1960s, whereby it was agreed that English would be used in the communications of the Government of India so long as the southern States want it.

Since 2014, we have seen a renewed thrust being given to Hindi by the Central government. The attempt to impose Hindi on the rest of the country is both insidious and predates the present. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi is being disingenuous when he speaks of the equal importance of all Indian languages while his Home Minister does not miss an opportunity to remind the country of the special status of Hindi. Far too much time and resources of Central government institutions are wasted on promoting Hindi when all its functionaries understand English perfectly well. Nothing but linguistic chauvinism keeps this pursuit alive. Even the so-called socialists of north India are not above it, as revealed by Mulayam Singh, then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, writing in Hindi, in the 1990s, to his counterpart in Kerala, a politician with a far longer tenure in public life. Sadly, the sentiment that Hindi should prevail is quite widespread in India, as seen in the recent comments of Bollywood actors. These purveyors of mostly costume drama may aspire for Hollywood status but do not have the large-heartedness of a Marlon Brando, who championed the rights of native Americans.

The relentless thrust to impose Hindi came close to succeeding in the mid-1960s, but it took arson and self-immolation in Madras State to fend it off. Today, the moment is less propitious for the Hindi chauvinists. The south is far more advanced than the Hindi heartland in terms of both social and economic progress. In fact, it serves as a beacon of hope for north Indian workers in search of a livelihood. Even the ordinary southerner sees Hindi as the language of the most backward part of the country, one where Muslims are bullied, women are subjugated and politicians are treated as minor feudal. So, why would south Indians agree to be ruled in the language of a region they view as unworthy of emulation? It is not even necessary for them to recall that Hindi is the language of the most recent migrant to this ancient land. They simply reject the majoritarian grounds on which it is deemed to be the national language.

A diverse peoples

Constitutionally, India is a union of States. Its founders crafted an entity that has so far held out under great adversity. But India is also a coalition of peoples that are diverse in terms of their histories and culture. For it to hold together requires leaders with large hearts and not merely big chests. We see today the ascendancy of a political ideology with little understanding of the idea of India as a coalition of the willing. Incapable of winning hearts and minds, it has spawned a divisive politics which has the potential of wrecking a union put together with great care. Only a determinedly active citizenry can avert this outcome.

India must shift the discourse on abortion rights

It is not just a family planning and maternal health issue, but also a sexual health and reproductive rights issue

SONALI VADI & SUMEGHA ASTHANA

As two women public health practitioners who have studied and worked in India and the United States, we voice our solidarity with women in both countries at this precarious moment for abortion rights.

Our public health journeys started with witnessing maternal deaths in India. One of us, on her first clinical rotation, saw a woman die of sepsis, infection in the blood, due to an unsafe backstreet abortion. And the other, during her rural health internship in Uttar Pradesh, witnessed a pregnant woman die on a wooden hand-pulled cart because she was unable to reach the hospital in time. The images of these two women with their swollen abdomen and pale, dying faces still haunt us, as we reflect on the privileges we enjoy as women belonging to a certain class and caste in India.

The facts

Woman, pregnant people and transgender persons in India struggle every day to exert their choice about birthing and their bodily autonomy. Yet, despite this bleak reality, netizens on social media in India claim that the country is more progressive than the try is more progressive than the U.S. on abortion rights because we have the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 (“MTP Act”). Such a self-congratulatory attitude in neither in good faith not is it factually correct.

According to the World Health Organization, six out of 10 of all unintended pregnancies end in an induced abortion. Around 45% of all abortions are unsafe, almost all of which (97%) take place in developing countries. As per a nationally representative study published in PLOS One journal in 2014, abortions account for 10% of maternal deaths in India.

The recent round of the National Family Health Survey 2019-21, shows that 3% of all pregnancies in India result in abortion. More than half (53%) of abortions in India are performed in the private sector, whereas only 20% are performed in the public sector – partly because public facilities often lack abortion services. More than a quarter of abortions (27%) are performed by the woman herself at home.

In another a fact-finding study published in The Lance in 2018, 73% of all abortions in India in 2015 were medication abortions, and even though these may have been safe – many of these are illegal as per the MTP Act, if they occur without the approval of a registered medical practitioner. Another 5% of all abortions were outside of health facilities with methods other than medication abortion. These risky abortions are performed by untrained people under unhygienic conditions using damaging methods such as insertion of objects, ingestion f various substances, abdominal pressure, etc. A recent study found that sex-selective abortions in India could lead to 6.8 million fewer girls being born between 2017 to 2030.

Many may be unaware of these disturbing statistics and facts. But we all know of at least one adolescent girl among our family or friends or networks who had to travel to another city in order to find a ‘non-judgmental’ obstetrician or who had to arrange money to access abortion in the private sector. Or, we may have heard of someone who has aborted a female foetus because the family wanted a son; or know of a mother who escaped the pressure of such forced abortion because she did not want to lose her pregnancy.

Obstacles

The MTP Act, first enacted in 1971 and then amended in 2021, certainly makes ‘medical termination of pregnancy’ legal in India under specific conditions. However, this Act is framed from a legal stand-point to primarily protect medical practitioners because under the Indian Penal Code, “induced miscarriage” is a criminal offence. This Premise points to a lack of choice and bodily autonomy of women and rests the decision of abortion solely on the doctor’s opinion. The MTP Act also only mentions ‘pregnant woman’, thus failing to recognise that transgender persons and others who do not identify as women can become pregnant.

Moreover, the acceptance of abortion in Indian society is situated in the context of population control and family planning. But, most importantly, after more than 50 years of the MTP Act, women and transgender persons face major obstacles in accessing safe abortion care.

These are seven examples: First, they may not even be aware that abortion is legal or know where to obtain one safely; second, since the MTP Act does not recognise abortion as a choice, they need the approval of medical professionals even in the first few weeks of the pregnancy; third, unmarried and transgender people continue to face stigma and can be turned away from health facilities, forcing them to resort to unsafe care; fourth, mandatory reporting requirements under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Bill (POCSO), 2011 law against child sexual offences, impact privacy and hinder access of adolescents to safe abortion services; fifth, many are still coerced into agreeing to a permanent or long-term contraceptive method as a prerequisite for getting abortion services; sixth, health-care providers may impose their own morality by insisting on ‘husbands’ or ‘parental’ consent for abortion. Even women seeking abortion care in health facilities are often mistreated and not provided medications for pain relief; seventh, despite laws prohibiting sex determination, the illegal practice persists. The mushrooming of unregulated ultrasound clinics in India continues to facilitate the illegal practice of sex determination, resulting in unsafe abortions and female foeticide.

It is a testament to class and caste divides when netizens talk of being ‘progressive’ when, 50 years after the MTP Act, women continue to die due to unsafe abortions. Passing one law and assuming the job is done is far from “progressive” when so many face a lack of access, systemic barriers, social norms and cultural preferences, and even criminal liability.

One law is insufficient

There is an urgent need in our country to shift the discourse on abortions from just being a family planning and maternal health issue to one of a sexual health and reproductive rights issue. The situation in India shows that one law alone is insufficient and we must raise the bar on reproductive justice. We must improve our health systems to ensure good quality and respectful abortion care. As the focus on abortion rights in the U.S. rages, we call upon all to self reflect and to stand in solidarity with people in the U.S. and other places where reproductive rights are in jeopardy. Reproductive injustice anywhere is a threat to the lives of people everywhere.

THE HINDU EDITORIAL - MAY 25, 2022

2022-05-26T15:35:00.003+05:30

THE HINDU EDITORIAL – MAY 25, 2022

Caution and clarity

The IPEF in its nascence relies more on promise than prospect of tangible outcomes

In a sudden decision not previously intimated, India became one of a 13-nation economic initiative led by the U.S., on Monday, as President Joseph Biden unveiled plans for an Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF). The initiative is touted as a substantial step by the U.S. as part of its decade-old “pivot to Asia”, and an attempt at putting some “economic heft” into Indo-Pacific presence that has been on the decline after its decision to quit the Trans Pacific Free Trade Agreement, the CPTPP, in 2017. Officials say the IPEF framework has four “pillars”: supply-chain resilience; clean energy, decarburization and infrastructure; taxation and anti-corruption; and fair and resilient trade. Mr. Biden’s visit to Japan and South Korea, attendance at the Quad summit and helming the IPEF launch is also aimed at reassuring the Eastern hemisphere about the U.S.’s focus. India’s joining is an equally strong statement of commitment to Indo-Pacific goals and to broadening regional economic cooperation, particularly after it walked out of the 15-nation RECEP. It is significant that all IPEF members, other than India and the U.S., are a part of the RCEP free trade agreement, and yet have chosen to be part of the U.S.-led initiative.

Despite the strong signaling from all sides, however, there are many aspects to the IPEF that bear further scrutiny. Monday’s launch only signals the willingness of the 13 countries to begin discussions on the contours. Much will depend, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed, on how inclusive the process is. Second, U.S. officials have made it clear that it is not a free trade agreement; nor will it discuss tariff reductions or increasing market access, raising questions about its utility. Shorn of the rhetoric of Indo-Pacific cooperation, there must be more clarity on its framework. The four pillars also lend themselves to some confusion, drawing into question whether there is enough common ground among the 13 countries that are part of very different economic arrangements, as well as outliers (the U.S. and India), to set standards together, or be open to issues that vary for each country. The U.S.’s statement that the IPEF is essentially focused on “American workers” also raises questions on whether increasingly protectionist global trends will chafe. Each of the IPEF countries has considerable trade interests in China, with most having large trade deficits. So, it remains to be seen how much they will be willing to sign on with the IPEF. Already three ASEAN countries, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, have decided to stay out of the framework’s launch. Above all, given the fact that the U.S.’s previous initiatives (the Blue Dot Network and the Build Back Better initiative) have made little headway in changing the region’s infrastructural needs, the IPEF faces a credibility challenge. Negotiators will need to move with both caution and clarity before making any big promises on its benefits for the region.

Serving those who serve

Health workers need better remuneration and safety guarantee, not just awards

Recognition very often goes to those at the top of the pecking order, and stays there. Credit seldom trickles down to the worker at the bottom. The World Health Organization’s act of recognizing India’s ASHA (accredited social health activists) and the polio workers of Afghanistan is an attempt to right that wrong. It is a rare, and commendable doffing of the hat for workers at the very bottom of the rung, and gives credit where it is due. When WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the names of six Global Health Leader awardees at the opening session of the World Health Assembly, over one million ASHAs and eight volunteer polio workers found themselves being counted amidst people leading from the front. The other awardees are Paul Farmer, co-founder of the NGO Partners in Health, Ahmed Hankir, a British-Lebanese psychiatrist, Ludmila Sofia Oliveira Varela, a youth sports advocate, and Yohei Sasakawa, WHO’s Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination. Dr. Tedros who picks the awardees himself, said that the award recognises those who have made an outstanding contribution to protecting and promoting health around the world, at a time when the world is facing an unprecedented convergence of inequity, conflict, food insecurity, climate crisis and a pandemic.

The ASHAs were honoured for their “crucial role in linking the community with the health system, to ensure those living in rural poverty can access primary health care services…” These workers, all women, faced harassment and violence for their work during the pandemic, well documented in the media. While the pandemic rewrote the rules, creating danger where mere routine existed, it must be stressed that in general, their job, which takes them into difficult-to-reach places and hostile communities, confers a measure of privations. Even as they contribute to better health outcomes, this workforce continues to protest across the country, for better remuneration, health benefits and permanent posts. The eight volunteer polio workers of Afghanistan (four of them women) were shot and killed by gunmen in Takhar and Kunduz provinces in February 2022. Their work was crucial in a country where wild polio virus type 1 is still circulating, WHO recorded. Clearly, certain kinds of basic public health work are fraught with perils in several continents across the world. It is the duty of the governmental agencies that employ them to ensure their welfare, safety and security. While cheerleading about the award is rightfully reaching a crescendo, what matters is how the Indian government serves its last mile health workers who are its feet on the ground, once the dust raised by their unexpected recognition has settled down.

A new road for India’s fiscal federalism

After the ‘Mohit Minerals’ judgment, states will now be free to exercise independent power to legislate on GST

SUHRITH PARTHASARATHY

On May 19, in Union of India vs Mohit Minerals, the Supreme Court of India delivered a ruling which is likely to have an impact far wider than what the centre might have imagined when it brought the case up on appeal. At stake was the validity of a levy imposed on importers, of Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) on ocean freight paid by foreign sellers to foreign shipping lines. The Gujarat High Court had declared the tax illegal. The Supreme Court affirmed the ruling through Justice D.Y. Chandrachud’s judgment and held that the levy constituted double taxation – that is, that the importer, which was already paying tax on the “composite” supply of goods, could not be asked to pay an additional tax on a perceived “service” that it may have received.

Just recommendations

In making this finding, the Court proceeded on a technical reading of various laws, in particular the provisions of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act. That reading, in and by itself, has limited implications. But the Court also made a slew of observations, which, if taken to their logical conclusion by State legislatures, could potentially transform the future of fiscal federalism in India. It held, for instance, that both Parliament and the State legislatures enjoy equal power to legislate on Goods and Services Tax (GST), and that the Goods and Services Tax Council’s recommendations were just that: recommendations that could never be binding on a legislative body.

Reacting to the ruling, the Union Ministry of finance has claimed that it “does not in any way lay down anything new”, and that it “does not have any bearing on the way GST has been functioning in India, nor lays down anything fundamentally different to the existing framework of GST”. But a close reading of the judgment belies this suggestion. Until now, governments across India have treated the GST Council’s recommendations – even where they disagreed with them – as sacrosanct, because they believed that this was indeed the law. What Mohit Minerals holds, though, is that State governments, on a proper construal of the Constitution, need to hardly feel circumscribed by any such limitation. As such, according to the Court, State legislatures possess the authority to deviate from any advice rendered by the GST Council and to make their own laws by asserting, in the process, their role as equal partners in India’s federal architecture.

Advent of Articles

When, in July 2017, the Union government introduced the GST regime through the 101^st constitutional Amendment, it did so based on an underlying belief that tax administration across India needed unification. ‘One Nation, One Tax’, was the mantra. To give effect to this idea, many entries in the State list of Schedule VII of the Constitution were either deleted or amended. No longer could State governments, for example, legislate on sale or purchase of goods (barring a few exceptions, such as petroleum and liquor) through the ordinary legislative route. Instead, a power to legislate on GST was inserted through a newly introduced Article 246A. This provision over-rode the general dominion granted to Parliament and State legislatures to bring laws on various subjects and afforded to them an express authority to make legislation on GST.

In addition, the 101^st Amendment also established, through Article 279A, a GST Council. This body comprises the Union Finance Minister, the Union Minister of State for Finance and Minister of Finance from every State government. The Council was given the power to “make recommendations to the Union and States” on several different matters. These include a model GST law, the goods and services that may be subjected to or exempted from GST and the rates at which tax is to be levied. In framing the manner in which the Council’s votes are to be reckoned with, the Union government was granted a virtual veto.

As I wrote in these pages when the Amendment was first introduced, there was some amount of confusion on whether the Council’s decisions would be binding. The use of the word “recommendations” suggested on the one hand that its decisions would be advisory, at best. But, at the same time, the fact that Article 279A directed the establishment of a mechanism to adjudicate disputes between governments on decisions taken by the Council suggested that those governments would, in fact, be bound by any advice rendered to them. If the former reading was to be deployed, the purpose behind the introduction of a common GST would be in jeopardy. But the latter interpretation effectively entailed a destruction of the well-laid plans of the Constituent Assembly. Fiscal responsibilities that had been divided with much care and attention between the Union and the States would now stand dissolved.

Not a symmetrical compact

In its judgment in Mohit Minerals, the supreme Court has provided what ought to be seen as the final word on this conundrum. Although States had until now proceeded on a tacit belief that the GST Council’s recommendations were binding, such an approach, in Justice Chandrachud’s words, would run counter both to the express words of the Constitution and the philosophical values underlying the language deployed. Out federal compact, the judgment holds, is not symmetrical, in that there are certain areas of the Constitution that contain a “centralizing drift” – where the Union is granted a larger share of the power – and there are other areas where equal responsibility is vested.

Article 246A, which was introduced by the 101^st Amendment, is one such clause. The provision provides concomitant power both to the Union and to the State governments to legislate on GST. It does not discriminate between the two in terms of its allocation of authority. Tat allocation, according to the Court, cannot be limited by a reading of Article 279S, which establishes a GST Council, and which treats the Council’s decisions as “recommendations”. “If the GST Council was intended to be a decision-making authority whose recommendations transform to legislation,” wrote Justice Chandrachud, “such a qualification would have been included in Articles 246A or 279A.” But in the present case, no such qualification can be found.

In perspective

The Court’s ruling does not mean that a legislature – whether Parliament or the States’ – cannot through statutory law make the Council’s recommendations binding on executive bodies. Indeed, insofar as the laws today make such a mandate, rulemaking by the executive would necessarily have to be bound by the Council’s advice. But a constitutional power, in the Court’s ruling, can never be limited through statute. Such curbs must flow only from the Constitution. And in this case, in the Court’s analysis, no restrictions on legislative power can be gleaned on a meaningful reading of the Constitution.

Today, because of the ruling in Mohit Minerals, State governments will be free to exercise independent power to legislate on GST. It is possible that this might lead to conflicting taxation regimes, with the idea of ‘One Nation One Tax’ rendered nugatory. But as the Court puts it, “Indian federalism is a dialogue between cooperative and uncooperative federalism where the federal units are at liberty to use different means of persuasion ranging from collaboration to contestation.”

GST was conceived as a product of what some described as “pooled sovereignty”. But perhaps it is only in an administrative area, animated by contestation, where we can see synergy between different sovereign units, where our nation can take a genuine turn towards a more “cooperative federalism”.

The executive seems more fragile than hurt sentiment

There seems to be an increased use of Section 153A IPC and Section 295A IPC, going by data and anecdotal evidence

SHRUTIKA & MAYANK YADAV

In yet another brute show of power, Dr. Ratan Lal, a Dalit academician, was arrested for an ‘objectionable’ post on the Gyanvapi mosque row. He is alleged to have promoted disharmony or enmity between religious groups (Section 153A in the Indian Penal Code) and intentionally and maliciously hurt religious sentiments (Section 295A in the IPC). His arrest adds to the trend of increased use of the two provisions.

The latest annual report of the National Crime Records Bureau records more than four jumps (458%) of cases registered under Section 153A since 2014; it almost doubled in the last two years. This does not necessarily mean hurtful comments surged all of a sudden, as conviction could only be secured in merely 20.4% of cases. Though no separate data is available on Section 295A, anecdotal evidence suggests its increased use by the executive.

Legislative history

The increased use of these penal provisions draws our attention to the circumstances in which they were enacted. In 1927, when Section 153A was already in existence, Section 295A was brought on the demand of a religious minority community which alleged that a pamphlet titled ‘Rangeela Rasul’ published objectionable content against its founder.

The Legislative Assemble debates at the introduction of Section 295A expressed concern about its subjectivity that could be misused. The rationale behind the provision was to deal with intentional insults to religion or outraging religious feelings. As best, the Assembly members found it a temporary remedy for a temporary aberration, not one that would be in active use a century later.

A more direct measure was incorporated through Section 295A, which would not require proving that the speech promoted enmity or hatred between classes; now, a hurt sentiment would be enough. It can be argued that it safeguarded the spirit of tolerance amidst religious diversity. But its enhanced misuse raises the question: safeguard for who and against what?

The debates sensed and cautioned against a looming threat over free speech. It was anticipated that it could be misused to suppress honest, candid, and bona fide criticism, and hinder historical research towards social reform. If individuals were allowed to register complaints about a hurt religious sentiment, the courts would be flooded with frivolous cases. Then there would be a sweeping class of offences, where it cannot be objectively adjudicated if a crime has been committed.

Some safeguards

However, there were statutory safeguards that required deliberate intention and malice; and judicial rulings that needed looking at – words used, intent, and effect to ascertain criminality. Only a deliberate and aggravated form of religious insult would attract the rigor of the provision.

The judiciary laid down two ways to measure the effect – one by establishing a link between speech and public disorder, and by measuring the effects from the standards of a reasonable man, and not from one who fears all hostile viewpoints. However, no attempt was made to translate the safeguards into practice, which could have shielded the dear ethos of free speech. A half-hearted attempt left us with a law that cannot be enforced appropriately and is being let loose to chase and dissenter.

Element of subjectivity

Unlike bodily harm that can be verified, sentimental hurt cannot be tested against strict measures. The element of subjectivity over-rides it as a sentiment’s vulnerability could widely vary, every among those of the same religion.

A critical inquiry of orthodox practices and superstitious beliefs encourages social reforms. The need for an intelligent counter is required much more amid the aggressive assertion of religious beliefs by the socio-political hegemon. Even the 1927 Joint Select committee appreciated the argument that a religious insult inflicted in good faith, with the object of steering reform, would bring the follower’s required attention to the critique.

India’s Constitution celebrates diversity with the guarantee of free speech. With that aspirational pledge, should not the answer to hurt religious sentiment be tolerance, and not rampant criminalization? This may be an unreal expectation in times of widespread hate and disharmony. It is anomalous for a pluralistic, democratic, and secular nation that runs on counter-discourses to criminalize speech for hurting fickle religious sentiments.

Even the statutory safeguards of ‘deliberate intention and malice’ cannot be objectively determined. The police do not get into the legislative nuances before registering a criminal case or making an arrest. Philosopher Martha Nussbaum critiqued the law by saying that it invites thugs to suppress speech on anything they dislike; she added that given India’s political climate, several would take up this ugly invitation. A hazy legal paradigm criminalizing hurting religious sentiment facilitates the ruling dispensation’s strategy to stifle all dissent and use the law to fuel divisive politics.

On raging criminalization of free speech, senior advocate Indira Jaising said that repeated use of law to stifle dissent reflects state policy. “It is not a ‘misuse’; it is being used the way the enforcement agencies want it,” she added. The executive is seemingly more fragile than a citizen’s hurt religious sentiment. It sends out a clear message that be it a stand-up comic script, a remark on the belief of walking barefooted in reverence, or taking beef to school, India is no longer the country to hold and express opinions challenging the state-backed majoritarian rhetoric.

THE HINDU EDITORIAL - MAY 24, 2022

2022-05-25T19:48:00.002+05:30

THE HINDU EDITORIAL – MAY 24, 2022

All hands on deck

After Centre’s duty cut, States must do the same with their taxes

The Union government’s decision on Saturday to cut the excise duty on petrol and diesel by 8 rupees and 6 rupees, respectively, is a belated acknowledgement that April’s multi-year highs in inflation were spurred in significant measure by high fuel prices. Coming more than six months after its last duty reduction – on Deepavali eve – the latest cut is a welcome step to ease the burgeoning cost burden on producers and consumers. With the price of the Indian basket of crude oil having risen by more than 33% since November, and with a bulk of the surge coming in the wake of the Ukraine war in February, state-run oil marketing companies had raised retail fuel prices sharply over a 16-day period starting March 22. Largely as a result of the higher fuel prices and quickening food costs, inflation based on the Consumer Price Index accelerated to a 95-month high of 7.8% last month, while wholesale price gains soared to a multi-decade high of 15.1%. S&P Global’s April PMI surveys showed that both services and manufacturing companies had in fact flagged the surging input costs as a potential dampener of demand. A desperate RBI decided to stop waiting for Government intervention to cool the supply-side factors fanning inflation and opted instead to raise interest rates earlier this month.

The extent of concern about the inaction on the part of the Government was reflected at the Monetary Policy Committee’s two-day meeting earlier this month where a member observed: “Government supply-side action can also reduce future rate rises, output sacrifice and borrowing costs. Both central and State taxes are buoyant… giving them space to cut taxes on fuels.” Now that the Centre has acted to ease some of the inflationary pressure emanating from the high excise duty component in fuel prices, the onus is on the States to sink their political differences over the Government’s past approach to taxing fuels and help reduce the burden on the common man by paring their respective State taxes as well. With the war in Europe showing no immediate signs of easing, the economic fallout, particularly on global energy and food costs, remains highly uncertain and continues to point to the rising risks of faster inflation coupled with slower growth. In such a volatile scenario, fiscal measures that help cool price pressures and leave an extra rupee or two in the consumer’s pocket can only aid to undergird vital consumption demand in the economy. Ultimately, all States must realise that the best way to safeguard their revenue interests would be to ensure that the growth momentum in the economy as a whole remains well supported. This is a moment that calls for all hands on deck. The sooner policy-makers at the different levels of government, and of all political hues, realise this and act in concert, the better.

Grand slam

ATP and WTA did the right thing by stripping Wimbledon of ranking points

Moves by the ATP and WTA – governing bodies of men’s and women’s tennis tours – to strip Wimbledon of its primary currency, the all-important ranking points, for the 2022 edition represent the harshest rebuke to the autonomous overreach by the oldest Grand Slam event in declining entries from Russian and Belarusian players. The ATP, on Friday, said the move was to protect the “integrity of the sport”, which was built upon “merit-based tournament entry” (through rankings) and a level playing field. The WTA concurred, basing its decision on its foundational principle of equal opportunity, championed by the legendary Billie Jean King. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) followed suit by removing points from the Junior and wheelchair competitions. As a result, the most coveted tennis tournament in the world is set to be reduced to an exhibition event, barring a rethink from the feuding parties. A large-scale player drop-out may not materialize, for Wimbledon holds too much allure, both in terms of prestige and prize money. But the saga is sure to upend the sport’s pecking orders. Tennis rankings work over a rolling 52-week period, updated by adding points earned in the previous week and subtracting those from the equivalent week in the previous year. Now, World No.1 Novak Djokovic’s 2000 points for winning the 2021 edition will be removed without any addition this year, causing severe disruptions in the upper echelons of men’s tennis.

More broadly, the fiasco is likely to end up leaving everyone bruised. Wimbledon has rightly been penalized for triggering the controversy by unfairly targeting Russians and Belarusians for the actions of their political leaders, despite the likes of World No.2 Daniil Medvedev and World No.7 Andrey Rublev publicly calling for peace. But the pushback by the ATP, WTA and ITF will unfortunately inflict collateral damage on scores of players, especially those in the lower rungs, otherwise eligible to earn points. While the ATP has correctly stressed that an acceptable solution could have been found if Wimbledon had not chosen to act unilaterally based on “informal guidance” from the British government, it is a fact that tennis’s seven governing bodies – ATP, WTA, ITF and the four Majors – mostly work at cross-purposes and act in self-interest. The ATP itself has not walked and talk, continuing to hand out a disproportionately high number of ranking points to its flagship multi-nation team competition ATP Cup despite the tournament being a closed-door event. Wimbledon has, for now, stopped at expressing its disappointment and reserved its position, with the ongoing French Open providing fans with a welcome distraction. But any attempt to further this powerplay by driving another wedge, instead of charting out a progressive path, will only splinter the sport more.

A far more dangerous moment now than in 1992

The opening up of Gyanvapi is not about history; it is about reclamation and is central to a larger supremacist project

SEEMA CHISHTI

Exactly 30 years after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, the Gyanvapi mosque dispute offers less déjà vu and more striking contrasts in the two scenarios. Like architecture distinguishes clearly between rubble and ruin, we must look clearly at the differences between the Ayodhya matter then and the dispute over Varanasi’s Gyanvapi mosque in 2022 now. The differences are stark.

There is an Act now

The first dissimilarity is the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 which did not exist when the political movement for Ayodhya caught steam. Also, Ayodhya was out of its ambit. The Supreme Court verdict in 2019 went on to underline the importance of the 1991 Act in 10 pages (pages 116-125) and how it “protects and secures the fundamental values of the Constitution”. Agreeing with the rationale of the law, the five-judge Bench said; “The Places of Worship Act imposes a non-derogable obligation towards enforcing our commitment to secularism under the Indian Constitution.”

In not framing the matter in the latter and spirit of its own order just three years ago, and instead, trying to ‘balance’, the law and its interpreters are enabling a significant and worrying change in India. It is not a Babri moment, as Babri was to be an exception with the law applicable to all other such matters. If this goes on, it will open a Pandora’s box. Similar and multiple cases are bound to begin mushrooming; the plea to remove Mathura’s shahi Idgah and dig around the Qutub Minar have reached the courts. As Sarvepalli Gopal writes in the introduction to Anatomy of a Confrontation, such conflicts bring into “sharp focus since 1947, a sickness which free India has not been able to shake off”. If the idea of the 1991 Act was to insulate the Republic from the implications of Babri, allowing the Varanasi issue gain momentum suggests exacerbating the “sickness”. The intention was to draw a line under 1947 and bring quietus after the Ayodhya dispute. Thirst years on, despite witnessing the ruptures that Babri led to, if Gyanvapi is allowed to fester, it would signal that India is re-opening issues that the Constitution had settled. That can only signal more upheaval.

An institutional collapse

What also distinguishes the present moment from Ayodhya is the State of India’s institutions. What separates democracy from a mobocracy is the presence of modern institutions. It is only through their independent functioning that the promise of the Constitution is honored. The job of independent institutions in a democracy is to keep asking question of the executive and ensure that it acts in accordance with the Constitution it has sworn by. But India has seen a dramatic decline in institutional independence. This decline underlies India’s sharp democratic backslide. India is classified as an ‘electoral autocracy’ (V-Dem Institute), ‘partly free’ (Freedom House), scores ‘at the level of 1975’ when a formal emergency was in place (International IDEA) and it is now among the 30 worst countries of 180, as for as freedom of the press goes (RSF). The World Values Survey and the Pew Research Centre tell us that it is India that support for civil rights as a feature of democracy and even democracy has fallen the most, since 2015. In such times, if Gyanvapi was to be a start of something else, then there would not even be counter-pressures from institutions like 30 years ago. The Justice J.S. Verma report, (when he was National Human Rights Commission chairman) about violence in 2002 is unimaginable today.

Another difference from 1992 is that economic liberalization had yet to play itself out then. It was an ‘old India’ if fans of liberalization are to be believed. There was a view that altered economics would help destroy India’s regressive social mores. This was touted as the big change – post the Berlin Wall and post the Soviet Union – that general economic uplift would deal a death blow to old identity issues and liberate its people. But 30 years on, the promise of quick economic progress has not been able to fell identity politics. Considerable academic research would nudge us in the opposite direction. A hardened and narrower understanding of identity politics has gripped the world. Today, well after liberalization has resulted in more economic inequality and record levels of concentration of wealth and cronyism, India finds itself asking fraught questions with ferocity. The economic crisis facing India today, apart from steep and widening inequalities, also has grim unemployment figures to reckon with. None of the expectations that the 1990s held for India – whether imagined or real – are now in the air. Gyanvapi being fanned now would do so in a world where the hopes of economic liberalization as a panacea re behind it and the fortuitous global conditions of the early 1990s are not there.

Ideological, not just political

There was a strong political incentive behind the mass movement and the Rath yatra that propelled the Ayodhya issue onto centre stage in the late 1980s. It yielded durable benefits to the political party which led it. Currently, to see it as mere instrumentalism would be missing the significance of what 2022 is about. With two successive electoral majorities, this is not about distracting the voter from the state of the economy or noise to garner support for elections. This is part of a core ideological belief of the ruling dispensation. Ideally, it would want courts to just award it to majoritarian mobs, minus a mass movement or mobilization. For the ruling regime, this path is not seen as a crisis but as apart of a desired end. So it is unlikely that the government in office will feel compelled to tell off mobs and people who are raising issues, long thought settled.

The opening up of gyanvapi is not about history. Indian history is too complex to be reduced to a two-dimensional Hindu versus Muslim framing. For thousands of years, India has been witness to a spectrum of stories of both coexistence and conflict; Shaivites facing off with Vaishnavites, Brahmins making a case against Shramans, Buddhists and Jains versus everyone else and disputes across many more lines. Events here were not very different from how medieval Christianity and Islam played out. The Gyanvapi dispute is about reclamation and is central to the larger supremacist project. This cannot be divorced from frenetic name-changing, the anti-conversion and cattle laws lynchings, changes in official history, amped up hate on mass media and other bids to scrub out Muslims and distort India’s rich past.

Well before Islam found its way to Kodungallue (Kerala) or came across the Hindukush, India was a place with complex inter-community ties between various sects and people who called it home. It is an established historical fact that multiple migrations made India. As Firaq Gorakhpuri (also known as Prof. Raghupati Sahay) said: “Sar zamin-e-Hind par aqwam-e-aalam ke, Firaq, Kafile aate rahe aur Hindustan banta gaya (Many caravans came into these parts and went onto constitute India)”. The year 1950, with Indian composite nationalism at the centre, was a far-sighted attempt at drawing a line under a million mutinies, especially after 1947.

India’s Constitution offered everyone emancipation. Ideological predecessors of the present regime made no bones about not sharing those values and believed in India as a nation-for-Hindus only, in the mirror image of what Muslim separatists managed to secure with Pakistan. Eight years after 2014, It has been hard for the Government to claim brownie points globally for being ‘exceptional’, as bad news of events on the ground have been hard to keep hidden. As ‘exceptionalism’ gets sucked out and India unspools into being known as another South Asian ethnic supremacist venture, it can only shrink the India story, and certainly not help it achieve ‘greatness’.

A road versus alley

It is possible that because we now have the benefit of hindsight from 1992, we choose differently. But that would mean for the ruling party and followers, to jettison Golwalkar’s objective for non-Hindu; “claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment, not even citizen’s rights” (Golwalkar, We, or Our Nationhood Defined, 1939: page 62). Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin, Godse’s hate and violence, must be loudly denounced again by those who have political power. The path of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Sunni Muslim nationalism in Pakistan, Sinhalese supremacism or Myanmar’s journey must serve as a warning and not a manual for India. Gyanvapi, which means the ‘found of knowledge’ or wisdom, offers a choice now. We could pull back and take a long sip. Thirty years after Babri Masjid, we know the dark alley the other option leads to. It may be far too narrow a path for India to quickly reverse out of.

A Harvard branch in India, prospects and challenges

It will be worthwhile for policymakers to look at the experience of other countries for positive and negative lessons

PHILIP G. ALTBACH & ELDHO MATHEWS

India, after half a century of keeping its higher education doors closed to foreigners, is on the cusp of opening itself to the world. The traditional orientation to swadeshi that has characterized much of Indian thinking, at least in higher education, is changing. The wide-ranging National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 promises higher education reforms in many areas, and internationalization is prominent among them. Among the underlying ideas and institutions from abroad to stimulate reform and show “best practice”, and in general to ensure that Indian higher education, for the first time, is a global player.

New thinking

An example of the new thinking was part of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s April 2022 visit to India, which featured a visit to the innovative Gujarat Biotechnology University and strengthening the United Kingdom-India academic collaboration. The Gujarat Biotechnology University is an example for new models of international academic partnerships emerging in India. It was established by the Department of Science and Technology of the Government of Gujarat in partnership with the University of Edinburgh, which assists the Gujarat Biotechnology University in developing strategies with regard to teaching, learning, research and innovation, and quality assurance, among others. This is a unique model in the present Indian academic context as there are many regulatory hurdles that still exist in the country with regard to international academic partnerships, which includes the operation of international branch campuses.

Currently, India does not allow the entry and the operation of foreign university branch campuses The NEP 2020 was a turning point for the entry of foreign universities as it recommended allowing foreign universities ranked in the “top 100” category to operate in India – under somewhat unrealistic conditions. In February 2022, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her Budget speech, announced that “world-class foreign universities and institutions would be allowed in the planned business district in Gujarat’s GIFT City” (or the Gujarat International finance Tec-City) and they would be free from domestic regulations to facilitate availability of high-end human resources.

The Minister’s statement was a marked departure from the NEP 2020 recommendations that allow only the “top 100” category to operate in India. A similar accommodating stance could be observed in the (written) reply given by the Minister of State for Education, Dr. Subhas Sarkar, in the Lok Sabha in March. He noted that two foreign institutions, from France and Italy, had expressed interest in setting up campuses in India. However, the Italian institute “Istituto Marangoni”, is not a university. It was reported that in April 2022, the University Grants commission (UGC) formed a committee to draft regulations to allow foreign institutions in the “top 500” category to establish campuses in India – realizing that more flexibility was needed.

Establishing branch campuses of top foreign universities is a good idea as this will bring much-needed global experience to India. But is this practical? And will overseas universities be interested? Globaly, branch campuses, of which there are around 300 now, provide a mixed picture. Many are aimed at making money for the sponsoring university – and this is not what India wants. And some have proved to be unstable. A recent example in this regard is the ending of the decade-long partnership between Yale University and the National University of Singapore in running the Yale-NUS College in Singapore.

Current initiatives

There has been modest growth of various forms of partnerships between Indian and foreign institutions. The joint PhD programmes offered by the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay-Monash Research Academy and the University of Queensland-Indian Institute of Technology Delhi Academy of Research (UQIDAR), both with Australian partners, are some examples. Another example is the Melbourne-India Postgraduate Academy (MIPA). It is a joint initiative of the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur with the University of Melbourne. MIPA provides students with an opportunity to earn a joint degree accredited both in India and Australia: from the University of Melbourne and one of the partnering Indian institutions. These partnerships suggest that India could offer opportunities for international branch campuses as well.

International branch campuses, if allowed, could function as a structurally different variant of Indian’s private university sector. The establishment of foreign university branch campuses would encourage competition mainly between existing private universities and foreign branch institutions, but would have less impact on the public universities. Branch campuses, if effectively managed, could bring much needed new ideas about curriculum, pedagogy, and governance to Indian higher education – they could be a kind of educational laboratory.

Practical challenges

On the positive side, India is seen around the world as an important country and an emerging higher education power. It is the World’s second largest “exporter” of students, with 4,61,792 students studying abroad (according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics). And Indian has the world’s second largest higher education system. Foreign countries and universities will be eager to establish a “beach head” in India and interested in providing opportunities for home campus students to learn about Indian business, society, and culture to participate in growing trade and other relations.

