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Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that Central laws such as the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) had given an impetus to the system in a decisive fight against terrorism.
The Prime Minister said the police should be equipped to face not only those Naxals who hold a gun but also those who wield a pen and mislead the youth by exploiting their emotions.
He said such forces who get “international support” should not be allowed to take roots as they were detrimental to the unity and integrity of the country.
Mr. Modi’s statement on the anti-terror legislation UAPA comes at a time when the Supreme Court is examining a petition that has challenged the validity of the law.
The Opposition on several occasions has accused the government of misusing the UAPA against political opponents. AIMIM President AsaduddinOwaisi tweeted that in 2018-20, as many as 4,690 people were arrested under the UAPA but only 3% were convicted.
UAPA gives his govt power to jail anyone without accountability. UAPA is an evil law, it does nothing to stop terrorism.
Addressing the two-day State Home Ministers’ meet at Faridabad in virtual mode, Mr. Modi said one should not be limited to social media as the only source of information.
He said a piece of single fake news had the capability to snowball into a matter of national concern. He expressed concern about the losses that India had to face due to fake news about job reservations in the past.
He stressed the need to educate people about analysing and verifying any piece of information before forwarding it to others. “We have to come up with technological advancement to face a fake news-driven society.
He said India’s progress at global stage had also posed many challenges. “First, attempts will be made to belittle your achievements, then the rivals will come in a competition mode.... many world powers will not want that India occupies the market.
They think they have the expertise and certain markets are their fiefdom, when you challenge the arrangement, enmity creeps in. It is human nature, so we must be equipped to face such challenges.He said law and order was not limited to any particular State and crime was now inter-State and even international.
HC plea challenges delimitation of municipal wards (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, Indian Polity)
The Delhi High Court on asked the Centre, Delhi government and the Centre-appointed delimitation committee for their response to a plea against the final report on the demarcation of municipal wards in the city.
The petition, filed by Delhi Congress chief Anil Kumar, challenges the final delimitation report, which was published by the Centre in a gazette notification on October 17, paving the way for the MCD polls.
The Congress leader in his plea highlighted a ‘disparity’ in terms of the population of wards and sought a fresh delimitation exercise while clarifying that he is not against the municipal election per se.
The need for the delimitation exercise arose after the Centre amended the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957 to unify three erstwhile municipal corporations into a unified MCD. On July 8, the Centre constituted a three-member delimitation committee to execute the delimitation of municipal wards.
The report prepared by the committee was ratified by the Centre through a gazette notification earlier this month. The civic elections in the Capital are expected to be held before the end of the year. The High Court has posted the hearing on the petition for December 14.
Mr. Kumar, in his petition, stated that the formula adopted by the authorities for the delimitation exercise was “wholly, arbitrary, irrational, unintelligible, confusing and suffered from various legal infirmities”.
Senior advocate Salman Khurshid, who appeared for the petitioner on Friday, argued that the notified delimitation does not reflect “equal and proportionate representation” as there is a “disparity” in terms of the population of wards.
It added that, as per the final report, 77 wards have a population of more than 71,500 and 69 wards have a population of less than 58,500.
According to the plea, the delimitation committee has carved out the wards “as per their own whims and fancies in a most amorphous manner.
The Congress leader’s petition also alleges that the wards have been divided along the lines of community and religion, in violation of basic tenets of the Constitution.
The Gazette notification speaks volumes about the ill will in relation to the Dalit and minority population. The splitting of Dalit and minority population... has been done under conspiracy to bulldoze their voice.
Plea to protect Tulu, Kodava languages in Kannada Bill (Page no. 1
(GS Paper 2, Indian Polity)
Speakers of Tulu and Kodava have opposed the draft of the Kannada Language Comprehensive Development Bill, 2022, which aims to ensure the “extensive use and propagation” of Kannada.
They have sought that various dialects spoken within Karnataka too should get protection under the ambit of the Bill.
In a bid to give a legal framework and teeth to various rules and regulations on giving primacy to Kannada, the S.R. Bannurmath-headed committee submitted the draft of the Kannada Language Comprehensive Development Bill, 2022, to the government which was tabled in the recently concluded legislature session. The Bill provides for penalties for violations of rules, with fines prescribed for various offences.
