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A day after Governor R.N. Ravi returned the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Online Gambling and Regulation of Online Games Bill, adopted by the Assembly last year, a Cabinet meeting decided to table a second Bill, reiterating the government’s decision to impose the ban.
Briefing journalists after the Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, Law Minister S. Regupathy said, “The Governor has said the House does not have legislative competence.
We will say it has legislative competence and would send it [back to him]. After the Bill was tabled in the House, if fresh inputs were received from legislators, they would be incorporated in the legislation.
Asked if it was possible for Tamil Nadu alone to ban online gambling when it was allowed in the rest of the country. It has to be banned across the country. Tamil Nadu would like to be a pioneer in imposing a ban. Once we ban, other States could take Tamil Nadu as a role model and follow suit.
Asked what would the government do if the Governor delayed his assent to the second Bill, too, as he did with the Bill seeking exemption for the State from NEET, itwill send it for the second time, and if he sat on it, we will see what we can do.”
Long-lost moth species caught on camera in T.N. forest (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Biodiversity)
Two researchers from Tamil Nadu have spotted a rare moth species for the first time in India in the buffer zone of the Kalakkad–Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) after it was last sighted 127 years ago — at Trincomalee in Sri Lanka in 1893.
Interestingly, the researchers, ThalavaipandiSubbaiah of Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) and Prashanth Prakhalathan of Tamil Nadu Wetland Mission, are the first in the world to photograph the moth species Mimeusemiaceylonica, as only an illustration of the insect existed previously.
Recognising this feat, international peer-reviewed journal on animal science, Species, had published an article on their work in February.
Mimeusemiaceylonica is a moth species belonging to the subfamily Agaristinae and family Noctuidae. It was first illustrated and described by English entomologist George Hampson in 1893.
The species was rediscovered during a moth survey conducted on October 11, 2020 at the Agasthyamalai Community-based Conservation Centre (ACCC) situated in the buffer zone of KMTR, Tirunelveli district, by Mr. Thalavaipandi and Mr. Prashanth.
After spotting the moth in the same area on November 5, 2021, Mr. Thalavaipandi again sighted it at the Vallanaadu Blackbuck Sanctuary in Thoothukudi district on November 5, 2022.
After the first record in Trincomalee many years ago, no one spotted the moth until we saw it in 2020 in India. There is deficient data about the history of this species.
We could see only one moth on all these occasions and not as a pair and hence we did not try to do genitalia dissection to study it further.
On the significance of the spotting of Mimeusemiaceylonica in Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi districts, Mr. Thalavaipandi said it was “testimony to the rich biodiversity of this region”.
Editorial
Media raids and breaking the silence on press freedom (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
On February 14, 2023, the Income Tax Department carried out a “survey action” on the offices of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in New Delhi and Mumbai.
After continuing this survey for three days, a press release was issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) citing an alleged evasion of taxes on remittances and discrepancies in BBC’s transfer pricing mechanism.
Many media organisations such as the Press Club of India have described the raids as “deeply unfortunate”; the Editors Guild termed them as “intimidation”.
Even those who may favour the tax survey will confess that the tax scrutiny is a natural outcome of the BBC’s two-part documentary series, “India: The Modi Question”, which the BBC released on January 17, 2023.
In an emergency secret order issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the documentary’s web links were blocked on January 20, 2023. The timing and nature of the events points to something being rotten in the state of Denmark.
At the root of these “survey actions” is an attempt to instil fear and self-censorship that begins with knocking on the doors of the offices of journalists.
Today, these actions have become sinister as they now involve the seizure of devices. Hence, an unpleasant surprise turns into severe shock when journalists, as in the case of the BBC, are treated as potential criminals.
Stopping the boats (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
The UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, has come down strongly on the U.K. Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak’s plan to pass a new “Illegal Migration Law” that effectively stops the granting of asylum to migrants who reach the U.K. illegally.
Mr. Sunak, while standing at a dais marked “Stop the Boats”, said the government is worried about the numbers of those attempting to travel to the U.K. and applying for asylum while on British soil, at considerable cost to the exchequer.
Instead, as Home Secretary Suella Braverman explained while introducing the Bill this week, asylum seekers who try to enter illegally would either be returned to their own countries or a “third country”, presumably Rwanda, that has entered into an agreement to provide processing facilities for them.
They also face a lifetime ban on citizenship and re-entry to the U.K. According to the UNHCR, the law would contravene international laws, including the 1951 Refugee Convention that Britain is a signatory to.
To start with, those who flee their homes and countries often do so without proper paperwork, as they are forced to leave to save their lives.
Many of the estimated 45,000 who came to the U.K. on “small boats” last year would have been economic refugees rather than political asylum seekers, and it is problematic that the British government does not make a distinction between the two.
The Bill makes exceptions for those arriving directly from the countries they are fleeing, but those would be a small proportion given the short distances “small boats” could travel.
The British government, much like the U.S.’s Trump administration that latched on to the equally catchy “Build That Wall” slogan, is long on political rhetoric, but short on the actual mechanics of making such a plan work, if it fails to be a deterrent to small boats bringing in migrants.
In addition, the plan to transport asylum seekers to a third country, apart from sounding neo-colonial, will also come at considerable cost, one that the hapless migrants are unlikely to be able to afford.
Opinion
Can the cheetahs help India’s grasslands? (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Since September 2022, India has translocated eight African cheetahs from Namibia and 12 from South Africa. This is part of a long-term conservation plan to re-introduce the wild cat into the country after it became extinct in the 1950s, primarily due to hunting.