Still, it will not be easy to attract foreign universities to India and even more difficult to create the conditions for them to flourish. Many of those top universities are already fully engaged overseas and would likely require incentives to set up in India. Further, there are smaller but highly regarded universities outside the ‘top 500’ category that might be more interested. Universities around the world that have academic specializations focusing on India, that already have research or faculty ties in the country, or that have Non-Resident Indian (NRI) in senior management positions may be easier to attract. What is most important is to prevent profit-seekers from entering the Indian market and to encourage foreign institutions with innovative educational ideas and a long-term commitment. Many host countries have provided significant incentives, including building facilities and providing necessary infrastructure. Foreign universities are highly unlikely to invest significant funds up front.

More hurdles to cross

A big challenge will be India’s “well-known” bureaucracy, especially the multiple regulations. If bureaucratic hurdles cannot be drastically cut, there will be no success in attracting branch campuses. In addition, a recent study underlined the fact that apart from allowing home institutions to repatriate surplus funds after tax clearance, a new accreditation mechanism, flexible visa rules for foreign students and faculty, financial incentives to offer programmes is priority areas should also be considered.

Branch campuses would be helpful in addressing skill requirements and providing examples of different approaches to higher education. It will be worthwhile to look at the experience of other countries for both positive and negative lessons. After examining national experiences elsewhere, clear policies can be implemented that may be attractive to foreign universities. Once policies are in place, the key to success will be relationships among universities – and not grandiose government schemes.

THE HINDU EDITORIAL - MAY 9, 2022

2022-05-13T14:51:00.001+05:30

THE HINDU EDITORIAL – MAY 9, 2022

Third and final round

Proposed Constitution Bench hearing should end the wrangling over NCTs status

The complexities of the law governing the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi will once again be under elaborate judicial focus. In what will be the third round of litigation in the dispute between the Union government and the Government of the NCT of Delhi, a Constitution Bench will embark on interpreting a couple of phrases in Article 239AA, which confers a unique status for Delhi. It would indeed seem unnecessary for another Constitution Bench after five judges had rendered an authoritative pronouncement in 2018 on various questions that arose from Article 239AA. However, the Chief Justice of India N.V Ramana, has made it clear that the reference to a five-member Bench will be strictly limited to the interpretation of a couple of phrases that were not examined by the earlier Bench, and no other point will be reopened. Broadly, the 2018 verdict, through three concurring opinions, had ruled that Delhi was indeed a Union Territory, but the Lieutenant Governor, as the Administrator appointed by the President, should act as per the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers, in areas in which legislative power was conferred on Delhi’s Legislative Assembly. Under Article 239AA, except for police, public order and land, the Delhi Assembly can make law on all other matters in the State and Concurrent Lists ‘insofar as such matter is applicable to Union Territories’. The mandate of the hearing is t declare what this phrase means, and whether it is one more limitation on Delhi’s legislative, and by extension, executive powers.

The 2018 ruling limited the Lieutenant Governor’s domain by making it clear that not every decision required his concurrence. It had cautioned against the notion of representative democracy being negated, if legitimate decisions of the Council of Ministers were blocked merely because the Lieutenant Governor had a different view. The Lieutenant Governor’s power to refer “any matter” on which he disagreed with the elected regime did not mean he could raise a dispute on “every matter”. It is perhaps because of the underlying message that an unelected administrator should not undermine an elected administration that the Centre badly wanted a fresh reference to another Constitution Bench. It is indeed true that a split verdict by a two-judge Bench on the question whether ‘services’ fell under the Union government’s domain or the NCT government has flagged the absence of a determination in the Constitution Bench verdict on the question whether Entry 41 of the State List (services) is within the NCT’s executive and legislative domain. Entry 41 is not one of the excluded areas of legislation by the Delhi Assembly, but it has been argued that there are no services under the Delhi government and, therefore, it was not a matter applicable to the NCT at all. Settling this remaining question should give a quietus to the endless wrangling between the Modi government at the Centre and the Kejriwal regime in Delhi.

One more year

As the Asiad is put off, athletes have to rework preparations and priorities

In recent times, sport seemed to be breathing easy despite COVID-19’s long shadow. Yet, a surprising full stop has sprung up in a multi-disciplinary continental event with the postponement of the Asian Games at Hangzhou in China. That Shanghai has witnessed an outbreak which led to the enforcement of strict restrictions has obviously forced a rethink within the Chinese landscape. Scheduled to be held in September, the Asian Games needs a fresh window and the speculation is that like the Tokyo Olympics, which suffered a year’s postponement and was held in 2021, the Asiad too may spill over into 2023. In the current year featuring the World Championships, which was to be followed by the Commonwealth Games, the Asian Games was expected to be the big climax. This benchmark has now vanished, and athletes and sports bodies have to alter plans. Sportspersons train to gradually reach the ‘zone’ or the ‘peak’, when they maximize their chances of winning a coveted medal. It is linked to a monitored blend of training, nutrition and rest while the eye is locked on the event dates. However, a last-minute change scuppers even the best-laid plans and demands a recalibration from the concerned athlete, coaching staff and sports associations and nations.

The latest development offers a mixed bag for India, which finds better success rates in the Asiad and Commonwealth Games, unlike in the Olympics. But cutting across the varied spectrum of Indian sport, the indefinite postponement is seen both as a blessing and a curse. With the Asian Games serving as a qualification event for the Paris Olympics in 2024, Hockey India was initially mulling over fielding a second-string team at the Commonwealth Games and sending across its main squad for the Asiad. The apprehensions were centred around the difficulty of peaking twice in a year within a few months. But with China postponing the marquee event, a full-strength hockey outfit can now be sent to Birmingham for the Commonwealth Games. The same relief applies to other athletes too as they now have to focus only on the World Championships and Commonwealth Games. But for the 30-plus athletes eying a swansong, it would be difficult to stretch every sinew in the next year too. Runner Jinson Johnson, gold medalist in the 2018 Asiad, may have to train for an additional season. There are other complications as in the boxing calendar, 2023 competitions are the yardstick for Olympic qualification. An Asiad in that cycle would affect preparation. China had its reasons for the postponement, and the sporting world will need to rework preparations and priorities.

Turning down the volume on a call to prayer

The winds of change that have started from Saudi Arabia may just be embracing Indian Islam

ZIYA US SALAM

A few days after Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti celebrations and a little before Jammatul Alvida (last Friday of Ramzan), the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh swung into action. Quoting a judgment of the Allahabad High Court, in Motilal Yadav vs The State of Uttar Pradesh, the government, in an even-anded manner, removed around 10,900 loudspeakers from various places of worship, with the initial focus being on the chief Minister’s constituency (Gorakhpur), the Prime Minister’s constituency (Varanasi), besides Lucknow and Allahabad.

The early reports revealed that most places of worship, mosques and temples, were flouting the court order and using loudspeakers wither without legal permission or above the prescribed decibel level. Within a couple of days, the campaign extended to towns in western Uttar Pradesh – Agra, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar, etc. In Agra, 756 loudspeakers were removed from various places of worship. At one go, around 90% of mosques and 85% of temples were found to be at fault.

A surprising response

The government action was met with a considerably mature response. There were no threats to hit the roads or approach the Supreme Court. There were no calls for rallies or even whispers of discrimination or appeasement. The lack of opposition from religious leaders and clerics surprised many. Maybe the images of destruction in the wake of bulldozer visits in neighboring Delhi and Madhya Pradesh had had an effect. While the response from some Hindu priests was muted, the Muslim community was divided in its response.

For the past few years there has been a silent churning within the community on certain key issues such as the use of loudspeakers for ‘azaan’ (prayer call), use of public roads for Friday prayers, etc. A section has been volubly in favour of perpetuation of these concessions in a pluralist democracy, pointing to similar prayers and celebrations of other communities. That section involved in constant one-upmanship with the majority community is, however, fast losing numbers. A significant section has been on an introspective mode, preferring to do the right thing by law and religion. It is this section which found fairness with the government’s decision to ban or limit the loudspeaker usage in places of worship of all religions or curtailing public space for prayers. Drawing from the traditions of the Prophet, they reiterate that it is incumbent on the community to follow the law of the land, and one’s action should not discomfit others.

Then and now

The largely educated section, aware of the tenets of faith too, points out that at one time, the use of loudspeakers could be understood or allowed, as back in the 1960s and the 1970s, there were severely limited ways of communication. Mobiles were nowhere on the horizon; landline phones were rare and many houses did not even have a clock. One had to book an HMT wrist watch for weeks in advance. There were instances where a passer-by or neighbour dropped in just to ask the time. In Ramzan, the believers were often woken up by wandering mendicants, singing hymns and knocking at each door to remind them of time for suhoor (predawn) meal. However, those challenges ended many decades ago. In the age of Internet, mobiles and Islamic Apps on phones, it is no longer necessary for a muezzin to blare out the prayer invitation five times a day on a loudspeaker. In fact, many regular worshippers download Apps on their mobile which remind them of prayer time with ‘azaan’.

Interestingly, the ‘azaan’ on loudspeakers has often divided the community. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the supporters of the Tablighi Jamaat, then beginning to have an international following, opposed the use of loudspeakers for the purpose of inviting the faithful to prayers. The largest Muslim organisation pointed out that the Prophet preferred the use of a high mound or hill for a person to climb and give out the prayer call. It may be recalled that back in the seventh century, shortly after Muslims had reached Medina from Mecca, the Prophet had to devise a way of inviting people to the mosque five times a day. Some of his companions suggested a bell could be rung to invite people for prayers. Others suggested a could be blown. A few others wanted a fire to be lit atop a hill as a mark of prayer time.

The Prophet turned down the suggestions as they were either being followed by Christians and jews or were considered impractical. Finally, he asked Bilal, a Black manumitted slave, to learn the words suggested by Abdullah Ibn Zaid, a companion. Beginning with ‘Allah-u-akbar’, the worlds together gave the complete text of the prayer call which Bilal was asked to pronounce from the top of the hill. In a strong statement for egalitarianism, the first ‘azaan’ was thus pronounced by a Black man without the sound of a drum or any other instrument or aid. This idea of the Prophet to call people from a height later led to the construction of tall minarets in mosques over the next many centuries. To this day, most medieval mosques in India, including the Jama Masjid in Delhi, have tall and robust minarets which a muezzin is supposed to climb to give the prayer call. It is this tradition which the Tablighi Jamaat wanted to maintain.

Competing calls

Much of it, however, changed from the 1970s, and by 1990s, mosques in Muslim neighborhoods were seen to be competing in a game of higher volume for their respective ‘azaans’. Spurred on partly by the Babri Masjid-Janmabhoomi Movement from the late 1980s, many mosques made it a status symbol to employ multiple loudspeakers pointing at different directions for the sound to travel all across. Many temples, incidentally, did the same, some even using loudspeakers for Prabhat pheris at dawn. In old cities of Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Delhi with a sizeable Muslim population, it become almost impossible to respond to a solitary ‘azaan’ in peace as multiple mosques issued the same invitation at the same time, leading to more cacophony than spiritual rejuvenation. It is this noise, particularly at dawn (Fair) and dusk (Maghrib) time that invited the attention of environment lovers who pointed out the health hazards due to increased noise pollution.

Incidentally, the situation is the same in much of the subcontinent. In Karachi and Lahore in Pakistan mosques use high volume on their loudspeakers; often one finds more than one ‘azaan’ calls at the same time. In Bangladesh too, prayer calls are made on loudspeakers. It is not unusual to hear a prayer call from a mosque in either Pakistan or Bangladesh while watching a cricket match from either country. Recently, we had the unique spectacle of Australia cricket captain Pat Cummins tweeting about the experience of listening to ‘azaan’ n the mountains of northern Pakistan.

There is change

In Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, however, the winds of change have started to blow, with the authorities in both countries limiting the use of loudspeakers in masjids. Back in 2010 in Malaysia, Islamic authorities had issued a fatwa banning the use of loudspeakers for reading the Koran before Fair prayers in the morning. In 2015, an advisory was used to discourage the use of loudspeakers for tazkirah or religious narration.

In the summer of 2021, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs put out an order for all loudspeakers to be set at only a third of their maximum volume. The Kingdom permitted the use of loudspeakers at this volume for extending invitation to prayer and for Iqamah (second call at the commencement of prayer) and asked mosques not to use external amplifiers to broadcast their prayers in the neighborhood. Similarly, the Kingdom asked the faithful not to use loudspeakers when they recite the Koran in the masjid as it was disrespectful to the book.

The winds of change that started from Saudi Arabia may just be embracing Indian Islam.

India’s judiciary and the slackening cog of trust

Departures from substantive and procedural justice need scrutiny as the fallout could severely imperil governance

VANI S. KULKARNI, VEENA S.KULKARNI & RAGHAV GAIHA

Centrality of justice in human lives is summed up in a few words by the Greek philosopher, Aristotle: “It is in justice that the ordering of society is centred.” Yet, a vast majority of countries have highly corrupt judiciaries.

Judicial corruption takes two forms: political interference in the judicial process by the legislative or executive branch, and bribery. Despite accumulation of evidence on corrupt practices, the pressure to rule in favour of political interests remains intense. And for judges who refuse to comply, political retaliation can be swift and harsh. Bribery can occur throughout the chain of the judicial process: judges may accept bribes to delay or accelerate verdicts, accept or deny appeals, or simply to decide a case in a certain way. Court officials coax bribes for free services; and lawyers charge additional “fees” to expedite or delay cases.

A distinction

Our focus here is on the functioning of and erosion of trust in the lower judiciary comprising high courts, and district and sessions courts. A distinction between substantive and procedural justice is helpful. Substantive justice is associated with whether the statutes, case law and unwritten legal principles are morally justified (e.g., freedom to pursue any religion), while procedural justice is associated with fair and impartial decision procedures. Many outdated/ dysfunctional laws or statutes have not been repealed because of the tardiness of legal reform both at the Union and State government levels. Worse, there have been blatant violations of constitutional provisions. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act (December 2019) provides citizenship to – except Muslims – Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis and Christians who came to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on or before December 31, 2014. But this flies in the face of secularism and is thus a violation of substantive justice. A striking example of tortuous delay in the delivery of justice is the case of Lal Bihari. He was officially declared dead in 1975, struggled to prove that he was alive (though deceased in the records) and was finally declared alive in 1994 (Debroy, 2021). Thus, both departures from substantive and procedural justice need deep scrutiny. Alongside procedural delays, endemic corruption and mounting shares of under-trial inmates with durations of three to five years point to stark failures of procedural justice and to some extent of substantive justice.

Under the different regimes

All was not well with the lower judiciary under the United Progressive Alliance regime. According to Transparency International (TI 2011), 45% of people who had come in contact with the judiciary between July 2009 and July 2010 had paid a bribe to the judiciary. The most common reason for paying the bribes was to “speed things up”. There were “fixed” rates for a quick divorce, bail, and other procedures (Banerjee, 2012). The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) (April 2013) estimates that for every 2 rupees in official court fees, at least 1,000 rupees is spent in bribes in bringing a petition to the court.

There is a scarcity of evidence on bribes and malfeasance under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). A few broad-brush treatments are, however, worrying Freedom House’s ‘Freedom in the World 2016 report for India’ states that “the lower levels of the judiciary in particular have been rife with corruption” (Freedom House 2016). The GAN Business Anti-Corruption Portal reports that, “[t]here is a high risk of corruption when dealing with India’s judiciary, especially at the lower court levels. Bribes and irregular payments are often exchanged in return for favorable court decisions” (GAN Integrity 2017).

Allegations of corruption against High Court judges abound. For example, Tis [Tiz] Hazari District Court Senior Civil Judge, Rachna Tiwari Lakhanpal, was arrested in September 2016 for allegedly accepting a bribe to rule in favour of a complainant in a case. Such examples are indicative of the widespread malaise of corruption in the lower judiciary. Worse, there are glaring examples of anti-Muslim bias, often followed by extra-judicial killings by the police. Anti-Muslim bias alone may not result in erosion of trust but if combined with unprovoked and brutal violence against them (e.g., lynching of innocent cattle traders) is bound to.

Case pendency

According to the National Judicial Data Grid, as of April 12, 2017, there are 24,186,566 pending cases in India’s district courts, of which 2,317,448 (9.58%) have been pending for over 10 years, and 3,975,717 (16.44%) have been pending for between five and 10 years. As of December 31, 2015, there were 4,432 vacancies in the posts of [subordinate court] judicial officers, representing about 22% of the sanctioned strength. In the case of the High Courts, 458 of the 1,079 posts, representing 42% of the sanctioned strength, were vacant as of June 2016. Thus, severe backlogging and understaffing persisted, as also archaic and complex procedures of delivery of justice.

Extreme centralization of power in the Centre and a blatant violation of democratic values under the NDA have had disastrous consequences in terms of violent clashes, loss of lives, religious discord, assaults on academic freedom, and suppression and manipulation of mass media. Exercise of extra-constitutional authority by the central and State governments, weakening of accountability mechanisms, widespread corruption in the lower judiciary and the police, with likely collusion between them, the perverted beliefs of the latter towards Muslims, other minorities and lower caste Hindus, a proclivity to deliver instant justice, extra-judicial killings, filing first information reports against innocent victims of moblynching – specifically, Muslim cattle traders while the perpetrators of violence are allowed to get away – have left deep scars on the national psyche. It may seem farfetched but it is not, as these are unmistakable signs of abject failure of governance.

Our analysis reinforces this concern. While trust in the judiciary is positively and significantly related to the share of undertrials for three to five years under total prisoners, it is negatively and significantly related to the square of share of under-trials. However, the negative effect nearly offsets the positive effect. So, while trust in the judiciary marginally rises with the proportion of undertrials until the threshold (0.267) is reached, it decreases beyond that point as the proportion of under-trial inmates rises.

In sum, erosion of trust in the judiciary could severely imperil governance.

https://civileducation2000.blogspot.com

THE HINDU , SUNDAY - MAY, 8, 2022

2022-05-12T00:15:00.000+05:30

THE HINDU SUNDAY, MAY 8, 2022

Food labeling

What is the debate around the nutritional information packaging that the FSSAI has mooted?

JAGRITI CHANDRA

The story so far: The Food safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is expected to issue a draft regulation for labels on front of food packets that will inform consumers if a product is high in salt, sugar and fat. If is expected to propose a system under which stars will be assigned to a product, which has earned the ire of public health experts and consumer organisations who say it will be misleading and ineffective. Health experts are demanding that the FSSAI instead recommend the “warning label” system which has proven to have altered consumer behavior.

Why do we need front-of-package labeling?

-In the past three decades, the country’s disease patterns have shifted. While mortality due to communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional diseases has declined and India’s population is living longer, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and injuries are increasingly contributing to the overall disease burden. In 2016, NCDs accounted for 55% of premature death and disability in the country. Indians also have a disposition for excessive fat around the stomach and abdomen which leads to increased risk of cardiovascular disease and type2 diabetes. According to the National Family Health Survey-5 (2019-2022), 47.7% of men and 56.7% of women have high risk waist-to-hip ratio. An increased consumption of packaged and junk food has also led to a double burden of undernutrition and overnutrition among children. Over half of the children and adolescents, whether under-nourished or with and adolescents, whether under-nourished or with normal weight, are at risk of cardiovascular diseases, according to an analysis by the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey in India (2016-18).

Reducing sugar, salt, and fat are among the best ways to prevent and control non-communicable diseases. While the FSSAI requires mandatory disclosure of nutrition information on food packets, this is located on the back of a packet and is difficult to interpret.

What decision has FSSAI taken?

-At a stakeholder’s meeting on February 15, 2022, three important decisions were taken on what would be the content of the draft regulations on front-of-package labeling. These included threshold levels to be used to determine whether a food product was high in sugar, salt and fat; that the implementation will be voluntary for a period of four years before it is made mandatory; and that the health-star rating system would be used as labels on the basis of a study commissioned by the FSSAI and conducted by IIM-Ahmedabad. The food industry agreed with the FSSAI’s decision on the issue of mandatory implementation and use of rating, and sought more time to study the issue of thresholds. The World Health Organization representative said the thresholds levels were lenient, while the consumer organisations opposed all three decisions.

The biggest contention is over the use of a health-star rating system that uses ½ a star to five stars to indicate the overall nutrition profile of a product. Despite objections, FSSAI CEO Arun Singhal told The Hindu that he stands by the IIM-A study as it is based on a survey of 20,500 people. He said stakeholders could share their comments once the draft regulations were made public. The FSSAI’s scientific panel will then take that into consideration.

Why is there opposition to the rating system?

-In a health-star rating system, introduced in 2014 in Australia and New Zealand, a product is assigned a certain number of stars using a calculator designed to assess positive (e.g., fruit, nu, protein content, etc) and risk nutrients in food (calories, saturated fat, total sugar, sodium). Scientists have said that such a system misrepresents nutrition science and the presence of fruit in a fruit drink juice does not offset the impact of added sugar. Experts say that so far there is no evidence of the rating system impacting consumer behavior. The stars can also lead to a ‘health halo’ because of their positive connotation making it harder to identify harmful products. Over 40 global experts have also called the IIM-Ahmedabad study flawed in design and interpretation.

There are many other labeling systems in the world, such as “warning labels” in Chile (which uses black octagonal or stop symbols) and Israel (a red label) for products high in sugar, salt and fat. The ‘NutriScore’, used in France, presents a colored scale of A to E, and the Multiple Traffic Light (MTL), used in the U.K. and other countries depict red (high), amber (medium) or green (low) lights to indicate the risk factors. Global studies have shown a warning label is the only format that has led to a positive impact on food and beverage purchases forcing the industry, for example in Chile, to reformulate their products to remove major amounts of sugar and salt.

What are India’s plans to avert a wheat crisis?

With procurement dipping. How will the government balance domestic supplies and rise in export demand?

VIKAS VASUDEVA & DIKSHA MUNJAL

The story so far: On May 4, the government lowered its wheat production estimates by 5.7% to 105 million tonnes (MT) from the projected 111.32 MT for the crop year ending June. The production is expected to fall on account of unusually warm weather conditions that persisted during March to April in most parts of the key grain-producing States of Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh as well as Uttar Pradesh. Till May 4, wheat procurement in the ongoing winter (rabi) marketing season too had seen a drop, with the Centre procuring 17.5 MT of wheat, which is likely to touch 19.5 MT when the season ends. In the last marketing year, the government had purchased 43.3 MT of wheat from farmers, and this year it had set a target of 44.4 MT. The announcement came around the same time as a report by the World Food Programme, which said the “unfolding war in Ukraine” was likely to “exacerbate the already severe 2022 acute food insecurity forecasts” in countries.

Why has wheat production dwindled?

-India is the second largest producer of wheat in the world, which China being the top producer and Russia the third largest – Ukraine is the world’s eight large producer of wheat. After five straight years of a bumper wheat output, India has had to revise downwards its estimated production. Unprecedented heatwaves across March and April being the hottest in over 100 years have caused substantial loss to the yield at 6% with 20% of the wheat grain shriveling up. Some estimates have pegged the shriveling as high as 80% of the crop purchased by the government. For instance, according to crop cutting experiments, conducted by the Punjab Agriculture Department every year, the State’s yield per hectare could have fallen 5-10% compared to last year’s yield. Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey attributed the lower estimates to “early summer” affecting the crop yields in States, especially Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

What about government procurement?

-This year the government’s wheat purchase has seen a dip owing to several reasons from lower yield to higher market prices being bought by traders at a higher rate than the minimum support price (MSP). Private traders have been prompted to buy more wheat from farmers as the price of wheat at the international level has shot up and is expected to rise due to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. In Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat, farmers are selling to traders-exporters at prices (21-24 rupees per kg), which is better than the MSP (rate of 20.15 rupees per kg). Also, farmers are holding on to some quantity of wheat, expecting higher prices for their produce in the near future. Mr. Pandey admitted that the substantially low procurement was due to market prices of wheat being higher than the MSP being offered by the government. He gave two other reasons for the low procurement: stocks being held by farmers and traders in anticipation of further price rises, and lower production.

How will this impact the public distribution of gain?

-Wheat procurement is undertaken by the state-owned Food Corporation of India (FCI) and other agencies at MSP to meet the requirements under the Public Distribution System (PDS) and other welfare schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) introduced during the pandemic. The government has revised the grain allocation under PMGKAY for May to September 2022. According to the new guidelines, the FCI will fill the gap left by wheat with an increased allocation of rice. An additional 5.5 MT rice is being allocated to the States to fill the gap in supplying wheat grain. Mr. Pandey said rice procurement last year was about 60 MT and this year a similar quantity is expected. Under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), he said the annual requirement is roughly about 35 MT. Pointing out that from next year, fortified rice will be distributed to the entire Public Distribution System (PDS), he said with surplus rice stocks, the country is in a comfortable situation.

Will domestic wheat prices be hit?

-As government wheat procurement has dipped, concerns are being raised about the stability of prices in the country and the availability of grain for internal consumption, which many agriexperts argue should be a priority. An agriculture domain expert and a former member of the Uttar Pradesh Planning Commission, Sudhir Panwar, points out that the government has to ensure that the market price for the domestic consumer is not determined by private players – “this can happen if one or two big business houses are buying chunk of the wheat crop.” The key question, according to Mr. Panwar, is in a scenario where private traders start dictating the price is the domestic market, will the buffer stock be used under the Open Market Sale Scheme to control the market price or will it be used for the NFSA and other welfare schemes. The government has dismissed concerns about both prices and stocks, asserting that India is in a comfortable situation with the overall availability of grains and stocks expected to be higher than the minimum requirement for the next one year. Mr. Pandey stated that after meeting the requirement of welfare schemes in the year ahead, on April 1, 2023, India would have stocks of 8 MT of wheat, well above the minimum requirement of 7.5 MT.

Will farmers benefit?

-Farmers will certainly benefit from the scenario as they are being offered a price above the MSP. Amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis, new markets in countries like Israel, Egypt, Tanzania and Mozambique have opened up for India. However, on the other hand, if private traders continue to buy above MSP, eventually that could stoke inflation. Dr. M.J. Khan, Chairman of the Indian Chamber of Food and Agriculture, an apex agribusiness services body, opines that more private buying of the wheat will help India expand the agri-export basket to new countries, riding the current crisis situation. This trade relationship will stay even when the global crisis is over, which means farmers will get about 10%-15% extra price as market prices are ruling above MSP.

What about export plans?

-Till now, 4 MT wheat has been contracted for export and about 1.1 MT has been exported in April 2022. After Egypt, Turkey has also given approval for the import of Indian wheat. India has been eyeing deals with new export markets in European Union countries too. Compared to record wheat exports of 7.85 MT in the fiscal year 2021-22, the Centre had estimated exports of 12 MT for 2022-23, to cash in on the market rally in global prices following the Ukraine crisis. Global wheat prices rose nearly 50% since the start of this year as supplies from Russia, the number one wheat exporter, and Ukraine, number six, were hit. Despite the crop loss and revision of the output estimate, the Centre maintained that no curbs would be placed on wheat exports and that it was facilitating traders. Market observers estimate exports will be lower than projected earlier at about 10 MT amid low or damaged output.

How is the global supply situation shaping up?

-In order to meet the gap created by reduced Russian and Ukrainian exports, importers are turning to alternative markets, while wheat-producing countries like India are looking to increase exports. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the export estimates of Brazil, which is traditionally an importer of wheat, is pegged at 2.5 MT, nearly three times its total last year. The South American country has even found new markets, with its wheat exports to West Asian nations jumping over 400%, according to Reuters. Argentina, traditionally a big exporter of wheat, too saw a further rise in exports despite lower than usual production.

The USDA, however, says that these increased exports will not be enough to make up for the nearly 30% of global exports hit by the Ukraine crisis.

Why are reproductive rights under threat?

What does a leaked Supreme Court draft on the Roe vs Wade case on the right to abortion in the U.S. say?

NARAYAN LAKSHMAN

The story so far: The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has privately voted to strike down the constitutional right to abortion as determined by the landmark Roe vs Wade case in 1973, according to a leaked draft opinion from February 2022. The leak, by news outlet Politico on May 2, has itself become a subject of profound criticism and a likely criminal inquiry within the highest court in the land. The content has provoked dismay among liberals and pro-choice advocates and jubilation on the part of anti-abortionists. While the opinion is not surprising given that a SCOTUS majority of 6-3 leans and votes conservative, it will likely set off a lengthy series of judicial battles at the state level given that it will, if it formally becomes the law of the land, leave the decision on whether to outlaw abortions to state legislators.

What is the Roe vs Wade case?

-Roe, short for Jane Roe, is the pseudonym for a Texas woman named Norma McCorvey who in 1970 sought to have an abortion when she was five months pregnant, notwithstanding Texas’ ban on abortions except to save a mother’s life. Wade refers to Henry Wade, the district attorney in Dallas County, Texas, at the time, who was the SCOTUS was written on January 22, 1973, by Justice Harry Blackmun, paving the way for the recognition of abortion as a constitutional right in the U.S., effectively striking down a wide range of state-level abortion limitations applied before foetal viability. Foetal viability is the point at which a foetus can survive outside the womb, at the time considered to be around 28 weeks, but today is closer to 23 or 24 weeks owing to advances in medicine and technology.

Based on the Roe vs Wade case, the framework of regulations that applied towards the right to abortion required that in the first trimester, almost no limitations could be placed on that right; in the second trimester, only limitations to abortion rights that were aimed at protecting a women’s health were permitted; and in the third trimester, state governments had greater leeway to limit the right to abortion except for cases in which the life and health of the mother were endangered.

However, Roe vs Wade was not the last word on abortion rights in the U.S. even before the latest SCOTUS opinion. In the 1992 Planned Parenthood vs Casey case, the SCOTUS threw out the so-called trimester framework yet retained the Roe vs Wade case’s “essential holding,” which established women’s constitutional right to abortion until foetal viability.

Why is there a possibility of the judgment being overturned?

-The overturning of the Roe vs Wade case has not yet been formally announced and thus not yet a part of settled law, although most legal experts believe it is only a matter of time before it becomes so. It remains to be seen whether the leaked text of the private opinion of the SCOTUS, believed to be authored primarily by Justice Samuel Alito, will be the same as the final version that enters the statute books.

Nevertheless, the conservative majority of the court, to which former President Donald Trump successfully nominated three justices, regarded Roe vs Wade to lack any jurisprudential bases within the U.S. Constitution. Hence in the first draft of their opinion, dated February 2022, the justices of SCOTUS said, “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitution provision… It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”

What impact will the opinion have if it passes into law?

-Based on analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reports have shown that the typical patient seeking an abortion in the U.S. is already a mother, is in her late 20s, has obtained some college education, is relatively poor, is unmarried, is in her first six weeks of pregnancy, is seeking a first abortion, and lives in a Democratic Party-ruled state. At a broad level, therefore, the SCOTUS opinion will disproportionately affect poorer women if it becomes law. For example, in 2014, nearly 50% of women who went in for abortions were below the poverty line, with another 25% said to be relatively close to the poverty line. Reports quoted researchers saying that the growing share of poorer women in the abortion demographic “reflects improved access to effective contraception among higher-earning women, and recognition of the growing costs of raising children among poorer women. It may also reflect the growing presence of charities that help poor women pay for abortions in states where public programs don’t.”

However, all is not lost for the pro-choice side of the debate, because even if the SCOTUS successfully strikes down Roe vs Wade U.S. President Joe Biden has called upon Congress to pass legislation codifying the right to abortion, which lawmakers have every right to do. Yet, given the 50-50 split of Democratic and Republican Senators on Capitol Hill, it is near impossible to rally together the requisite 60-member supermajority required to defeat a filibuster and pass abortion rights into law in the face of lock-step opposition from conservatives. Democrats are likely pinning their hopes on the November mid-term election sweeping more of their members into the Senate and thus restoring a constitutional right to abortion.

THE HINDU EDITORIAL - MAY 7, 2022

2022-05-10T23:33:00.003+05:30

THE HINDU EDITORIAL – MAY, 7, 2022

Crowed down

Strict anti-lynching laws and a legal rethink on cattle slaughter laws are the need of the hour

In yet another disturbing and dastardly act that is now part of a pattern in much of North India; two tribal men were beaten to death by alleged activists of the Bajrang Dal in Seoni, Madhya Pradesh, on the suspicion that they were slaughtering cows. Apart from tribal people, Muslims and Dalits in particular have borne the brunt of these senseless acts of mob violence and murders. Reminiscent of the murder of a dairy farmer, Pehlu Khan, after he and his sons were attacked by self-described “cow vigilantes” in April 2017 in Rajasthan, the two men, Sampatlal Vatti and Dhansai Invati, were attacked by nearly 20 men; both died of injuries. The police have arrested 13 people for their alleged involvement; at least six of them were members of the Bajrang Dal, according to the family members. An insinuation by the police that one of the dead men was involved in a “cow slaughter” case has shown yet again where the priorities of law enforcement lie in such cases. In another pattern, there has been certain acuity in the implementation of cattle slaughter laws which is missing in trying and bringing those involved in lynch mobs to justice. Stricter cattle slaughter laws have been implemented with a fervor that has less to do with animal preservation and more to do with appeasement of majoritarian impulses to garner political support.

In 2005, the Supreme Court had justified the total ban on cattle slaughter by an expansive interpretation of the directive principles of state policy, and relying on Articles 48, 48A, and 51(A) of the Constitution, that seeks to preserve breeds used in agriculture and animal husbandry, explicitly prohibiting the slaughter of cows and calves and other milk and draught cattle, besides promoting compassion to animals. The judgment had overturned an earlier ruling in 1958 which had limited the ban only to “useful” cattle which are still engaged in agriculture and husbandry. This interpretation only laid the grounds for State governments – especially those led by the BJP and its alliance partners – to come up with stringent laws on cow slaughter, and in the public sphere, a stigmatization of communities such as Dalits, Muslims and tribals for the dietary habits and their dependence on cattle products for a livelihood. Four States (Rajasthan, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Manipur) had passed laws against lynching after many such incidents but they were under various stages of implementation with the Union government taking the view that lynching is not a crime under the Indian penal code. While civil society in Madhya Pradesh must demand justice for the injured and dead tribal men and a return to the rule of law in which such murderous acts do not go unpunished, it is time for a judicial rethink on legislation around cattle slaughter.

Overcoming differences

India’s new push for stronger ties with Europe comes at a crucial time for both

Prime Minister Narendra Modi ended his tour to Europe this week by dropping in on French President Emmanuel Macron, who was re-elected recently. What was billed a simple “tete-a tete” during a “working visit” turned out to be a comprehensive discussion on bilateral, regional and international issues, with a 30 paragraph-long joint statement. As with his other stops in Germany and Denmark for the Nordic Summit, as well as the visit to India by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen the week before, the Ukraine war remained at the top of the agenda. The joint statement records their differences on the issue. However, they also discussed mitigating the war’s “knock-on” effects, and Mr. Macron invited India to cooperate with the Food and Agriculture Resilience Mission (FARM) initiative for food security in the most vulnerable countries, particularly in terms of wheat exports. However, as the severe heatwave has damaged India’s crops, the Government will have to do some hard thinking on its promises of wheat supply to the rest of the world at a time when fears of shortages are sending wheat prices soaring. Climate change was another key issue during the stopovers in Berlin and Copenhagen, France and India, that worked closely for the success of the Paris climate accord, and co-founded the International Solar Alliance in 2015, are ready to take it to the next level – setting up industrial partnerships to build integrated supply chains in solar energy production for integrated supply chains in solar energy production for markets in Europe and Asia. There was also a bilateral strategic dialogue on space issues, which will build on their six-decade-long partnership in the field of space – a contested area now with China, Russia and the U.S. stepping up hostilities in this frontier.

India and France have decades of an unusually productive partnership given that neither has allowed other relationships to play a role in the bilateral. This has been the basis of their strong defence partnership. In 1998, France stood out as a western country that did not judge or impose sanctions on India for its nuclear tests; in 2008, it was the first country to conclude a civil nuclear deal with India after the NSF passed a waiver allowing India to access nuclear fuel and technology. It would be a fitting tribute to the consistency of the relationship if the French bid for six nuclear power plants in Maharashtra’s Jaitapur makes some headway now, more than 12 years after the original MoU was signed and a year after the French company, EDF, last year submitted an offer to the Nuclear power corporation of India Ltd. It is however disappointing that Mr. Modi travelled to Germany and France on the same visit – a significant gesture that he recognises the importance of both in India’s new push for stronger ties with Europe.

In rising heat, the cry of the wilting outdoor worker

With a large segment of its population dependent on outdoor work, India needs to initiate safety nets

VINOD THORMAS & MEHTAB AHMEDJAGIL

More asphalt-melting heatwaves driven by runaway climate change are on the way. The consequences for health and livelihoods are catastrophic, as a third of South Asia’s population depends on outdoor work. To get to grips with this predicament, India must initiate safety nets a combination of targeted transfers and insurance schemes – to improve the resilience of outdoor workers. Transfers are best linked to the beneficiaries’ own efforts to build resilience, for example, adapting agricultural practices to the uptick in heatwaves. Disaster insurance schemes, far too few in India, should enable workers to transfer some of the losses from debilitating heat to public and private insurance providers.

A hotter future in South Asia

The intensity and frequency of heatwaves have soared in South Asia and they are set to worsen in the years ahead. Extreme heat conditions have hit swathes of India, not only in the northern States of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and New Delhi, but now increasingly also in the south. Following the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) April forecast that maximum temperatures in some parts of Tamil Nadu would rise by 2֯-3֯ Celsius, recorded temperatures hit 41֯ C in Vellore, Karur, Tiruchi and Tiruttani. Delhi this month suffered its second warmest April in 72 years, temperatures averaging 40.2֯ C, and Gurgaon in neighboring Haryana crossed 45֯ C for the first time. Labour-intensive agriculture and construction have become near impossible during afternoons.