Tulu and Kodava language activists have termed the Bill “a threat to minority languages” in the State. Various organisations representing the Kodava and Tulu languages in Kodagu and Coastal Karnataka regions are now preparing for a legal battle.
According to State Reorganization Act, 1956, Kodava and Tulu languages were used as part of the administration in their respective districts.
The Bill only gives importance to Kannada and to use English for administrative purposes like communication with the Union government or in courts etc., but there is no mention of Kodava and Tulu. This will further increase the fear among the native speakers about the language vanishing.
Karnataka as a heterogeneous State should have protected its subaltern languages and cultures in general, and Kodava, Tulu and Konkani in particular, in all spheres as per Articles 347, 350, 350A and 350 B under 7th Amendment to the Constitution R/w State Reorganization Act, 1956.
But in contrast, the State government is preparing a Bill to legislate Kannada as the only language formula, stating that they are preparing for a legal battle soon along with like-minded organisations from Coastal Karnataka, contending that the law could harm minor languages.
Meanwhile, Tulu organisations have already held a protest against the Bill. “When Tulu speakers are demanding to include Tulu in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, the State government has brought this Bill which will only harm Tulu and other minority languages spoken in the State. Kannada should be given priority, but other sister languages should be treated equally.
Asked for a response, ManjulaNaik, Secretary, Kannada and Culture Department, said that the Bill is only focused on the development of Kannada.
The Bill is proposed for the overall development of Kannada and will not have any adverse impact on the other languages in the State.
Editorial
Careless threats (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
Russia’s allegation that Ukraine was planning to launch a so-called dirty bomb shows how dramatically the Ukraine conflict has escalated. Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu held talks with many of his global counterparts, including Rajnath Singh, accusing Ukraine of potential “nuclear terrorism”.
A dirty bomb is not a nuclear bomb but a conventional explosive device with radioactive materials, the explosion of which could turn swathes of land uninhabitable for decades.
Ukraine and its western backers have rejected the Russian allegations, saying the Russians, who have suffered setbacks, are making unfounded claims for a false flag attack.
It is difficult to ascertain what is going on behind the fog of a full-scale war, but the talk of dirty bombs and nuclear terrorism does not bode well.
Ever since the U.S’s nuclear bombing of Japan in 1945, the world has largely treated the nuclear option as taboo. Even in 1962, when the Soviet Union and the U.S. were on the brink of conflict, their leaders managed to end the crisis amicably through dialogue.
But unfortunately, Vladimir Putin’s threat of using all means available to him to protect his country and Joe Biden’s warning of a “nuclear Armageddon” are tantamount to normalising the nuclear option in the middle of a conflict that is in an escalatory spiral.
What is more surprising is that even as the war is steadily deteriorating, there is no conscious effort by any side to start a dialogue.
Russia says it is ready for talks but has not given any concrete proposals, and its offer for talks cannot be trusted, especially after it announced the annexation of four partially controlled Ukrainian regions.
Ukraine says it will not hold talks with Russia as long as Mr. Putin is in power and that it intends to fight till all Ukrainian regions are liberated, including Crimea.
Ukraine’s western backers say they would continue to support Ukraine’s resistance “as long as it takes”. As all sides take maximalist positions, escalation is creating its own dynamic, taking the whole world hostage.
Eight months of war have already created economic and humanitarian disasters. And there are greater fears of a direct conflict between Russia and NATO, two nuclear forces.
What more do the stakeholders of this war want before they actually begin serious talks? They should realise that unchecked escalation with an open possibility of a Russia-NATO war would be catastrophic for the whole world.
The death penalty and humanising criminal justice (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
As a conservative agency of the state, the Supreme Court of India is ordinarily expected to tread the path laid out by the written text of law and the binding precedents.
But there do come some exceptional moments when, either because of inspired leadership or the burden of anomalous operations of criminal justice, the agencies feel free to break the shackles that force it to the conservative frame.
