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India has started Operation Kaveri to evacuate its nationals from conflict-torn Sudan, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said.
According to information available here, nearly 3,000 Indians are stuck in various parts of Sudan, including the national capital, Khartoum, and distant provinces such as Darfur.
Operation Kaveri gets under way to bring back our citizens stranded in Sudan. About 500 Indians have reached Port Sudan. More on their way.
Our ships and aircraft are set to bring them back home. Committed to assist all our brethren in Sudan,” Mr. Jaishankar said in an announcement.
India had earlier stationed two C-130J heavy-lift aircraft in Jeddah and sent INS Sumedha to Port Said for the operation. The evacuation acquired urgency in view of the total breakdown of essential services in Sudan. Food and water are in short supply, and there is power outage.
Indians in the region have reached out to the government, showing videos of indiscriminate attacks that also targeted residences of the Indian community and looting of essential items by the rebel paramilitary.
The political crisis in Sudan turned into a countrywide armed conflict on April 15 after a disagreement between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) over the Security Sector Reform (SSR) spiralled into an armed confrontation between the commanders of the two wings.
The conflict left hundreds of Indians stranded at the airport in Khartoum. They subsequently took shelter in nearby hotels as fighting intensified.
The fighting also enveloped the Indian Embassy in Khartoum, forcing Indian diplomats to work remotely while they maintained contact with the members of the Indian community stranded in the country.
States
Governors should not sit over Bills, says Supreme Court (Page no. 3)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Supreme Court sent a strong message that Governors should return Bills that they do not agree to “as soon as possible” and not sit over them, making State Legislative Assemblies wait indefinitely.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud referred to the first proviso to Article 200 of the Constitution, which mandates that Governors should not dally over Bills sent to them for assent after they had been passed by Legislative Assemblies.
The observation is part of a judicial order of the court in a petition filed by the State of Telangana complaining that Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan has kept pending several important Bills sent to her for assent in September 2022.
The court agreed that the proviso to Article 200 clearly mandates that Governors should “as soon as possible” return Bills, other than Money Bills, for reconsideration by the House with a note that the proposed law should be reconsidered.
The phrase ‘as soon as possible’ has a significant content and must be borne in mind by constitutional authorities. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the observation in the order was not necessary, and it was not better to “generalise”.
He referred to a communication from Governor Ms. Soundararajan’s office on Sunday, which updated that there were no Bills pending with her.
Mr. Mehta said the court’s observation in the order concerning Article 200 would give an impression that there was no “constitutional compliance” on the part of the Telangana Governor.
Chief Justice Chandrachud said the observation does not point to anyone, but the court had only generally stated the law.
Editorial
Pending Bills, the issue of gubernatorial inaction (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Tamil Nadu Governor was again in the news recently when the Tamil Nadu Assembly passed a resolution urging the President of India, among other things, to fix a timeline for assent to be given to Bills passed by the Assembly.
The immediate provocation for the resolution was the Governor’s public statement, on April 6, where he implied that if the Bill passed by the legislature transgresses constitutional limits, then it is the Governor’s responsibility not to give assent. Several Bills passed by the Assembly have been pending as the Governor has not made any decision.
Passing a resolution by the Assembly, requesting the President of India to issue directions to the Governor to ensure that he functions in accordance with the Constitution is a new constitutional development. Article 355 of the Constitution says that it shall be the duty of the Union to ensure that the government of every State is carried on in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.
The general meaning and purpose of the Article was explained by B.R. Ambedkar in the Constituent Assembly: to provide justification for the “invasion of the provincial field” which the Union government may have to do.
But the Constitution is a dynamic document whose concepts and doctrines have been interpreted and reinterpreted and also expanded by courts from time to time to meet the changing needs of society.
Although this Article was meant to provide justification for central intervention in the States, its scope and range needs to be widened.
The Constitution requires the Governor to act when a Bill is passed by the Assembly and present it to him as per the options given in Article 200.
If he does not act in accordance with the Constitution and sits on the Bills indefinitely, he is creating a situation where governance of the state cannot be carried on in accordance with constitutional provisions.
In such a situation, the government of the State has a constitutional duty to invoke Article 355 and inform the President about it, and request her to give suitable instructions to the Governor to ensure that the government is carried on in accordance with the Constitution. In that view of the matter, a resolution by the Assembly should be considered legitimate action.