Over the last 100 years, global temperatures have risen by 1.5֯ C and, at the current rate, could reach 4֯ C by 2100 – an unthinkable scenario. So far in the year, 2022 has been the fifth-warmest year on record. The prevalence of extreme temperatures around the worlds suggests that India’s warming is the result not only of local factors but also global warming. In fact, scientists have made clear how greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions exacerbate temperatures in the oceans, leading to soaring temperatures. The culprit in the current plight from intense weather is not Mother Nature but anthropogenic GHG emissions. Crucially, heatwaves and wildfires are ‘unimaginable’ without human-caused climate change, according to a study done by World Weather Attribution in July 2021.

High economic losses

The impacts are dire across the world. Heatwaves are proving to be Europe’s deadliest climate disaster. India faces the largest heat exposure impacts in South Asia. One study finds that 1,41,308 lives were claimed by acute weather in India during 1971-2019, of which the loss of 17,362 lives was due to unrelenting heat, with mortality rates rising by two-thirds during the time period. Worldwide economic losses, by one estimate, could reach U.S.$1.6 trillion (1.6 lakh crore rupees) annually if global warming exceeds 2֯ C. India, China, Pakistan, and Indonesia, where large numbers of people work outdoors, are among the most vulnerable.

India’s outdoor workers, reeling under daily temperatures more than 40֯ C, are on the frontlines of the climate catastrophe. The wellbeing of outdoor workers will be fundamentally determined by the ability to keep the temperature rise to well below 2֯ C. Reversing climate change is predicated on leading emitters, including India, moving away from carbon-emitting fossil fuels, and replacing them with cleaner, renewable fuels. But such climate mitigation in India and elsewhere is painfully slow, because of a lack of political will in the major emitting countries for decisive active.

Adaptation is essential

In the meantime, hotter temperatures are making outdoor work unbearable, in addition to other dire consequences. Climate mitigation or decarbonisation of economies on the part especially of the big emitters, such as the United States, the European Union, China, and India remains an imperative. But temperatures are set to rise regardless of mitigation, based on the emission damage already done. That means climate adaptation, or coping with the predicament, is as big a priority as mitigation.

A crucial aspect of adaptation is better environmental care that can contribute to cooling. Heatwaves are rooted in degraded land and relentless deforestation, which exacerbate wildfires. Agriculture, being water-intensive, does not do well in heat wave prone areas. A solution is to promote better agricultural practices which are not water-intensive, and to support afforestation that has a salutary effect on warming.

Response to the current plight of outdoor workers can be linked to climate adaptation. Financial transfers can be targeted to help farmer plant trees and buy equipment better suited for the extreme weather. For example, support for drip irrigation can reduce irrigation can reduce heavy water usage. Averting slash and burn agriculture and stubble burning is not only key to cutting air pollution but also cooling temperatures. Urban forests and green roofs can help cool urban areas. Workers in cities and villages can benefit from early warning systems and better preparedness as well as community outreach programmes during an episode.

Collaboration for insurance

Insurance schemes can help transfer some of the risks of severe heat faced by industrial, construction and agricultural workers to insurers. Insurance against natural hazards is minimal not only in India but also Asia where less than 10% of the losses are typically covered. Government and insurers need to collaborate in providing greater coverage of losses from extreme weather events, including for calamities from brutal heat.

For greatest effectiveness, transfers and insurance payments can be tied to investments in resilience made at the local levels, such as restoring the urban environment that has a cooling effect. Delhi’s Aravali Biodiversity Park is a stand-out example that transformed a barren landscape into forest communities protecting greenery and biodiversity. Transfers could also be linked with mapping of the incidence of heatwaves across locations. The most severely affected areas are also likely to be the most poverty-prone and need stronger insurance packages, including guarantees for crop losses. Incentive schemes could also be tailored to annual changes in the intensity of the hazard.

Studies warn of heat-stress inequalities where the poorer segments of the populations are especially battered by heatwaves. The projections of the IMD can guide future scenarios, which the Central government can use to develop subsidies and insurance schemes linked to State and district-level actions for building resilience to climate change. Insurance schemes require public and private sectors to jointly set out risk-sharing mechanisms that outdoor workers can avail of.

Targeted transfers and insurance schemes can cushion financial hardships, for example, by improving crop resilience to heatwaves. Making them part of the Government’s economic programmes is one way to make these safety net policies sustainable and hard to reverse, as international experience with cash transfer programmes shows.

A priority

India offers a range of food and fuel subsidies, but most of them are poorly targeted. For example, kerosene subsidies provide modest financial benefit to disadvantaged rural households, with only 26% of the subsidy value estimated to reach the poor directly. As the efficiency and the equity of existing subsidies are re-examined, the provision of transfers and insurance linked to building climate resilience should become a priority.

Heatwaves, exacerbated by climate change, are embroiling regions of India in a downward spiral, and the situation is projected to get worse. Outdoor labourers are especially hammered by the relentless heat. Tying cash transfers and insurance schemes to State and local green investments will not only provide some financial cover for outdoor workers but also motivate small-scale investments in much-needed resilience to heatwaves.

A new track for capital punishment jurisprudence

The Supreme Court of India’s intervention paves the way for reaffirming the fundamentals of the rarest of rare principle

MANURAJ SHUMUGASUNDARAM

A recent trend in the evolution of jurisprudence around the death penalty in India may reset judicial thinking around sentencing and have long-term ramifications in the awarding of capital punishment. Over the last six months or so, while dealing with appeals against confirmation of the death sentence, the Supreme Court of India has examined sentencing methodology from the perspective of mitigating circumstances more closely. The Court has also initiated a suo motu writ petition (criminal) to delve deep into these issues on key aspects surrounding our understanding of death penalty sentencing. As such, it is clear that the present trajectory of judicial thinking will not only reaffirm the fundamentals of the rarest of rare principle but also lead a new wave of thinking in the jurisprudence around capital punishment.

Sentencing lapses

Capital punishment once delivered by the court of sessions (“sentencing court”) is required under law, specifically Chapter 28 of the code of Criminal Procedure, to be confirmed by the jurisdictional High Court (“confirming court”). The development of case laws on the point of sentencing has emphasised that sentencing cannot be a formality and that the sentencing court must make a genuine effort to hear the accused on the question of sentence. Bachan Singh vs State of Punjab (1980), the leading case on this point, calls for mitigating and aggravating circumstances to be balanced against each other and laid down the principle that the death penalty ought not to be awarded unless the alternative of life imprisonment is “unquestionably foreclosed”. Subsequent cases have developed this position to that of the state (which is the prosecuting agency) having the onus to lead evidence to establish that there is no possibility of reformation of the accused for the sentencing court to impose capital punishment. It also an equally well-established legal principle that in a sentencing hearing, the accused must necessarily be provided with sufficient opportunity to produce any material that may have bearing on the sentencing exercise. When read in conjunction with the ratio decidendi of the Bachan Singh case, it is incumbent upon the sentencing court and the confirming court to ensure that the question of reform and rehabilitation of a convicted person has been examined in detail for these courts to come to a definitive conclusion that all such options are unquestionably foreclosed.

In spite of such judicial guidance developed over four decades, studies have shown that when a group of former judges was asked what it considered as a rarest of rare case, the judges gave personalised, subjective and divergent explanations. A report by the National Law University Delhi’s Project 39A (earlier known as the “Centre on the Death Penalty”) titled ‘Matters of Judgment’ found that there is no judicial uniformity or consistency when it comes to awarding the death sentence. In the report titled ‘Death Penalty Sentencing in Trail Courts’(also authored by Project 39A), findings reported from a study of cases involving death sentencing between 2000 and 2015 in Delhi, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh have showed that courts have been las in assessing the aspect of reformation while undertaking the sentencing exercise.

Mitigation investigation

On the back of such studies, the Supreme Court has begun to inquire into sentencing methodology with great interest. In Rajendra Pralhadrao Wasnik vs The State of Maharashtra (2018), the Court was open to bringing on record material pertaining to the convict “about his conduct in jail, his conduct outside jail if he has been on bail for some time, medical evidence about his mental make-up, contact with his family and so on”. Building on this, the Court, in Mofil Khan vs State of Jharkhand (2021), held that the “the State is under a duty to procure evidence to establish that there is no possibility of reformation and rehabilitation of the accused” and that “the Court will have to highlight clear evidence as to why the convict is not fit for any kind of reformatory and rehabilitation scheme.”

Undoubtedly, the onus has been placed on the State to lead evidence to show that no reformation is possible and for the sentencing courts to be satisfied that a thorough mitigation analysis was done before the death sentence is awarded. For a complete mitigation investigation, professionals trained in psychology, sociology and criminology are required in addition to legal professionals. Taking cognisance of the value of a holistic approach to mitigation investigation, the Court in Manoj & ors vs State of Madhya Pradesh (2022) issued directions to the State to place before the court all “report(s) of all the probation officer(s)” relating to the accused the reports “about their conduct and nature of the work done by them” while in prison. More importantly, the order also directs that a trained psychiatrist and a local professor of psychology conduct a psychiatric and psychological evaluation of the convict.

Suo motu writ petition

On March 29, 2022, a Bench of the Supreme Court led by Justice U.U. Lalit (along with Justices S. Ravindra Bhat and P.S. Narasimha) was hearing an interlocutory application filed on behalf of a death sentence convict seeking permission for a mitigation investigator from Project 39A be provided permission to conduct interviews and access material pertaining to the prisoner. While doing so, the Court recorded a set of observations around the questions of what may constitute mitigating circumstances, the role of a probation officer in assisting the Court and the potential value addition of a mitigation investigator to the sentencing exercise. These observations now form the bases of a suo motu writ petition (criminal) which will be heard separately and comprehensively on these aspects. The views of the Attorney General representing the Union of India as well as those of the National Legal Services Authority have been sought in this matter; and this is now listed for hearing on May 10, 2022 for consideration of arguments. At this hearing, or soon thereafter, it is hoped that guidelines around best practices in death penalty sentencing will be framed.

Onus on courts

Nevertheless, it is undeniable that there is a new wave of thinking in this hitherto underexplored domain of sentencing, which forms a key pillar of judicial work. The intervention of the Supreme Court of India in, hopefully, framing guidelines around incorporation of a mitigation analysis and consideration of psycho-social reports of the prisoner at the time of sentencing is timely and necessary. As a result, the responsibility of the sentencing and confirming courts will now be greater in ensuring that no death sentence is manually awarded or routinely confirmed. The entire judicial exercise that has culminated in the institution of the suo motu writ petition will only go to strengthening the doctrine of the rarest of rare, as laid down in the Bachan Singh case and, thereby, reinstating fairness in the death penalty sentencing exercise.

THE HINDU EDITORIAL - MAY 6, 2022

2022-05-07T18:04:00.001+05:30

THE HINDU EDITORIAL – MAY 6, 2022

With the gap

Widening trade deficit puts more pressure on the rupee and spurs growth-retarding inflation

Official data on India’s merchandise trade for April give reason for cheer at first glance. Emerging from a record export performance during the just-concluded financial year, outward shipments for the month rose 24.2% from a year earlier, with electronics and chemicals showing healthy expansion, while petroleum products more than doubled. However, imports continued to outpace exports, growing by 26.6% to broaden the goods trade deficit, which widened to $20.07 billion from $18.5 billion in March. The trade deficit – the extent to which the import bill exceeds export receipts – worryingly breached $200 billion for a rolling 12-month period for the first time in April, impacted predominantly by petroleum imports of $172 billion. Global crude oil prices have surged by more than 40% in 2022 in the wake of Russia’s war on Ukraine, swelling the import bill. The early onset of the Indian summer, with a heatwave, has bolstered power demand, setting the pace for coal imports, which grew 136% last month, notwithstanding record output by key domestic supplier Coal India. For the first time ever, the Ministry of Power has set timelines for States to import coal over the next few months, a far cry from the 16% year-on-year decline in imports of the fuel in the April 2021-January 2022 period and a clear portent that the bill for overseas purchases of coal is also set to swell.

Monitoring the trade deficit is crucial as this has a direct bearing on the current account deficit (CAD). Disconcertingly, foreign direct investment, which typically helps bridge the CAD, has seen moderation. And, the wider the CAD, the greater the downward pressure on the rupee, which has already weakened considerably since the conflict in ester Europe began in February. A weaker rupee, in turn, makes imports costlier, potentially widening the trade deficit, and thus triggering a vicious cycle. The RBI has sought to steady the rupee against wild swings, evident in the dip in foreign exchange reserves to $600.4 billion (April 22), from $640 billion just six months earlier. But a central bank can draw on the reserves to ease any rupee weakening only to a limited extent. The RBI also has its hands full with the battle against imported inflation as global commodity prices remain sharply elevated. To help avoid added stress, the Government must consider additional incentives for exports, while encouraging local production of items that strain the import bill. The coal crisis could have been averted with better advance estimates of power demand as the country emerged from the worst of the pandemic and optimal allocation of coal-carrying rail wagons. Policymakers can ill afford to let their guard down on trade imbalances and risk growth retarding inflation and more pressure on the rupee.

Standing on ceremony

An overemphasis on a ritualistic oath does not aid quality medical education

Observance of rituals largely serves a symbolic function; they are infused with meaning that gives a semblance of human-made order to the vagaries of nature. But pushing the meaning beyond the symbolism is fraught with danger. Standing on ceremony, particularly, does not quite fit in with the roles and the responsibilities of a medical professional, and the Charak Shapath row in Tamil Nadu, in which a top official of a government medical college was put on a waitlist, has clearly dragged one ceremony beyond it original intent and purpose. While things came to a head with the suspension of the dean of Madurai Government Medical College, the controversy has been brewing since February, when the minutes of the National Medical Commission’s (NMC) discussions with medical colleges were leaked. One of the points read: “No Hippocratic Oath. During white coat ceremony, the oath will be Maharishi Charak Shapath.” The Charak oath appears as part of Charaka Samhita, an ancient text on Ayurveda, and seeks to, much like the Hippocratic Oath; lay down the ground rules for the practice of medicine for a student. While it emphasises compassion, and the scientific and ethical practice of medicine, it also highlights certain values embedded in the cultural and social ethos of the time of Charaka, and seen today as retrograde. References to caste, old-style subjugation of student to a guru, and gender bias have been flagged since. Though it was later clarified that the oath was not compulsory, there were valid concerns about projecting it as a substitute for the Hippocratic Oath.

In the English version that was read out at Madurai Medical College, there were two references that are repugnant – ‘submitting myself to my Guru (teachers) with complete dedicated feeling,’ and ‘I, (especially a male doctor) shall treat a woman only in presence of her husband or a near relative’. The rest of the oath stresses, in simple language, the very principles of the Hippocratic Oath, including serving the sick, a Pleasant bedside manner, and not being corrupt. Subsequent investigations have revealed that the dean was not even part of the decision to substitute the Charak Shapath for the Hippocratic Oath (the Students’ Council claimed responsibility), and he has since been reinstated. But launching severe action for what might have been just procedurally deviant, rather than a crime or violation of ethics, seems a knee-jerk reaction, or worse, the pursuit of a political agenda. The focus should rather be on ensuring quality medical education, inculcating in students a scientific temper, and a sense of service to patients. While Tamil Nadu has often rightly argued for States’ autonomy in a federal structure, this act adds little heft to that critical issue. For the NMC, even more so, the stress should not be on the bells and whistles, but rather on the quality of education.

The school dress is in the cross hairs

The uniform has been transformed into a new political tool and as a means to curtailing the autonomy of educationists

KRISHNA KUMAR

Nowhere is the long history of education can you find evidence to say that a school uniform is a factor in learning. Yet, a lot of people today cannot imagine a school without a uniform. When they think about a school, including their own, they think about the uniform that makes its children distinct from the children of other schools. Especially on festive occasions when grand events bring all the schools of a city together, people find something deeply edifying in the spectacle of children marching or displaying their smartness wearing a distinct uniform. The public fascination with such spectacles, and the history of the schooled uniform, point to the single most important role that a school uniform plays: it helps in the regimentation of the young. Uniformly dressed children constitute one of the two archetypal metaphors of schooling. One is that of a garden where different flowers bloom; the other is of an army of little soldiers marching together.

A history, social impact

If you divide the world into countries that have a compulsory uniform in their schools and countries that do not, the history starts to revel itself. Systems of education that evolved under colonial rulers of different types generally favour strict enforcement of the school uniform. That includes us.

If you strain popular memories and scan old photographs, you will find that the idea of a school uniform has spread with urbanization, prosperity and privatization. Rural and small town schools seldom insisted on a daily uniform in the early years of Independence. It was required on certain days of the week and on special days. Gradually, when different types of private schools started, they demanded every day wearing of the prescribed uniform. Supply of uniforms for children of different schools offered business opportunities for local cloth merchants, tailors and shoe stores. Instead of offering competitive pricing, the uniform business encouraged local monopolies. In many cases, the schools assented to participate and asked parents to patronize a particular source.

Command-based system

This short and obviously generalized social history has little apparent relevance to the situation in Karnataka. Nicely hemmed in between the order of the Directorate and the court, a complete uniform code has evolved within a few weeks. It regime now encompasses the classroom as well as the examination hall. And although Kendriya Vidyalayas (central schools) are not governed by any provincial government, the ones located in Karnataka have fallen in line. Their stance is to difficult to appreciate under the circumstances.

Thus, one of India’s most literate and prosperous States, globally famous for its advancements in the so-called knowledge economy, has emerge as the crucible of educational orthodoxy and control. The school uniform has mutated into a new political tool, and as a means of curtailing the already limited autonomy of principals and teachers. To what extent the politics of the school dress will influence electoral outcomes will become a subject fit for research in the social sciences? Systematic study of the school dress, its history and fascination, was long overdue.

It is interesting that the uniform controversy erupted in the secondary education system of a State that bypassed major policy reforms of the 1960s. Pre-university or junior colleges are left in only a small number of States now. Elsewhere in the country, the 10+2 model recommended by the Kothari Commission nearly 60 years ago prevails. It led to a significant reorganization of the administrative system in education. Its full potential would have been realised had school principals and teachers been given a greater say and freedom in establishing the norms that govern institutional life.

Another gain would have been a participatory role for the community in matters of day-to-day life at school. Had the vision of the Kothari report – sculpted by its Member-Secretary, J.P. Naik – been realised in its entirety, bureaucratic authority would have declined, creating greater room for school autonomy. A different kind of politics might have emerged, with the school as its intellectual resource. Karnataka might have been a highly fertile social ground for such alternative democratic polity because of its own history and propulsion towards decentralised governance.

History took a different direction. The picture of a teacher or principal of a junior college in Karnataka stopping a student from entering the examination hall on account of a dress item will serve as a symbol of unkindness for many years to come. Hopefully, her predicament will also become a subject of discussion in teacher education colleges. The question it will raise is: ‘Did she voluntarily agree to be so unkind to a student in order to be compliant to orders?’ An administrative query might also be worth pursuing: ‘Did the Directorate’s order on the specified uniform extend to the examination hall?’ Nationally it did, but then it stretched the normal role of a school uniform – to provide a collective institutional identity. If that identity covers the examination hall, why do students need a hall ticket, establishing their individual identity? Let us hope the legal argument on this issue will go into these uncharted layers of the lives of learners and examinees.

Key distinction

Even at this juncture, it is worth recalling a key distinction. A uniform is different from a dress code. A uniform is different from a dress code. A uniform is more prescriptive than a dress code. The latter may expect children and their parents to avoid using clothes flaunting status or wealth. A uniform, on the other hand, may well go as far as prescribing not just the colour but also the material and the design or cut. In older times, it was considered sufficient to recommend a dress code; nowadays even a fully defined uniform does not seem to suffice. The social ethos promotes conspicuous consumption (a phrase used by the economist, Veblen), and banquet halls serve this aim as efficiently as schools. Uniforms do help to maintain a veneer of equality in a society where inequality is pervasive.

Education, however, is supposed to promote equal opportunities for all strata and sections of society in more substantial ways. One important contribution that education can make in this direction is to widen the scope of public debates, enabling the participation of all concerned, especially teachers. They are in far closer touch with students from different backgrounds and, therefore, will be more sensitive to what makes classroom life more comfortable for all.

No modern philosopher has explained the problems that underlie this state of collective existence better than Sri Aurobindo. In The Ideal of Human Unity, he draws upon diversity in nature to explain why uniformity tempts us, but does not contribute to a sense of relatedness or unity. He extends his analysis to all aspects of social, cultural and political life, including international relations. In our present context, the issue underlying the turmoil in Karnataka has to do with the role of education and the manner in which it functions as a system. As the term ‘uniform’ suggests, a common dress conveys that all differences have been overcome.

Had that been the case in Karnataka, the Directorate would not have to exert its pressure to seek compliance. The expectations this resilient institution forged under colonial rule harbours in its bureaucratic heart are best illustrated by a story J.P. Naik told me. The Kothari Commission’s had suggested ways to make classroom teaching less stereotyped, and more lively and child-centred. Soon after the Commission’s report received official approval, the Directorate in Maharashtra fired off a D.O. (i.e. demi-official) order to all schools that, as per the desire of the competent authority, hence-forth, all teaching must be child-centred!

A leaked draft, termination rights and the politics

The U.S. Supreme Court’s ‘decision’ might have fired up the political scene, but the health statistics must not be ignored

SRIDHAR KRISHNASWAMI

It was something that literally no one expected, and from the portals of the Supreme Court of the United States – a leaked draft of the court’s decision on abortion law indicating that a majority of the Justices might have just about agreed to overturn the 1973 landmark Roe vs Wade that legalized abortion in America. When Politico got its hands on the 98-page draft, and other media organisations jumped on the bandwagon, all hell broke loose, and expectedly so. In an already divisive country, nothing rankles the partisans more than the sensitive subject of abortion.

Some have likened the leaked document as being the equivalent of the Pentagon papers that surfaced during the Nixon era. In a country where leaks are not out of the ordinary, these have been mostly confined to the White House and the vast bureaucracies, but not from the sacred hallways of the Supreme Court. In fact, one argument has been that even in the heightened political environment of 2000, when the election of a President (George W. Bush/AI Gore) was being decided, there was not even a whisper about which way the Justices were leaning.

Reactions

But not so this time around. Within a short period of time, the accusations have begun, with the needle of suspicion pointing to the Liberal Justices in the apex court, their clerks and allies, with the intention of alerting the nation about what was in store. According to the story, the first draft had the consent of five Conservative Justices with the Chief Justice, John Roberts, yet to weigh in. “The left continues its assault on the Supreme Court with an unprecedented breach of confidentiality, clearly meant to intimidate. The Justices mustn’t give in to this attempt to corrupt the process. Stay strong”, tweeted Republican Senator from Missouri, Josh Hawley.

Top Democrats were quick on the draw as well. In a statement, Senate Majority leader Charles Schumer and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said, “If the report is accurate, the Supreme Court is poised to inflict that greatest restriction of rights in the past 50 years – not just on women but on all Americans. The Republican-appointed justices’ reported votes to overturn Roe v Wade would go down as an abomination, one of the worst and most damaging decisions in modern history.”

Out of the nine Justices, six have been appointed by Republican Presidents. Politico has stated that the so-called first draft was supposedly prepared by Justice Samuel Alito With the sole intention of overturning the Court’s ruling on Roe vs Wade and a 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood vs Casey. In the “Opinion of the Court”, Justice Alito is said to have written that “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start” and that it must be overruled. “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s representatives”, he is said to have added.

Chief Justice Roberts would want a full-scale investigation into the leak which would most certainly involve the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); and there is an element of uncertainty as to whether the top court will stay on schedule for a decision in June/July. The argument that the first draft need not necessarily be the final word on the subject has had few takers, with both supporters and opponents in a no-holds barred slanging match, with at least one conservative commentator describing the leak as amounting to an “insurrection” against the top court.

The political angle

There is, undoubtedly, a political angle to this, especially in the run-up to the mid-term elections of November 8 which is about six months away. More immediately, the leak will be seen as having an impact on the primaries that are scheduled in the next few weeks. In a national poll by Marquette Law School in January 2022, 72% were opposed to overturning Roe vs Wade as opposed to only 28% who were in favour. And Democratic lawmakers have once again come together to call for codifying Roe vs Wade into law – a task that is easier said than done given that the Democrats do not have 60 votes in the Senate and dissension within their ranks on getting rid of filibuster as a procedural tool.

“… the repercussions will be significant,” argued Aditi Vaidya of the Center for Health Systems and Policy in the School of Medicine of Tufts University this February. “The removal of the constitutional right to abortion will be felt most among low income people, people of color and rural communities across the country, As history so clearly tells us, banning abortion does not stop them from occurring, it pushes them underground, limiting access to safe abortions,” she added, pointing to dangerous methods, unqualified persons in procedures and online pharmacies peddling abortion pills.

Some data

Even as the heated debate has just started and is one that will intensify in the weeks ahead, statistics speak of about 6,30,000 reported abortions in the United States in 2019, down 18% from 2010; 57% of the women were in their twenties; African-American women had the highest rate of abortions, of 27 per 1,000 women aged between 15 years and 44 years. These are telling statistics that the Republicans and the Democrats need to keep in mind as they wrestle for political points.

THE HINDU EDITORIAL - MAY 5, 2022

2022-05-06T08:50:00.000+05:30

THE HINDU EDITORIAL – MAY 5, 2022

Inevitable increase

The RBI’s increase in interest rates was long overdue

The penny has dropped. After stubbornly holding off from acting to tame inflation, which has steadily eroded consumers’ purchasing power and derailed broader economic momentum, the RBI’s rate setting panel on Wednesday announced an ‘off-cycle’ increase in benchmark interest rates. The Monetary Policy Committee voted to raise the policy repo rate by 40 basis points to 4.4% with immediate effect. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das rationalized that letting inflation remain elevated at current levels for too long risked ‘de-anchoring inflation expectations’ and consequently hurting growth and financial stability. While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent western sanctions on Moscow have roiled the outlook for prices on a range of commodities, including wheat, edible oil, crude oil and coal, Indian households’ perception and expectations of inflation have been running well above the RBI’s upper tolerance threshold of 6% for more than two years. That the RBI has been forced to act now, after insisting that price pressures were ‘transitory’, is a belated yet welcome acknowledgment that the economic costs of failing to anchor price stability can potentially be far more deleterious to growth than a relative decrease in the availability of low-cost credit. To cite Mr. Das: “Sustained high inflation… hurts savings, investment, competitiveness and output growth. It has pronounced adverse effects on the poorer segments… by eroding their purchasing power.”

In explaining its decision to raise borrowing costs for the first time in 45 months, the MPC has acknowledged that the overall outlook for inflation has darkened considerably since it met last month. Prices are on a tear globally and inflationary pressures are broadening worldwide. The IMF last month posited that the war in Ukraine was poised to not only slow global growth in 2022 but would also cause inflation to accelerate by 2.6 percentage points to 5.7% in advanced economies this year, and spur a more appreciable quickening of 2.8 percentage points in the case of emerging market and developing economies. With central banks in advanced economies led by the U.S. Federal Reserved pursuing a path of policy normalization, the prospects of volatility in capital flows adding pressure on the exchange rate and consequently heightening the risks of imported inflation have also surely queered the pitch for the RBI. The fact that the novel corona virus is still lurking and it could trigger a fresh wave of infections, as seen in China, adds considerably to the uncertainty. Monetary authorities have also rightly pointed to the impact that the increases in domestic pump prices of petroleum products have had on inflation. The onus is now squarely on the RBI and fiscal authorities to move in lockstep and take every possible measure including cutting fuel taxes to keep inflation from running away and landing the economy in stagflation.

In the time of war

India will have to find a way of building ties with Europe without upsetting Russia

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three-nation visit to Europe comes at a time when the continent is facing its biggest security crisis since the end of the Cold War. In Germany, Mr. Modi and Chancellor Olaf Scholz reiterated the partnership between the two countries. Berlin has also announced €10 billion for bilateral cooperation. In Copenhagen, Mr. Modi attended the India-Nordic summit with leaders of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. In the last leg, the Prime Minister will hold talks in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron, who was re-elected recently. While bilateral issues are at the centre of these meetings, the elephant in the room is the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Modi’s trip comes a few days after the President of the European Commission, Ursula von Der Leyen, visited India. New Delhi’s neutral position on the war has triggered both criticism and engagement from the West. India has seen several high-profile visits from the West, with some top officials pressing New Delhi to cut back on trade with Russia, a traditional strategic partner. Among the Nordic five, Sweden and Finland are now considering dropping their decades-long neutrality and seeking NATO membership.

In Germany, however, both sides showed pragmatism over the Ukraine question. Germany, like India, has deep economic ties with Russia – if for India it is about defence supplies, for Germany, it is for almost 40% of its gas import requirements. While the Russian aggression has prompted Germany to raise its defence spending and join the western sanctions regime, it has been reluctant in sending weapons to Kyiv, compared to other NATO members in Eastern Europe. While Mr. Scholz urged Russian President Vladimir Putting to “stop this senseless murder and withdraw your troops”, Mr. Modi’s response was more measure. He said that no party could emerged victorious and that dialogue was the only way out. India and Germany also unveiled the contours of the next level of their partnership. Germany has said India is its “central partner” in Asia and that close cooperation would continue to expand. Europe is expected to take a more securitized approach to foreign policy from now, given the direction of the Ukraine conflict. In the post-Cold War world when Europe witnessed relative stability, India managed to build strong ties with both the West and Russia. But that era of multi-directional partnerships is facing its strongest test now with the West seeking to “weaken” Russia and Moscow warning of a new world war. The challenge before New Delhi is to build a stronger strategic future with Europe without immediately disrupting its complex but vital partnership with an increasingly isolated, angry Russia.

Economic speed bumps yes, but no breakdown

Nepal’s vulnerability is linked to the lack of pragmatic policy interventions and abrupt moves towards self-sufficiency

K.V. RAJAN & ATUL. K. THAKUR

Nepal’s economic challenges are real, but suggestions that it is already in deep crisis and may be going the Sri Lanka way are probably premature, unfair and unjustified. The surging trade deficit remains a big concern as it is expected to reach $18 billion this fiscal year. A Balance of Payments (BoP) deficit and a spiraling debt liability will pose a very grave risk to the economy that is already in deep trouble. Nepal’s central bank statistics show the country’s inflation averaged 7.14% in the current fiscal, which is the highest in the last 67 months.

Emerging scenario

There are other worrying trends. The country’s debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio has crossed over 40% as of the second quarter of the current fiscal year. What is needed is a prudent fiscal management plan. So is the need to boost demand and empower Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) with soft institutional liquidity support. To emerge from the shocks caused by the BoP deficit to the tune of NR258.64 billion, the decrease in remittance inflow and the fall in the country’s foreign exchange reserve by 16.3% to NR1,171 billion (in mid-March 2022 from NR1,399.03 billion in mid-July 2021), industry needs hand holding by the government and a rationalization of taxes. Such a collaborative effort will help in increasing national economic productivity and mitigating the systemic risk on the economic front.

A lack of pragmatic policy interventions in Nepal and an abrupt move to reorient economic planning towards ‘self-sufficiency’ has exposed the structural vulnerability of Nepal’s economy. It is also true, and unfortunate, that Nepal’s economy is overtly politicized. Tensions between the Finance Minister, Janardan Sharma, and the Governor of the Central Bank, Maha Prasad Adhikari, with Mr. Sharma suspending Mr. Adhikari for alleged failures in discharging his responsibilities have undoubtedly contributed to the uncertainty. Mr. Adhikari has been reinstated on orders by the country’s Supreme Court, but the damage has been done.

In the short run, the government’s revenue and expenditure should be assessed for minimizing the establishment cost. Especially so, it is needed for provincial governments where the operational part must be dealt with frugally to not burden the economy beyond a point. While several drastic measures such as an import ban on luxury goods and reducing working hours have been announced, these have not quite succeeded in allaying fears of an impending crisis. The ban on imported goods that have no competent alternatives in the domestic market will only hurt the economy until the production of domestically-consumable goods is increased. Fortunately, there are some positive signs of an economic recovery appearing, with tourism picking up thanks to the easing of visa and entry restrictions and foreign remittances also showing an upward trend. These need to be consolidated.

India will, undoubtedly, go the extra mile to help Nepal ensure a speedy and comprehensive recovery. India has not hesitated in being generous and in coming to Sri Lanka’s help despite political considerations which might have suggested other approaches. In Nepal’s case, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is a known friend of India who likes to accord priority to development rather than playing to the political gallery.

His recent visit to India was successful in terms of reaching an important understanding on economic cooperation projects. It should be possible for Nepal to expect generous Indian support for its economic recovery to be based on broad-based consensus in Nepal which will also eventually help in resolving bilateral irritants that keep cropping up every now and then.

What Nepal’s national economy is facing today is a sort of crisis in the making.

Of late, the government is finding it difficult to overlook the difficult trade deficit but unfortunately with wrongly-placed measures such as curbing the autonomy of the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) and vilifying import per se instead of making interventions for much-needed structural economic reforms. The NRB underlines problem areas such as rising inflation, BoP deficit, decreasing remittance inflow, depleting foreign exchange reserves and burgeoning imports beyond and burgeoning imports beyond an acceptable level. The NRB’s projection of a looming crisis has no takers in the Finance Ministry – that is on making strange short-term provisions rather finding the way out to avert a crisis in making.

Nepal is in dire need of augmenting its preparedness on the domestic economic front along with a need-based infrastructural haul to impart the right momentum to an economy that is overtly politicized and not inspiring enough for big business ideas to prevail and flourish. Nepal’s political economy should get the traction of national consensus to fulfil the aspirations of the people and also reposition the country to the global state with its strengthened economic prowess.

To not give an adverse response to the usual flow of goods and services, the government should lift the ban on imported goods which do not have competent alternatives in the domestic market. Until such time as Nepal makes a move to increase the production of domestically-consumable goods and end the cartel of businesses embracing competition and innovations, it would be helpful if Nepal remains open to successfully complete a mandatory transition of present sort.

There is no magic wand to ensure economic reforms and avert a crisis-like scenario. Nepal’s neighbour and the world’s largest democracy, India, is a fine example of a country that braved a severe BoP crisis in 1991 and transformed the economy through a sustained wave of economic reforms without letting political preferences over-ride significant economic matters. In the time when isolation cannot steer the growth impulses of the economy, it is important for Nepal to cope with the shortage of industrial production and pressure of trade imbalance through excessive imports but without stopping to remain open to the world for healthy collaboration.

Geopolitical changes

The broad geopolitical and economic trends are also suggestive of doors opening to more active Nepali participation in the Indo-Pacific economic agenda, with the Nepalese Parliament approving the $500 million Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) grant from the United States; this could substantially upgrade energy cooperation between India and Nepal, and also India agreeing to the United Kingdom, the European Union and other major investment partners working together in third countries on development projects. Interestingly, the Nepalese seem to have independently made a reassessment of risks in recklessly deepening ties with China, thanks I large measure due to Beijing’s missteps, and the style and the substance of Chinese-delivered assistance.

There is much greater receptivity and a “felt need” across the political spectrum and in public discussion of the genuineness of India’s friendship aimed at contributing to the welfare of people of Nepal. The decision of the Government of India to set up an inter-ministerial standing group under the chairmanship of the Foreign Secretary, to coordinate sections and ensure more rapid follow-up of project decisions is also a welcome step.

Business leaders in India should be encouraged to be proactive in looking for new opportunities in expanding and diversifying trade and investment ties with Nepal including exploring possibilities in the context of a reset of supply chains in the post COVID-19 situation. There is no doubt that the economic challenges in the post COVID-19 situation, and the over-all churning in the geopolitical environment have created an opportunity for both countries to devise innovative approaches to longstanding issues and to aim for new horizons in bilateral cooperation.

It is vital that Nepal deepen its economic ties with India and facilitate joint ventures that create immense economic opportunities. India’s unwavering commitment to peace and prosperity in Nepal and its complementarity in its relations with Nepal will help in creating a healthier economic ecosystem in Nepal. While the economic scenario is troubled – and it is unlikely that Nepal will emerge from it soon – it would be wrong to assume that a condition akin to a breakdown is inevitable in Nepal. Economic adversity has created the space for course correction and Nepal should be encouraged to devise a fresh approach to achieve this through calibrated efforts.

A script for a national footprint, a Telangana hat-trick

It remains to be seen whether the TRS’s move to consult election strategist Prashant Kishor will fetch the party dividends

K. VENKATESHWARLU

At the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS)’s plenary held in Hyderabad recently, when the Telangana Chief Minister, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, made his intentions clear about expanding the party’s national footprint by going at “misgovernance” by the Bharatiya Janata Party hammer and tongs, it was apparent that he was sticking to the script prepared by the high-profile election strategist, Prashant Kishor.

‘A common agenda’

Mr. Kishor had flown down to Hyderabad after his attempt to make headway with advising the Indian National Congress party and even finding a role in it misfired. Mr. Kishor was in confabulations with Mr. Rao over two days and drew up a blueprint on how the TRS could execute its “go national” action plan. Mr. Rao’s assertions at the plenary looked to be much in sync with Mr. Kishor’s strategy of Opposition taking on the BJP in 2024 general election. As if on cue, Mr. Rao, laying bare his national political ambitions, spoke of India needing an “alternative political agenda, and ridding the country of the religious hatred spread by the BJP ruling at the Centre”. He laid emphasis on a common agenda for India and not so much on a political front “to make someone a Prime Minister”. An agenda was needed that included an integrated agricultural policy and reorienting the goals of sectors such as industry to meet the aspirations of the people. He noted that people were tired of the BJP’s single point programme of stoking religious passions across the country and wondered if the United Progressive Alliance was better.

