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In one of his sharpest attacks on Pakistan over terrorism and Jammu and Kashmir, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar called his visiting Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari a “promoter, justifier and a spokesperson” of the terror industry.
Speaking after the meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Goa Friday, Jaishankar said, “As a Foreign Minister of an SCO member state, Mr Bhutto Zardari was treated accordingly.
As a promoter, justifier and a spokesperson of a terrorism industry, which is the mainstay of Pakistan, his positions were called out and they were countered including at the SCO meeting itself.”
“You know, victims of terrorism do not sit together with perpetrators of terrorism to discuss terrorism. The victims of terrorism, defend themselves, counter acts of terrorism, they call it out, they delegitimise it and that is exactly what is happening.”
So, to come here and preach these hypocritical words, as though we are on the same boat, I mean, they are committing acts of terrorism.
And you know, I don’t want to jump the gun on what happened today (referring to the attack in J&K in which 5 soldiers were killed) but I think we are all feeling equally outraged. Let’s be very, very clear on this terrorism matter. I will say Pakistan’s credibility is depleting even faster than its forex reserves.
Express Network
IIT Madras launches survey, and website to address students' mental health concerns (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
The Indian Institute of Technology Madras has launched a wellness survey with the objective of reaching out to the stakeholders in the campus.
The survey is being carried out by an independent agency which will get in touch with all the people on campus— students, staff, faculty members of the institute.
The survey is undertaken under the aegis of National Health Mission (NHM) by the government of Tamil Nadu. Over 30 counsellors have been deployed for this survey.
The survey process involves a one-to-one conversation with the wellness specialist assigned by the NHM.
The wellness programme was inaugurated by professor V Kamakoti, director of IIT Madras. He also started an initiative ‘Kushal Programme,’ which aims to bridge a close association between individual students and faculty for their wellness.
Professor Kamakoti said, “Happiness is a collective responsibility. IIT Madras is committed to work towards ensuring wellness of all in her campus.”
Editorial Page
Fault lines in Imphal (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Internal Security)
The large-scale communal riots that have spread like wildfire in Manipur since May 3 are deeply disturbing and have exposed the collapse of law and order in the state.
The immediate spark for the violence was provided by the retaliatory destruction of the Anglo-Kuki War Memorial Gate in Leisang and razing of Vaiphei houses in Kangvai village by Meitei mobs following the beating up of a Meitei driver whose tripper truck hit a bike and ran over a stock of water bottles kept for use by peaceful tribal protestors in Lamka on the same day.
However, these riots seem to follow an established pattern witnessed in other parts of India. This pattern follows what Paul Brass calls an “institutionalised riot system” (IRS), wherein riots are prepared, activated and sustained with explanatory justifications.
Brass argued that far from being unpredictable, unpreventable and spontaneous, Hindu-Muslim riots are manufactured and sustained by an institutional ecosystem. If early reports about the riots in Manipur are any indication, it could fit as a textbook case of Brass’s IRS.
Cure don't criminalise (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
Himachal Pradesh is reportedly considering joining Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh as states that have legalised cannabis cultivation.
The plant has uses in pharmacology and industry The production, manufacturing, possession, consumption, sale, purchase, transport and use is prohibited and criminalised by the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act 1985. The law was an outcome of the US-fuelled global “war on drugs” in the 1970s.
Criminalisation was intended to deter the use of drugs. However, drug dependence has increased over the years across the world.
In India, 3.1 crore people are reported to have used a cannabis product in the last 12 months and about 72 lakh people required help to address their cannabis dependency-related problems.
Criminalisation means long pre-trial incarceration and stigmatisation of users. Very often, they lack access to de-addiction centres.
The 2001 amendment to the law does have a mitigating provision — it differentiates between those who possess a “small quantity” of the drug and those found storing it in “commercial quantities”.
This is a welcome step in distinguishing between “drug users” and “drug traffickers”. However, possession of the drug (for personal consumption) or consuming it for recreational purposes remains an offence under the Act.
Such cases constitute 60 per cent of the total NDPS cases reported in India – in Maharashtra, the figure is as high as 85 per cent.
Ideas Page
Partnership of equals (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
During a recent visit to an East Asian country, I had the opportunity to meet a senior minister who asked me an interesting question: “Will India lead us?” This was an unusual question given the standing of that country. But it demonstrated the growing stature and relevance of India in the region.
India’s rise in significance as a pole in the Indian Ocean region, to which many regional countries would gravitate, is an important strategic development of the century. I politely told the minister that the era of the “leader and the led” was over.
India is not building any military alliances in the region. Yet, it has managed its foreign policy so diligently that it helped generate hope and confidence in the minds of many leaders in the neighbourhood. Even the two power blocs led by America and Russia-China want to maintain good relations with it.
The last century witnessed bipolar politics of military alliances led by the Soviet Union and the United States dominating the geostrategic landscape of the world. But the new century brought new realities.
Bipolarity gave way to multipolarity and heteropolarity. Several states and minilaterals emerged as important poles. On the other hand, the growing influence of non-state powers like the big tech and global NGOs has led to the rise of a heteropolar world order.
Explained
Covid is no longer an emergency: what changes? (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday said that Covid-19 was no longer a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, and that the focus would now be on the long-term management of the infection.
The novel viral infection came to light after China reported a cluster of pneumonia cases with no known cause from Wuhan on December 31, 2019. By the end of January 2020, nearly 10,000 cases had been reported, including more than 100 cases in 19 other countries.
WHO raised its highest level of alert and termed the infection a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, a designation that remained in place for over three years.
SARS-CoV-2 was a novel virus about which very little was known in the initial days. Later, as many patients reached hospitals with pneumonia and in need of oxygen support, doctors and researchers discovered that the infection put the immune system into overdrive, leading to a cytokine storm when immune cells started attacking the patient’s own organs. This tended to happen more in the elderly, and in those with existing comorbidities like diabetes.
“There are three conditions for declaring a disease a public health emergency. One, it is spreading across several countries. Two, it is leading to serious illness, hospitalisations, and deaths.
Three, serious stress on health systems because of the disease. Covid-19 fulfilled all three conditions in 2020 and 2021,” Dr K Srinath Reddy, Distinguished Professor, Public Health Foundation of India, and former member of India’s Covid-19 task force.
India has reported 4.43 crore cases and 5.3 lakh deaths due to Covid-19 so far. Globally, the number of infections has crossed 76.5 crore, and caused 69.2 lakh deaths.