It must go to the credit of the Chief Justice of India (CJI), Justice U.U. Lalit that as the 49th CJI of India, he has ushered in that rare moment by taking several bold initiatives to correct certain grave anomalies that have persisted in operation of the death penalty law.
Even before taking up the office of the CJI, Justice Lalit had displayed unique sensitivity to the plight of the condemned ‘death-row prisoners’ in Anokhilal vs State of M.P. (2019), Irfan vs State of M.P., Manoj and Ors vs State of M.P. (May 2022), and impart corrections in the form of creative directions/guidelines.
Such a corrective line of judicial decisions under the CJI’s leadership has continued in the Prakash Vishwanath and review petition order in the Mohd. Firoz cases.
The empirical evidence and research findings contained in the Death Penalty India Report (2016) and the ‘Deathworthy’ report(Project 39A of the National Law University Delhi) came in handy to buttress the exceptional sensitivities of Justice Lalit.
It is a happy augury that the CJI had the unique opportunity of teaming up with like-minded judges such as Justices P.S. Narasimha, S. Ravindra Bhat, Bela M. Trivedi, and Sudhanshu Dhulia.
The focus here is on reframing ‘Framing Guidelines Regarding Potential Mitigating Circumstances to be Considered While Imposing Death Sentences’, a decision authored by the three judge Bench (the current CJI and Justices Ravindra Bhat and Sudhanshu Dhulia, September 19, 2022).
The decision stands out because of the thrust on the trial court’s death sentencing policies and the practice and desire to elicit, from a larger Bench, directions to ensure some kind of uniformity in the matter.
Such a reference to a larger Bench would constitute yet another step in the direction of death penalty sentencing justice reform such as the legislative limitation flowing from Section 354(3) in the Code of Criminal Procedure; judicial limitation flowing from the ‘rarest of rare’ case; and ‘oral hearing’ after all the remedies to the condemned are exhausted.
At COP27, move the needle on climate action (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
India and other developing economies are justifiably worried about the damage to growth from COVID-19, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and the global economy’s downturn.
But these troubles pale in comparison with the climate catastrophe already resulting from the current trajectory of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, whose effects hit developing economies and the poor hardest.
That is why it is imperative that COP27 — the United Nations’ climate summit which opens in Egypt from November 6 — makes real advances to stave off the worst effects of global warming.
This means going beyond COP21’s important Paris agreement (2015) on national commitments to cut GHG emissions and COP26’s notable Glasgow agreement (2021) to stem deforestation.
Despite nervousness in making bold commitments in these uncertain times, a breakthrough must be made in rectifying decades of lopsided emissions by rich countries.
They are still unwilling to offset past excesses by extending the massive financing that developing economies need for climate action. Just as problematic is the continuous and heavy burning of fossil fuels by the top five emitters — China, the United States, India, Russia, and Japan — as well as Southeast Asian countries taken together.
What is worse, many of their plans are woefully inadequate for reaching carbon neutrality by 2050 to help keep temperatures rise below 2°C as envisaged in the Paris agreement.
COP27 would be a success if progress is made on both these issues. One way would be for the summit to name the countries that are most out of line and ask them to do more.
On the other hand, rich countries have already shown that they can mobilise vast resources to tackle global emergencies.
They did this in the 2008–09 global financial crisis and spectacularly so in the $15 trillion committed in 2020 (by one estimate), by the major economies to fight COVID-19.
But when it comes to climate change, rich countries are failing dismally in raising the UN-goal of at least $100 billion annually in climate finance for developing countries. COP27 should move the needle on this vital area.
Reaching carbon neutrality by 2050 is the absolute minimum for all major emitters if unthinkable scenarios of global warming are to be averted.
News
Cong. says EC does not have jurisdiction to regulate freebies (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Indian Polity)
The Election Commission (EC) does not have the jurisdiction to regulate issues such as freebies and the poll panel instead should focus on ensuring free and fair polls by properly implementing the exisiting election laws, the Congress said in its response to the EC.
On October 4, the poll panel had proposed amending the model code of conduct (MCC) to ask political parties to provide authentic information to voters on the financial viability of their poll promises.
In a letter to all recognised national and state parties, the Commission had asked them to submit their views on the proposals by October 19.