Plan for 2023 is unclear

These are familiar semantics that have matched Mr. Kishor’s efforts in trying to build alternative political formations across the country to fight the BJP. In recent interviews to the media, Mr. Kishor, who quit his Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) Group, revealed his future political trajectory of being on the other side of the BJP camp, citing how the saffron party has drifted away from the basic principles of the Indian Constitution. He went on to suggest a “realignment, redesigning and rebooting” of national and regional parties to counter the BP, putting on the table an “alternative narrative”, all this while exuding confidence that defeating the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections was indeed in the realm of possibility. In his view, it was not necessary to have a grand pre-poll alliance or project a particular leader as a prime ministerial candidate.

Mr. Kishor and his I-PAC’s strategy for the TRS to realise its pan-India dream may look sound and attractive going by the dramatic preview presented by Mr. Rao at the plenary, but there is no clarity yet on his formulation for the Telangana Assembly elections due in 2023. The TRS will be seeking a mandate for a third term from voters who appear fatigued with the governance and the policies for over eight years now. Mr. Kishor has his task cut out and there is expectation that he will wipe out two-term load of anti-incumbency.

Unfulfilled promises

Notwithstanding its tall claims, many of the promises made by the TRS remain unfulfilled. Opposition parties, the congress and the BJP, contend that but for a handful of villages in Gajwel (Mr. Rao’s Assembly constituency), Siddipet (represented by Mr. Rao’s nephew and Finance Minister T. Harish Rao) and Sircilla (represented by Mr. Rao’s son, IT Minister, K.T. Rama Rao), not many double bedroom houses have been built anywhere in Telangana. Under “Mission Bhagirathi”, a programme to supply tap water, only 40% of the households have been covered. Round-the –clock free power supply promised to the farm sector is patchy. A plethora of problems haunt the 23 newly carved out districts. After failing to convince the Central government to procure the entire stock of paddy from the State, the TRS government grandly announced that it would do it on its own, but finds the going tough.

The financial situation is not too comfortable either. Far from having in place proactive policy decisions that could checkmate the BJP, the TRS government has been spending beyond its means on non-productive schemes and freebies and then approaching the Centre for relaxing Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management norms and the allocation of more funds. The Rythu Bandhum the farmers’ investment support scheme, involves an annual outgo of about 16,000 crore rupees. Another new scheme, Dalit Bandhu, which extends 10 lakh rupees assistance to each beneficiary, is estimated t cost about 17,000 crore rupees annually. The TRS government has been heavily dependent on loans from various agencies, touching a whopping 2.41 lakh crore rupees, since the formation of Telangana in 2014.

So will Mr. Kishor’s magic strategy help the TRS turn the tide and pull off a hat-trick? Mr. Rama Rao is skeptical. “People should understand [that] Kishor’s I-PAC is just to supplement our efforts. If we don’t have public support, they can’t save us, PK [Prashant Kishor] or some outsider can’t save a sinking ship….” It is widely believed that Mr. Rao’s national foray is also meant to keep the top political seat in Telangana warm for Mr. Rama Rao. Detractors also point to the fact that Mr. Rao, for all his claims of being a veteran political strategist, may have sent out a signal of being on shaky ground by hiring the services of I-PAC.

I-PAC’s plan of action for the TRS was kicked off amid huge confusion caused by Mr. Kishor’s running with the hare and hunting with hounds strategy – attempting a lateral entry into the Congress in Delhi while lending political advice to the Congress’s arch rival in Hyderabad, the TRS. Among other inputs, he is believed to have almost suggested to the Congress to go for an electoral alliance with the TRS. It caused a furore within the Telangana Congress while the BJP watched with glee at how the two parties plunged into chaos. With Mr. Kishor clearing the air, there was relief in the Congress and TRS camps.

Some gains for the BJP

Leaving aside the commissioning of a professional political strategist for the elections, the issue is about how the TRS plans to take on a resurgent BJP in Telangana. The BJP has posted some handsome wins in elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and by-elections to the Dubbak and Huzurabad Assembly constituencies. But for platitudes, TRS has not much to offer. It has not come up with any concrete plan to check the strident hate and polarizing campaign being run by the BJP in Telangana. BJP leaders appear to be getting away making provocative speeches, the recent example being that of the BJP MLA, T. Raja Singh, during the Rama Navami procession in Hyderabad. The TRS’ unwritten understanding with the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) often comes in handy for the BJP to question the TRS’s moral authority to speak and act against communal parties. Yet, with its sights set on grabbing national political space and attention, the TRS still recognises the BJP as being its main political rival.

THE HINDU EDITORIAL SUNDAY - MAY 1, 2022

2022-05-04T23:13:00.000+05:30

THE HINDU EDITORIAL SUNDAY – MAY, 1, 2022

Intense heat

What is driving up temperatures beyond normal in north, west, central and east India?

JACOB KOSHY

The story so far: India is in the throes of an unusually long series of heatwaves that began in the end of March and scorched north India for most of April. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said April was the hottest in northwest India in 122 years. It has also been an unusually hot April – with temperatures touching above 40֯ C – in large parts of Bihar, Jharkhand and West above Bengal.

How widespread is the heatwave?

-Records from IMD suggest that the average maximum temperature till April 27 was 35.7֯C, the highest in five years for this month. In Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, and Gujarat, the average maximum temperature in April 2022 so far has been the highest since 1951; while it has been the second highest in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana. In most of these States, the temperature has been consistently above 42֯C and around 5.6 degrees above normal for this time of the year.

Latest IMD forecasts say heat wave conditions prevail in many parts of Punjab, northwest Rajasthan and Vidarbha, Maharashtra. It’s also unusually hot in parts of Himachal Pradesh, west Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Gangetic West Bengal and Odisha. Maximum temperatures were 43-46 degree Celsius over most parts of Rajasthan, Vidarbha Madhya Pradesh and east Uttar Pradesh, in many parts of Gujarat and interior Odisha; in some parts of central Maharashtra and in isolated pockets of Bihar, Jharkhand and interior Gangetic West Bengal. Temperatures were over 40-43 degree Celsius in most parts of Haryana-Delhi, Punjab and in isolated pockets of west Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh Marathwada, Telangana and Rayalaseema. These scorching conditions are expected to continue until the middle of next week until, the agency says, a western disturbance from West Asia brings rain to parts of north and north-western India. While it is to unusual for the latter half of April to be dry and hot in most of north, west and central India, this year is unusual in that this follows the warmest March in 121 years with the maximum temperature across the country nearly 1.86֯C above normal.

How are heatwaves defined?

-A heatwave is declared when the maximum temperature is over 40֯C and at least 4.5 notches above normal. A severe heatwave is declared if the departure from normal temperature is more than 6.4 degrees, according to the IMD. Based on absolute recorded temperatures, a heatwave is declared when an area logs a maximum temperature of 45֯C. A severe heatwave is declared if the maximum temperature crosses 47 degrees.

Is climate change responsible?

-The heat-trapping consequences of global warming imply that climate extremes such as heatwaves are expected to rise in frequency. Instances of extreme rainfall, as well as longer rainless spells are expected, according to assessments by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The main reason for the scorching heat in the northern parts of the country is lack of rainfall. Usually, periods of high temperature are punctuated by periodic episodes of rain but this was largely absent during March and April. Ironically, April also saw maximum instances of extreme rainfall since 2018 though it was concentrated in the south and north-eastern India. The rain-bearing western disturbances originate because of temperature gradients between the northernmost parts of the globe and the latitudes passing through West Asia. Weaker gradients mean weaker rains. This March and April, cooler than normal conditions in the Pacific Ocean failed to aid rainfall in north India.

What impact do heatwaves have over India?

-Research through the years shows that the number of heatwave days in India is increasing every decade. From 413 in 1981-90 to 575 in 2001-10, the number of days that see extremely hot days is persistently increasing at 103 weather stations. Some parts along eastern India, such as Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha, also register higher humidity along with high temperatures, leading to the rise in a condition called ‘wet bulb’ temperature, that at its mildest can cause extreme discomfort and at its worst cause dehydration and death. Heatwaves have killed more than 17,000 people in 50 years in India, according to a research study by IMD scientists. However, the intensity and length of heatwaves don’t have a direct connection to India’s monsoon that sets in over Kerala in June.

What is being done to buffer against high temperatures?

-Over the years, forecast systems have improved that allow heatwave warnings to be disseminated via electronic channels and phones instantaneously. Many State governments across the country have declared school holidays; some have highlighted the dangers of working outdoors during the day. Many State governments award monetary compensation for deaths linked to heatwaves.

Why are electric vehicles catching fire?

-Is the battery causing the problem? What safety measures need to be followed to prevent explosions?

VENKAT SRINIVASAN

The story so far: The Union government has constituted an expert panel to probe the recent series of battery explosions in electric vehicles (EVs).Manufacturers such as Okinawa and Pure EV have recalled some batches of electric scooters after their died at his home in Telangana’s Nizamabad district after the battery of an electric scooter exploded while being charged. After the enquiry, the Ministry of Road Transport intends to issue guidelines for EVs, including tests for compliance with safety norms.

Why is the world poised to transition to electric vehicles?

-The growing concern over climate change has led to global efforts to electrify the transportation sector. In parallel, cost of Li-ion (Lithium-ion) battery technology has decreased by a staggering order of magnitude in the past decade. The convergence of these two factors has resulted in a unique time in our history where we are at the cusp of a dramatic transition in the transportation sector, with electric vehicles poised to replace petrol vehicles.

The world has taken note of this moment with governments providing incentives to usher in the transition of private industry ramping up plans for capturing the market. There is a worldwide race emerging, with vehicles companies, battery manufacturers, and material suppliers vying with each complex device requiring a level of sophistication that can takes years to perfect. Hurrying the development of this complex technology without careful safeguards can lead to increasing safety incidents, as evidenced recently on India roads.

What goes into a Li-ion battery?

-Every Li-ion battery consists of three active components: the anode, typically graphite; the cathode, typically based on a nickel, cobalt, and manganese-based inorganic solvent. Battery manufacturing is a complex operation involving forming sheets of the anode and held apart by a thin separator.

Separators, about 15 microns in thickness – about a fifth of the thickness of the human hair – perform the critical function of preventing the anode and cathode from shorting. Accidental shorting of the electrodes is a known cause of fires in Li-ion cells. It is important that the various layers are assembled with high precision with tight tolerances maintained throughout the manufacturing process. Safety features, such as thermal switches that turn off if the battery overheats, are added as the sandwich is packaged into a battery cell.

Battery cells are assembled into modules and then further assembled into packs. Li-ion batteries require tight control on the state of charge and the temperature of operation to enhance safety and increase usable life, achieved by adding multiple sensors. Packs are designed to ensure uniform temperature profile with minimal thermal variation during operation. Ensuring robust detection, coupled with battery management systems that interpret the data and change operation based on changes to the batteries state, remains critically important in enhancing battery performance.

Battery packs are integrated into the vehicle in unique form factors depending on the design of the vehicle. The location of the battery should protect it from external penetration; ensure passenger safety while talking into consideration the overall weight distribution. Close interaction between vehicle manufacturers and battery manufacturers is essential so that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

There are multiple trade-offs in this complex ecosystem: engineering higher safety often results in higher costs and lower driving range. In this competitive landscape where companies are vying for market share, a race to the bottom can compromise safety.

What causes battery fires?

-While Li-ion batteries are complex, over the last three decades numerous companies have perfected the art of manufacturing high-quality cells and integrating them into vehicles with minimal safety concerns. The energy density of petrol is five hundred times that of a typical Li-ion battery, therefore safety should be manageable if robust controls are in place. However, batteries do store energy in a small package and if the energy is released in an uncontrolled fashion, the thermal even can be significant.

Battery fires, like others fires, occur due to the convergence of three parts of the “fire triangle”: heat, oxygen, and fuel. If an adverse event such as a short circuit occurs in the battery, the internal temperature can raise as the anode and cathode release their energy through the short. This, in turn, can lead to a series of reactions from the battery materials, especially the cathode, that release heat in an uncontrolled manner, along with oxygen. Such events also rupture the sealed battery further exposing the components to outside air and the second part of the fire triangle, namely, oxygen. The final component of the triangle is the liquid electrolyte, which is flammable and serves as a fuel. The combination leads to a catastrophic failure of the battery instantaneously and explosively.

The trigger for such events can be a result of internal shorts (like a manufacturing defect that results in sharp objects penetrating the separator), external events (an accident leading to puncture of the cell and shorting of the electrodes), overcharging the battery which leads to heat releasing reactions on the cathode (by a faulty battery management system that does not shut down charging despite the battery achieving its designed charge state), or bad thermal design at the module and pack level (by not allowing the battery internal heat to be released). Any of these triggers may cascade into a significant safety incident. (see graphic).

Are battery fires inevitable?

-Over the past three decades, Li-ion batteries have proved to be extremely safe, with the industry increasing controls as safety incidents have surfaced. Safety is a must and is an important consideration that battery and vehicle manufacturers can design for at multiple levels from the choice of battery material to designs at the cell, pack, and vehicle level.

Preventing fires requires breaking the fire triangle. Battery cathodes are a leading cause of the heat release. Some cathodes, such as ones with lower nickel content or moving to iron phosphate, can increase safety. Tightly controlled manufacturing will prevent accidental shorts in the cells, eliminating a leading cause of fires. Many companies now add a ceramic layer on the separator to mechanically prevent shorts. Sensing the state of the battery and integrating this data into sophisticated battery management systems is an important aspect of design. Protecting the cell with robust thermal management is critical, especially in India where ambient temperatures are high. Finally, battery packs need to be protected from external penetration. Any large-scale manufacturing process inevitably has a certain percentage of defects; therefore, such steps are needed to minimize the number of adverse events.

Long-term changes are also under way. Safety remains a concern for Li-ion manufacturers worldwide especially as cell sizes become larger for applications such as solar-connected storage. Companies are developing internal “switches” that turn off parts of the battery that undergo thermal events to stop them at their inception. Research is now underway to replace the flammable liquid electrolyte with a solid electrolyte to eliminate one part of the fire triangle. A similar thread of research is the development of nonflammable liquid electrolytes. All these changes promise to remove the threat of battery fires as the roll out of mass electrification takes place.

Engineering safety requires commitment from all parts of the battery supply chain and tight integration between vehicle companies and battery companies. Further, regulators play an important role, providing the testing and certification needed to ensure that technology innovations perform at the level that is promised. Li-ion batteries are not forgiving of shoddy engineering and approaches that rely on cutting corners. Companies with tightly controlled manufacturing with years of experience can maintain the number of adverse safety incidents to a minimum. Such batteries maybe more expensive, but safety should not be “just another” metric. Rather, ensuring safety should be the priority for manufacturers.

States vs Centre: who increased fuel tax rate?

What is the stand of States ruled by BJP rivals on reduction of value-added tax to bring down petrol prices?

VIGNESH RADHAKRISHNAN

The story so far: Petrol is retailing at more than 100 rupees a litre across India. The primary reason for the increase in pump prices over the past few years is the gradual rise in the Union government’s excise duty component. The excise duty was cut by 5 rupees per litre last November. While some States followed with a cut in value-added tax (VAT), many others did not. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said fuel prices were to high in some non-BJP-ruled States as they did not “pass the benefits of the Centre’s excise duty cut” to consumers. He said States such as Maharashtra, West Bengal, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Jharkhand did not reduce VAT last November while Karnataka and Gujarat did so.

By how much has the Central tax on fuel increased?

-In October 2018, the Central excise duty on petrol amounted to 17.98 rupees per litre. In February 2022, it increased to 27.9 rupees per litre of petrol. In this period, the Centre’s tax component expanded by about 10 rupees per litre of petrol.

By how much has the tax levied by States risen?

-As on February 2019, Kerala charged 30.08% as sales tax along with 1 rupee a litre additional sales tax, plus 1% cess. Telangana charged 35.2%. West Bengal charged 25% or 13.12 rupees per litre whichever was higher, with minor additional components. None of the three States had made any increases to the rates till April 2022. Tamil Nadu charged 34% VAT on petrol as on February 2019. In 2022, the tax structure has changed to 13% VAT plus 11.52 rupees a litre.

In the period under review, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra (Mumbai)’s tax on petrol has risen by 3 rupees a litre, whereas Karnataka’s sales tax rate declined from 32% to 25.92%, and Gujarat’s from 17% to 13.7%. In the non-BJP-ruled States, in this period, tax rates increased between nil and 3 rupees per litre, whereas in the BJP-ruled States, tax rates declined.

How can the impact of States’ taxes and the Centre’s excise duties on petrol be measured?

-One way to do this would be to compare the Centre’s excise duty collections on crude oil and petroleum products, and the States’ VAT collections on petroleum products, as a percentage of GDP. In the same period, States’ tax collections have marginally declined from 1.1% of GDP to 1.02% of GDP. Another measure would be to compare the Centre’s tax share in the retail price of petrol with State’s tax share. For instance, in Delhi, the Centre’s tax share currently forms 26.4% of the retail price. In May 2014 it was around 14%. The State’s tax share currently forms 16.25% of the retail price, compared with 17% in May 2014. So, both in terms of percentage of GDP and retail prices, the States’ tax collections have remained the same or even slightly declined, whereas the Centre’s tax collections have climbed sharply.

THE HINDU EDITORIAL - MAY 3, 2022

2022-05-03T22:50:00.000+05:30

THE HINDU EDITORIAL – MAY 3, 2022

GST signals

Record revenues can smoothen upcoming Centre-State reform parleys

The first month of the new financial year has yielded a sharp surge in Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections, taking them well past 1.67 lakh crore rupees – the highest, by a wide margin, in the five years since the levy was introduced by subsuming myriad State and central duties. In fact, GST revenues have scaled fresh highs in three of the last four months, having hit 1.41 lakh crore rupees in January and 1.42 lakh crore rupees in March. Overall GST revenues had grown 30.8% in 2021-22 to 14.9 lakh crore rupees, despite slipping below the 1 lakh crore rupees mark for two months when the second COVID-19 wave raged. The 20% year-on-year revenue uptick this April could be seen as a comforting signal about 2022-23 revenue prospects for policy makers at the Centre and the States, whose treasuries are fretting about the prospect of income falling off a cliff from this July when the assured compensation for implementing the GST comes to an end. Compensation cess levies will persist till at least March 2026, but they will be used to pay off special borrowings of 2020-21 to bridge revenue shortfalls and recompense States. The Centre needs a mechanism to expedite payment of outstanding compensation dues to States (78,700-odd crore rupees, or four months of dues). The Finance Ministry has blamed ‘inadequate balance’ in the Compensation Cess fund, and promised to pay up ‘as and when’ the requisite cess accrues.

If overall GST collections sustain around April levels, a dialogue with States on their pending dues along with those that will accrue from now till June, could become less thorny. But the conversation needs to begin soon. The GST Council, which has not met properly since September 2021, must be convened at the earliest. Higher tax inflows backed by improved compliance, should give the Council more flexibility to approach the impending rationalization of the GST rate slabs, beyond a mere scramble to fill coffers and factor in larger socio-economic considerations. The Centre, which called the April inflows a sign of ‘faster recovery’, must also state whether these revenue levels warrant a rethink of its concern that the effective GST tax rate had slipped from the revenue-neutral rate envisaged at its launch. A clear acknowledgement is also needed that the higher revenues are not solely driven by a rebound in economic activity. Persistently higher input costs facing producers for a year and their accelerating pass-through to consumers, seen in higher retail inflation, have contributed too, along with tighter input credit norms introduced in the Union Budget. That revenue growth from goods imports has outpaced domestic transactions significantly in recent months, also suggests India’s consumption story is yet to fully resurface. Urgent policy action is needed to rein in the inflation rally and bolster consumer sentiment, so as not to sink hopes of more investments, faster growth and even greater revenues.

No short circuits

Safety is an imperative and should be built into the cost and utility of electric vehicles

A spate of incidents related to the burning of electric vehicles (EV) has resulted in the Union government announcing an expert panel to investigate the battery explosions causing them and a few manufacturers recalling batches of electric scooters after some caught fire. EVs have increasingly become a viable transportation device, with more than 11 lakh electric/battery-operated vehicles registered in India (Vahan database, April 2022). The increase in the utilization of EVS has also been largely helped by the significant reduction in costs of lithium-ion batteries that have fallen by an estimated 89% since 2010. With climate change concerns driving governments, including India’s, to incentivize the shift to EVs, their manufacture for commercial use has undergone acceleration with an increase in indigenous companies in the Indian market as well. The enhanced use of EVs and utilization of the underlying technology is welcome as despite the institution of fuel emission norms and building these into fossil fuel-driven vehicles, the shift to EVs from petrol and diesel ones is expected to gain significant net environmental benefits. But it must also be remembered that the Li-ion battery packs that form the core of the technology, are sophisticated devices and there should be no compromise on the inbuilt safeguards.

As an energy storage scientist explained in The Hindu (‘FAQ’ page, May 1, 2022), battery fires occur due to the convergence of heat, oxygen and fuel, and the controlled manufacturing of devices is specifically required to prevent these. Engineering higher safety into EVs can result in higher costs but the smooth functioning of Li-ion batteries without accidents is reliant on the absences of “shoddy engineering” and “cutting corner approaches”. With long-term device changes in Li-ion batteries such as the use of solid state electrolytes, special safety switches, etc. still some time away in implementation, the onus is on manufacturers and regulators to ensure that testing and certification standards related to battery management systems such as devices that prevent accidental shorting of the cells, and thermal management solutions among others are met in existing EV systems and supply chains. Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that the Ministry of Road Transport will issue guidelines for EVs which would include tests for compliance with specific safety norms. While the regulation of a fledgling albeit growing sector that has shown a lot of promise but requires adequate safety norms to be put in place is an imperative, manufacturers and other companies in the EV supply chain should also proactively work in recalling defective hatches of vehicles and ensuring safety compliance to prevent the recurrence of mishaps.

A grand old party, the demanding path to its revival

The Congress’s decline is to be seen in the context of majoritarianism as well as internal factors

ZOYA HASAN

The Congress party is no stranger to crises, but those it has faced since 2014 are unprecedented and probably the worst in the course of its long history. The party reached a historic low of 44 Lok Sabha seats in 2014 and that only increased to 52 in 2019. It has lost 39 out of 49 State elections since 2014. It managed to win only 55 of the 690 seats in the recent Assembly elections held in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa. A series of leaders have deserted the party – even those close to the Gandhi family. These defeats and desertions have raised questions and concerns about its very survival. The fact that Congress leaders held extensive talks with a much sought-after election consultant, and was planning to employ his services to revamp the party, brings into sharp relief the existential crisis of the Congress. How do we understand Congress’s existential crisis, and what are the prospects of revival?

A platform that does not work

Historically, the Congress had always come to power on a centrist platform reflecting its varied social base, but centrism does not work in a deeply divided polity dominated by a politics of polarization and communal mobilization. Essentially, the old form of accommodative politics, which for long held together the Congress’s social coalition, is not capable of galvanizing the imagination of new India. The Gujarat model of politics marked by an exclusive focus on individual leadership as the driver of election campaigns, a strong sense of Hindu pride, a shift in popular attention to aggressive nationalist appeals regardless of reality or facts, and a complete rejection of the entire democratic past and superimposition of perception over performance appears to hold voters in thrall. Changes unleashed by liberalization, globalization, and the information-communication revolution initiated by the Congress have undercut its political ethos and ideological architecture to a greater degree than that of its principal rival. The Congress’s decline (and that of other Centre-Left and Left parties) transformations provoked by the growth and expansion of neoliberalism and majoritarianism, and other factors that are internal to the Congress, most notably, the strong resistance to structural changes within the party.

The party’s main problems

The Congress has faced three major structural problems in a political conjuncture defined by ‘the great moving Right show’, to borrow a phrase from cultural theorist Stuart Hall, and the polarization engendered by it. These include the leadership issue, organizational stagnation, and the need to project and propagate a clear ideological alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). I have explored these themes in my recent book on the Congress and am taking up some aspects of that here.

The Congress’s leadership crisis has undoubtedly played a role in its decline; however, the challenge facing the party is not just about the ineffectual leadership. Simply appointing a non-Gandhi will not dramatically alter the party’s dwindling fortunes. In fact, removing them might well reinforce the right-wing agenda. What the Congress needs is an organizational regeneration, with democratization at the front and centre. But fundamental issues concerning organizational change have been repeatedly set aside and weighed down by the debate on dynastic leadership and an obsessive focus on the Gandhis.

It is however, important to reconstitute the party’s leadership at various levels through internal elections. This can transform the Congress into a more representative Organisation and could give a boost to the party by changing the perception that it is a family business. At present, the top decision-making bodies are occupied by people who have either never contested a Lok Sabha or Vidhan Sabha election or did so decades ago. Their influence has however grown in direct proportion to the weakening of the party across India. These structural problems have existed for years, and yet the party has not faced them head on. It has demonstrated no urgency for drastic remedial measures despite defeat after defeat. The feeble attempts at revitalization have focused more on regaining quick electoral viability than on addressing long-term structural issues.

Short on communication

By far the Congress’s biggest short-coming is its inability to communicate its ideological positions and values clearly. The great challenge is to define its message and communicate it to the electorate as an underpinning for political mobilization. For this, it must unequivocally reaffirm its inclusive vision for a democratic India, and take credit for its past achievements, which resulted from an adherence to these commitments.

One big failure has been the Congress’s reluctance to tell its own story. The party did not publicise or highlight its distinctive approach, and that was one reason why it did not play to its strengths during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) rule, allowing itself to be outsmarted by its critics. The BJP has correctly calculated that so long as it sustains the argument that the Congress was elitist, corrupt and dynastic, it can prevent the Congress from emerging as a credible alternative. What aids and abets these half-truths is the passivity of the Congress in defending its record and letting its achievements to be dismissed and derided, even as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government successfully obfuscates data on its own underperformance in the last eight years.

Combating the communal

The key issue for the Opposition is defining its response to Hindu nationalism. While the Congress is largely agreed on the necessity of combating communal ideas, politics and policies, it has swung between making ideological compromises with majoritarian nationalism and plotting a frontal battle against it. It has often adopted a majoritarian tenor on certain controversial issues in the name of religious sentiment. However, this makes no sense amidst the growing influence of the Hindu Right. Both as a strategy and as an actuality, the mixing of religiosity and politics does not guarantee electoral dividends. Moreover, the conflict in India is not about the growing prominence of Hinduism in our public life, which most parties accept and promote, but about the BJP’s idea of nationalism, which is utterly exclusivist, pitted against the inclusive nationalism championed by the Congress during the freedom struggle.

Indian politics has never been more polarized than it is today; never before has the gulf been so wide. Hence , today, the battle is more fundamental; it is about the very idea of India – the idea of a diverse, pluralistic nation committed to liberal values. By remaining silent on the way in which nationalism has been redefined, the Congress has ceded the nationalist space to Hindu Right which poses as the pre-eminent torch-bearer of nationalism today even though organizations associated with it made no contribution to the freedom struggle, the crucible which defined Indian nationalism from which they were absent. Yet, its conception of Indian nationhood which it has fought for has prevailed, over the past decade and more against the Congress’s inclusive ‘Idea of India’

Defending a pluralist view of politics and governance is one aspect of the political strategy; the other is grounding its politics in the idiom of social justice which both sidesteps identity politics and resonates with an aggrieved population, alienated by the current dispensation’s policies and politics. Overall, the 137-year-old party’s revival depends on three things – a consistent narrative to counter divisive politics, the will to restructure the organization, and drawing strength from constant public action rather than just elections.

DC and Delhi engagement as a two-way street

Shaping opinion in Congress is a continuous process and needs efforts beyond formal and informal official interactions

K.V. PRASAD

The recent visit of Congress-woman Ilhan Omar to Pakistan and her trip to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir received condemnation from India, and the United Stated swiftly drew distance clarifying that the administration did not underwrite the journey by the Member of the House of Representatives from Minnesota.

As the centre

The Capitol Hill has a distinct place in the United States Constitution and its separation of powers. Members of the legislative branch work independently to write laws for the administration to implement. The Members of Congress take a special interest in foreign policy and carry out regular oversight over policies pursued by the government across the globe. These could be on a track different from the official policy pursued by the administration of the day. It is said each member’s thoughts on foreign policy are like that of the Secretary of the State.

Over the past couple of years, much water has flown down the Potomac in Washington DC and the nature of representation in the United States Congress has undergone a change in terms of the issues member pursue. There in turn also depend on the nature of the districts, its constituents, issues of interest to the member and the larger political debate.

One issue with reference to countries or developments, views on the Hill are shaped by a combination of factors including outreach from the country at the official level, engagement of the diasporas with Members of the Congress and staff, advocacy and professional lobbies at work. These provide continuous inputs that supplement independent status papers published by the Congressional Research drafted by subject experts.

At times, the House or the Senate organizes hearings on country/issue-specific subjects, for example the Senate Sub-Committee on Asia held last month on U.S. policy towards India, where, among other issues, Jammu and Kashmir figured. Some of these concerns do translate into a resolution, in turn having an amplifier effect. In the final run-up, what matters is a Congressional determination or passage of a legislation that binds the government.

Adding perspective, support

Today, while there are more Indian-Americans serving as Members of the House of Representatives than ever before, correspondingly, there is an exponential growth of the second generation of the community members who work in separate branches of the administration and the legislature, adding a different dimension. They bring to offices their own perspective which has been accumulated through personal exchange of information from friends in India and various public sources.

It is well established that there is bipartisan support for India in the U.S., especially the Congress, which means both the Democrats and the Republicans favour engagement and developing ties with the country, which in turn smoothens the work of successive administrations irrespective of which party enjoys a majority in Congress and has a President in the White House.

For instance, it took over two years of sustained work at all levels in the Congress before it passed the historic Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement (with India) amid determined opposition from the non-proliferation advocates on the Hill, a majority of them belonging to the Democratic Party. In the final stage, over 100 members on the House side and 13 Senators (including Independent Bernie Sanders) voted against it. It did not reflect the party line unlike the GOP Senators and a majority of Representatives who went with the decision of Republican U.S. President, George W. Bush.

Among the Democrats who called a Nay was Congressman Jim McDermott, a founding member of the India Caucus. The vote reflected his commitment to non-proliferation that overrode his affection for India. A vote and stand taken by the Member does not follow party dictates but is driven by individual choice, unlike in India where the party takes a decision and members vote accordingly and on important pieces of legislation through a whip.

Ilhan Omar raking up Kashmir in an Indian territory under occupation attracted sharp comment from New Delhi. Ms. Omar is known to advocate on issues such as education, environmental justice, immigration, and health care, while in the pursuit of foreign policy, the Congresswoman feels human rights, justice and peace should form the core and also represent domestic values. Her policy prescription does not favour sanctions or interventionist measures. Much of her public life work is well known as is her stand on issues of religion. Last December, she sponsored a Bill Combating International Islamophobia that was cleared by the House and is with a Senate Committee.

Migrating to the U.S. as a child from civil-strife torn Somalia, she got drown towards public office, winning a seat in the Minnesota House five years ago by unseating an established incumbent from a district with majority consisting of while population. In her book tracking changing political landscape, People Like Us – The New Wave of Candidates knocking at Democracy’s Door, author Sayu Bhojwani noted: “Omar’s …campaign [for state legislature] mobilized multiple stakeholders… the young, immigrants, and progressives… beyond individual voters... Organizers in the Back Lives Mater movement, the business community, local imams and media in the East African Community…around issues that directly affected these communities.” Today, Ms. Omar is in a leadership role as the whip in the Democratic Party’s Progressives Caucus which remains influential.

Is many layered

There are voices reaching out to offices across the aisle on the Hill which projects a different perspective of what is happening in India and other parts of the World. There are a number of Members who form opinions based on varied inputs and articulate these at various fora.

The need to continue engagement with offices in the Congress, its emerging leadership and build a counter-narrative would require effort beyond formal and informal official interactions. It is a continuous process and a two-way street.

THE HINDU EDITORIAL - MAY 2, 2022

2022-05-02T21:16:00.000+05:30

THE HINDU EDITORIAL NEWS – MAY 2, 2022

Ending AFSPA

AFSPA should go entirely because of the impunity it offers armed forces

It augurs well for the future that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given the first authentic indication that the operation of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) may come to an end in the whole of the north-eastern region, if ongoing efforts to normalize the situation bear fruit. Mr. Modi’s remark that a good deal of work is being done in that direction, not only in Assam but also Nagaland and Manipur, may be rooted in his keenness to demonstrate the level of progress achieved in the region under his regime; but it will bring immense relief to the citizens, nevertheless. Areas notified as ‘disturbed areas’ under AFSPA have been progressively reduced in the last few years, mainly due to the improvement in the security situation. About a month ago, the Union Home Ministry reduced such notified areas considerably in Assam, Nagaland and Manipur. There was a substantial reduction in Assam, where AFSPA was removed entirely in 23 districts and partially in one. In Nagaland, after the removal of the law from 15 police stations in seven districts, it remains in areas under 57 police stations, spread across 13 districts. Areas under 82 police stations are still notified under the Act in Manipur; even thought 15 police station areas were excluded from the notification from April 1. Mr. Modi, who spoke at a ‘peace, unity and development rally’ in Diphu in Assam last week, cited “better administration” and the “return of peace” as the reasons for the removal of AFSPA in these areas in a region that has seen insurgencies for decades.

AFSPA was revoked in Tripura in 2015 and in Meghalaya in 2018. It is not unforeseeable that other States will also be excluded from its purview at some point of time. It is convenient to link the exclusion of an area from AFSPA’s purview with reduction in violence by armed groups, improvement in the security situation and an increase in development activity, but what is important is the recognition that the law created an atmosphere of impunity and led to the commission of excesses and atrocities. It was hardly four months ago that 15 civilians were killed in Mon district in Nagaland in a botched military operation. Therefore, alongside the gradual reduction in the areas under the Act, there should be serious efforts to procure justice for victims of past excesses too. On the political side, it is indeed true that much headway has been made in moving towards a political solution to some of the multifarious disputes in the region, in the form of peace accords, ceasefire and creation of sub-regional administrative arrangements. The removal of AFSPA from the entire region will be an inevitable step in the process. But irrespective of the security situation, AFSPA should not have allowed such impunity to the armed forces.

Mercury rising

Heatwave deaths must be treated as a disaster that allows compensation by the state

India has been in the grip of what seems like an eternity of heatwaves. April temperatures over northwest and central India are the highest in 122 years. During April 1 to 28, the average monthly maximum the same over central India was 37.9֯ Celsius and the same over central India was 37.78֯ C. These averages belie measurements at the district and sub-divisional level where several parts of Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, and Maharashtra have seen temperatures inch towards the mid-40s and breach normals. There is little respite expected in May, which s anyway the hotest month, thought the India Meteorological Department (IMD) says that while north and west India will continue to sizzle on expected lines, and must likely brace for more heatwaves, the rest of the country is unlikely to see the levels of March and April. A heatwave is declared when the maximum temperature is over 40֯ C and at least 4.5 notches above normal. A severe heatwave is declared if the departure from normal temperature is more than 6.4֯ C, according to the IMD. The proximate causes for the searing heat are an absence of rain-bearing Western Disturbances, or tropical storms that bring rain from the Mediterranean over north India. Cool temperatures in the central Pacific, or a La Nina, that normally aid rain in India, too have failed to bolster rainfall this year. This is an unusual occurrence.

Despite five Western Disturbances forming in April, none was strong enough to bring significant rain and depress temperatures. The IMD has forecast a ‘normal’ monsoon or 99% of the Long Period Average (LPA) of 87cm and is expected to forecast the monsoon’s arrival over Kerala later in May. On the surface, there is no direct bearing between the intensity of heatwaves an the arrival and performance of the monsoon. In fact, even as northern India based for want of rain, Aril saw monthly rainfall break a four-year record with high rainfall in several parts of southern and north-eastern India. May too is expected to see 9% more rain over India than is usual for the month, though it must be kept in mind that base rainfall is so low in this month that it is unlikely to make a mark. While individual weather events cannot be linked to greenhounse gas levels, a warming globe means increased instances of extreme rain events and extended rain-less spells. What is better known is it helps to have disaster management plans in place that help States better deal with heatwaves and their impact on health. The official toll due to heatwaves in the last 50 years is put at over 17,000 people, according to research from the IMD. The heat island effect means urbanization adds degrees to the already searing conditions; and so, heatwave deaths must be treated as a disaster that merits compensation. Private and public workplaces too must be better equipped to factor heatwave risk.

Third World War talk that could be hyperbole

Apart from the grave consequences in an unlikely West versus Russia nuclear stand-off, there are other inhibiting factors

M.K. NARAYANAN

Amidst signs of a further escalation in conflict levels, vis-à-vis the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war – and accompanying new rhetoric of an even wider conflagration in the offing – concerns about the possibility of a Third World War have gone up by several notches. During the past few days what is further evident is that both sides seem intent on enlarging the scale of the conflicts, rather than trying to end it.

Battle cry and response

This past week, the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), buoyed by the perceived success of Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s aggression, have further raised the stakes by pledging additional packages of lethal weapons to Ukraine (amounting to several millions of dollars), which the West had, till now, refrained from supplying Ukraine.

Again, in what can only be perceived as a battle cry, the U.S. Defence Secretary, Lloyd Austin, at a meeting of 43 NATO and other countries (held at the Headquarters of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe) declared that what had transpired was a demonstration of the resolve of nations from around the world to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s aggression.

Russia’s response has been equally threatening. When asked about the prospect of a Third World War, Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, is on record that the risk, including the possibility of nuclear war, was not inconsiderable and that the situation must not be underestimated. Mr. Lavrov added, “NATO, in essence, is engaged in a war with Russia through its proxy, and is arming that proxy.” He further added that “war means war”.