Article 200 provides options to the Governor when a Bill is presented to him after being passed by the legislature. These options are: to give assent; to withhold assent; to send it back to the Assembly to reconsider it; or to send the Bill to the President for his consideration.
Indian diplomacy and the horses of interest, morality (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
During her official visit to India, on April 10-12, 2023, Ukraine’s First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Emine Dzhaparova bluntly put across the dichotomy of India’s pursuit of its interests in global affairs — as it always must — and, at the same time, appear to follow the path of morality, as a Vishwa Guru.
She tweeted [Emine Dzheppar]: “Happy to visit India that gave birth to many sages, saints and gurus. Today #India wants to be the Vishwaguru, the global teacher and arbiter. In our case we’ve got a very clear picture: aggressor against innocent victims. Supporting [Ukraine] is the only right choice for true Vishwaguru.”
Naturally, Ms. Dzhaparova was forcefully presenting her country’s case, but what she said cannot be ignored because what she asserted publicly, is, according to some observers, being articulated discreetly and privately by foreign diplomats.
They are pointing to the wide variance between India’s desire to be a moral teacher and the cold pursuit of its interests in not condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
All this is meant to push India to criticise Russia openly for its invasion of Ukraine even though India has made its unhappiness with Russia’s action against Ukraine already clear, including through Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s oft-quoted comment, “This is not an era of war.”
India has been accused in the past of contradictions in what it prescribes for the global community and what it pursues itself. When India was severely critical of U.S. actions in Vietnam, and earlier the Anglo-French invasion of Egypt in 1956 against President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s nationalisation of the Suez Canal, U.S. and western diplomats often pointed to its relative ‘silence’ on Soviet operations in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and later Afghanistan.
However, there was a basic difference between the dialectic of Indian discourse on foreign affairs then and what is now being projected as part of the Vishwa Guru project.
Then, India’s foreign policy principles were rooted in contemporary World Order’s principles. Now, the inspiration flows from the wisdom of ancient India, with the claim that its worldwide application would contribute to the welfare of the planet.
Explainer
The Wagner group’s actions in Africa (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
After fighting erupted in Sudan’s capital Khartoum on April 15, questions have been raised over the involvement of the Wagner group, which has been active in African countries for years.
The Wagner group is a Russian paramilitary organisation headed by Yevgeny Prigozhin. Though it has been reportedly engaged in counter-militancy operations in Africa, its involvement is believed to have a more extensive scope covering political, economic and military fields.
There have also been reports of the group supplying arms and weapons, and training regional forces in fighting jihadist threats. Despite its involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war, the Wagner group’s presence in Africa has continued.
By siding with the domestic actors in a civil war situation, the group’s actions have impacted the democratic process in Africa.
Additionally, the West has been raising concerns over human rights violations and abuse of civilians related to the Wagner group’s presence in Africa.
The Wagner group has been active in Sudan, Mali, the Central African Republic, Mozambique and Libya in Africa. The activities are related to providing direct support to authoritarian governments, supporting rival leadership engaged in internal wars, filling the void created by the withdrawal of the French military engagement, taking part in resource exploitation etc.
The Wagner group presents itself as a security provider to a few governments, mostly authoritarian ones in Africa. It has also been supporting rival leaders engaged in a civil war.
In Sudan, it began deployments during former President Omar al-Bashir’s rule in 2017. The group’s ties with Sudan aimed at guarding mineral resources, notably gold mines, and therefore, supported Bashir’s government against international opposition.
It also played a direct role in suppressing the Sudanese uprising in 2019 that toppled Bashir’s regime.
In Sudan, Russia has recently forged a strong relationship with the Rapid Support Forces (RSP) and its commander, General Mohamed Hamadan Dagalo. The latter is a rival leader fighting against the Sudanese army. However, there are, as of now, only speculations on Wagner’s involvement in the ongoing violence in Sudan. Besides, Russia is set to sign an agreement with Sudan to build a military base in Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
News
Demystifying Kesavananda Bharati case, webpage delves deep into history (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud announced that the Supreme Court has created a special webpage for the Kesavananda Bharati case in which a 13-judge Bench, the largest constituted in the court’s history, through a wafer-thin majority of 7:6, held that Parliament cannot amend the “Basic Structure” of the Constitution.
The webpage, the CJI said, would host the complete submissions, petitions and judgments in the historic case, also called the Fundamental Rights case.