The Congress, however, sought a day’s extension from the poll panel to submits its response because of the party’s presidential elections.
“Neither the Election Commission, nor the government, nor indeed even the courts, have jurisdiction to justiciate and regulate such issues.
It would therefore be best for the commission to desist from doing so”Congress general secretary communications JairamRamesh said in the letter to EC on October 20.
It is really something which is to be decided, be it pre-election or post-election, be it by way of electoral punishment or electoral acceptance and reward that the electorate decides the wisdom of such poll promises or campaign assurances and equally decides their breach and non-compliance.
Apart from questioning jurisdiction, the Congress party’s letter raises the fundamental issue of how does one define freebies, enforceability of a standardised format of poll promises and called “the problem a contrived one”.
Mr. Ramesh urged that the poll panel should focus on implementing the existing laws on poll violations and in that context mentioned about his party’s previous complaints about referring to armed forces in election rallies.
Yet the ECI disposed of those complaints, giving a clean chit to the PM and HM, thereby, in our opinion, emboldening the continued violation of election laws that followed.
Sharing the letter at a press conference on Friday, party spokesperson SupriyaShrinate said the matter first came up when Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 16 raised the issue of “revris” (freebies) at a rally in Bundelkhand, after which the EC took up the issue and wrote to parties seeking their response.
Ms. Shrinate said the debate on the issue of “revris” in a democracy is distorted as it is the duty of any government to take care of the poor and oppressed classes, and evolve schemes for their uplift.
The Congress in its response to the EC proposal has said that “the issue does not fall under the poll body’s jurisdiction” and asked “how can the Election Commission decide on the definition of freebies”.
Twitter must act against hate speech, says Rahul (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 2, Indian Polity)
Congratulating billionaire Elon Musk for his acquisition of Twitter, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi said he hoped that the social media platform would act against hate speech, undertake robust fact check and not stifle the Opposition in India.
He also shared a data graph to allege manipulation of his followers. The graph claimed that between August 2021 and February 2022, when he tweeted about a rape victim, the number of his followers were suppressed.
The Congress leader claimed that he had made 20 appeals to Twitter, even as the social media giant denied any wrongdoing.
However, his followers started growing again after an expose by The Wall Street Journal alleged the Union government’s influence on the social media platform.
Mr. Gandhi’s Twitter handle was temporarily locked after he shared a picture of a rape victim and received a notice from the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).
‘One nation, one police uniform’ is ideal: Modi (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Fridy mooted the idea of “one nation, one police uniform”. He was addressing the State Home Ministers’ conference on internal security issues in Faridabad, Haryana.
Mr. Modi said he was not imposing his views on States, but it was an idea worth deliberating on. He said police uniforms should have a brand recall just like the red-and-black post boxes in the country.
On the lines of one nation, one ration card; one nation, one mobility card; one nation, one sign language, we should think of one nation, one police uniform.
This will benefit the police personnel as quality product will be available. The production of belts, caps and uniform will be on mass scale.
He added that just like post boxes could be identified from a distance even by unlettered persons, similarly a common police uniform would ensure a distinct identity to the police.
Most police forces adorn shades of khaki-coloured uniforms, a few such as the police in Kolkata, Tamil Nadu and Goa don white uniforms.
Speaking at the conference, Nagaland’s Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister Y. Patton said he hoped that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) would be removed from more areas in Nagaland in future.
He added that due to continuous improvement in the law and order situation in the State, the Centre had removed the AFSPA from 15 police station limits in seven districts and the State Police had put in place a special security plan in all the de-notified areas.
Mr. Patton said: “We have further geared ourselves up for taking full responsibility for all the areas which have been taken out of the AFSPA and we have been able to keep the situation firmly under control.
We are sure that with the situation becoming even better, the Central government will consider bringing out more areas from the AFSPA in the near future and trusting the State government to take full responsibility of the security and law and order in all these areas.
Panel raises data privacy concerns in draft telecom law (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Indian Polity)
The draft telecommunication Bill, put out last week for public comments, hints at a disturbing governmental pursuit, for more control over a range of digital applications and over-the-top streaming services that millions of Indians use daily.