The implicit threat by Russia of using nuclear weapons cannot be disregarded. Mr. Lavrov is not the only on to talk of nuclear weapons, for former Russian President, and currently Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev similarly warned Sweden and Finland (which are currently not members of NATO) that if they decide to join the U.S.-led military alliance, Russia would not hesitate to deploy nuclear weapons and hypersonic missiles to meet the threat this posed. He ominously added that in such an eventuality, there would be ‘no more talk of a nuclear free Baltic’.

Nuclear weapon use is taboo

All the signs are, hence, far from reassuring, and concerns about a nuclear holocaust appear real. Yet, it would be premature to arrive at the conclusion that a Third World War, accompanied by the use of nuclear weapons, is around the corner. One fact stands out loud and clear, viz., that since 1945, and despite occasional ‘nuclear sabre rattling’ by the nuclear weapon powers, the use of nuclear weapons has remained taboo.

Since the first two atom bombs were dropped on Japan, the destructive potential of nuclear weapons has only increased multifold. Nuclear weapons are also no longer the monopoly of any one single power. A nuclear attack by any one of the major nuclear powers – Russia, the United States or China – would bring instant retaliation. Again, the nuclear balance today is unfavorable to the West, for Russia and China, between them, have a combined strength of nuclear weapons which is bigger than that of the West. More to the point; if the two sides were to engage in a nuclear conflict, there would be no victors, and it could only result in a nuclear Armageddon.

Apart from grave consequences in the event of a nuclear stand-off, there are other inhibiting factors that make a Third World War an unlikely prospect. One current reality is that there are many degrees of separation as regards the Ukraine-Russia conflict, between the views held by the West and quite a few other countries across the world. Not all countries again are in agreement with the West about the extent of Ukraine, and this segment includes sizeable sections of the emerging world. Even some countries in Europe not affiliated to NATO remain sceptical about the reasons adduced for U.S. support to Ukraine, and hew to the view that the ulterior objective is to restore global belief and faith in U.S. authority and power, and make ‘America great again’. There is even less support to the hackneyed theme that Russia today represents ‘the Empire of Evil’. A latent fear among such uncommitted countries is that all-out support to the West, and allowing it to act as judge, jury and executioner, could create problems for many of them in the future.

Europe’s real concern

Countries across Europe are also concerned about the costs of the war, more specifically, the cost of rebuilding Ukraine after the conflict could mean for both Europe and the world that are worth mentioning. For instance, Ukraine and Russia are generally referred to as the ‘bread basket’ of Europe. A prolonged conflict would have serious consequences for Europe as far as food security is concerned. Furthermore, Europe is still to recover from adverse impacts of a prolonged novel coronavirus pandemic, and an extended war could damage the economies there even further. As it is, the WTO has downgraded Europe’s trade forecast to 3% from 4.7% for this year. Again, just two companies in Ukraine produce around 50% of the global total neon output – it is a critical gas required for the lasers used in a chip production process known as lithography, ‘where machines carve patterns onto tiny pieces of silicon’. Chip shortages are expected to cause production cuts in the audio, computer and electronic industries. Given all this, a Third World War is hardly the preferred choice of most people, more so in Europe.

Signs of a Russian restraint

There is little doubt that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foray into Ukraine was serious blunder – a point made by many western leaders, and quite a few others as well. Nevertheless, Russia has not since displayed the same degree of ‘foolhardiness’ that could provoke a wider conflagration. One instance of this that could be mentioned, and which might have led restraint in the wake of its biggest war-time loss of a battle ship since the Second World War (in which one sailor died and 27 are reportedly mission). That Russia demonstrated restraint even after it became known to the world at large Ukrainian anti-ship missile speaks volumes. To much of Europe and the West, Russia’s response seemed unexpectedly low key. Whether such restraint would continue is a matter for conjecture, but for the present it is indicative of Russia’s unwillingness to enlarge both the area and the intensity of the conflict.

As of now, Russia is concentrating – or at least seems more interested – in dismembering Ukraine, now that Ukraine’s membership of NATO has been put on the backburner. Moscow is currently envying large segments of Ukraine's East and South, and seems to have given up plans for the present to ‘conquer’ the whole of Ukraine and make it a part of Russia. If Russia persists with its current thinking, then it would denote that Russia is not interested in getting embroiled in a Third World War. For their part, most countries of Europe – unlike NATO and possibly the U.S. – believe that they can continue to live with the new order of things.

The problem with this latter objective is that it conflicts with the desire of both the U.S. and NATO to exploit the current war situation in Europe to weaken Russia militarily and politically, and incidentally decapitate Mr. Putin politically by undermining his authority and position. This explains the intensity with which the U.S. has mustered its – and NATO’s – capabilities to resist Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and inflict permanent economic and political damage on Russia, and diminish it militarily. That would meet at least two principal objectives that dominate U.S. thinking at present – revitalising the U.S.-NATO partnership to make it the bulwark of European security and restoring U.S. image in Europe as also across the world.

It is ‘sober and being softer’

The current thinking in Europe appears more in line with a softer approach. The re-election of France President Emmanuel Macron was a matter of relief and satisfaction for the U.S. and Europe, but the display of strength by the Far Right is inducing a great deal of rethinking in ruling circles in Europe and underscoring the importance of taking a sober approach to policy issues, avoiding all or any kind of intemperate move. Yet, there are many unknowns that will still need to be dealt with. The West, and specially, the U.S., remains intent on enlarging NATO, and notwithstanding the current Ukraine war, is also probably complicit in the recent announcement by Sweden and Finland of their willingness to join NATO. Being well aware of Mr. Putin’s mind set, it is almost as if the West is daring Russia to react.

The West and Russia both need to be careful and take due care to negotiate the many minefields that abound. The West should be thankful that Mr. Putin has not yet emerged as a Joseph Stalin, but at the same time they should realise that there are no Churchills, De Gaulles and FDRs [Franklin D. Roosevelt] on their side.

Reading from the old script, conceding election 2024

The Congress’s inertia stems from a refusal to recognise that a lot of the old grammar of politics has been overturned

HARBANS MUKHIA

If gratitude was a virtue valued by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), it would have much to thank the Gandhi family for even in contrary scenarios.

Let us go to the year 1984: the BJP’s two out of 543 seats in the Lok Sabha versus the Congress’s Rajiv Gandhi and its 414 seats, which remains unbeaten. It was hard for any political party to rise from the ashes of these dimensions.

Revival of the opponent

However, the BJP did so, with great help from the woolly ‘secularism of Rajiv Gandhi. In one fell swoop of two ‘secular’ steps, he paved the way for the BJP’s revival: by perpetrating a monstrous amendment of the Constitution to overturn the most sensible judgment of the Supreme Court granting maintenance to a hapless Shah Bano, hoping to win the voluble conservative Muslim clergy to his side instead of abiding by the rising liberal voices within the community, and two, by having the locks on the Babri Masjid opened and permitting shilanyas of the Ram temple, thus giving space to the assertion of loud Hindu voices, hoping to win them over too with this concession.

Both steps helped the BJP to emerge from the shadows: the first by providing social acceptance to its charge of minority appeasement against the Congress, and the second by demonstrating that even a government with an unprecedented electoral mandate can be brought to its knees by loud noise. From then on, significantly, even as the Congress has been in power, it never had a majority of its own. More importantly, the BJP’s divisive agenda has found steady support to enable it to come centre stage.

For a drastic transformation

And then there is the history of events that occurred from 2014 onwards. The BJP’s divisive agenda, barely hidden under the veil of ‘vikas’, has showed the Congress the writing on the wall: things will never be the same again. And for its survival, a drastic transformation is required – a transformation starting at the base and going to the top, and an imagination way beyond what it was familiar with in its long history. An imagination that counters the BJP’s platform of ‘vikas’ at the top and widespread but localised communal violence at the ground level. A genuine restructuring of the inner working of the Congress is needed to give voice to its supporters at the base and right up to the top, and a narative that goes beyond issuing statements of concern at price rise and for some of its leaders to be paying visits to temples on the eve of every election and a side visit to a dargah on the way.

The one faint sign of an alternate Congress agenda came up a month or two before the 2109 general election, when it coined its ‘Nyuntam Aay Yojana’, or Nyay Yojana, of providing a regular income of 72,000 rupees a year to the bottom 20% of India’s families in terms of the wealth, but it vanished before it could even be heard by the potential beneficiaries, and has never been heard of again.

An inertness

The challenge the Congress was expected to pose to the BJP has dissipated owing to its sheer inertia at both the structural and the ideological planes. The inertial emanates from the refusal to recognise that a ot of the old grammar of politics has been overturned. Politics is no longer a leisurely activity undertaken a month or two prior to an election and preparing an appropriate manifesto; it is an agglomerate of constant activity, not least keeping your cadres forever active on several fronts and, above all, the leaders being seen leading from the front all the time and not on occasional visits after getting back home from a secret trip abroad.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not the only leader who has changed the grammar; the Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banarjee, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s leader M.K. Stalin, the Aam Aadmi Party’s leader Arvind Kejriwal and several others have done it too, and with great success, irrespective of the merits of each.

It is clear that the Gandhis refuse either to look at the writing on the wall(and, therefore, to let any significant change take place either in the mode of the party’s functioning) or to let any alternate agenda come to the fore so long as they remain ensconced at the top, never mind if the bottom keeps slipping away. The suggestions that were reportedly made by political strategic Prashant Kishor to party recently contain little that the group of 23 senior Congress leaders has not been making over the past two years and more and getting a tongue lashing by the drum beaters around the top. The only significant new suggestion made by Mr. Kishor appears to be strategic one – for the Congress to contest 350 odd seats on its own and for the rest by seeking alliances with regional parties.

The leadership has responded with its time-honoured tactic of burying all implicit criticisms – by appointing a committee to look at them. They have lain buried for over two years anyways. Indeed, they have implicitly lain buried ever since 2014 when the party should have woken up to the new realities and equipped itself to deal with them. Its’ introspective’ sessions after every defeat should easily qualify as a term of political humor. The persistent efforts of the 23 senior party leaders to awaken the top three in the family have been ignored. Mr. Kishor’s suggestions are a case of an alarm bell ringing out, and steps have been announced to ignore these as well.

Almost status quo

While a step ordained by the party’s own constitution to democratise its inner functioning through fair and transparent elections; to put its mind to creating an agenda that stands apart from the BJP’s (now as well as for the elections), and to start a sort of full-time internal movement is clearly the need of the hour, the leadership has made it clear that that would be its last option. It has thus conceded the 2024 general election to the BJP. It is increasingly getting hard to view the Congress and the BJP as adversaries; they look more to be complementarity is entirely one-sided.

Is there any hope that things might change? Any hope that the Gandhi family will gracefully retire and let the party reinvent itself is far too utopian. Any hope that they will undertake the requisite steps themselves is not any more likely. And the rest of the Opposition parties getting together with Congress amounts to “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” under the current scenario. Yet, the fact remains that the BJP’s electoral support does not go beyond 40%; 60% of the voters still remain on the other side.

One can see why Mr. Modi and the BJP should be grateful to the Gandhis.

THE HINDU EDITORIAL - APRIL 5, 2022

2022-04-23T22:51:00.000+05:30

THE HINDU EDITORIAL – APRIL 5, 2022

Game for the throne

Imran Khan’s moves to cling to power betray his contempt for parliamentary procedures

It was certain that Imran Khan, Pakistan’s Prime Minister, would be ousted in the no-trust vote. The Opposition had put up a united face. His allies had jumped ship, reducing the ruling coalition to a minority. His party lawmakers had revolted against him. The cricketer turned-PM’s defeat was a matter of formality in a country where no Prime Minister has completed their term. On Sunday, the Deputy Speaker dismissed the no-trust motion, calling it against the Constitution, which was followed by Mr. Khan’s formal request to the President to dissolve the National Assembly. Pakistan will have to hold elections in three months, provided there is no judicial intervention. There were three bad options before Mr. Khan: resignation, no-trust vote or early elections. By choosing elections, he avoided a humiliating defeat and also sought to torpedo the Opposition’s bid to form a government for the remainder of the current Parliament’s term. Before the National Assembly convened, Mr. Khan had set the campaign pitch by accusing the Opposition of conspiring with a foreign power (an indirect reference to the U.S.) to unseat him. The current crisis would also allow him to play the victim of some foreign conspiracy and seek a fresh mandate. But the question is what price does Pakistan pay for his political manoeuvring? The conspiracy theories, the dismissal of the no-trust motion and the call for early elections all suggest Mr. Khan’s contempt for parliamentary procedures and basic democratic decency.

For the labyrinth he is in today, Mr. Khan has to blame nobody but himself. Having been a political underdog for years, he broke into Pakistan’s two-party political order in 2018 with the direct support of the military. His cocktail of religious conservatism, nationalism and anti-corruption crusade promised to build a ‘Naya Pakistan’. But while in power, he made three critical mistakes: mismanagement of the economy, mismanagement of his ties with the military and full-spectrum hostility with the Opposition. His vindictive approach towards the Opposition brought together all the major Opposition parties, which tried to cash in on the growing public resentment amid economic woes. Cracks in the government’s relationship with the military began appearing last year when Mr. Khan reportedly sparred with the establishment over the appointment of the new ISI chief. His visit to Moscow in February, immediately after Russia’s Ukraine invasion and the “neutral” policy his government adopted regarding the conflict seem to have quickened his fall. Last week, the Army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, spoke against the Russian invasion and re-emphasized the importance of Pakistan’s ties with the U.S. in a public rebuke of Mr. Khan’s pragmatism. Now, out of favour with the military, a lost majority in Parliament and faced with anger amid a worsening economic crisis, the ‘Captain’ does not have any good options before him. With his back against the wall, what he is doing for political survival is only weakening Pakistan’s non-military institutions and subverting its democratic proceedings.

A pause to reflect

The Government, Bharat Biotech should strive for better communication on vaccine safety

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) decision to recommend a pause in the supply of Covaxin for export is worrying. This follows an inspection of the company’s production facilities between March 14 and 22 that found “deficiencies” in the process to ensure that the vaccine produced is consistently suitable for use. Bharat Biotech, the makers of Covaxin, has said it is committed to addressing these ‘Good Manufacturing Process deficiencies’ and developing a “corrective and preventive” action plan that it will submit to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI). WHOO has told countries that for now they should “consider” alternative vaccines but it has also said that the data available with it suggest that Covaxin is safe and effective. The details of these lacunae are not public but Bharat Biotech has said that sophisticated equipment needed to “enhance the process stringency” were unavailable during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is not the first time that Bharat Biotech has tangled with WHO. The global body sought information at least nine times from the Hyderabad company before approving it to be a global supplier of Covaxin. In March 2021, the Brazilian health regulator, Anvisa, pointed to several problems with Bharat Biotech’s manufacturing plant ahead of an agreement by the company to sell 20 million doses of the vaccine to Brazil. This deal was ultimately terminated, but there has never been clear communication either by Bharat Biotech or the DCGI on the concerns raised by the Brazilian health body.

While India is no stranger to making and supplying billions of vaccine doses, it has historically done so with the benefit of time. The pandemic saw pulling out all the stops and the balance between safety and speed tilting towards the latter by both drug regulators, under pressure from their governments, and vaccine manufacturers, for whom gargantuan demand promised a financial windfall. Other companies, internationally too, have made mistakes in supply. AstraZeneca mistakenly supplied some volunteers who were being tested with the Oxford vaccine with half the required dose that led to surprising results. This was not disclosed until much after the trial results were made public and experts openly questioned the efficacy results. The defining characteristic of a vaccine is its safety profile and its acceptability is premised on its makers and the regulators being transparent about it at all times. Both the Government and Bharat Biotech should strive for better public communication on these fronts.

The road to Ukraine peace runs through Delhi

Mediation is certainly feasible and India is well positioned to act as a ‘Vishwa-Guru’ between Russia and the West

UTKARSH LEO & FAIZAN MUSTAFA

Nearly 40 days ago, Russia launched a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine in violation of international law and its security assurances under the Budapest Memorandum, 1994. And, there are no winners in sight. Despite peace talks held on March 29, in Istanbul (Turkey), direct negotiations between the conflicting parties have failed to make much progress: a ceasefire is yet to be achieved, and the Russian attacks on the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine continue. As a result, there have been 3,455 civilian casualties recorded in Ukraine (1,417 killed and 2,038 injured) while more than four million people have fled seeking protection, safety and assistance.

Similarly, in addition to causalities on the Russian side, financial and economic sanctions imposed by the European Union and the G7 have impacted the Russian economy. Despite artificial measures to prop up the rouble, the economy is tanking, annual inflation has jumped to 15.6%, the Russian Central Bank’s forex reserves remain frozen and it cannot access financing and loans from multilateral institutions. At the global level, this war is disrupting supply chins and is causing the fuel and food prices to surge. This begs the question – if this unnecessary war has resulted in a no-win situation, why have negotiations failed to end it?

Positions versus interests

Past negotiations, by video conferencing or as peace talks (held in Belarus and Turkey) have failed to make much progress because the parties have been negotiating over ‘positions’ rather than ‘interests’. A ‘position’ is a surface statement of what a party wants; for example, Russia’s demand that Ukraine recognizes the separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states. Whereas, ‘interests’ are the underlying reasons behind those position; for instance, why is Russia focused on the independence of these separatist areas? Therefore, mediation as a conflicts resolution tool can assist the parties in identifying these hidden ‘interests’ and facilitate them in working towards crafting a solution that each of the parties would value – a Europe of common security and prosperity where the sovereignty of all nations (Ukraine, Russia and the West) are guaranteed.

Mediation (or assisted negotiation) is a flexible conflict resolution tool facilitated by a neutral third party. Depending on the choice of parties, it can be facilitative or evaluative and can be conducted in joint sessions or caucuses (i.e., private meetings). Additionally, its focus on collaborative bargaining producing a win-win outcome (in contrast to adversarial proceedings such as arbitration or litigation that result in a win-loss outcome) equips it to handle conflicts of all kinds: from workplace disputes to broken contracts to international conflicts. International mediation follows this process of “assisting two or more contending parties to find a solution without resorting to force”. Due to its immense potential, the Charter of the United Nations under Article 33 recognises the promise of international mediation for peaceful resolution of international disputes.

Brokering peace

Throughout history, individuals, countries and organizations (such as the International Committee of the Red Cross) have acted as third parties and have brokered peace between conflicting nations. Described by theorists as a form of power brokerage or a political problem solving process, international mediation has been used to resolve conflicts for hundreds of years. The best known example is of U.S. President Jimmy Carter who mediated peace between Israel and Egypt (known as the Camp David Accords of 1978) that has resulted in 44 years of peace.

Scholarship on neuroscience proves that emotions have a significant influence on cognitive processes (Kragel and LaBar 2016). If emotions are running high between conflicting parties it is very likely that either or both parties get re-active (i.e., to act without thinking). Ambrose Bierce wrote: “speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret’. This is where a neutral third party can act as a ;go-between’ (termed: shuttle diplomacy) to gather more information and help the parties identify their hidden interests. This helps in ensuring that conflicting parties keep their eyes on the prize. More importantly, the mediator shutting between parties helps in limiting or reducing re-active devaluation – a cognitive barrier where the disputants wrongfully construe the conflict as a zero sum game. As a result, even the value of a genuine offer coming directly from an adversary is automatically reduced in the eyes of the receiver. Therefore, subject to context and the consent of parties, the mediator can either play a passive role to facilitate communication or a more active role and exert more influence on the content of the discussion and the final solution.

Focusing on the priority

Certainly, international mediation has a lot to offer. But is it the right choice in the Russia-Ukraine conflict?

Despite bilateral peace talks Russian air strikes continue on Ukrainian cities resulting in civilian casualties. The voice against dictatorships will want to hold the Russian President Vladimir Putin guilty of violation the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their additional protocols. It may appear that opting for mediation legitimizes past violations of international law and civilian killings. Or does it even amount to trading justice for peace? The answer is a bit more complicated. Mediation is a tool that avoids ‘being re-active’. More importantly, it helps focus on the number one priority, i.e., the safety of the Ukrainian people through a complete ceasefire. Furthermore, a mediator’s skill of strategic empathy (also a tool of statecraft) will further help understand Mr. Putin’s underlying drivers and constraints.

Furthermore, scholars like Zartman (1981) have argued that power parity between disputing parties is pivotal to the success of internation mediation. Indeed, there exists a huge power imbalance between Russia and Ukraine – Russia commands the world’s second most powerful military, whereas Ukraine, a nation of rightly 44 million people, was relying on the pinky promises (or security assurance) made by Russia in the Budapest Memorandum. However, U.S. President joe Biden’s strategy of making American intelligence (about Russia’s intention to invade Ukraine under false pretexts) publicly accessible, equipped Ukraine with the ‘power of solidarity’ which balanced or even tipped the scale in its favour. As a result, Russia is cornered, Ukraine has the solidarity of the world, Germany shed its pacifism and took a harsher stand against Russia by halting the Nord Stream 2 project, and Finland and Sweden are being pushed closer to NATO membership… Thus, opting for mediation is the only way left for Russia to save face and escape the sanctions that have crippled its economy.

For the West, going ahead with mediation presents itself as an opportunity to build a Europe of common security, common prosperity and peace. Simply put, this could be a starting point to include Russia in the security infrastructure of Europe (like it did with East Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989) – an opportunity that was missed after the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991.

India fits the bill

Mediation is certainly feasible between Russia and Ukraine because there exists a willingness to talk. But for this to commence, the approval of the parties concerned will be crucial. Much depends on the identity of the mediator. With the recent diplomatic visits to India, by the U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economics, the British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs and Minister for Women and Equalities, and the Russia Foreign Minister, shows that the world expects India to play a more active role in the Ukrainian crisis.

This is India’s golden chance to establish itself as a global power. More importantly, plying mediator in this dispute is in India’s long term interest in countering the China threat – especially with a growing “no limits” partnership between Russia and China. Moreover, with the rise of China and its belligerence, its relationship with the West has soured. As a result, the U.S. and its allies need India as a strategic partner to balance the rise of China in the Indo-Pacific; it is for this reason, that India is now a member of the Quad.

For now, India is right is not taking sides. Its relationship with the then-Soviet Union was forged to balance against-China (as the U.S. was cosying up to China). But with the Ukraine invasion and western sanctions, Russia is now more dependent on China. Hence, if India wants the best of both worlds, it must step up and live up to its claim of becoming a ‘Vishwa-Guru’ (or world leader).

Push the policy needle forward on migrant support

Amidst scattered experimentation now, the Centre must offer strategic policy guidance for inter-State coordination

MUKTA NAIK & VARUN AGGARWAL

Only two years ago, in the wake of a nationwide lockdown, India was left shocked by the plight of migrant workers walking hundreds of kilometers, facing hunger, exhaustion and violence, to get to the safety of their home villages. The dire circumstances of the migrants tugged at our collective heartstrings. They became the focus of large-scale relief efforts by governments and civil society alike. The Government ramped up the One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) project, announced the Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) scheme, set up the e-Shram portal and began to draft a migration policy. These initiatives generated hope that the migrant crisis of 2020 would be a turning point, setting India firmly on a policy path by offering adequate citizenship and the accompanying social, economic and political rights to internal migrants.

Still a tale of distress

Two years on, migrant distress has disappeared from our television screens but continues to be a lived reality. Repeated surveys have found that the incomes of migrant households levels, even after returning to cities. Migrants are finding less work and their children eating less. The post-1991 poverty alleviation of almost 300 million Indians, driven by migration out of farm work, is being undone. Despite this, cohesive migration policy guidance remains elusive. Instead, disconnected policy initiatives and technocratic fixes chase specific agendas while nativism re-asserts itself through domicile quotas and reservations. The agenda of migrant inclusion has been pushed to periphery of our collective consciousness.

This is not something India can afford to precipitate. Today, a third of the nation’s workforce is mobile. Migrants fuel critical sectors such as manufacturing, constructions, hospitality, logistics and commercial agriculture. Despite clear economic and humanitarian reasoning to bring migrants back into the policy discourse, the current policy scenario is at best fragmented and at worst waning. To course correct, we must recognise the entrenched structural constraints slowing the migration policy momentum and take strategic steps to push the policy needle forward.

A politicized phenomenon

First, we must recognise that migration is a highly politicized phenomenon in India. States are highly influenced by the political economy of migration. ‘Destination States’ experience a tension between economic needs, which require migrant labour, and political needs, which promote nativist policies that impose domicile restrictions on employment and social security. On the flip side, the ‘sending States’ are highly motivated to serve their “own people” because they vote in their source villages. This fragmented policy response to internal migration follows from State-specific calculations on what political dividends might be reaped (or lost) by investing fiscal and administrative resources towards migrants. Moreover, development policy in India has bet big on rural development as an antidote to migration. This widespread ‘sedentary bias’ continues to influence policy even though migration is an important pathway for impoverished marginalized rural households to find economic security (and social emancipation).

Second, migrants are a perennially fuzzy category in policy discourse, located inside two larger categories that have long troubled policymakers: the unorganized worker and the urban poor. Even the e-Shram portal, which has made impressive progress in registering unorganized workers, has been unable to accurately distinguish and target migrants. Policy interventions in major urban destinations continue to conflate the urban poor with low-income migrants. Hence, slum development continues as the primary medium for alleviating migrant concerns, while in reality, most migrants live on worksites that are entirely out of the policy gaze. There seems to be an implicit assumption in the policy circles: if we cannot solve the problems of informality, how can we help migrants? Further, it is assumed that migrants will be automatically catered to with the formalization of the economy, the labour market, the housing market, finance and so on. The pushes the timeline for addressing the migrant issue far out. It is no longer an urgent priority.

Gaps in the data

Third, migration policy discourse is seemingly paralyzed by the now well-acknowledged failure of official datasets to capture the actual scale and the frequency of internal migration in India. Data systems designed to periodically record only one spatial location have posed great challenges to welfare delivery for up to 500 million people who are part of multi-locational migrant households. The novel corona virus pandemic has placed a sharp focus on problems such as educating and vaccinating those children who accompany their migrant parents, or ensuring that migrant women avail maternity benefits at multiple locations.

Policy in India often emerges from the ground up, taking decades to cement into national law and standard practice. We have seen this in education and food security. In migration too, despite the structural constraints outlined above, it is heartening to see many initiatives on the ground that have immense potential to influence strategic shifts in migration policy. For example, many States have initiated data projects that can track migrants and generate dynamic real-time data that aid welfare delivery. Maharashtra's Migration Tracking System (MTS), which focuses on women and children has been successfully piloted in five districts. Chhattisgarh’s State Migrant Workers Policy is premised on registering migrant workers at source and tracking them through phone-based outreach system.

In States, a heightened awareness about migrants’ issues is locating initiatives in departments other than labour, which has traditionally been the nodal department for migrant welfare. For example, Maharashtra’s MTS is located within the Women and Child Development Department. However, there is further need for multisectoral approaches underpinned by a strategic convergence across government departments and initiatives. Odisha’s Planning and Convergence Department, which offers an institutional mechanism for inter-departmental coordination, is one possible model.

The Centre has a lead role

In this scenario of well-meaning but scattered experimentation, migrants would be well served if the Centre played a proactive role by offering strategic policy guidance and a platform for inter-State coordination. State-level political economy constraints make the Centre’s role particularly crucial in addressing issues of inter-State migrant workers at ‘destination States’. The NITI Aayog’s Draft Policy on Migrant Workers is a positive step forward in articulating policy priorities and indication suitable institutional frameworks, and deserves a speedy release.

At a time when economic recovery and inclusive growth are urgent policy goals, migration policy can hardly afford to gestate. Strategic initiatives to provide migrates safety nets regardless of location as well as bolster their ability to migrate safely and affordably must keep up the momentum towards migrant-supportive policy.

THE HINDU EDITORIAL - APRIL 4, 2022

2022-04-08T17:02:00.001+05:30

THE HINDU EDITORIAL – APRIL 4, 2022

For a full repeal

The relaxation of AFSPA is welcome, but the demand for full repeal should be considered

In what is clearly to nod to the vociferous demand for the repeal of the unpopular Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) from several States in the northeast, especially after 13 civilians were killed in Mon district in Nagaland in December last year, the Union Home Ministry has decided to considerably reduce the number of “disturbed areas” under the Act in three States. The order, from April 1, is applicable for six months. In Nagaland, while AFSPA was removed from the jurisdiction of 15 police stations in seven districts, it remains in place in 57 police station in 13 districts. The relaxation has been most substantial in Assam, where it has been removed entirely from 23 districts and partially from one, thus limiting its operation fully to only nine districts. In Manipur, on the other hand, only 15 police station areas in six districts have been excluded from the disturbed area notification, and the Act is still in force in 82 police stations in 16 districts, including several hill districts whether or not they adjoin the international boundary. As things stand, the Government’s decision to relax the application of the Act in specific areas seems to stem from the reduction in violence and also administrative reasons rather than as a response to the burning question on whether the Act is essential to security operations in these States, which have experienced insurgencies of various degrees in the past.

While this piecemeal gesture would be welcomed by the residents in these areas in particular, the popular demand for the repeal of the Act in full from the three States remains unfulfilled. Despite the vociferous protests from security forces for the retention of the Act, human rights organizations, sections of civil society and committees including the five-member committee led by retired Supreme Court judge B.P. jeevan Reddy in 2005, have steadfastly called for its repeal. The committee in particular had suggested that the Act had created an impression that the people of the northeast States were being targeted for hostile treatment and that the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act could instead be suitably amended to tackle terrorism. The Supreme Court-appointed Justice N. Santosh Hegde committee, in 2013, which investigated “encounter” killings in Manipur, suggested that the Act must be properly reviewed every six months to see if its implementation is necessary, but extensions of the purview of the Act have proceeded as routine affairs. In 2016, the Supreme Court had also ruled that the armed forces could not be immune from investigation for excesses committed during the discharge of their duties even in “disturbed areas”, in effect circumscribing the conditions in which the immunity is applied. These beg the question again – why should the Act remain in the Statute?

Lift spending

The Centre must crank up capital spending if it wants to stoke the economy

Official industrial data from February shows output in the eight core sectors grew at the fastest pace in four months at 5.8%, aided liberally by a low base effect – production had contracted 3.3% a year earlier. However, when compared with January 2022, output in all of these sectors actually declined, with the overall index contracting 5.2%. Electricity generation, a good indicator of business activity and which contributes about 20% to the weight of the index declined 3.3% from the preceding month. Steel, another index heavyweight that feeds into various sectors of the economy from housing to cars to white goods and small-scale engineering and parts units, dipped 5.2% from January 2022. Making up the largest component of the index, at about 28%, is the refinery products category. For a sector that facilitates other industries by powering mobility, output slid 8% sequentially. The Omicron wave, early in the calendar year, coupled with rising prices likely dampened demand, signaling uneven economic recovery from the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic. The road to a full recovery looks long and bumpy, as the latest production levels are still below, or barely above, those seen pre-pandemic. Inflation, which has already breached the Reserve Bank of India’s upper tolerance limit of 6% two months running, is a threat to consumer demand. If demand remains muted, or worse, slips further, the domino effect upstream will only impact the core sectors further. The RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee has its work cut out in a meeting later this week, when the paned will decide on benchmark interest rates that could potentially influence inflation.

At the same time, government spending, which could set the pace for overall growth in a stuttering economy, has not roared forward. Capital expenditure grew a mere 0.8% in February from a year earlier. Even though capex had risen about 20% in the April-February 11-month period, the Centre still had about 1.2 lakh crore rupees left to be spent in March, and it appears unlikely that the Government would have met its revised capex target of 6 lakh crore rupees for FY22. Though tax revenues have been robust, the Government likely held back on capital expenditure to help offset the lack of divestment proceeds it had budgeted for. Given geopolitical tensions, the stock market has been too volatile for the Government to go ahead with the initial public offer for LIC. The sale of stake in BPCL has also not proceeded apace. Despite these roadblocks, the Government may have little choice but to crank up capital spending early in the new fiscal if it wants to stoks the economy. The multiplier effect would not only benefit industries such as cement and steel, but may also help crowd in private investment, spurring job creation, which has been the economy’s Achilles heel for a while now.

Yes, a Ukraine peace plan is possible

Even if it does not fully meet the requirements of either Moscow or Kyiv, it would at least prevent a wider conflagration

M.K. NARAYANAN

Several weeks into the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which has become a virtual proxy war with the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) providing military assistance to Ukraine to persist in its fight against Russia, the fog of war has not lifted. Some direct talks between Russian and Ukrainian representatives have taken place but these have been of little avail. At this point it seems unlikely that an end to the ongoing humanitarian disaster is in sight.

Boost for the U.S.

It is increasingly evident that this is a war that nobody wants, least of all the Ukrainians or even the Russians; yet no one seems to be making the right moves to end the conflict. For NATO and its allies in Europe, this is not a conflict they wished to wage at this time. For the U.S., however, the unity displayed by NATO currently has been a major boost, reinforcing its belief that European security is inextricably linked to a strong and united NATO. Whether with the help of NATO, the U.S. has succeeded in isolating Russia in Europe is still an open question, but the U.S. can feel satisfied with the outcome as of now.

In the meantime, the carnage in Ukraine continues. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, for his part, might claim that he is ready to discuss neutrality, even as Russia, while continuing with its military operations, has been sending out feelers that it could consider limiting the conflict. However, in effect the two antagonists appear to be talking past rather than to one another.

What is more unfortunate is that the world is standing by, allowing the conflict to continue – with the West encouraging rather than restraining Mr. Zelensky from ‘baiting’ Russian President Vladimir Putin. Neither the United Nations, nor any of the major countries, have seriously explored any peace moves, nor followed up on what Mr. Zelensky means when he says that he is ready to discuss neutrality. To an outsider, it looks as if Ukraine has become a pawn in the power game between the West and Russia.

Seize the chance

If indeed the world is approaching a tipping point, then what is needed is less, not more, of the kind of grandstanding employed by Mr. Zelensky (occasionally laced with a demand for direct talks with Mr. Putin), or the charade of negotiations that are currently taking place between Ukraine and Russian negotiators. It may be too much to expect the Russian side to demonstrate proper contriteness for the unfortunate killing of thousands of civilians, but pressure should be brought on Russia to try and enter into more realistic negotiations with Ukraine. The West also needs to play a more active role, and try to devise a ‘Peace Plan’ taking advantage of the occasional statements made by both sides about their willingness to halt the conflict.

The crying need today is for a peace plan which even if it does not fully satisfy the requirements of either Russia or Ukraine – and obliquely that of the U.S. and the West – will at least ensure a cessation of hostilities and prevent the conflict from becoming further enlarged, resulting in a wider conflagration involving more countries and more powers. It should not prove too difficult, or beyond the realm of possibility, to arrive at a peace arrangement or devise a plan, that would accommodate Ukraine’s professed need for neutrality (with or without assured guarantees) and Russia’s concern about the further Eastward push of NATO (that implicitly threatens Russia’s security).

Working out an arrangement down to the smallest detail would, however, entail a great deal of ‘shuttle diplomacy’ by interlocutors acceptable to both Russia and Ukraine, who also have the necessary ‘gravitas’ to undertake such a task. Speed is of the essence, as with each passing day, the risk of a wider conflagration increases. The world is not bereft of individuals who can play a critical role as interlocutors at this time, but it demands both honestly of purpose and the will to overcome the odds.

The use of sanctions

To begin with, the West should reconsider its current obsession with imposing additional sanctions on Russia, in the expectation that this would lead to the collapse of Russia and an end to the ‘regality’ of Mr. Putin. It might be argued that there is greater merit in imposing economic sanctions on a country than in launching an all-out war.

Notwithstanding this, and despite the pressure that sanctions have put on the Russian economy (its economy is expected to plunge by anything between 12% to 15% over the next few months), the jury is still out on whether economic pain of this kind would lead any country – at least in the short and the medium term – to alter its mindset. Iran is a classic instance.

In the meantime, several well regarded economists have come out with their views regarding the ‘unintended consequences’ of the overuse of sanctions. Their refrain is that “the over use of economic weapons could reverse the process of globalization that has allowed the modern world to prosper”. Similar concerns exist about the fragmentation of the global payment situation. Certain experts have again warned that the sanctions regime placed on Russia, unless calibrated very carefully, could exacerbate food shortages in low income countries. The short point is that economic sanctions, while seemingly an excellent option, can also have deleterious consequences for much of the world.

It would also be interesting to speculate on some of the spillover effects of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Indisputable, Russia’s inability to coerce Ukraine into submission within a very short time frame has dented Russia’s image as also that of its vaunted military machine. While many explanations for Russia’s slow advance in Ukraine may be forthcoming, what must have surprised, if not shocked, Russia is that the 30-nation NATO should have displayed this degree of cohesion in the face of the Russian onslaught. This would have been a wakeup call for Russia, and a clear boost to the efforts of the West to contain what it perceived as Russian neo-imperialism.

What is ahead for Russia

If Mr. Putin’s effort to ‘correct history’ was the trigger for the Ukraine crisis – one that did not quite follow the script he had hoped for- there could be similar and equally less palatable fallout for the West as well: more specifically, the U.S. and its hopes to reclaim global leadership. According to many analysts, one fallout of the current conflict in Ukraine is likely to be a further cementing of the already deepening Russia-China strategic relationship, which has been in evidence over the past several months. The degree of unity displayed by the West, and the determination to stand together, is expected to result in taking the existing Russia-China relationship to the next level, approximating to what existed prior to the Great Communist Divide in the early 1960s. Some analysts even argue that a clue to this can be found in some of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent utterances, wherein he has talked of the need to revive the spirit of the Korean War of the 1950s.