The CJI had recently compared the “Basic Structure” of the Constitution to the “North Star”, an unfailing guide which shows the way when the path appears convoluted.
The webpage dedicated to the 1973 case has been created in the face of recent criticism from high constitutional authorities that the Basic Structure doctrine diluted parliamentary sovereignty.
The Kesavananda Bharati judgment had cropped up during the government’s recent criticism of the collegium system of judicial appointments.
Law Minister Kiren Rijiju criticised the striking down of the 99th Constitutional Amendment and the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act in October 2015.
In the NJAC judgment, the Supreme Court upheld the collegium system and held that the NJAC was an encroachment on judicial independence, a part of the Basic Structure.
The Kesavananda Bharati judgment held that Parliament cannot use its constituent power to alter the essential features of the Constitution.
The Basic Structure or framework of the Constitution was its living spirit, holding up the body of its text. Its existence cannot be pinpointed to any particular provision of the text. It was the “soul” of the Constitution.
As an aftermath of the judgment, Justice A.N. Ray, the fourth in line of seniority and who was part of the minority which upheld the unlimited power of Parliament to amend the Constitution, superseded Justices J.M. Shelat, K.S. Hegde and A.N. Grover to become the 14th Chief Justice of India. All three of his colleagues resigned.
Vibrant Villages plan to be merged with PM Gati Shakti (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Infrastructure)
The Centre’s ambitious Vibrant Villages Programme (VVP), which aims to develop infrastructure and open up villages along the China border to tourists, will be integrated with the Prime Minister’s Gati Shakti mega project.
The digital platform of the Gati Shakti project brings 16 Ministries, including Railways and Highways, together for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects and allows departments to break operational silos.
The Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics (BISAG-N) in Gujarat has been roped in to provide satellite images and GIS mapping of the projects that will be taken up under the scheme.
An official said that BISAG-N will be tracking the infrastructure and other land-use changes in the border villages for real-time monitoring.
One of the objectives of the Vibrant Villages Programme is to stop migration of border population, a senior government official said.
The report on demands for grants of the Union Home Ministry tabled in Parliament on March 20 stated that the objective is to motivate people to continue to stay there and “it will also help to gather intelligence from the people of border villages.”
On February 15, the Union Cabinet approved the programme to cover 2,967 villages in 46 border blocks of 19 districts in four States and one Union Territory along the China border. Of these, 662 villages will be prioritised for coverage.
The scheme has been allocated ₹4,800 crore for the financial years 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26. The amount allocated for road construction is ₹2,500 crore.
Malaria set to be notifiable disease across India even as cases show a decline (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
Malaria is all set to become a notifiable disease across India, with Bihar, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Meghalaya too in the process of putting the vector-borne disease in the category.
This will then require by law that cases be reported to government authorities. Currently, malaria is a notifiable disease in 33 States and Union Territories in India.
Confirming the development, a senior Health Ministry official said this is part of India’s vision to be malaria-free by 2027 and to eliminate the disease by 2030.
The Health Ministry has also initiated a joint action plan with the Ministry of Tribal Affairs for malaria elimination in tribal areas.
Meanwhile, delivering the keynote address at the Asia-Pacific Leaders’ Conclave on Malaria Elimination on Monday, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said that in India, malaria is not just a public health issue but also a social, economic, and political challenge that requires the cooperation of all stakeholders.
India was the only high-burden, high-impact country in the southeast Asia region to report a decline in malaria cases in 2020 as compared to 2019. India witnessed a 85.1% decline in malaria cases and 83.36% decline in deaths during 2015-2022.
The Health Ministry added that there is now availability of near-real time data monitoring through an integrated health information platform (HIP-Malaria Portal) and periodic regional review meetings to keep a check on malaria growth across India.
Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh, World Health Organisation regional director, southeast Asia, added that countries affected by malaria in this region should accelerate the reach of high-impact tools and strategies to prevent, detect and treat it.
Intensified efforts must be made to reach at-risk and vulnerable populations with currently available strategies and tools. Globally, children in the poorest households are five times more likely to be infected with malaria.
Malaria is also more prevalent among young children whose mothers have a lower level of education and live in rural areas. Reaching these populations with available malaria prevention, diagnosis and treatment is critical for achieving the global technical strategy for malaria 2016-2030 and Sustainable Development Goal targets and delivering on the promise of zero malaria for everyone, everywhere.