It seeks to do this by bringing them under the ambit of telecommunication services, the operation of which would require a licence — that is if the draft provisions do go through.
This means the likes of WhatsApp, Zoom, and Netflix will be considered telecommunication services. And so would a whole range of digital services that are anyway regulated by the IT Act.
This, the Government wants to do, by a wide expansion of the definition of what constitutes a telecom service. The new definition includes everything from broadcasting services to electronic mail, from voice mail to voice, video and data communication services, from Internet and broadband services to over-the-top communication services, including those that the Government may notify separately.
It is all well to state, as the Government has done, that the country requires a new legal framework, and not the existing one that is based on the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, to deal with the realities of the 21st century.
But, it is not just technology that has evolved in over a century but also a democratic society’s understanding and expectations of user rights, privacy and transparency.
Not long ago, the highest court in the country acknowledged a citizen’s right to privacy as a fundamental right. This draft, however, disappoints on the above counts.
According to it, for instance, the Government has the powers to prevent a message from being transmitted “on the occurrence of any public emergency or in the interest of the public safety”.
Another clause in the draft Bill requires an entity that has been granted a licence to “unequivocally identify the person to whom it provides services”.
A similar clause under the IT rules brought in last year — requiring messaging apps to “enable the identification of the first originator of the information on its computer resource” — has been challenged in the Court.
There are enough valid reasons to doubt whether this is even technically possible without breaking encryption and making all communications vulnerable.
While this is not to underplay the mounting challenges for ensuring security, the repeated attempts by the Government to be able to tap into all kinds of communication, without making sure the common man has a legal armour in the form of a data protection law, is extremely problematic.
The Government needs to upgrade its thinking on users and privacy. This draft needs to go back to the drawing board.
21.4 lakh TB cases notified in India in 2021: Health Ministry (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
India’s TB incidence for the year 2021 is 210 per 100,000 population – compared to the baseline year of 2015 (incidence was 256 per lakh population in India) and there has been an 18% decline which is 7 percentage points better than the global average of 11%, said the Health Ministry, while reacting to the World Health Organizataion (WHO) Global TB Report 2022, released on October 27.
Stating that India had done better in major metrics as compared to other countries over time the Ministry said that the figures placed India at the 36th position in terms of incidence rates (from the largest to the smallest incidence numbers).
The WHO released the Global TB Report 2022 which took into account the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the diagnosis, treatment and burden of disease for TB all over the world.
According to the WHO report an estimated 10.6 million people fell ill with tuberculosis (TB) in 2021, an increase of 4.5% from 2020, and 1.6 million people died from TB (including 187 000 among HIV positive people).
The organisation’s 2022 Global TB report added that the burden of drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) also increased by 3% between 2020 and 2021, with 450 000 new cases of rifampicin-resistant TB (RR-TB) in 2021.
This is the first time in many years an increase has been reported in the number of people falling ill with TB and drug resistant TB.
TB services are among many others disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, but its impact on the TB response has been particularly severe. Ongoing conflicts across Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East have further exacerbated the situation for vulnerable populations.
While the COVID-19 pandemic impacted TB Programmes across the world, India was able to successfully offset the disruptions caused, through the introduction of critical interventions in 2020 and 2021 – this led to the National TB Elimination Programme notifying over 21.4 lakh TB cases – 18% higher than 2020.
It attributed this to measures including mandatory notification policy to ensure all cases were reported to the government etc. In 2021, over 22 crore people were screened for TB as per official data.
The WHO report also noted the crucial role of nutrition and under-nutrition as a contributory factor to the development of active TB disease.
In this respect, the TB Programme’s nutrition support scheme – Ni-kshayPoshanYojana – has proved critical for the vulnerable. During 2020 and 2021, India made cash transfers of 89 million dollars (INR 670 crore) to TB patients through a Direct Benefit Transfer programme, said the Ministry.
Also in September this year the first-of-its-kind initiative, Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyanwas launched in India to provide additional nutritional support to those on TB treatment, through contributions from community including individuals and organisations. Till date, 40,492 donors have come forward to support over 10,45,269 patients across the Country, said the Ministry in its release.