Several possibilities arise if the Russia-West divide was to crystallize along the current lines. Almost certainly, one will see a reshaping of the world energy map, if current embargoes on Russian oil and gas were to continue.

Oil flows to Europe would thereupon come mainly from West Asia and the U.S.; in turn countries such as China and India may become major importers of crude from Russia. It is uncertain at this time whether this would be a practicable proposition over the longer haul, but new permutations and combinations are certain to take place.

India’s stand

Next, even as China and Russia relations become further strengthened, the question before India would be how it should position itself. Till now, India had taken a consistent stand of not criticizing or condemning Russia on any account, including its invasion of Ukraine. This was largely based on India’s long-term defence and other relationships with Russia. This could undergo changes. One might also anticipate a further churn in the politics of West Asia – where the Abraham Accords in 2020 seemed to bring a certain degree of normalcy and stability. Iran’s posture and politics will also play an important role in shaping the politics of this region.

One thought that cannot be dismissed as being entirely frivolous is whether repeated accusations leveled by the West against Mr. Putin of attempting to use nuclear weapons to devastate Ukraine, are a prelude to, or a curtain raiser, for experimentation – more importantly, preparing the public to consider removing the current taboo regarding nuclear weapons. Repeated references, without providing any evidence, would seem to suggest that this might possibly be a smokescreen for such experimentation. For instance, it may not be too outlandish for both sides to consider the use of miniaturized nukes with precision (drone delivery mechanisms. If the Russia-Ukraine war were to persist, one could even envisage the possibility of the use of micro nuclear payloads mated to miniaturized precision delivery mechanisms. One hopes that before this, saner voices across the world would prepare the way for a peace package in Ukraine.

A far-reaching verdict that ends a regressive exception

In pronouncing the end of the marital rape exception, the Karnataka High Court has delivered a nuanced judgment

JAYNA KOTHARI

Over the last several months, arguments challenging the constitutionality of the marital rape exception in Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) had gripped the Delhi High Court. While the judgment in those petitions is still awaited, in one clean swoop Justice M. Nagaprasanna of the Karnataka High Court on March 23, 2022, in the case of Hrishikesh sahoo vs State of Karnataka, pronounced the end of the marital rape exception.

The background

Outcomes in judicial proceedings are almost always shaped by the cases which come before the courts. This judgment was a result of a unique case where a woman had filed a criminal complaint of rape against her husband due to the repeated acts of sexual assault she had to face. The police registered her complaint under Section 376 notwithstanding the marital rape exception, a charge sheet was filed and the Sessions Judge took cognizance and framed charges under Section 376. The husband filed an application to drop the charge of Section 376 but the Sessions Judge rejected it. This led to the husband approaching the High Court seeking to quash the criminal proceedings.

In a nuanced and far-reaching judgment, Justice Nagaprasanna refused to quash the charge of rape against the husband. He held that if a man, being a husband is exempted for his acts of sexual assault, it would destroy women’s right to equality, which is the very soul of the Constitution. He held that the Constitution recognizes and grants equal status to women, but the exception to marital rape in the IPC amounts to discrimination because a wife is treated as subordinate to the husband. The Constitution considers marriage as an association of equals and does not in any sense depict women to be subordinate to men and guarantees women the fundamental rights under Articles 14, 15, 19 and 21 the right to live with dignity, personal liberty, bodily integrity, sexual autonomy, right to reproductive choices, right to privacy, right to freedom of speech and expression. He held that the exemption of the husband on committal of such assault/rape cannot be so absolute that it becomes a license for commission of a crime; in provocative words he stated, “a man is a man; an act is an act; rape is a rape, be it performed by a man the “husband” on the women “wife”, and refused to quash the case.

Earlier judgments

There have been other judgments which have already been a precursor to doing away with this exception. In Independent Thought vs Union of Indian (2017), the supreme Court of India diluted it and removed the exception to marital rape to a wife not below 15 years and made it 18 years. The Court stated that this would not amount to removing the exception to marital rape for women above 18 years as that was not the case before it, but Justice Madan B. Lokur in similar words held, “… a rape is a rape… A rape that actually occurs cannot legislatively be simply wished away or legislatively denied as non-existent….” The Court held that a girl cannot be treated as a commodity having no say over her body or someone who has no right to deny sexual intercourse to her husband and that the human rights of a girl child are very much alive and kicking whether she is married or not.

Roots of the principle

The exception to marital rape in common law was due to the dictum by Chief Justice Matthew Hale of Britain in 1736 where he stated: “But the husband cannot be guilty of a rape committed by himself upon his lawful wife, for by their mutual matrimonial consent and contract the wife hath given up herself in this kind unto her husband which she cannot retract.” The concept that by marriage, a woman gave up her body to the husband was accepted as an enduring principle of common law, due to which a husband could not be guilty of raping his wife. This was therefore translated into criminal codes, including the Indian Penal Code which India adopted.

This principle has now been completely abolished. In the United Kingdom, in 1991, the exception to marital rape was done away with in the case of R. vs R. The House of Lords held that where the common law rule no longer even remotely represents what is the true position of a wife in present-day society, the duty of the court is to take steps to alter the rule. The court held that a husband’s immunity as expounded by Chief Justice Matthew Hale no longer exists and took the view that the time had arrived when the law should declare that a rapist remains a rapist subject to the criminal law, irrespective of his relationship with his victim. It held that it was the duty of the court to remove a common law fiction which had become anachronistic and offensive and that there was no justification for the marital exemption in rape.

That was in 1991, more than 30 years ago in the U.K. The Karnataka High Court took a similar view of its duties as a constitutional court in the present case and held that the exception to marital rape in Section 375 is regressive, wherein a woman is treated as a subordinate to the husband and against eh constitutional guarantee of equality. Our courts have now truly pronounced the death knell of the marital rape exception.

THE HINDU (SUNDAY) - APRIL 3, 2022

2022-04-06T15:50:00.000+05:30

THE HINDU NEWS (SUNDAY) - APRIL 3, 2022

New Criminal Bill

How does the new Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022 propose to collect sensitive data?

VIJAITA SINGH

The story so far: On March 28, Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra introduced The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022 in Lok Sabha. If passed, it will allow police and prison authorities to collect, store and analyse physical and biological samples including retina and iris scans of convicted, arrested and detained persons. At the introduction stage, Opposition members opposed. At the introduction stage, Opposition members opposed the Bill terming it “unconstitutional” and an attack on privacy.

What is the legislation about?

-The Bill seeks to repeal The Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920. The over 100-year-old Act’s scope was limited to capturing of finger impression, foot-print impressions and photographs of convicted prisoners and certain category of arrested and non-convicted persons on the order of a Magistrate. The Statement of Objects and Reasons of the 2022 Bill said that new “measurement” techniques being used in advanced countries are giving credible and reliable results and are recognized the world over. It said that the 1920 Act does not provide for taking these body measurements as many of the techniques and technologies had not been developed then.

What are the major changes proposed?

-It proposes four major changes. First, it would define “measurements” to include “signature, handwriting, iris and retina scan, physical, biological samples and their analysis, etc.” It does not specify what analysis means, implying that it may also include storing DNA samples. The “etc.” mentioned in the text of the Bill could give unfettered powers to law enforcement agencies to interpret the law as their convenience, sometimes to the disadvantage of the accused.

Second, it empowers the National Crime Records Bureau of India (NCRB), under the Union Home Ministry, to collect, store and preserve the record of measurements for at least 75 years. The NCRB will be able to share the data with other law enforcement agencies as well. Police is a State subject and NCRB works under the Union government, and experts contend this provision may impinge on federalism.

Third, it empowers a Magistrate to direct any person to give vital details, which till now was reserved for convicts and those involved in heinous crimes. Fourth, it empowers police or prison officers up to the rank of a Head Constable to take details of any person who resists or refuses to do so.

What are some other changes?

-The Bill also seeks to apply to persons detained under any preventive detention law. The Bill also authorizes taking vital details of “other persons” for identification and investigation in criminal matters. It doesn’t define the “other persons”, implying its ambit extends beyond convicts, arrested persons, or detainees. The Bill’s stated objective is it provides legal sanction for taking such details and will make the investigation of crime more efficient and expeditious, and help in increasing the conviction rate. Congress member Manish Tewari pointed out in the Lok Sabha that Article 20(3) of the Constitution stats that “no person accused of any offence shall be compelled to be a witness against himself.” BSP member Ritesh Pandey opposed the Bill saying it proposes to collect samples even from those engaged in political protests.

Is there a precedent?

-The Karnataka Assembly passed The Identification of Prisoners (Karnataka Amendment) Bill in 2021, to amend the 1920 Act for application in the State. The Bill expands the collection to include blood samples, DNA, voice and iris scans “for effective surveillance and prevention of breach of peace and crime.” It empowers the Superintendent of Police or Deputy Commissioner of Police to order collection in addition to a magistrate to avoid delays and reduce the workload on the Judiciary. As the provisions of the Bill were repugnant with the 1920 Act, a Central Government’s Act, Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot reserved the Bill for consideration of the President of the India. Under the process, the Bill is sent for inter-ministerial consultation. The Bill is yet to be cleared by the MHA. Now, the Government has introduced a fresh legislation to replace the 1920 Act that will be applicable across the country. The States have been empowered to notify rules under the Act to specify the manner in which details could be recorded, preserved, disseminated and destructed and “any other matter which is to be prescribed, or in respect of which provision is to be made.”

Tamil Nadu introduced and notified The Identification of Prisoners (Tamil Nadu Amendments) Act in 2010. The act allows the police the draw “blood samples” other than the specified measurements from the limited categories of suspects and convicts defined in the 1920 Act. Though President’s assent is awaited for the Karnataka Bill, the Tamil Nadu Act has been in practice for more than a decade after it received the assent of the Governor.

Why is Sri Lanka under a state of Emergency?

What has brought on the economic crisis is the island nation? How are India and other countries helping?

MEERA SRINIVASAN

The story so far: On Friday night, a day after angry citizens converged in front of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Colombo residence, demanding he step down immediately, he declared a state of Emergency in Sri Lanka. An extraordinary gazette notification said the Emergency, coming into immediate effect, was “in the interest of public security, the protection of public order and the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community.” On Saturday, the government imposed an all-island curfew, restricting movement until Monday morning. Sri Lanka is in the midst of a sharp economic downturn that has led to severe food shortages and growing public resentment.

What triggered the crisis?

-Sri Lanka’s economic crisis can be traced to two key developments in the immediate past – the Easter Sunday bombings of 2019 that deterred tourists and the pandemic since early 2020 that stalled recovery and further drained the economy. As it grappled with an unprecedented challenge, the Rajapaksa regime made policy choices that are now proving to be costly. It cut the government’s tax revenue substantially and rushed into an ‘organic only’ agricultural policy that will likely slash this year’s harvest by half. The weak and debt-ridden economy with the lingering strain of the pandemic and ill-advised policies accelerated the downward spiral.

What were the economic indicators?

-COVID-19 hit Sri Lanka’s key foreign revenue earning sectors hard. Earnings from tourism, exports, and worker remittances fell sharply in the last two years. But the country could not stop importing essentials, and its dollar account began dwindling. Fast draining foreign reserves, a glaring trade deficit, and a related Balance of Payments problem came as crucial signals. Colombo’s huge foreign loan obligations and the drop in domestic production compounded the economic strain.

When did things begin to worsen?

-The long-simmering crisis made its first big announcement during last August’s food emergency, when supplies were badly affected. It was soon followed by fears of a sovereign default in late 2021, which Sri Lanka averted. But without enough dollars to pay for the country’s high import bill, the island continued facing severe shortage of essentials – from fuel, cooking gas, and staple foodgrains to medicines.

How did the crisis manifest itself on the ground?

-Consumers could not find the most basic things such as petrol, LPG cylinders, kerosene, or milk in the market. They spent hours waiting in long queues outside fuel stations or shops. Supermarket shelves were either empty or had products with high price tags that most could not afford. For instance, the price of one kg of milk powder, a staple item in dairy-deficient Sri Lanka, suddenly shot up to nearly LKR 2000 in March.

Be it cooking gas, oils, ice, pulses, vegetables, fish, meat, consumers found themselves paying substantially more, or simply had to forego the item. The fuel shortage has led to long blackouts – up to 13 hours the island.

What is the situation now?

-The value of the Sri Lankan rupee has dropped to 300 against a U.S. dollar (and even more than 400 in the black market), putting importers in a difficult spot.

The government is unable to pay for its import shipments, forcing consignments to leave the Colombo port. For the average citizen contending with COVID-induced salary cuts and job losses, the soaring living costs have brought more agony.

Has the government sought help?

-Yes, including from India which has extended $2.4 billion this year, and China, that is considering a fresh request from Colombo for $2.5billion assistance, in addition to the $2.8 billion it has extended since the pandemic broke out. The government has decided to negotiate an International Monetary Fund programme, while seeking support from other multilateral and bilateral sources. But even with all this help, Sri Lanka can barely manage. Recovery will neither be fast nor easy, say experts.

How has it affected the people?

-Sri Lankans are seething with anger, going by public demonstrations and protests. They want the President to step down immediately and the ruling clan to leave the country’s helm. They have been agitating in different parts of the country, including near the President’s home. Former military man Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who came to power on a huge mandate in 2019, is Sri Lanka’s most unpopular leader today. In a televised address on March 16, he promised “tough decisions to find solutions to the inconveniences that people are experiencing.” Following the protests near his home, Mr. Rajapaksa said “extremists” were plotting an “Arab Spring and on Friday night, he declared a state of Emergency.

Roubles for fuel, defence deals with Russia

How is India circumventing the sanctions route to ensure supplies are not stopped? What is in the pipeline?

DINANKAR PERI

The story so far: The last two weeks saw a flurry of visits by senior officials from the West to convince India not to undermine sanctions on Russia by opting for payments in national currencies as also not to increase purchase of discounted oil from Russia. On Friday, Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was in New Delhi, the first high-level visit since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine.

What is the status of oil purchases from Russia?

-“We have started buying Russian oil and have bought at least three to four days of supply,” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday. Mr. Lavrov reiterated that Russia is moving ahead with the use of national currencies in lieu of dollar payments with both India and China and these efforts would be “intensified”.

“I have no doubt that a way would be found to bypass the artificial impediments which illegal unilateral sanctions by the West create. This relates also to the area of military and technical cooperation. We have no doubt that the solution would be found and respective ministries are working, “ Mr. Lavrov said, addressing a press conference after bilateral talks with his Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar.

The developments came a day after the U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser for international Economics Daleep Singh warned of “consequences” to countries that actively attempt to circumvent or backfill the sanctions.

In sharp comments on Thursday during a conversation with visiting U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Mr. Jaishankar termed it a “campaign” against India for buying Russian oil at discounted prices while European countries remain the biggest buyers of oil and gas from Russia despite their announcements to scale it down.

India and Russia have been working on streamlining payments through the rupee-rouble mechanism circumventing the SWIFT systems and the dollar route. Towards this, earlier in the week, a team from Russia’s central bank met officials from the Reserve Bank of India to iron out issues and identify banks that have no exposure to the Western sanctions through which payments can be made. Mr. Jaishankar informed Parliament recently that a special inter-ministerial group led by the Finance Ministry has been tasked with resolving payment issues for trade with Russia.

According to Reuters, India bought at least 13 million barrels of Russian oil since the Ukraine war began on February 24, a steep rise from last year, when India bought 16 million barrels of Russian oil in all of 2021.

What about defence deals?

-The defence Ministry and the Services have carried out assessments and are closely monitoring the impact the sanctions can have on timely deliveries and supplies from Russia as several major deals are also underway. Officials have stated that while some shipping delays were possible, there would not be any dent in the Army’s operational preparedness along the borders especially the Line of Actual control.

In addition, the armed forces have also made significant emergency procurements in the last two years since the standoff in eastern Ladakh and have stocked up on spares and ammunition. So, there shouldn’t be any immediate urgency for spares and other requirements, officials noted.

For the two countries, payment by a rupee-rouble arrangement is not new. For instance, for the $5.43 billion deal for S-400 air defence systems signed in October 2018, with the looming threat of U.S. sanctions under CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries Though Sanctions Act), the two sides had worked out payments through the rupee-rouble exchange. In fact, the delivery schedule got slightly delayed as the payment details were being worked out. Last December, India began taking deliveries and the first unit has been deployed on the western border. The second unit is scheduled to arrive shortly, officials stated.

In addition, several new deals are in the pipeline including 12 Su-30MKI aircraft and 21 MiG-29 fighter jets for the Indian Air Force. However, the Defence Ministry is carrying out a review of all direct import deals and some of them including those from Russia are expected to be dropped as part of the push towards domestic manufacturing.

According to a recent report from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), India’s defence imports reduced by 21% between 2012-16 and 2017-21 and while Russia continues to remain the largest arms supplier, the percentage has dropped. “Russia was the largest supplier of major arms to India in both 2012-16 and 2017-21, but India’s imports of Russia arms dropped by 47% between the two periods as several large programmes for Russians arms wound down,” the report said.

How has BIMSTEC finetuned its agenda?

What are the aims and functions of the multilateral grouping in handling challenges in the Bay of Bengal region?

KOLLOR BHATTARCHERJEE

The story so far: Amid the financial crisis of 1997, leading Southeast Asian and South Asian nations came together to form the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC). The underlying factor behind the grouping was that if connected together, the economic powerhouses of South Asia and Southeast Asia could deal with the challenges of pursuing free market economies in the limits imposed by local political and economic factors. In its 25^th year, and at its fifth summit held in hybrid format in Colombo, the organization adopted a charter which aims at providing greater coordination among the seven members – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar and Thailand.

Why is there a need to revitalize the multilateral grouping?

-The new charter comes at a time when the need for an alternative regional-global organization is increasingly being felt because of the moribund nature of SAARC which has not met since November 2014. For long, BIMSTEC existed as a platform for policy dialogue but the global churning over sanctions on Russia after the war in Ukraine appears to have contributed towards finetuning the focus of the grouping. It wants to be an organization which can find autonomous space away from bigger trade and defence groupings and wok for the development of the region around of Bay of Bengal.

What does BIMSTEC’s connectivity vision aim to achieve?

-The BIMSTEC Master Plan for Transport Connectivity seeks to connect several major transport projects in India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand and establish a shipping network across the Bay of Bengal that will benefit the littoral states as well as the Bay of Bengal dependent states like Nepal and Bhutan. The BBIN connectivity project of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal is expected to be merged with the port and infrastructure projects like the Sittwe port of Myanmar and Payra port of Bangladesh and Colombo of Sri Lanka.

Is the Free Trade Agreement plan feasible?

-A framework agreement for a Free Trade Agreement among the members of BIMSTEC was signed in 2004, and has been revived again. The idea is to create stronger trade relations among players in the Bay of Bengal region but negotiations on finalizing legal instruments for coastal shipping, typing up road transport and other issues will take time to be shorted out.

What is the security pillar aiming to achieve?

-The Bay of Bengal has enormous significance from the security point of view. It borders the Strait of Malacca which is the main energy lane for the eastern and Southeast Asian nation. That apart, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have often suffered from terrorism. The security relevance of BIMSTEC, therefore, has been growing especially after the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka in 2019. India will steer the security pillar of BIMSTEC and is expected to coordinate regionwide security cooperation on jointly agreed issues.

Will it mediate in bilateral issues?

-BIMSTC members like Myanmar and Bangladesh have challenges like the Rohingya crisis that both sides have been dealing with since 2017. The tense relations between the two countries had hampered smooth working of the BIMSTEC for some time. But as of now the grouping, by including Myanmar in the summit in Colombo, has indicated that it will not interfere in domestic political problems and nor will it allow any member to be sidelined within the organization. SAARC has been weighed down by bilateral problems between India and Pakistan and a lesson probably has been learnt to keep bilateral troubles away from a regional grouping for better coordination among the members.

THE HINDU EDITORIAL - APRIL 2, 2022

2022-04-03T21:51:00.005+05:30

THE HINDU EDITORIAL – APRIL 1, 2022

Sri Lanka’s rage

President Rajapaksa must acknowledge popular anger and formulate a recovery plan

As irate protesters gathered near the house of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in a desperate bid to highlight their suffering, the worsening economic crisis in Sri Lanka has possibly reached its crescendo. The Rajapaksas, who have dominated the political and electoral scene, face an unprecedented decline in their popularity, as the people struggle for want of adequate money, fuel and food. The roots of the crisis may not lie wholly in the policies of Mr. Gotabaya, who was swept to power in 2019 as President on a platform of strong leadership and decisive action, while his party, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, won a landslide in parliamentary elections a year later. The Rajapaksas did inherit some economic problems, while the pandemic cast a greater burden. However, the current administration is indeed responsible for some ill-advised populist measures such as a huge raise in the threshold for income taxes and VAT registration, leading to revenue loss. And there was a questionable order to move to fertilizer-free farming overnight, which led to loss of yield and drew sharp criticism. The chemical fertilizer ban has been rolled back, but its impact on food security remains. Yet, more than anything, what appears to infuriate the people is the perception of governmental apathy towards their plight, of denial of the existence of a crisis and the absence of a road map for economic recovery.

It may be simplistic to summarise the causative factors behind the crisis as excessive borrowings at high interest rates and a putative ‘Chinese debt trap’. However, there is behind it a tale of economic mismanagement, profligate use of public resources, and possible mishandling of monetary policy. Sri Lanka, an island nation heavily dependent on imports, gains its foreign exchange through tourism, the export of garments and tea, besides external remittances. If the Easter Sunday blasts of 2019 set back its tourism sector, the novel corona-virus pandemic almost finished it off. The heavy-handed lockdown, overseen by a military-led task force, had severe economic consequences too, as livelihoods were lost, while earnings suffered. The country needs measures to shore up its foreign exchange reserves and the balance of payment position. India has extended assistance amounting to $2.40 billion, and China is also looking at further loans. The country’s past resistance to borrowing from the IMF may not last, and it may have to accept significant conditionalities for a bailout package. However, advocating that the people tighten their belts and suffer a little more may not work. The President should acknowledge both the depth of the crisis and the rising public disenchantment. What his country needs is empathetic leadership and decisive measures to halt the downward spiral.

Quota and data

No group should get exclusive reservation without data on backwardness

The Supreme Court has rightly quashed the Tamil Nadu Special Reservation Act of 2021, or the Vaniyar quota law, on the ground that it was not based on updated quantifiable data. The Act had envisaged the distribution of the 20% quota for Most Backward Classes (MBC) and De-notified Communities (DNCs) in education and public employment by assigning 10.5% to Vanniyars or the Vanniyakula Kshatriya community, 7% for 25 MBCs and 68 DNCs, and 2.5% for the remaining 22 MBCs. Even though a superficial look at the law would give an impression that not just the Vanniyars but also 115 other communities have been covered, the aspect of internal reservation for one community – Vanniyars – had created the impression of special treatment. Such treatment per se is not bad in law, as caste, the Court said, can be the starting point for the identification of backward classes or providing internal reservation, though it cannot be the sole basis. Also, there must be pertinent, contemporaneous data. The Court also pointed out that no analysis had been made of the relative backwardness and representation of other communities in the MBCs and DNCs.

The Court’s decision has provided relief to many by holding that the State is competent to design sub-classification among backward classes; prescribe the quantum of reservation based on such sub-classification, and formulate an ancillary law, even with the assent of the Governor, to one included in the Ninth Schedule. Regardless of further moves by the DMK government that had defended the law in the Supreme Court, this episode had important lessons. No community should be allowed internal or exclusive reservation without making a case for it on the bases of quantifiable data. A caste-based census can help in determining the representation of various communities in public employment and in education. After all, it is adequate representation that holds the key for the special treatment of reservation. But whether caste, narrowly defined, and not the socio-economic indicators of the applicants, should be the bases for reservation is another issue. Tamil Nadu’s parties must take a relook at their position against the implementation of creamy layer rule in reservation, as otherwise there will always be demand for internal reservation from communities that feel left out. If the parties believe genuinely in the principle of equity in reservation, they should not have any problem in agreeing to the concept of creamy layer. Also, the demand for reservation will carry on if those seen as economically advanced continue to obtain a larger share of the reservation pie. Other than for the SCs and STs, the creamy layer must be excluded in providing for reservation for castes that qualify as backward classes.

Caste analysis and its reading today

There is an apparent opacity of caste now, which requires fine-grained and multi-dimensional study

SATISH DESHPANDE

Twenty years ago, at the dawn of the new millennium and after the ‘Mandal decade’ of the 1990s, it looked as though the institution of caste had become legible in a new way (See “Caste and social structure”, The Hindu, December 6-7, 2001). The break with the past seemed decisive; a code had been cracked, and caste could be ‘read’ like never before. Like any newly literate person, we took it for granted that the change was permanent.

But the new age of caste clarity lasted barely two decades. Today, in the mid-Modi era after the novel corona-virus pandemic, we are struggling to come to terms with the perception that caste has become opaque again – the code has changed. What has changed? And how has it affected our understanding of caste?

The ‘we’

To begin with, the perception of the ‘we’ has changed. It can no longer remain an unmarked universal ‘we’ that speaks for everyone, but must be acknowledged as upper caste. Specifically, this is the vantage point of the overwhelmingly upper caste liberal intelligentsia, a group that certainly has a caste location with its biases, but is more a spectator than a player in the game of caste. Unlike players (who must strategise to win the game while taking account of possible moves by opponents and aliens), the spectator tries to map all possible moves by all players.

The other changes can be divided into two kinds – those that are internal to the caste structure itself and those that are located in the larger context. Leaving the contextual changes for later, the internal changes are taken up here, initially in relation to the largest group the Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

On the OBC's

The re-orientation of caste in the new millennium happened largely because of the arrival of the OBCs on the national stage. The OBCs were good to think with for several reasons.

First, the OBCs helped to place caste the right side up. From the Nehru era until the 1990s, the dominant ideology had presented caste as the exception and casteless-ness as the rule. The OBCs forced us to recognize that the upper castes were a minority rather than the ‘general’ or universal category. Second, because they were an intermediate group, the OBCs invited closer attention to the notion of backwardness and the interplay of graded privilege and disprivilege in different caste clusters. Third, because they were defined as a residual category – neither in the Scheduled Castes (SC) or Scheduled Tribes, nor in the upper castes – the OBCs highlighted the pros and cons of categorization and the challenge of internal disparities within large groupings. The OBCs were also important in themselves because of their demographic weight and distribution. They were present in most parts of the country and formed a large (usually largest) segment of every class group, from the poorest to the richest. That is why they had a special affinity for federalism and were instrumental in introducing coalition politics at the national level.

Is this way of reading caste still valid for caste analysis today? The short general answer is yes; but it is the particulars that matter for the more useful long answer.

Internal dynamics

The single most important change over the past two decades is that the process of internal differentiation within each large caste grouping has now penetrated much deeper. The impact of this process depends on the dimension of differentiation and on the contextual features which allow or prevent sub-groups from crystallizing as distinct entities with an autonomous trajectory; The most common dimensions of differentiation are economic status, livelihood sources, and regional location. The single most important contextual factor that allows or prevents crystallization as an independent entity appears to be region-specific electoral influence. For example, the Yadavs of Uttar Pradesh have not only coalesced as a coherent group, but have also facilitated the emergence of a derivative sub-group called the ‘non-Yadav OBCs’. Individual castes within this latter group, however, are yet to acquire a separate electoral identity.

Similar region-specific developments may be seen in cases such as the Mahars of Maharashtra or the Malas of Andhra Pradesh among the SC groups. But the emergent entity need not be defined as a distinct caste; and it may be an off-stage rather than on-stage actor in the drama of electoral politics. For example, economic differentiation within the upper castes has produced a division into the non-rich, rich and super-rich segments, but these are not sub-castes, and they are not (yet) a separate political constituency and refold. Nevertheless, such groups demand to be addressed politically and are of crucial ideological importance.

The upshot is that caste analysis today has no choice but to be fine-grained and multi-dimensional. This is not just a quantitative change – the crystallization of new political entities triggers qualitative shifts as well, changing the game being played without making it an entirely new game. Moreover, caste being fundamentally relational, it is the changing dynamics between and among caste groupings that matters. From the point of view of the social sciences, what this means is that macro-analysis of caste will become end up either as unhelpful (and unsustainable) generalities, or they will simply become a collection of detailed micro-studies.

The sources

Thus, the apparent opacity of caste today seems to have two different sources. The first is the exponential increase in the complexity of the field, largely because of the differentiation of the initial groupings that were far too big to remain coherent. It is not that the code of caste has changed but that the caste-text to be read today is far more advanced. In other words, we have not become illiterate with respect to caste but we have to raise our reading skills to a much higher level.

However, it is the second source of opacity that is far more consequential, and this is located not within caste but in its relationship to other contextual factors. The most important of these are neo-liberalism as a hegemonic world-view that re-positioned state and market; the dominance of Hindutva as a political modality; the new media regime that saturates social life; the ongoing restructuring of federalism; and finally, the change in the ecosystem of official statistics.

BIMSTEC after the Colombo summit

The question to address now is whether the multilateral grouping is capable of tackling the challenges facing the region

RAJIV BHATIA

The fifth summit of the regional grouping, the Bay of Bengal initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), held virtually in Colombo on March 30, has undoubtedly advanced the cause of regional cooperation and integration. But a dispassionate look at the grouping, composed of five South Asian countries and two Southeast Asian countries, is needed, especially as it celebrates its 25^th anniversary in June this Year. The member-states are: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar and Thailand.

BIMSTEC is no longer a mere initiative or programme. The question to address is whether it is now capable of tackling the challenges facing the region. Representing a fifth of the world’s population that contributes only 4% of the global GDP, can this multilateral grouping trigger accelerated economic development?

Colombo package

It was clear that BIMSTEC first needed to strengthen itself – by redefining its purpose and rejuvenation its organs and institutions. The much-needed process was launched at the Leaders’ Retreat convened by India in 2016. It gathered momentum, thanks to the outcome of forward-looking summit held in Kathmandu in 2018. The eventual result is now seen in the package of decisions and agreements announced at the latest summit.

The package comprises, first of all, the grouping’s charter. Adopted formally, it presents BIMSTEC as “an inter-governmental organization” with “legal personality.” Defining BIMSTEC purposes, it lists 11 items in the first article Among them is acceleration of “the economic growth and social progress in the Bay of Bengal region”, and promotion of “multidimensional connectivity”. The grouping now views itself not as a sub-regional organization whose destiny is linked with the area around the Bay of Bengal.

The second element is the decision to re-constitute and reduce the number of sectors of cooperation from the unwieldy 14 to a more manageable seven. Each member-state will serve as a lead for a sector: trade, investment and development (Bangladesh); environment and climate change (Bhutan); security, including energy (India); agriculture and food security (Myanmar); people-to-people contacts (Nepal); science, technology and innovation(Sri Lanka), and connectivity (Thailand).

Third, the summit participants adopted the Master Plan for Transport Connectivity applicable for 2018-28. This approval was delayed, but its importance lies in the highest-level political support accorded to this ambitious plan. It was devised and backed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). It lists 264 projects entailing a total investment of $126 billion. Projects worth $55 billion are un implementation. BIMSTEC needs to generate additional funding and push for timely implementation of the projects. Finally, the package also includes three new agreements signed by member states, relating to mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, cooperation between diplomatic academies, and the establishment of a technology transfer facility in Colombo.

Trade pillar needs support

Post Colombo, a quick look at the unfinished tasks and new challenges gives an idea of the burden of responsibilities on the grouping. The pillar of trade, economic and investment cooperation needs greater strengthening and at a faster pace.

Despite signing a framework agreement for a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in 2004, BIMSTEC stands far away from this goal. Of the seven constituent agreements needed for the FTA, only two are in place as of now. The general formulations of the Colombo Declaration instill little confidence about prospects of early progress. The need for expansion of connectivity was stressed by one and all, but when it comes to finalizing legal instruments for coastal shipping, road transport and intra-regional energy grid connection, much work remains unfinished. On the positive side, however, there needs to be mention of the speedy success achieved in deepening cooperation in security matters and management of Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR). As security and economic development are interrelated, it is essential to ensure an equitable balance between the two pillars.

Statements by leaders at the summit gave important clues about the thinking on how to tackle the challenges. The Nepalese Prime Minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba, in a most candid speech emphasized the point that “with less than a decade left, our region is not on track to achieve any of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030”. He added that the COVID-19 pandemic “has further strained our development effort”. The Thailand Prime Minister (and Defence Minister) Gen. Prayut Chan-o-cha, as the new Chair, expressed his resolve to work for ‘a prosperous, Resilient and Robust, and Open (PRO) BIMSTEC’ during his tenure. As a co-founder and key driver, Thailand can contribute much, provided it marshals sufficient institutional and political resources.

It was left to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to offer an array of practical suggestion to strengthen the grouping. India was the only country to offer additional funding to the Secretariat and also to support the Secretary General’s proposal to establish an Eminent person Group (EPG) for producing a vision document. Other countries need to emulate this sincere matching of words with action.

Governments showed considerable creativity by agreeing to restrict Myanmar’s participation in the summit to the Foreign Minister’s level. This obviated diplomatic controversy. Thailand and India will need to be astute in managing Myanmar’s engagement until the political situation there becomes normal. BIMSTEC should focus more in the future on new areas such as the blue economy, the digital economy, and promotion of exchanges and links among startups and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). Besides, three more suggestions deserve consideration.

The personal touch

First, the personal engagement of the political leadership should be stepped up. The decision taken in Colombo to host a summit every two years is welcome if implemented. But in the medium term, an annual summit should be the goal, with an informal retreat built into its programme.

Second, BIMSTEC needs greater visibility. India’s turn to host the G20 leaders’ summit in 2023 presents a golden opportunity, which can be leveraged optimally. Perhaps all its members should be invited to the G20 summit as the chair’s special guests.

Finally, the suggestion to simplify the grouping’s name needs urgent attention. The present name running into 12 words should be changed to four words only – the Bay of Bengal Community (BOBC). It will help the institution immensely. Brevity reflects gravitas.

THE HINDU EDITORIAL- APRIL, 1, 2022

2022-04-02T21:44:00.004+05:30

THE HINDU EDITORIAL – APRIL 1, 2022

Cohesion, co-operation

India must assuage apprehensions of power imbalances among members of BIMSTEC

The adoption of the Charter at the Fifth Bay of Bengal initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) summit promises to re-energies the 25-year-old grouping at a time of growing global uncertainties. The Charter is expected to help impart a more connected vision to the seven member organization. The Charter, and India’s decision to lead the ‘security pillar’ out of the seven designated pillars of the revived BIMSTEC, has given India’s regional aspirations a new orientation, away from the stalemated SAARC that has been unable to meet since November 2014. The new opportunity is also accompanied by its own set of problems. These inherent challenges were reflected in the time taken to finalize the Charter – one of the key factors was the Rohingya crisis that has weakened bilateral Bangladesh-Myanmar ties, with Dhaka seeking full repatriation of the refugees and Naypyidaw disinclined to respond positively to inter-nation pleas. Unlike SAARC, which is burdened by India-Pakistan hostilities, BIMSTEC is relatively free of sharp bilateral disagreements and promises to provide India with a co-operative sphere of its own. Given the complexity of domestic and geopolitical factors, this sphere will require sustained bilateral and group-level discussions to prevent problems such as the Rohingya crisis from becoming impediments to the smooth delivery of economic and security outcomes. India too will have to ensure equally sustained political engagement with partners such as Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to prevent any domestic political spillover from affecting bilateral and group-level working relationship.

With his call for a BIMSTEC Free Trade Agreement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has outlined India’s vision to bolster trade connectivity in the grouping. An FTA spanning the maritime resource-rich members such as Myanmar and Sri Lanka could bring dramatic gains for all members. A ‘coastal shipping ecosystem’ and an interconnected electricity grid, in addition to the adopted Master Plan for Transport Connectivity, have the potential to boost intraregional trade and economic ties. Having walked away from mega trade blocs such as the China-led RCEP, New Delhi’s willingness to explore an FTA within the framework of a near-home regional grouping may provide greater accommodation for multi-party interests. The security- and trade-related lessons from the troubled SAARC and SAFTA experiences also ought to serve BIMSTEC well in the long run. Ultimately though, for the revived grouping to realise its trade and economic potential, India will have to take a leadership role in assuaging any apprehensions among the smaller members of intergroup power imbalances and strive to investments by lowering barriers to the movement of people and goods.

Step by step

The agreement to resolve six disputed points along Assam-Meghalaya border is a model one

Tuesday’s agreement between Assam and Meghalaya to end their boundary dispute in six of the 12 areas, where discord persisted, is a welcome first step. The agreement signed by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad Sangma, in the presence of Home Minister Amit Shah, also sets the stage to resolve differences in the remaining six areas. Based on a draft resolution of January 29 between the two States, the agreement covers Tarabari, Gizang, Hahim, Boklapara, Khanapara-Pillangkata and Ratacherra under the Kamrup, Kamrup (Metre) and Cachar Districts of Assam and the West Khasi Hills, Ri-Bhoi and East Jaintia Hills districts of Meghalaya. By adopting a give-and-take approach, the two States have demonstrated that knotty boundary issues can be resolved – in this case, partially to begin with – if there is a will to arrive at an agreement. Of the disputed territory – a little over 36 square kilometers – the two States will get a near equal share, enshrining the sharing principle that might serve as a template to resolve other boundary disputes in the northeast. Assam, the mother State from which other States were carved out in the northeast, currently has boundary disputes with Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland. As the Home Minister underscored in Delhi, the spirit shown by Mr. Sarma and Mr. Sangma should be used in other disputes as well. People living in the six disputed areas should be allowed to choose where they want to live. While Mr. Sarma has blamed the Congress for allowing the dispute between Assam and Meghalaya to fester, Nandita Das, Congress MLA from the Boko seat, alleged that in three of the six “resolved sectors”, there was no give and take. The agreement requires delineation and demarcation by the survey of India as well as parliamentary approval.