The aim is to be able to build a self-sustaining population, centred at Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park, which will also contribute to the global survival of the cheetah as a species.
The government is saying that the first batch of cheetahs from Namibia is gradually acclimatising to Indian conditions though none of the animals have been released into the wild.
With tigers in Sariska, it took two and a half to three years. I’ve not been involved with the cheetah [project], but I imagine it is going to be a little bit difficult as they are in a completely different terrain from what they are used to. Cheetahs are coursers (they run to hunt) and not stalkers like the tiger or leopard, which means they need large tracts of terrain.
In ecology, nothing is linear. But let’s look at the metrics that we want to use. The first, of course, is survival; animals have to survive.
But a better indication of success is when they not only survive, but start reproducing and there is a self-sustaining population. Reports indicate that roughly 20 cheetahs are going to be introduced annually for the next 8-10 years and the official Cheetah Action Plan states that in 15 years the project will be considered a success if Kuno reaches an established population of 21 adults. Thus, in 7-8 years, we will introduce about 160 cheetahs.
Text &Context
The elusive political solution in Sri Lanka (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
Early February, a group of saffron-clad Buddhist monks gathered near the Sri Lankan Parliament and burnt a copy of the 13th Amendment.
They were registering their rage and protest after President Ranil Wickremesinghe vowed to implement the law in full. He had told an all-party conference that it was his “responsibility” as the Executive to carry out the current law.
For approximately 37 years, the 13th Amendment has been a part of the Constitution. I must implement or someone has to abolish it.
The monks resisted it, despite Mr. Wickremesinghe stressing he was “not ready to divide the country at all” and would not “betray the Sinhalese nation”.
Neither the pledge made by President Wickremesinghe nor the monks’ reaction is new to Sri Lankans. Past presidents, including Mahinda Rajapaksa, have made the same promise more than once.
Monks and other reactionary groups similarly agitated then too. At the same time, Sri Lankan Tamils, who continue to demand equality, dignity, and the right to self-determination, do not know what it might look like, when the promise is indeed kept. Despite power devolution being enshrined in the Constitution for nearly four decades — it was an outcome of the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987 — they have never seen the piece of legislation being implemented in letter and spirit till date.
News
India top-tier security partner, says Australian Prime Minister Albanese (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
Australia will host Exercise Malabar for the first time, and India will, also for the first time, participate in Australia’s Talisman Sabre exercise, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced.
India is a top-tier security partner for Australia, he said during a visit onboard India’s indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant in Mumbai.
My visit [to India] reflects my government’s commitment to place India at the heart of Australia’s approach to the Indo-Pacific and beyond,” he said addressing the Navy personnel onboard. It is a partnership that is of increasing strategic importance as we navigate the challenges of our region together.
Noting that the Indian Ocean is central to the security and prosperity of both countries, Mr. Albanese said there had never been a point in both the country’s histories where “we have had such a strong strategic alignment.
We both depend on free and open access to sea lanes in the Indo-Pacific for our trade and economic well being. And we share an unwavering commitment to upholding the rules-based international order and ensuring the Indo-Pacific is open, inclusive and prosperous.
Recalling the surge in military-to-military engagements between the nations, he said, “Last year, we conducted more exercises, operations and dialogues than ever before.”
In a major step forward in our relationship, India and Australia undertook maritime patrol aircraft deployments to each other’s territories for the first time, he noted and added that in November alone, the two countries conducted increasingly complex and sophisticated exercises in Indo-Pacific Endeavour and Exercise Austrahind.
Abusing someone with caste name during argument won’t lead to SC/ST Act case: HC (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Indian Polity)
Abusing someone with the name of their caste or uttering the caste name suddenly during an exchange, by itself, will not be sufficient to establish an offence under the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and the Scheduled Tribes (STs) Prevention of Atrocities (PoA) Act, unless there is intent to humiliate the victims specifically for their caste or tribal identity, the Orissa High Court (HC) held in a recent judgment.
The March 1 order was passed by a single-judge Bench of Justice R.K. Pattanaik, which essentially quashed charges framed under the SC/ST Act, as prayed by the accused among other things, while also holding that other charges framed against the two accused needed to be tested at trial.
The case pertained to a 2017 incident, where the accused had got involved in an altercation with some other people.
The prosecution’s case noted that the complainant was returning home, when he was abused, assaulted and terrorised by the accused persons.
Eventually, passers-by intervened, at which point the accused used the caste slur against one of them. The High Court noted that the alleged victim was himself not the complainant in the case.
Under these circumstances, the High Court ruled, “If someone is abused with the name of his caste or the caste is uttered suddenly in course of events and during the incident, in the humble view of the court, by itself would not be sufficient to hold that any offence under the SC and ST (PoA) Act is made out unless the intention is to insult or humiliate the victim for the reason that he belongs to Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) is prima facie established.
Navy’s major operational level exercise TROPEX concludes (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
The Indian Navy’s major operational-level exercise, TROPEX, for 2023, conducted from November 2022 to March 2023, culminated this week in the Arabian Sea.
The overall exercise construct included a coastal defence exercise, ‘Sea Vigil’, and an amphibious exercise ‘AMPHEX’, the Navy said. The exercise saw participation from the Army, the Air Force and the Coast Guard.
TROPEX-23 witnessed the participation of approximately 70 Indian Navy ships, six submarines and over 75 aircraft. Its culmination brings to an end an intense operational phase for the Indian Navy that commenced in November 2022.