One can only hope that the right lessons will be drawn by Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland from Tuesday’s accord to understand the other’s point of view and come to agreements. In July 2021, five policemen and a civilian from Assam were shot dead in violent clashes with their Mizo counterparts at a disputed point between Assam and Mizoram. The clash cam right after a meeting that Mr. Shah had had with the Chief Ministers of northeast States to resolve boundary disputes. It is imperative that Assam and the other States locked in dispute use goodwill and the good offices of the Centre. Rather than entrusting security to paramilitary forces, one confidence-building measure could be to deploy State police without arms wherever possible. It would be a signal that all States are committed to resolving their disputes peacefully. For the moment, Tuesday’s agreement is a moment to savour.

This is a criminal attack on privacy

The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill 2022 erodes the privacy of those convicted of crime and the ordinary citizen

APAR GUPTA & ABHINAV SEKHRI

Springing a surprise, the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Ajay Mishra Tent, on Monday introduced the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill 2022. The Bill was neither put up for pre-legislative consultation nor indicated in the session’s legislative agenda in Parliament. Seemingly technical, it is a legislative proposal that undermines the privacy of not only persons convicted of crime but also every ordinary Indian citizen as it proposes replacing a law that is over 100 years old.

What needs scrutiny

Let us first understand why it is being introduced, and what it intends to achieve. The Bill aims to replace the Identification of Prisoners Act 1920 that has been in need of amendment for several decades. Back in the 1980s, the Law Commission of India (in its 87^th Report) and the Supreme Court of India in a judgment titled State of U.P. vs Ram Babu Misra had nearly simultaneously suggested the need to amend the statute. The criticism and the need for amendment was predominantly in respect of the limited definition of ‘measurements’ as under that Act. It seems that this is one of the primary issues that the proposed legislation is designed to resolve.

In this regard, it might be unexceptional, being an expression of long-held views within the legal establishment. However, the devil is in the details, with three expansions in the power of state surveillance (in the name of criminal reforms) that merit further scrutiny.

First, the definition of measurements is not restricted to taking measurements, but also their “analysis”, when the definition now states “iris and retina scan, physical, biological samples and their analysis, behavioural attributes including signatures….” This definition is nebulous and vague. It goes beyond the scope of a law which is only designed for taking measurements and could result in backing for techniques which may involve the collection of data from other sources. For instance, using facial recognition technology where measurements of persons as under this law are compared with samples taken from the general public.

At present there are extensive facial recognition technology programmes for “smart policing” that are deployed all across the country. For instance, the Delhi police use facial recognition technology originally acquired for identification of missing children in 2018 to also screen for “habitual offenders”. Similarly, the Tamil Nadu police deploy facial recognition systems which are integrated with State- and national-level databases including CCTV footage. Such experimental technologies cause mass surveillance and are prone to bias, impacting the fundamental rights of the most vulnerable in India.

Data capture and ‘choice’

The second area of the expansion of surveillance concerns from whom such “measurements” can be gathered. The existing law permits data capture by police and prison officers either from persons convicted or persons arrested for commission of offences punishable with a minimum of one year’s imprisonment. Parallel powers are granted to judges, who can order any person to give measurements where it is in aid of investigation. While the judicial power is left undisturbed, it is the powers of the police and prison officials that are being widened. The law removes the existing – albeit minimal – limitation on persons whose measurements could be taken. It is poised to be expanded to all persons who are placed under arrest in a case. This is a truly breathtaking spectrum, including petty crime such as violating a prohibitory order for not wearing a mask, jaywalking or a traffic violation.

Here, the proposed Bill also contains muddied language stating that a person “may not be obliged to allow taking of his biological samples”. This, on its surface, offers a choice to a person to refuse. However the words “may not be obliged” may also be read to offer discretion onto a police officer to confer such a choice. In any instance the exercise of such “choice” is presumed in law, it may not be truly voluntary, given the absence of wider accountability reforms in which existing policing practices are coercive.

Even if these objections are disregarded, the “choice|, if any, is limited only to, “biological samples” from the wider data points captured within what constitutes, “iris and retina scan” is mentioned separately to, “biological samples”, and hence a person arrested under any crime or preventive detention law if desired by the police will be required to scan their eyes.

Storage of data

The third area of concern is the database of the “measurements” which are gathered. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) shall for a period of 75 years from the date of collection maintain a digital record, “in the interest of prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of any offense”. As pointed out by Prof. Aparna Chandra (an associate professor of law) on Twitter, “How will these records be used for preventing crime except through surveillance?” This becomes clear when the provision permits the NCRB to, “share and disseminate such records with any law enforcement agency, in such manner as may be prescribed”.

It is important to consider that the NCRB already operates a centralized database, namely the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS), without any clear legislative framework. The interaction between the proposed law and CCTNS is not clearly defined though likely, given the powers conferred under for digital records go to the same government department.

This existence of such legislative power with a technical framework may permit multiple mirror copies and parallel databases of the “measurements” being stored with law enforcement, beyond a State Police department which will be prosecuting the crime and the NCRB which will store all records centrally. For instance, in response to a Standing Committee of Parliament on police modernization, Rajasthan has stated that it maintains a ‘RajCop Application’ that integrates with “analytics capabilities in real-time with multiple data sources (inter-department and intra-department)”. Similarly, Punjab has said that the “PAIS (Punjab Artificial Intelligence System) App uses machine learning, deep learning, visual search, and face recognition for the identification of criminals to assist police personnel. This app helps in storing and carrying information about criminals”. Hence, multiple copies of “measurements” will be used by State government policing departments for various purposes and with experimental technologies. This also takes away the illusionary benefit of deletion which occurs on acquittal and will suffer from weak enforcement due to the absence of a data protection law.

In sum, a once a person enters their “measurements” within the system, they stay there for life given the average life expectancy in India which hovers around 70 years is less than the retention period. The end result is a sprawling database in which innocent persons are treated as persons of interest for most of their natural with privilege may be minimal; the masses – many of whom lack social and economic power in India society – may face harsher law enforcement. This becomes clear from the primary research-based article, “Settled Habits, New Tricks”, by Ameya Bokil, Nikita Sonavane and Srujana Bej from the Criminal Justice and Police Accountability Project (the other writers include Avaneendra Khare and Vaishali Janarthana). They pointed to the caste bias against the Pardhi Adivasi community which was at one time designated as a criminal tribe. In this context they state, “In reality since these databases are fed by the police’s centuries-long caste-based system of preventive surveillance and predictive policing (which has already determined who is a criminal and what crimes habitual criminals commit repeatedly), there is no possibility of objectivity or lack of caste bias. The CCTNS only adds a technological veneer to a caste-based policing model….” It is foreseeable that if the proposed ambit of “measurements” is expanded and then put in a database, it will likely also target the Pardhis.

Onus is on government

Injuries to privacy are not mere academic debates and cause real, physical and mental consequences for people. To protect individual autonomy and fulfil our constitutional promises, the Supreme Court of India pronounced the Justice K.S. Puttaswamy judgment, reaffirming its status as a fundamental right. The responsibility to protect it falls to each organ of the government, including the legislature and the union executive. For India to fulfil its claims of being a constitutional democracy, rather than a mere electoral democracy, it will have to be better rather than regressing even from the Identification of Prisoners Act passed by colonial regime.

An opportunity to repolish India-Nepal ties

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s India visit should be used as a chance to recast power and trade links

SUJEEV SHAKYA

The visit of Nepal’s Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to India, beginning April 1 – four years after a Nepali leader visited New Delhi – is significant. It is the first bilateral visit abroad for Mr. Deuba who leads an election government; local elections are to take place on May 13 and federal elections are slated later in the year. In April 2018, Nepal Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli had a lacklustre-feel good visit to India, with little achievement worth talking about.

Mr. Deuba assumed office in July 2021, his fifth time as Prime Minister, leading a fragile coalition that has not been able to make Parliament function. The Nepal Parliament has been dysfunctional since July 2020 after cracks within the former Communist alliance developed in December 2019. The novel corona-virus pandemic has been a face-saving event for political forces.

Nepal’s relations with India that plummeted to a historic low after the Indian blockade in September 2015 have yet to recover as Nepalis do not see relations with India improving any time soon. India’s refusal to accept demonetized bills with the Nepal Rashtra Bank worth just INR 7 crore rupees and the unknown fate of the report submitted by the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) have not helped in securing it a better image in Nepal. The fact that passengers boarding flights from Nepal to India are still subjected to a pre-boarding security check even over 20 years after the hijack of an Indian Airlines aircraft, determines the perception of trust of India in Nepal. This is despite thousands of Nepalis serving in the Indian army and Nepali villages expressing grief whenever violence escalates in India as many lose their lives defending a country that is not their own.

Complicated geopolitics

Geopolitics is a complicated challenge for Nepal, whose geography requires it to make best use of its position between China and India. The last couple of months are an example of how complicated it can get. When the Nepalese Parliament ratified a U.S. $500 million grant assistance-Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) pact, there were street protests and big-time social media campaigns supported by China. However, India’s silence and the offer of other routes for power transmission as an alternative to the MCC confused everyone: was India for or against the MCC grant to Nepal? With relations between India and the United States further complicated by the China factor and India abstaining on the Russia vote in the United Nations even as Nepal voted in favour of it, the problems have continued to mount.

The recent visit by the Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, to Nepal has resulted in a situation that everyone in Nepal is trying to decipher. Analysts also suggest that Mr. Wang did assure his Indian counterpart that Nepal should work out its internal equations with India and that China would stay out. But in reality, the Chinese engagement has been very deep as seen in the anti-MCC campaign. U.S. grant and investment activities are seeing a revival post the MCC ratification and India does not want to see other powers active in Nepal.

With Mr. Deuba leading a fragile coalition, there are not many issues he may want to accomplish, but he should be able to push some of the key pending ones.

The main priorities

First, the power trade agreement needs to be such that India can build trust in Nepal. Despite more renewable energy projects (solar) coming up in India, hydropower is the only source that can manage peak demand in India. For India, buying power from Nepal would mean managing peak demand and also saving the billions of dollars of investments which would have to be invested in building new power plants, many of which would cause pollution.

Second, while trade and transit arrangements go through the usual extensions, it is time to undertake a complete rethink as the sales of goods and payments moves through electronic platforms – this can provide many new opportunities for businesses on both sides of the border.

Third, the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) signed between India and Nepal needs more attention from the Nepali side. A commitment from Mr. Deuba on implementing this would attract more foreign investments from Indian investors. The private sectors in Nepal, especially the cartels in the garb of trade associations, are fighting tooth and nail against foreign investments. So, it will be important for Mr. Deuba to deliver a message that Nepal welcomes Indian investments and that he is willing to fight the domestic cartels knowing well that it may dent a bit of funding for his party for elections.

A new Nepal now

Finally, it is for Mr. Deuba to provide the confidence that Nepal is keen to work with India while at the same time making it clear that it cannot take on India’s pressure to ignore China or the U.S. in the context of Nepalis currently living in 180 countries, India must note that it is a new Nepal it has to deal with from now.

Perhaps there is hope that the situation can improve – in the appointment of Dr. Shankar Sharma, a seasoned economist, who was also Nepal’s Ambassador to the U.S., as Nepal’s Ambassador to India. He was responsible for recalibrating Nepal’s relations with the U.S. Perhaps we can hope that India will engage with him more deeply without the usual condescending attitude. Perhaps, an open moment has arrived.

THE HINDU EDITORIAL- MARCH, 31, 2022

2022-04-01T20:14:00.000+05:30

THE HINDU EDITORIAL- MARCH, 31, 2022

Identity and privacy

Prisoners’ identification Bill, which raises privacy, data safety concerns, requires scrutiny

The Union government’s latest proposal to enable the collection of biometric and biological data from prisoners, besides the usual physical measurements, photographs and finger-prints, raises serious questions about its legal validity. Such questions are inevitable in an era in which people look at official efforts to gather personal data with suspicion. The practice of recording the photographs and fingerprints of prisoners is more than a century old in the country, backed by a colonial law dating back to 1920. The Union government now proposes to expand the idea of talking “measurements” to cover “finger-impressions, palmprint impressions, foot-print impressions … physical, biological samples and their analysis”, besides “behavioral attributes including signatures [and] handwriting”. The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022, which embodies this goal, has been introduced in the Lok Sabha. Some Members have argued that the Bill went against the Supreme Court’s landmark judgment declaring privacy as a fundamental right in K.S. Puttaswamy. Some contended that the Bill enabled coercive drawing of samples and possibly involved a violation of Article 20(3), which protects the right against self-incrimination. There are other concerns too, such as the means by which the data collected will be preserved, share, disseminated, and destroyed. The Bill allows the records to be preserved for 75 years, and to be destroyed earlier if the person is discharged or acquitted.

The concern over privacy and the safety of the data is undoubtedly significant. Such practices that involve the collection, storage and destruction of vital details of a personal nature ought to be introduced only after a strong data protection law, with stringent punishment for breaches, is in place. The 1920 law enabled the taking of measurements from convicts sentenced to a prison term of one year and above, and anyone arrested on a charge that attracts such a prison term; and thirdly, one who has furnished a bond for good behavior and peace. However, the present Bill includes all convicts, and anyone arrested under any law in force or detained under any preventive detention law. There is a provision by which an arrested person, not accused of an offence against a woman or a child, or one that attracts a prison term of seven years or more, may disallow the taking of samples. Not all detainees may know that they can indeed decline to let biological samples to be taken. And it may be easy for the police to ignore such refusal and later claim that they did get the detainee’s consent. The Bill is controversial, as the tendency to arrest activists, protesters and even innocent people and invoke grave charges is on the rise. It would be in the fitness of things if it is referred to a standing committee for deeper scrutiny before it is enacted into law.

Shifting sands

Arab countries and the U.S. should seek détente with Iran

A conference in Israel of the top diplomats from the U.S. and four Arab countries would have been unthinkable a few years ago. But on Monday, in Israel’s Negev desert, officials from the U.S., the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, Egypt and Israel gathered to discuss security partnerships, Iran and other issues, signaling a decisive shift in West Asian geopolitics. Ahead of the summit, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett went to Egypt to meet President Abdel Fattah al-Si-si and Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Moammed bin Zayed. The UAE and Israel, which normalized relations as part of the Abraham Accords in 2020, have stepped up their economic and security cooperation ever since. The Abraham Accords signaled that Israel’s continuing occupation of the Palestinian territories was no longer an Arab-Israel problem. Now, Arab-Israeli relations have gained a new dimension, with Mr. Bennett reportedly proposing a “Middle East defensive envelope” featuring Israel’s advanced missile defense systems. The Negev conference signals a new era of security partnership between these erstwhile foes that are brought together by regional and global developments.

America’s allies in the region face two challenges. One is the shrinking U.S. security umbrella. The bedrock of the partnership between the U.S. and its Gulf allies was America’s security guarantees in return for the seamless flow of oil. But the U.S. security promises took a hit when Saudi Arabia’s oil installations came under attack in 2019, for which the Saudis and the Americans blame Iran. Oil production was hit but the Trump administration chose to do nothing. Since then, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have come under multiple attacks by Yemen’s Houthis and the U.S has offered little help. Second, the Gulf kingdoms and Israel look at the Iran nuclear deal differently from the U.S. While Washington sees the revival of the nuclear deal – which would impose curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme in return for lifting sanctions, the Gulf kingdoms as well as Israel believe removing sanctions would eventually strengthen Tehran’s standing in the region. Their worry is that if Iran is allowed to reach its natural economic potential, it would translate that economic might into conventional military capabilities and step up support for its proxies, from the Hezbollah to the Houthis. Faced with the U.S.’s declining security role and the possibility of a stronger Iran, these countries are coming together to write a new collective security model. There is nothing wrong in building partnerships based on pragmatic realism. But that alone might not bring peace. If lasting peace and security are their primary goals, Israel, West Asian counties and the U.S. should also seek some kind of détente with Iran.

India’s food response as ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’

Its journey from chronic food shortage to surplus producer partnering the WFP has lessons for the developing world

BISHOW PARAJULI

Global hunger is on the rise, driven by the climate crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic shocks, conflicts, poverty, and inequality. Millions are living in hunger and many more do not have access to adequate food. More people are living in hunger than in 2015 when the member states of the United Nations, including India, agreed to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that provide a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.

In 2019, 650 million people around the world suffered from chronic hunger – 43 million more than in 2014. Since the onset of the pandemic, the numbers of people on the brink of starvation have doubled from 135 million people, pre-COVID, and a year ago to 270 million.

India’s outreach

The title invokes the concept of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, ‘Earth is One Family’, from India’s traditional philosophical outlook that has gained huge relevance over the past 75 years since being cited in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to underline the collective nature of the crises and a matching response that is needed.

At the core of the concept is ‘Vasudha’, which means the planet earth, and describes how different nations form one collective and cannot escape the common connection of concern and humanity.

In his 2014 UN General Assembly address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “India’s traditional outlook sees the world as one family and that is linked to its Vedic tradition of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” – underlining its relevance not just for global peace, cooperation, environment protection but also for humanitarian response including rising global hunger and leaving no on behind.

The number of people in need of urgent food assistance – estimated at 270 million in 2021 – because of the pandemic will grow significantly with the crisis in Afghanistan and the ongoing war in Ukraine. The fallout of the war is driving food and fuel prices that will add to the burden to the millions (especially the poor and marginalized) who are struggling.

Sadly, the global burden of malnutrition remains enormous, with almost 150 million children stunted, nearly 50 million wasted, and every other child – as well as two billion adults – suffering from micronutrient deficiencies.

Helping Afghanistan

India’s recent and ongoing humanitarian food assistance to the people of Afghanistan, through the United Nations Food Programme (where half of the population needs urgent food assistance to avert a famine) is an example of its commitment and commendable steps towards humanitarian crises.

The 50,000 Metric Tonnes (MT) of food assistance in the form of wheat committed by India is being sent in installments to Jalalabad, Afghanistan, through Pakistan. The first consignment, part of India’s in-kind contribution to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), was flagged-off on February 22 in a ceremony at Amritsar’s Attari border crossing, by India’s Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and Afghanistan’s Ambassador to India Farid Mamundzay. I was honored to be a part of the historic and timely support by India.

It is important to put this assistance in the context of the need in Afghanistan. Over 22.8 million people – half of the population – are projected to be acutely food insecure in 2022; this includes 8.7 million at risk of famine-like conditions. Nearly 4.7 million children, pregnant and lactating women are at risk of acute malnutrition in 2022. All 34 provinces are facing a crisis or emergency levels of acute food insecurity.

The WFP in Afghanistan has in place a massive supply chain and logistics infrastructure, with hundreds of trucks and staff ensuring that food assistance reaches those who need it the most and no one is excluded. This makes each contribution and partnership with the Government of India, a lifesaving one for children, women and men in need.

India has been a strong ally of the Afghan people, traditionally, and has extended over a million metric tonnes in the past, including 75,000 metric tonnes last year in partnership with the WFP.

In the past two years, India has provided aid to several countries in Africa and the Middle East/West Asia to overcome natural calamities and the COVID-19 pandemic. I have been a party to India’s support to Yemen and Zimbabwe in the past.

From sufficiency to assistance

India has made enormous progress in food production over the years, with an inspiring journey towards self-sufficiency in food production, marked by the Green Revolution. In 2020, India produced over 300 million tones of cereals and had built up a food stock of 100 million tones. The country has registered record harvests over the last few years, with several enabling policies and incentives to farmers. In 2021, India exported a record 20 million tonnes of rice and wheat.

As India’s food grain surplus continues to grow, along with its footprint as a key humanitarian food assistance player, underlining its partnership with the WFP, it is also important to highlight the story of is transition from receiving food aid to now providing food aid to those in need.

The long journey from chronic food shortage to surplus food producer offers several valuable lessons for other developing counties in Asia, Africa, and Latin America in land reforms, public investments, institutional infrastructure, new regulatory systems, public support, and intervention in agri markets and prices and agri research. I witnessed some of this transformation as an agronomy student at the Punjab Agricultural University around four decades ago. We also saw this aspect being highlighted through the UN Food Systems Summit 2021 process.

Safety nets

One of India’s greatest contributions to equity in food is its National Food Security Act (NFSA) 2013 that anchors the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), the Mid-Day meals (MDM), and the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS). Today, India’s food safety nets collectively reach over a billion people.

Food safety nets and inclusion are linked with public procurement and buffer stock policy. This was visible during the global food crises of 2008-12, and more recently during the COVID-19 pandemic fallout, whereby vulnerable and marginalized families in India continued to be buffered by TPDS which became a lifeline with a robust stock of food grains.

The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) introduced in 2020 to provide relief to 800 million beneficiaries covered under the NFSA from COVID-19 induced economic hardships has been extended by another six months up to September 2022. The total PMGKAY outlay so far add up to 2.6 trillion rupees.

India’s support to its neighbors and other counties that struggle with food emergencies and food insecurity must continue its growth trajectory.

For instance, in Afghanistan itself the need is immense. Over half of all Afghan people – 23 million – now need emergency food assistance. The latest WFP food security data show that 95% of Afghans consume insufficient food, with the number rising to almost 100% among households headed by women. Two-thirds – 66% - are resorting to desperate coping measures such as borrowing money or skipping meals to feed their families, a six-fold increase since August last year.

Humanitarian food assistance and partnerships that help create robust policy innovations by way of food safety nets and resilient livelihoods, will contribute towards global peace.

It is not just important to respond to the hunger and the food security needs of communities affected by conflicts but also to consider addressing them as a global community to avoid human suffering and the massive humanitarian assistance needs that it creates.

A peace catalyst

Research undertaken by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) points to WFP programmes contributing to creating conditions for peace in four areas including ‘bolstering social cohesion, strengthening the link between citizen and state, and resolving grievances within and between communities’.

The Nobel Peace Prize to the WFP in 2020 cited the WFP’s role and the importance of access to food in maintaining peace.

India has made major progress in addressing hunger and malnutrition, but a lot needs to be done and we must continue this path as the trailblazer in access and inclusion through public policies and systems. For over five decades the WFP has been partnering with India and seen its transition from being a recipient to a donor.

However, we must take note of the fact that India can do more and is doing more on delivering the goal of Zero Hunger and equity globally.

As the World’s largest humanitarian agency, the WFP, and India, as the largest democracy, can leverage this partnership to contribute to addressing food emergencies and strengthening humanitarian response, embodying the spirit of ‘leave no one behind’ and Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.

A parliamentary Bill the ICAI needs to take note of

If done well, the changes proposed will strengthen the ICAI’s accountability, governance, and administration

R. NARAYANASWAMY

The Lok Sabha on Wednesday approved a Bill to amend the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949, the law that governs the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). It also amends the Cost and Works Accountants Act, 1959 and the Company Secretaries Act 1980. Introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 17, 2021, and titled and Chartered Accountants, the Cost and Works Accountants and the Company Secretaries (Amendment) Bill, 2021, the key changes it proposes are: Discipline: the ICAI’s disciplinary committee and board of discipline will be chaired by non-chartered accountants (CA), and its elected council members will no longer be in a majority in them. And then, governance and administration: the term of the ICAI’s Council will be raised from three to four years, and the maximum number of consecutive terms for its elected members will be reduced to two from the current three; the ICAI’s Secretary will replace the ICAI’s president as its chief executive and perform the functions to be specified; the ICAI will appoint its auditor from the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India’s panel of CA firms; and the Government will form a coordination committee for the ICAI and the Institutes of Cost Accountants and Company Secretaries of India.

If done well, these changes should strengthen the ICAI’s accountability, governance, and administration. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance has endorsed these changes and has further recommended an end to the ICAI’s monopoly in certification.

Training, disciplinary record

Exams and Articleship are the rites of passage for CA aspirants. The examinations are reputedly hard to crack. The three-year Articleship gives hands-on training. That said, senior industry managers be-moan that many CAs do not have what it takes to succeed in the corporate world, i.e., analytical ability, critical thinking, appreciation of the business context, grasp of technology, and communication and presentation skills. CA students do not have in-class interaction. Also, the coaching is focused on cracking examinations rather than facilitating understanding and application. Of course, the unpredictability of examination outcomes does not help. Further, today’s school leaver thinks about ‘cool’ careers such as pursuing an MBA, law, AI/ML, (artificial intelligence and machine learning), data science and web design. So, it is no surprise that CA student enrolment in 2021 was a third lower than in 2010.

The ICAI’s record in disciplining its members is even more problematic. There have been persistent complaints that the ICAI is lax in acting against errant members. On the occasion of Chartered Accountants Day on July 1, 2017, the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, was critical of the CA community for its lack of quality and integrity. It was a serious indictment of the ICAI’s self-regulation. In 2018, the Government had set up the National Financial Reporting Authority as India’s first independent regulator of accounting and audit. The proposed changes in the composition of the ICAI’s disciplinary arms will further limit its role. As a result, the ICAI will be effectively reduced to an examination board.

Historical baggage

Chartered accountancy is an odd fusion of medieval, colonial and license raj institutions and practices. Articleship is a source of cheap and time labour for some practitioners. The idea of training by members of a trade association goes back to medieval guilds. Much of the work that CAs does and clamours for is a remnant of the license raj. Many businesses and professions have changed beyond recognition as a result of the economic reforms initiated in 1991. The demutualised and technology-driven National Stock Exchange of India has transformed stockbroking. Indian IT and pharma companies now compete successfully with the best in the world. India’s entertainment industry has a worldwide audience. Even in a licensed profession such as law, the five-year degree has become a sought –after qualification.

In contrast, CA has not kept pace with the changes in India’s dynamic economy and changing society. The ICAI was set up in 1949, largely as the Indian version of the U.K. institute. Its evolution since then has mirrored the rise of the license raj that was characterized by uncompetitive capital, product and labour markets, worthless for-filling and box-ticking, and incredibly high tax rates. The focus of Indian business back then was on how to make money by improving efficiency, relevance and competitiveness. CAs greatly benefited from that system. They kept beseeching the government for mandatory work such as issuing import utilization certificates, tax audit, public sector bank branch audit, concurrent audit, and so on. Most of such work is of dubious value. Ironically, among CAs, “professional development” does not mean skill up-gradation but is a code for getting low-value work from government entities. Elected council members have no reason to rock the boat. This is not sustainable.

AI/ML is already playing a significant role in medical diagnosis and legal drafting and case analysis. Accounting and auditing are more amenable to the replacement of humans by technology. AI, robotics, and other technological advances are likely to reduce the need for human intervention in accounting. Also, recent administrative reforms aimed at enabling ease of doing business and ease of living, such as faceless tax assessment, easy filing of tax returns, prompt refunds, rising threshold for tax audit, and abolition of Goods and Services Tax audit have greatly reduced the availability of captive, government-mandated, make-work business for CAs. Puzzlingly (or perhaps not), overseas accountancy qualifications such as the Association f Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) are gaining popularity in India, perhaps because they are recognized worldwide, are more relevant to current and future needs, and are accepted even in India by global companies and global accounting firms.

Having Has

The Parliamentary Committee’s suggestion to set up a string of Indian Institutes of Accounting (IIAs) on the lines of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) is innovative. The IIAs will offer a five-year full-time and broad-based degree in accounting, auditing and related areas and heir graduates. At one level, they will end the ICAI’s statutory monopoly over certification. More competition should result in better quality and higher standards of conduct. Thought the ICAI and the IIAs are different, they have to compete for the same talent pool. At another level, the IIAs can greatly enhance the quality of education with a wholesome curriculum. BY broadening access, they can make the accounting community more inclusive and socially diverse.

Accounting institutes in other countries including the United Kingdom have changed. The Bill and the Parliamentary Committee’s report can be seen as efforts to drag the ICAI to the contemporary world, kicking and screaming if needed. The ICAI’s leadership needs to ponder and explain the reforms to its membership. It would be wise to read the proposed changes as a warning and respond maturely.

THE HINDU EDITORIAL- MARCH, 30, 2022

2022-03-31T18:40:00.002+05:30

THE HINDU EDITORIAL- MARCH, 30, 2022

Without sufficient cause

Unwarranted arrests at behest of majoritarian outfits dent the country’s image

The recent arrest of a 25-year-old Muslim woman at Mudhol in Bagalkot district of Karnataka for an innocuous message on Pakistan’s Republic Day is yet another instance of the perverse misuse of the law by authorities. If it was the provision relating to sedition that was invoked mindlessly in the past, including once for a play enacted by primary schoolchildren, the latest one involves an alleged attempt at creating enmity among different groups. Kuthma Sheikh was granted bail on the same day of her arrest, but the incident is no less disconcerting as it indicates the ease with which members of the minority community can be arrested without sufficient cause, often at the behest of overzealous activists with a disproportionate clout in the Administration. In this case, the madrassa student had said, “May God bless every nation with peace, unity and harmony” on March 23, but a local Hindu activist complained to the police that she was creating enmity among communities by wishing people on Pakistan Day. With unsurprising promptitude, the police booked her under penal sections relating to promoting enmity between different groups. As to how her wishes would have attracted wither Section 153A or 505(2) of the IPC is something only the police can explain. The district police have claimed that the arrest was aimed at preserving peace and maintaining order, but it is quite apparent that they acted in a cavalier manner without ascertaining whether there was any substance in the complaint.

Ever since a controversy broke out over girl students wearing the hijab, there seems to be a tendency among right-wing groups to foment trouble targeted at Muslims. These groups have called for a ban on Muslim traders and vendors doing business as part of temple fairs. Even though the State government is citing a law that prohibits non-Hindus from getting property in the vicinity of the temple on lease, it is doubtful whether the rules cover temporary stalls on special occasions. It is regrettable that the State government is not doing enough to stem the impression that its administration is hostile towards minorities. Unwarranted arrests, especially for trivial reasons and on communally motivated complaints, result in unfair incarceration, ruined lives and immensely delayed justice. For a regime that takes strong exception to strident criticism about its human rights and religious tolerance record, the Union government should be equally concerned about the possible damage that such incidents may cause to its global image. The Centre may not have anything to do with law and order, but it may have to advise certain States to restrain the police from perfunctory use of the power to arrest to please majoritarian groups and individuals.

Centralizing tests

A common test as the sole determinant of merit for admission is problematic

The decision to conduct a Common University Entrance Test (CUET) for admission in undergraduate programmes in all University Grants Commission-funded Central Universities (CUs) from 2022-23 has triggered concerns. No doubt, the proposal is influenced by the National Education Policy, which advocates common entrance examinations by the National Testing Agency for undergraduate and graduate admissions and fellowships. The concept as such is not alien to the CUs. Over a dozen CUs admit students to undergraduate programmers using Central Universities Common Entrance Test (CUCET) scores. The proposed CUET, in 13 languages, seeks to make it mandatory for 45 CUs – there are 54 such institutions – to conduct admissions using a single national level test score. This would spare aspirants from taking multiple entrance tests and also eliminate unfair advantage gained from disproportionate scores in class XII. Critics are evidently viewing this development through the prism of the Narendra Modi government’s obsession with pushing the ‘one nation, one standard’ maxim in different sectors. But as early as 1984, the Madhuri R. Shah Committee, looking into the working of CUs, recommended a national merit examination. In the instant case, the UGC has clarified the existing scheme of reservations in individual universities would not be disturbed.

Yet, the CUET may not qualify as a wholesome determinant of merit given the educational and regional disparities in India. While a vast majority study in State Boards, the test would be based on the NCERT syllabus, followed largely in CBSE schools. The policy limits the Class XII marks as a qualification benchmark and not a co-determinant of merit. With the test being introduced just ahead of an admission season, students, whose learning process was disrupted by COVID-19, may find it challenging. Education Ministers from Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh have flagged some legitimate concerns. In the North-east, the argument about the test possibly affecting the interest of State domiciles to secure admission in a university in the region cannot be ignored. There are genuine apprehensions about CUET serving as a precursor to introducing a nationwide entrance test for all undergraduate courses – the UGC has said all institutions are free to use the test scores for admissions. It has been sufficiently demonstrated that common entrance tests spawn the coaching industry and induce cost-heavy hybrid courses from class VI onwards, creating a divide between the haves and have-nots. The country has miles to go in enabling access to entry-level higher education and bridging the gender and economic gap in its university portals. In such circumstances, it needs to be dispassionately examined if prescribing a single entrance test as a sole determinant of merit, either for CUs or for the higher education system as a whole, is pragmatic.

What is wrong with saffronising education

The Vice-President of India arguing for an overhaul of the Macaulay system of education is fine, but there are challenges

PETER RONALD DESOUZA

The short answer to the question ‘what is wrong with saffronising education?’ is ‘really nothing… well… except that…’

In his address earlier this month at the inauguration of the South Asian Institute of Peace and Reconciliation, on the Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya campus in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, the Vice-President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu, argued for a major overhaul of the Macaulay system of education which he rightly observed is both dominant in, and damaging to, India. It produces in us a sense of inferiority, replaces our traditional education in the bhashas with the alien curricula of the English, gives us a colonial mindset, makes us ignorant of our heritage and, most of all, and disconnects us from the rich body of ideas and philosophies that constitute our ancient civilization.

A resonance earlier

In making this claim, Mr. Venkaiah Naidu has joined a stellar list of public persons who, over the decades, have made a similar argument. Rabindranath Tagore, a moving force of the National Education Movement in the early 1900s, fashioned an innovative nationalist curriculum in Visva Bharati, the great university he established. Eminent Indians such as Amartya Sen, Satyajit Ray, and Mahasweta Devi were educated there. Further, K.C. Bhattacharya in his seminal lecture (October 1931), ‘Swaraj in Ideas’, also spoke of the enslavement of our minds by western education which produced ‘shadow minds’ instead of ‘real minds’. This had to be overcome. Abu-ur-Rashid Moulvi, even earlier in 188, in the Asiatic Quarterly Review, argued for higher education in Punjab to be delinked from Calcutta University because the university was exhibiting an ‘anglicizing tendency’ which would lead to the ‘denationalization of the younger generation of Punjabis’. The creation of Punjab University, he hoped, would resist such Anglicization since the literatures and sciences would now be taught in the ‘vernaculars and classical languages’. Arguing for an Indian system of education has, therefore, been an important part of the public debate in India for over a century. Mr. Venkaiah Naidu was not the first. But he is in good company.

He is right when he ascribes to the Macaulay system the production of a sense of inferiority among us Indians. This is an idea common to other anti-colonial thinkers such as Aime Cessaire and Frantz fanon. He is also right when he warns against us becoming ‘mental cripples’, to use Tagore’s term, because we imitate alien ideas and adopt them uncritically. His case of the Macaulay system producing ‘amnesia and erasure’ is also persuasive as is the fear of ‘denationalization’, an idea spoused by T.B. Cunha when he argued against Portuguese colonialism. However, for us not to see Mr. Venkaiah Naidu’s address as him to give us a road map of how to decolonize this Macaulay system, make it more Indian. Honest saffronisation would primarily require sincerity of intent since it would confront many conundrums and challenges along the way. Let me indicate just a few.

An inclusive list

Let me begin with the first challenge. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, whose knowledge of the depth and the quality of Indian civilization is second to none (for which he was appointed as the spalding professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at Oxford University), recommended in chapter eight of the 1949 report of the University Education Commission (he was Chairman), that religious education (call it saffronisation) be introduced in our universities. He suggested that the class day begin with a few minutes of silent meditation and that students in the first-year degree course be introduced to the lives of great thinkers such as ‘Gautama the Buddha, Confucius, Zoroaster, Socrates, Jesus, Somkara, Ramanuja, Madhava, Mohammad, Kabir, Nanak, Gandhi’. This is Dr. Radhakrishanan’s own list. It is very inclusive and shows the openness of his curious mind. By including the founders of major religions in his list, Radhakrishnan was affirming their value for an Indian education. Would Mr. Venkaiah Naidu’s saffronisation be similarly open-minded?

About diverse narratives

His inclusive list leads to the larger question that saffronisation would have to address. Call it the second challenge. It would need to decide which themes and topics should be included and which excluded in such a saffron education. For example would A.K. Ramanujan’s essay ‘Three Hundred Ramayanas’ be included? If one really wants to overcome the amnesia of a Macaulay education, as Mr. Venkaiah Naidu suggests, to ‘feel proud of our heritage’, then Ramanujan’s essay would have to be included. Ramanujan’s scholarship on the folk tales of India, just like Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, has few equals. His essay celebrates the rich performative and narrative practices of the living epic, the Ramayana. Would saffronisation accept this diversity of narratives? Would it smile at the idea, in one of the performances he describes, of Sita berating Ram who was advising her not to come to the forest, by asking him whether he has seen any performances where Sita does not accompany Ram? Is such philosophical playfulness allowed, if not encouraged? How we answer this important question of inclusion will depend on how we position ourselves on India’s cultural diversity.

This leads to the third challenge. Would the model for recovery and reconstruction of India’s ancient culture, which is what saffronisation does, be that of Dinanath Batra who in a long letter to Smriti Irani, when she was HRD (Education) Minister, set it out, or would it be that of D.P. Chattopadhyaya’s Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture (PHISPC) which has already published several volumes of India’s intellectual achievements? The former espouses Vidya Bharati’s project of cultural assimilation, a thin but toxic agenda, while the latter is a substantive philosophical response to Macaulay, who, had he read the PHISPC volumes would not have the temerity to write, in his 1835 ‘Minute on Education’, that a ‘single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia’.

On Indianisation

So does Mr. Venkaiah Naidu’s saffronisation side with Dinanath Batra or D.P. Chattopadhyaya? If by saffronisation Mr. Venkaiah Naidu really means Indianisation, it would include both the orthodox and the heterodox traditions of India, the Brahmanical schools and their Buddhist and Jaina challenges. It would include the great architectural practices of the Mughals well as the Sufi and Bhakti movements.

Here, Indianisation would have many colours besides saffron.

Moving to science

Moving from the humanities and social sciences, to the STEM educational stream, i.e., Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, then what would Indianisation entail? Would it just involve the simple task of translating the best science textbooks of the world into the various Indian languages, as they do in Japan, since scientific knowledge is universal? Or would it mean advocating some crazy theories as those propounded at the 106^th Indian Science Congress in January 2019 where, it was claimed, that we in India were making test tube babies thousands of years ago and that Albert Einstein did not understand relativity. Indianisation must decide if science is only a western product, or is universal. Is Mr. Venkaiah Naidu suggesting that there is a distinctive Indian science? After all this STEM proficiency in India, a product of Macaulay’s system of education has produced the Nadellas and Pichais of the world. Or am I holding the wrong STEM?

And, finally, the paradox. Does saffronisation endorse the decision of the vice-chancellor to permanently station a Central Industrial Security Force camp inside Visva Bharati, the only university in India that has established a nationalist curriculum? The vice-chancellor did this because of student protests. The Government of India supported him. If his conception of saffronisation endorses this decision then, sad to say, Macaulay has triumphed over Tagore. Macaulay may have designed the system of education for Indian but he was also the author of the Indian Penal Code. We decry Macaulay on education, rightly so, but (sadly) enthusiastically embrace Macaulay on the Indian penal system.

Bridging the bay in quest of a stronger BIMSTEC

The grouping has potential as a natural platform for development cooperation in a rapidly changing Indo-Pacific region

RAJEEV RANJAN CHATURVEDY

Sri Lanka is gearing up to host the Fifth Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Summit, now in its silver jubilee year (the summit is being held in virtual/hybrid mode on March 30, and Sri Lanka is the current BIMSTEC chair). This special occasion makes it imperative for BIMSTEC leaders to reinforce their commitments and efforts in building the momentum of collaborations in the Bay of Bengal region for the security and development of all.

This summit is expected to build the required momentum of collaborations among the member states – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand – as there has been commendable teamwork among them and a finalization of several agreements to enhance regional strategic and economic integration. The unique ecology of BIMSTEC is witnessing enriched political support and commitment from India.

Undoubtedly, BIMSTEC has special significance for India in a changing mental map of the region. India has made the Bay of Bengal integral to India’s ‘Neighborhood First’ and ‘Act East’ policies which can accelerate the process of regional integration. BIMSTEC matters for India and the region.

An area of importance

Finalizing the BIMSTEC Character; BIMSTEC Master Plan for Transport Connectivity; BIMSTEC Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters; BIMSTEC Technology Transfer Facility (TTF); cooperation between diplomatic academies/training institutions; and a template of Memorandum of Association for the future establishment of BIMSTEC centres/entities present signs of optimisms as well as the comeback of the Bay of Bengal as a new economic and strategic space.

Further, the economic and strategic significance of the Bay of Bengal is growing rapidly with a re-emergence of the idea of the ‘Indo-Pacific’ region. This notion assumes that the growing economic, geopolitical and security connections between the Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean regions are creating a shared strategic space. The Bay of Bengal is evolving as the centre of the Indo-Pacific region again. The renewed focus has given a new lease of life to the developmental efforts in the region, in particular BIMSTEC.

As the BIMSTEC process turns 25 years, it is all set to make visible progress through advancing concrete cooperation among the member states. They have invested some fresh energy in the last couple of years to make BIMSTEC a valuable institution for regional integration and collaboration.

A bridge between Asias

BIMSTEC has huge potential as a natural platform for development cooperation in a rapidly changing geopolitical calculus and can leverage its unique position as a pivot in the Indo-Pacific region. There has been tangible progress in BIMSTEC cooperation in several areas that include security, counter-terrorism, intelligence sharing, cyber-security and coastal security, and transport connectivity and tourism, among others.

The growing value of BIMSTEC and its attempt to generate synergy through collective efforts by member states can be understood, for three key reasons. First, there is a greater appreciation of BIMSTEC’s potential due to geographical contiguity, abundant natural and human resources, and rich historical linkages and a cultural heritage for promoting deeper cooperation in the region. Indeed, with a changed narrative and approach, the Bay of Bengal has the potential to become the epicenter of the Indo-Pacific idea – a place where the strategic interests of the major powers of East and South Asia intersect. Political support and strong commitment from all member countries are crucial in making BIMSTEC a dynamic and effective regional organization.

Need for connectivity

Second, BIMSTEC serves as a bridge between two major high-growth centres of Asia – South and Southeast Asia. Connectivity is essential to develop a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable Bay of Bengal region. Therefore, BIMSTEC needs to address two dimensions of connectivity – one, upgrading and dovetailing national connectivity into a regional road map; and two, development of both hard and soft infrastructures.

The BIMSTEC Master Plan for Transport Connectivity will provide the necessary boost to connectivity. There is growing involvement of educational institutions, industries and business chambers through various forums and conclaves which are helping to enhance cooperation in the areas of education, trade and investments, information technology and communication among others. Resisting the temptation to make lofty promises, the BIMSTEC leaders have focused on priority areas through a concrete action plan on time.

India’s role

Third, the BIMSTEC Secretariat coordinates monitors and facilitates the implementation of BIMSTEC activities and programmes. The leaders must agree to strengthen the institutional capacity of the BIMSTEC Secretariat. Approval of a charter for BIMSTEC during the summit will further augment its visibility and stature in international fora. Likewise, India has implemented its promise to set up a Centre for Bay of Bengal Studies (CBS) at Nalanda University, Bihar for research on art, culture and other subjects related to the Bay of Bengal. The quest for economic growth and the development of the BIMSTEC region can be achieved with single-minded focus and cooperation among the member countries. In this endeavour, India has a key role in accelerating regional cooperation under the BIMSTEC framework and in making it vibrant, stronger and result-oriented.

THE HINDU EDITORIAL- MARCH 25, 2022

2022-03-31T18:36:00.000+05:30

THE HINDU EDITORIAL- MARCH, 25, 2022

Sealed justice

SC should lay down the limits of using sealed cover material to adjudicate cases

In refusing to entertain ‘sealed covers’ submitted by the government or its agencies, the Supreme Court has made a noteworthy and welcome shift away from this unedifying practice. At least two Benches have spoken out against it. Recently, in the Muzaffarpur shelter home sexual abuse case, Chief Justice N.V. Ramana wondered why even an ‘action taken’ report should be in a ‘sealed cover’ as an aid to adjudication is something to be strongly discouraged and depreciated. However, it gained much respectability in recent years, with contents withheld from lawyers appearing against the government, but being seen by the judges alone. Unfortunately, in some cases, courts have allowed such secret material to determine the outcome. In a recent instance, the Kerala High Court perused confidential intelligence inputs produced in a sealed envelope by the Union government to uphold the validity of orders revoking the broadcasting permission given to Malayalam news channel Media One on the ground of national security. It is quite disconcerting to find that courts can rule in favour of the government without providing an opportunity to the affected parties to know what is being held against them. In this backdrop, it is significant that the Supreme Court has decided that it will examine the issue of ‘sealed cover jurisprudence’ while hearing the channel’s appeal. For now, the apex court has stayed the revocation order and allowed the channel to resume broadcasting.

It is true that the law permits the submission of confidential material to the court in some cases. In addition, courts can order some contents to be kept confidential. The Evidence Act also allows the privilege of non-disclosure of some documents and communications. Even when authorities claim privilege over classified material, they had no objection to judges perusing them to satisfy themselves about the claims. The government usually justifies the submission of secret material directly to the court, citing national security or the purity of an ongoing investigation. Courts have often justified entertaining material not disclosed to the parties by underscoring that it is to satisfy their conscience. However, the practice sometimes has undesirable consequences. It compromises the defence of those accused of some crimes, especially those involving an alleged threat to national security, or money laundering and corruption. Undisclosed material is often used to deny bail; something the apex court criticized the Delhi High Court for doing in a case against former Union Minister P. Chidambaram. It observed that recording a finding based on material kept in a sealed cover was not justified. The main mischief of the ‘sealed cover’ practice lies in the scope it gives the state to avoid deep scrutiny of the need and proportionality of its restrictions on freedom. The time has come for the Supreme Court to determine and circumscribe the circumstances in which confidential government reports, especially those withheld from the other side can be used by courts in adjudication.

Crisis in Sri Lanka

India should is facing an economic crisis with long queues in front of petrol stations, steep rise in prices of essential commodities and frequent blackouts. Although the COVID-19 pandemic precipitated a crisis of trade imbalance, the fundamentals of the Sri Lankan economy have always had serious issues. Debt, both domestic and foreign, has been a major problem. Even in February 2020, hardly a few months after Gotabaya Rajapaksa assumed office as President, his elder brother and Prime Minster Mahindra Rajapaksa, during his visit to New Delhi, wanted India to reschedule the loan. Over the last three months, India has provided assistance of $2.4 billion including a $500 million load deferment and $1 billion credit line to enable the supply of essential commodities. Apart from approaching Beijing, Colombo has also sought help from the international Monetary Fund, shedding its earlier reservation of taking help from the agency. As soon as the shortage of certain essential commodities ends, which the government expects before the start of the Sinhala-Tamil New Year (which falls in the middle of April), steps should be taken for economic recovery. Compulsions of electoral politics should not come in the way of tough measures such as restructuring the administration of concessions and subsidies. Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa should also use the scheduled meeting with the Tamil political leadership to create a road map on the issue of political devolution and economic development of the war-affected northern and eastern provinces, among the areas badly hit by the current crisis.

Perhaps, Tamil Nadu has already started feeling the impact of the crisis with the reported arrival of 16 persons from Sri Lanka, including six women and seven children, through illegal means. Tamil Nadu was home to nearly three lakh refugees after the anti-Tamil program of 1983. Regardless of the motive of those who have reached Tamil Nadu clandestinely, the authorities, both in India and Sri Lanka, should ensure that the present crisis is not used to step up smuggling activities and trafficking or whip up emotions in both countries. On the contrary, the crisis should be used as an opportunity for New Delhi and Colombo to thrash out a solution to the Palk Bay fisheries dispute, a longstanding irritant in bilateral ties.

The peculiar case of Ladakh’s eastern boundary

Atmanirbhar Bharat requires a bold relook at old misconceptions while continuing dialogue

MUKUL SANWAL

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is in India and is expected to meet External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. The changed global geopolitical situation is a good time to focus on the peculiar case of Ladakh’s eastern boundary and the unnecessary ongoing conflict.

Treaties, usage and custom

There has never been a defined boundary in this area because high watershed frameworks do not apply to the parallel ranges in Ladakh, where the topography shaped both its polity and relations with others. Leh was the ‘cross road of high Asia’ where traders exchanged goods by barter. Ladakh translates as the ‘land of high passes’, which defined the limit of its administrative control over trade routes via the Karakoram pass to the north, Demchok to the south and zojila to the west, triangulating the small settled population limited to the Indus Valley, now with India. Grazing grounds in the south were shared with Tibet. The uninhabited soda plains to the east extending over 100 square miles at a height of 17,000 feet, now disputed between India and China, were of no use and not governed by anyone.

Ladakh emerged as a distinct entity with the Treaty of Timosgang in 1684. This treaty established relations between Leh and Lhasa through trade exchanges. With the Treaty of Chushul in 1842, Ladakh and Tibet agreed to Maintain the status quo. The Treaty of Amritsar in 1846 between the East India Company and the State of Kashmir included Ladakh with its eastern boundary undefined, and the focus remained Pashmina trade for making shawls.

After Britain took over governance of India, attention shifted to the northern boundary of Ladakh because of the Russian advance into Central Asia. In 1870, a British Joint Commissioner was posted at Leh, who continued good relations and correspondence with the Dalai Lama and the Chinese Amban at Lhasa and with the Kashmir State. Both India and China have relied on the correspondence and travel accounts, which had a very different purpose, obscuring the reality that the customary boundary was defined only for the limited area under human occupation.

The authoritative ‘Gazetteer of Kashmir and Ladakh’, brought out in 1890, states that from the Karakoram to the head of the Changchenmo valley the boundary with ‘Chinese Tibet” is “quite doubtful’ (the area of the current discussions) and clear only for the area to the south and west which represents actual occupation (currently not disputed). The unoccupied Aksai Chin is described as “neutral territory”, suitable for wheeled transport and where the Chinese built their road.

New domestic consensus

There has been advance in developing a common understanding, moving from establishing respective claims to recognizing the ground reality. In 1959, experts of both countries, not unexpectedly, further hardened positions as both sides relied selectively on any correspondence or travel record that would justify their already established stand. In 1993, the signing of an Agreement on the Maintenance of Peace and Tranquility along the Line of Actual Control brought in diplomats, and the dialogue moved from history to principles. In 2020, the focus shifted to the ground situation and after 15 rounds of talks, the recent joint statement has highlighted continuing the military and diplomatic dialogue and reaching a mutually acceptable resolution of the remaining issues at the earliest for progress in bilateral relations.

Outside this process, Indian diplomats, Army chief Kodendera Subayya General Thimayya earlier and recently former Commanders of the Leh Corps have characterized the Karakoram watershed as a defensible border, to which the Chinese claim line broadly corresponds, leaving the area where earlier no one exercised control, Aksai Chin, to China. This raises the question why this assertion has been ignored at the political level.

A former Foreign Secretary and Ambassador to China and the U.S. has explained initial decisions as “ineptitude” and the approach as “unrealistic”, arguing that it is necessary to first acknowledge mistakes of the 1950s for moulding a new domestic consensus. For example, following the Seventeen Point Agreement between China and Tibet in June 1951, even as the Chinese moved into Tibet across Aksai Chin, the North-East Frontier Agency was handed over to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) but not Ladakh. Examining this Agreement, the MEA felt it was “reasonable” and inexplicably that India had no use for the Consulate in Kashghar across the northern border of Ladakh. In the India-China Agreement of April 29, 1954, it appears that the reference to passes marking the boundary in the central sector was taken as including the passes in Ladakh assuming recognition of the boundary. This led to new official maps in June 1954 with the MEA deciding on ‘the most favorable line’ in eastern Ladakh. As the Ambassador points out, in Parliament, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru never admitted that the entire boundary was unilaterally defined or even that it was in dispute leading to the notion of “Chinese betrayal” in the public imagination.

The year 1954, not 1962, was the turning point in complicating the situation Unilateral actions in “neutral territory” establishing a strategic road and defining the boundary converted a colonial ambiguity into a dispute, instead of adopting the watershed principle as in the case of the border of all other Himalayan States. The Cold War heightened mistrust, with Pakistan joining the South-east Asia Treaty Organization and the United States’ covert operation with the brother of the Dalai Lama residing in Kalimpong arming Tibetans.

Omission and commission

The solution lies in the equally unique 70-year-old continuing dialogue despite each side calling the other an aggressor and sporadic military incidents. Instead of claims, the growing confidence of both countries should enable them to acknowledge acts of commission and omission in the 1950s as newly independent ancient civilizations extended overlapping sovereignty in the uninhabited area in Ladakh over which neither had ever exercised control.

In what would be a bold political step, agreement on the watershed boundary following a well-established principle would meet the national security concerns of India and China without bringing in intractable issues of sovereignty.

Time for India to redefine its relationship with Russia

It is too risky for New Delhi to pursue vague aims vis-à-vis Moscow at a time of diplomatic and strategic uncertainty

VINAY KAURA

Russia’s war on Ukraine has decisively shaped international opinion. Indian foreign policy is also going to be affected in a profound manner. The most important question facing Indian diplomacy is how to navigate India’s great power relations in the future. While there has always remained a pro-Russian popular sentiment in India, rooted in Moscow’s support during the Cold War era, particularly against the pro-Pakistani diplomatic activism by powerful Western countries in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), a majority of Indians today seem taken aback by Russia’s misadventure against a sovereign country.

Foreign policy conundrum

That Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, is moving closer to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the hope of membership may be a sufficient reason for Russia to be infuriated, but it is still an insufficient condition for Ukraine to be attacked in violation of all norms of international law. However, India has not directly criticized Moscow’s action. Memories of the historic Indo-Soviet partnership still seem to tip the scales when it comes to India’s vote at the UNSC. Western countries have criticized India’s repeated abstentions at the UNSC on the issue of the Russian invasion, while the Kremlin has praised India for taking an “independent and balanced” position. While India has not cared much about Western criticism of its “independent” approach to foreign policy, it is the Russian angle this time which has come to restrain India’s strategic autonomy.

President Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine has put New Delhi in a foreign policy conundrum that will not disappear soon because Russia’s action has changed the global order. The Western world has imposed unprecedented sanctions against Russia and banned energy imports. New Delhi is concerned about the impact of these sanctions on global finance, energy supplies, and transportation, amid growing signs that they will constrain India’s ability to import Russian oil.

The image of the Russian military might be tarnished now as Russian forces have under-performed in their Ukrainian campaign. Ukraine has been able to hold the Russia forces back for a long time, which can be seen as a moral victory for a weaker nation. Mr. Putin is neither a crafty strategist nor a charismatic hero who has risen from the ashes of the Soviet defeat to lead Russia into a new period of resurgence. His reputation has been severely bruised because a comedian-turned-politician next door has exposed the hollowness of Russia’s military tactics and operational planning.

The real strategic challenge

China’s blatant attempts to project its rising power as well as Russia’s threats against it’s “near abroad” will continue to test India’s strategic choices. Nevertheless, what must worry India is the fact that Russia will now become increasingly dependent on Chinese support to defend its policies. Mr. Putin may not know what he eventually wants in Ukraine, But he is aware of the ruble collapsing, the punishing sanctions being imposed, and the dire state of the Russian economy. This will push him further into China’s military and economic orbit.

India’s real strategic challenge is surfacing in the Indo-Pacific with the rise of China, as Beijing has consistently sought to expand its zone of military, economic and political influence through the Belt and Road Initiative. Moreover, instead of smoothing the ruffled edges of India’s insecurities, which are rooted in an undefined boundary, China has only aggravated them further. Though India would like the U.S. to continue to focus on China, it is not possible for Washington to ignore Russia’s aggression along NATO’s periphery.

Since the end of the Cold War, Indians have been debating the contours of strategic autonomy. For some, the notion is a re-branding of India’s non-aligned posture during the Cold War. Others say that the doctrine of ‘multi-alignment’ is the 21^st century avatar of strategic autonomy as India has been expanding its engagement with all the major powers.

Reality has many dimensions. And in this case, history is relevant. Indian nationalists of various shades still fondly remember which countries were India’s allies during the Cold War and which were not. Former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s advocacy of neutrality in the bloc politics was justified in the pursuit of an independent post-colonial foreign policy. The Soviet Union was seen as a trustworthy partner against Western hegemony. Following the disintegration of the USSR, India joined Russia and China against the unipolarity of the U.S. The purpose of this trilateral initiative was to promote a multi-polar world to constrain the U.S.’s unbridled power and ambition. India was also uncomfortable with the arrogance that defined Western attitudes towards Russia in the immediate post-Cold War period. For some time, this common concern about unipolarity put the three countries on the same path towards mutual cooperation and understanding. Later, Brazil and South Africa were also brought into this coalition. However, it soon became clear that India and China did not see eye to eye. Moreover, India was determined to maintain its partnership with Russia, an important arms supplier. Its ties with the U.S. have also improved significantly since the end of the Cold War. But continuing dependence on Russian weaponry has become India’s strategic headache.

An unpredictable Russia

Nostalgia cannot be allowed to trump reality. Mr. Putin seems too frozen in old-fashioned grievances against the West to appreciate the value of India’s friendship. Much of New Delhi’s disillusionment stems from a failure to understand not only Mr. Putin’s political thinking, but also Russia’s place in the emerging global order. If it was a nuclear-armed superpower yesterday, Russia seems to be behaving like a nuclear-armed bully today. Under Mr. Putin, Russia is in a state of transition, swinging wildly from one crisis to another. Therefore, it is too risky for India to pursue vague aims vis-à-vis Russia in these uncertain times.

Those in India echoing Russian resentment against the eastward expansion of NATO are reminded by Western analysts that a NATO-Russia Council was formed specifically to alleviate Russia’s concerns, and that Russia was recognized as one of the World’s leading industrial powers through a formal admission into the elite G-7 not on the basis of its industrial might, but to soften its bruised superpower ego. Truth lies somewhere in between, which perhaps explains India’s stance at the UNSC.

Everyone in and around government must think seriously about India’s relations with Russia as the unfolding Ukrainian tragedy has introduced a new era in international relations. Though Moscow has drifted much closer to Beijing, and is sharply critical of India’s engagement with the U.S. and the Quad, India finds it difficult to extend support to Ukraine. Prime Minister Narendra Modi may still personally like Mr. Putin, but he understands that in the halls of global diplomacy, nations have interests which are not determined by personalities alone. It goes without saying that the U.S. is the country most likely to bolster India’s future as a great power.

It is not going to be easy for New Delhi to maintain its balancing act in the future as Washington hardens its position further. It is inevitable that during this time of diplomatic and strategic uncertainty, New Delhi needs to be ready to radically redefine its relationship with Moscow.

THE HINDU EDITORIAL- MARCH, 29, 2022

2022-03-29T19:18:00.001+05:30

THE HINDU EDITORIAL- MARCH 29, 2022

Beleaguered captain

Imran khan will find survival as PM difficult now that he is not the Army’s favourite

Prime Minister Imran Khan showed on Sunday that the passionate base of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) remained intact when tens of thousands of people turned up at Islamabad’s Parade Ground to attend his rally. But his long speech also indicated that the cricketer-turned-politician has finally come to terms with the political challenges he is facing. Mr. Khan, who is facing a no-confidence vote in Parliament, used his carefully worded speech to defend the performance of his government, reiterate the PTI’s “Islamic welfarist” ideology, and set the tone for the future political battles. Drawing parallels between himself Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the former Prime Minister who was overthrown in 1977 by General Zia-ul-Haq and later executed, Mr. Khan alleged that there was an international conspiracy against his government. Whether his allegations are true or not, his coalition government is in trouble, surviving on a razor-thin majority in Parliament. At least a dozen lawmakers from his party have revolted against him. Some coalition members have hinted that there could be an early election. Mr. Khan’s invoking of Bhutto’s fate is also seen as veiled criticism of the military establishment. He had been a close ally of the Generals from before the 2018 elections. But the establishment appears to have gone cold on him.

While Mr. Khan has fiercely defended the track record of his government all is not well at the ground level. There is widespread resentment against the government’s handling of the economy, which the Opposition has tried to capture by mobilizing support for the no-trust motion. The crisis is so deep that even government officials are reportedly not paid their salaries on time. On Sunday, Mr. Khan said he would continue his crusade against “white collar crimes”, referring to corruption charges against Opposition leaders. He calls his opponents rodents and has brought dozens of corruption cases against them in the past four years, but none has resulted in a conviction. On the other side, his hard line approach has galvanized the Opposition, including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan People’s Party, which joined hands with Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam to form the Pakistan Democratic Movement, an umbrella organization whose sole goal is to bring the PTI government down. While crises piled up one after another, Mr. Khan’s approval rating started slipping. According to a Gallup poll in January, Nawaz Sharif, currently living in exile, was 19 points ahead of Mr. Khan in popularity. Whether Mr. Khan survives the no-trust vote or not, his run as a clean anti-corruption crusader with a mission to build ‘Naya Pakistan’ has come to a halt. His political survival would depend on how he is going to adapt himself and the PTI to the new political environment where he faces a united Opposition without the direct assistance of the military establishment.

The power of the man

The relevance of movies dealing with toxic masculinity was in evidence at the Oscars

Everything from the Power of The Dog winning only one of its 12 nominations to the silent applause and standing ovation for Troy Kotsur’s Best Supporting Actor win in CODA was swept off the table in the face of Will Smith’s altercation with Chris Rock. Smith, who went on to win the Best Actor Award for his role as Richard Williams in King Richard, slapped Rock when the actor and comedian made a ‘joke’ about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair loss. The neo-western, The Power of the Dog, based on Thomas Savage’s eponymous novel, apart from other things, deals with toxic masculinity, which is what the Smith-Rock confrontation was at one level. In other Oscar news, the heart-warming coming-of-age story, CODA directed by Sian Heder won all three awards it was nominated for. Denis Villeneuve’s exquisite adaptation of Frank Herbert’s science fiction classic, Dune, won the maximum awards. Of the 10 nominations, Dune: Part One (as it is titled onscreen), won six. The golden man went to Hans Zimmer’s score, sound, editing, visual effects, and cinematography and production design.

Drive My Car from Japan, co-written and directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, had four nominations, which it won ahead of Paolo Sorrentino’s intensely personal The Hand of God from Italy and Bhutan’s Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom. Smith’s fellow nominees for the best actor included Benedict Cumberbatch as the closeted, conflicted rancher in The Power of the Dog, Javier Bardem’s eye-popping turn as Desi Arnaz in Aaron Sorkin’s Being the Ricardos, Andrew Garfield as Jonathan Larson in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s biographical musical Tick, Tick…. Boom! And Denzel Washington as Macbeth in Joel Coen’s black-and-white takes on The Tragedy of Macbeth. Jessica Chastain’s win in the best actress category for The Eyes of Tammy Faye faced some stiff competition from Olivia Colman in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter and Kristen Stewart as Lady Diana in Spencer. The supporting actress category was also closely fought with Arana DeBose from West Side Story winning against Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter), Judi Dench (Belfast), Kirsten Dunst (The Power of the Dog) and Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard). Paul Thomas Anderson’s delightfully comforting Licorice Pizza was yet another coming-of-age film with a strong presence at the nomination stage, but did not win. While Jane Campion’s best director win for The Power of the Dog follows Chloe Zhao’s win last year for Nomadland, making her the second woman to win in as many years, the Smith-Rock spat proves that there are miles to go before show business could come of age. Bad jokes, like bad cinema, are best ignored and not put down with violence.

The rise of AAP and central question

It is still too early to answer whether the party can threaten the BJP-dominant system or contribute to upholding it

ASIM ALI

Under a Bharatiya Janata Party-dominant system, most political parties have struggled to hold on to, let alone expand their political space. There are only two exceptions. The first is regional parties in the east and the south whose appeals to linguistic identity or sub-nationalism have found a renewed resonance among the electorate. The second exception is the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), a centrist populist party which has matured under the Narendra Modi-era into a party of emerging national prominence.

AAP has done this by skillfully negotiating the opportunities and threats inherent in the BJP-dominant system. It has geared itself to occupy the political space that has opened with the steady discrediting of the Congress party under the Modi era. In the recent Punjab Assembly elections – where it swept to power, winning 92 of 117 seats – it rode the anti-establishment mood that was partly prepared with the unrest over the farm laws bulldozed through by the central government. At the same time, it has sought to neutralize the ideological threat of the BJP by operating within the boundaries set by the BJP’s larger ideological framework.

Strategy after 2019

This second strategy was crystallized after its drubbing in the Lok Sabha election of 2019, when it effected a decisive shift in its route to expansion. Before that election, AAP attempted to expand through high-profile attempts at occupying the oppositional space by attacking the central government and the Prime Minister. In the three years since, it has pivoted away from the national arena, focusing instead on localized issues in the pursuit of a gradual State by State strategy.

The focus of this article is to answer one central question: would the rise of AAP threaten the BJP-dominant system or would it contribute to upholding it? The answer cannot quite be straightforward as it depends on the particular strategic positioning of AAP with respect to the BJP-dominant system: a spectrum ranging from acquiescence to disapproval to confrontation. Being a dynamic variable, this strategic positioning would vary with time and context. The only constant is that AAP would seek to take the positioning it calculates to be most advantageous to its rise.

The BJP-dominant system comprises three elements: the ideological dominance of Hindu nationalism; the unparalleled popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the unchecked power of the central government machinery.

After 2019, AAP has consistently shied away from challenging the BJP on each of these elements. In line with the party’s State-wise strategy, AAP has preferred to take on State-level BJP governments by decrying their corruption and inefficiencies, and presenting its own ‘Delhi model of governance’ as an alternative. Going by the results of the Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Goa Assembly elections (which were held along with the Punjab and Manipur polls), this plan has not worked out well.

It must be borne in mind that AAP’s spectacular triumph in Punjab is, in many respects, an anomaly. It does not in itself prove or disprove the strategic worth of AAP’s positioning in the BJP-dominant system. Punjab was peculiar in it being a State where all the traditional parties were discredited – a dream scenario for AAP. It was also a State where the BJP was not a major player and the central government was highly unpopular. These conditions are unlikely to be replicated in the other States AAP has set its eyes on; therefore, Punjab does not provide a reliable map for future expansion.

The next stage for AAP

AAP’s next phase of expansion would run through States with a largely bipolar competition between the Congress and the BJP – States such as Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, and possibly Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

To succeed in this terrain, AAP has more to learn from its failures in Goa and Uttarakhand (States with a similar political dynamic) than from its successes in Punjab. And it is these failures, precisely, which has informed the latest tweaking in the AAP’s political strategy, manifested in AAP leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s speech in the Delhi Assembly.

AAP has now seemed to modify its strategic positioning in the BJP-dominant system from acquiescence to disapproval. Breaking several self-imposed shibboleths, Mr. Kejriwal underlined a shift in his party’s approach by attacking Mr. Modi personally (with dramatic references to ’56-inch chest’ and even ‘Hitler’); implicitly criticizing the Hindu nationalist propaganda of the BJP represented by the film, The Kashmir Files; and condemning the Centre’s control of independent institutions as reflected in the deferral of the Delhi municipal elections.

Many observers have put down Mr. Kejriwal’s new avatar to AAP’s renewed ambition to fast-track itself into the primary national opposition to take on the BJP, on the back of its electoral victory in Punjab. This would, however, be a misreading of both the rationale and the nature of AAP’s strategic shift.

First, let us come to the rationale. As mentioned earlier, this shift has less to do with the success in Punjab than to the failures in Uttarakhand and Goa. Both these States were marked by high levels of anti-incumbency against the State governments, and AAP expected its alternative model of governance to catapult the party into becoming a major player. In Uttarakhand, specifically, AAP hoped that its centre-right platform (positioning itself between the Congress and the BJP) would help it attract disillusioned voters of the BJP. Yet, in both the States, AAP stopped well short of a double-digit vote-share, failing even to open its account in Uttarakhand.

On pro-incumbency

One big take away from this round of State elections is that the trend of de-linked State and national elections has been reversed. This trend was reflected in a poor run for the BJP in State elections between 2018 and 2021. However, these elections mark a sharp break, where the popularity of the central government and Mr. Modi buoyed the BJP in all the four States it won. In Uttarakhand and Goa, the pro-incumbency for the central government more than neutralized the high levels of anti-incumbency against the State governments. The result was the BJP romped back home in both the States while largely holding on to its vote-share from the previous elections.

For AAP, this presented two lessons. One, the party’s State-specific strategic against the BJP cannot afford to ignore the larger national appeal of the BJP. In other words, AAP cannot maintain an agnostic stance toward Hindu nationalism and Mr. Modi if BJP voters continue to vote for them over the governance model presented by AAP. And two, AAP’s cautious and limited opposition to the BJP also hurts it from the other end as anti-BJP voters flock toward the more aggressive posture of the Congress. Since both pro-incumbency (Mr. Modi, Hindutva) and anti-incumbency (unemployment, inflation) in State elections increasingly have national provenance, AAP’s localized strategies seem to be missing a larger national element.

An outlook

Does this mean that AAP is about to resurrect its pre-2019 phase of frontal confrontation with the Modi government, or become part of a broader oppositional alliance against the BJP? The answers are probably in the negative. The party is unlikely to drop its carefully planned State-by-State strategy in favour of another premature dart to occupy the national oppositional space. As a fleet-footed party adept at learning from its mistakes, one would not expect AAP to forget the lessons of the last two general elections in a hurry.

The actions of AAP over the last few years have demonstrated that it has accepted the durability of the BJP-dominant system. The results of the recent State elections would have only reinforced that notion. The long-term strategy of AAP is to replace the Congress as the alternative pole to the BJP. Towards that end, the strategic positioning of AAP in the BJP-dominant system might sway between acquiescence and disapproval. The phase of confrontation with the BJP-dominant system might only come after this long period of, to paraphrase Deng Xiaoping, hiding its strengths and biding its time.

A subregional grouping that must get back on course

BIMSTEC is in need of a framework to tackle the specific challenges confronting the Bay of Bengal region

VENU RAJAMONY

As world attention remains focused on the war in Ukraine, leaders of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) will attend a summit meeting of the regional organization. The meet, which is to be held in virtual mode, will be hosted by Sri Lanka, the current BIMSTEC chair.

Founded in 1997, the seven-member BIMSTEC, which includes the littoral states of India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Thailand is a member too) and the land-locked states of Nepal and Bhutan, has identified 14 pillars for special focus. These are trade and investment, transport and communication, energy tourism, technology, fisheries, agriculture, public health, poverty alleviation, counter terrorism and transnational crime, environment and disaster management, people-to-people contact, cultural cooperation and climate change. While each sector is important, the segmented approach has resulted in omnibus end summit communiqués full of aspirations rather than action. The upcoming summit is an opportunity for BIMSTEC leaders to go beyond generalized statements and take concrete steps to address critical challenges confronting the region.

A Bay of Bengal Maritime Dialogue (BOBMD) organized recently by the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue and the Pathfinder Foundation brought together government officials, maritime experts, and representatives of prominent think tanks from Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand and Indonesia. Participants called for stepped up efforts in areas such as environmental protection; scientific research; curtailing illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, as well as the development of standard operating procedures that could govern interaction between fishing vessels of one country with maritime law enforcement agencies of another.

Rich marine ecosystem

Presentations made at the BOBMD highlighted the fact that the Bay of Bengal is home to a large network of beautiful yet fragile estuaries, mangrove forests of around 15,792 square kilometers, coral reefs of around 8,471 sq.km, sea grass meadows and mass nesting sites of sea turtles. The annual loss of mangrove areas is estimated at 0.4% to 1.7% and coral reefs at 0.7%. It is predicted that the sea level will increase 0.5 metres in the next 50 years. Moreover, there have been 13 cyclonic storms in the last five years. The Bay is an important source of natural resources for a coastal population of approximately 185 million people. The fishermen population alone is estimated to be around 3.7 million, with an annual fish catch of around six million tones, constituting 7% of the World’s catch and valued at around U.S.$4 billion. Around 4,15,000 fishing boats operate in the Bay and it is estimated that 33% of fish stocks are fished unsustainably (source: presentation in February 2022 by E. Vivekanandan, senior consultant, ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research institute). According Organization of the United Nation (FAO), the Bay of Bengal is one of IUU fishing hotspots in the Asia-Pacific.

The pressing challenges that confront the Bay of Bengal include the emergence of a dead zone with zero oxygen where no fish survive; leaching of plastic from rivers as well as the Indian Ocean; destruction of natural protection against floods such as mangroves; sea erosion; growing population pressure and industrial growth in the coastal areas and consequently, huge quantities of untreated waste flow. Security threats such as terrorism, piracy and tensions between countries caused by the arrests of fishermen who cross maritime boundaries are additional problems. It also needs to be kept in mind that the problem of fishermen crossing into the territorial waters of neighboring countries affect India and Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and Myanmar (also Pakistan on the west coast).

Need for regional interaction

The blue economy potential of the Bay of Bengal is huge. There are many opportunities to develop maritime trade, shipping, aquaculture and tourism. However, tapping these opportunities requires coordinated and concerted action by governments, scientists and other experts. The BIMSTEC Summit must create a new regional mechanism for coordinated activities on Maritime issues of a transboundary nature. This mechanism must initiate urgent measures to strengthen fisheries management, promote sustainable fishing methods, establish protected areas and develop frameworks to prevent and manage pollution, especially industrial and agricultural waste as well as oil spills. There is also a need for greater scientific research on the impact of climate change in general and on fisheries in particular.

At present, there is limited cooperation between countries of the region in marine research. Most BIMSTEC countries have premier institutions and excellent scientists but their interaction with the West in far more than within the region. The use of modern technology and improved fishing practices can go a long way in restoring the health of the Bay.

This should be a priority area

Marine environmental protection must become a priority area for cooperation in the Bay of Bengal. Enforcement must be strengthened and information shared on best practices. Regional protocols need to be developed and guidelines and standards on pollution control established. Decision-making must be based on science and reliable data, information and tools.

There is a need for home-grown solutions based on capabilities of local institutions and for mutual learning through regional success stories. There is a need to create regional frameworks for data collection. Participatory approaches must be evolved for near-real-time stock assessment and the creation of a regional open fisheries data alliance. The Bay of Bengal Programmes (BOBP), an inter-governmental organization based in Chennai, is doing good work to promote sustainable fishing.

A Bay of Bengal Large Marine Ecosystem (BOBLME) project is funded by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and others. The BIMSTEC summit must express full support for both BOBP and BOBLME. The summit must mandate officials to come up with measures to curtail unsustainable as well as IUU fishing. These could include setting up an international vessel tracking system and making it mandatory for vessels to be equipped with automatic identification system (AIS) trackers; establishing a regional fishing vessel registry system and publishing vessel license lists to help identify illegal vessels; increasing monitoring, control and surveillance in IUU fishing hotspot; establishing regional guidelines on how to deter and prevent IUU practices; improving the implementation of joint regional patrols, and regional fishing moratoriums and outreach programmes targeted at fisher-folk. Laws and policies in littoral states must be harmonized and humanitarian treatment of fishermen ensured during any encounter with maritime law enforcement agencies.

The challenges that confront the Bay of Bengal region brook no more delay. BIMSTEC must arise, awake and act before it is too late. The summit must set in process regular meetings of officials, supported by scientists and experts, to tackle illegal and unsustainable fishing as well as prevent the further environmental degradation of the Bay of Bengal.