3rd FIPIC Summit in Papua New Guinea (GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Why in news?
- Recently, PM Modi and Papua New Guinea's PM James Marape led the third India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) Summit 2023. 14 countries from the Pacific Islands (PICs) attended the summit.
What is FIPIC?
- The Forum for India–Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) was launched during PM Modi’s visit to Fiji in November 2014.
- FIPIC includes 14 island countries – Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu – that are located in the Pacific Ocean, to the northeast of Australia.
What was the idea behind FIPIC?
- Despite their relatively small size and considerable distance from India, many of these islands have large exclusive economic zones (EEZs).
- EEZs is the distance up to which a coastal nation has jurisdiction over the ocean, including both living and non-living resources. It generally goes to 200 nautical miles or 230 miles (around 370 km) beyond a nation’s territorial sea.
- India’s larger focus is on the Indian Ocean where it has sought to play a major role and protect its strategic and commercial interests. The FIPIC initiative then marks a serious effort to expand India’s engagement in the Pacific region as well.
- Based on 2021-22 data, the total annual trade between India and Pacific Island countries is valued at $570 million, in commodities such as plastics, pharmaceuticals, sugar, mineral fuel and ores. Among them, Papua New Guinea is the biggest trade partner in terms of value.
FIPIC summit:
- FIPIC-I, in 2014, took place at Suva, Fiji’s capital city. India announced various development assistance initiatives and other cooperation projects in areas of climate change, trade, economy, telemedicine and teleeducation, IT, grants for community development projects, etc.
- At FIPIC-II in 2015 in Jaipur, India again announced similar initiatives. India also approached the event from a large diplomatic perspective, calling for a “dedicated seat for Small Island Developing States in an expanded and reformed UN Security Council in both categories”.
- In 2019, the India-Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS) Leaders’ Meeting (comprising delegations of 12 out of the 14 Pacific Islands countries) was held on September 24, 2019 in New York on the sidelines of the 74th UN General Assembly.
- The Indian government then announced an allocation of $12 million grant ($1 million to each PSIDS) towards implementation of high-impact developmental projects in the area of their choice.
- In addition, a concessional Line of Credit of $150 million, which can be availed by the PSIDS for undertaking solar, renewable energy and climate related projects based on each country’s requirement, was announced.
What happened at the FIPIC summit 2023?
- The third FIPIC summit was to be held in early 2020 but was postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
- During his concluding remarks, the Indian Prime Minister announced initiatives such as:
- Establishment of a super-specialty cardiology hospital in Fiji. The Indian government will bear the full cost of this mega greenfield project.
- Sea ambulances will be provided to all the 14 Pacific island countries.
- He noted that in 2022, a Jaipur Foot Camp was conducted in Fiji where prosthetic limbs were provided free of cost to more than 600 people. He said another similar camp will be set up in Papua New guinea in 2023 and starting from 2024, two such camps will be organised every year in the Pacific island countries.
- The PM also pledged to provide desalination units for the people of every Pacific Island country.
The tussle over ‘services’ in Delhi
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Why in news?
- A Constitution Bench headed by the Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud on May 11 held that the Delhi government can make laws and administer civil services in the national capital.
- The court limited the role of the Lieutenant Governor (LG), an arm of the Centre, over bureaucrats in the capital to three specific areas — public order, police and land.
- However, on May 19, the President promulgated the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023 to make a fresh claim of power over the services in the capital.
What does the Ordinance say?
- The government has used the Ordinance route to indirectly return to its original position which it had taken in May 21, 2015 through a Home Ministry notification.
- The notification, which formed the bone of contention between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government and the Centre for the past eight years, gave the Lieutenant Governor (LG) power over the services. It required the LG to consult the Chief Minister only at his “discretion”. The notification had excluded Entry 41 (services) of the State List from the scope of powers of the Delhi government.
NCCSA:
- The Ordinance forms a “permanent” National Capital Civil Service Authority (NCCSA) with the Chief Minister as chairperson, and the Chief Secretary and Principal Home Secretary as Member and Member Secretary, respectively.
- The NCCSA exercises authority over civil service officers working in all Delhi government departments except those in public order, police and land.
- It would decide transfers, postings, prosecution sanctions, disciplinary proceedings, vigilance issues, etc, of civil service officers deputed to Delhi government departments by majority of votes of the members present and voting. The Lieutenant Governor’s decision, in case of a difference of opinion, would be final.
- This throws open a scenario in which bureaucrats in the NCCSA could possibly veto the Chief Minister. The Ordinance explains that the Chief Secretary would represent “the will of the officers of GNCTD” (Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi).
Neutral path by Supreme Court:
- The Supreme Court had envisaged a “neutral civil service” carrying out the day-to-day decisions of the Council of Ministers. The NCCSA attempts to bring civil service officers out of the administrative control of the elected Ministers, who embody the will of the people, and transform them into a power lobby.
- The Ordinance, by creating the NCCSA, skirts the emphasis laid down in the judgment on the “triple chain of command” in the governance of Delhi. The court had held that the civil services were accountable to the Ministers of the elected government, under whom they function.
- The Ordinance also does not heed the President’s own Transaction of Business Rules of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi, 1993.
- The Supreme Court had held in 2018 that “a significant aspect of the Rules is that on matters which fall within the ambit of the executive functions of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCTD), decision-making is by the government comprising the Council of Ministers with the Chief Minister at its head”. This view was reinforced on May 11, 2023.
K. Balakrishnan Committee:
- The court had also dismissed the K. Balakrishnan Committee’s specific recommendation that the “services” should not be included within the legislative and executive ambit of the NCTD.
- The court held that the committee report was not relevant as it preceded the insertion of Article 239AA — the provision that deals with the governance structure of Delhi, in the 69th Constitution Amendment, 1991.
Does the Ordinance go against the Supreme Court judgment?
- The Ordinance is based on the argument that the Supreme Court has itself acknowledged the superior authority of Parliament to make laws for the national capital.
- A review petition filed by the Centre in the Supreme Court claimed that Delhi is not a “full-fledged State” but only a Union Territory which is an extension of the Union. The Parliament is Delhi’s true legislature, the Centre has argued.
- However, the May 11 judgment addresses this contention by acknowledging that though Delhi is not a full-fledged State, its Legislative Assembly is constitutionally entrusted with the power to legislate upon the subjects in the State List and Concurrent List.
- The unanimous judgment held that though Delhi is not a State under the First Schedule to the Constitution, it is conferred with power to legislate upon subjects “to give effect to the aspirations of the people of NCTD”. It has a democratically elected government which is accountable to the people of the NCTD.
- Under the constitutional scheme envisaged in Article 239AA(3), NCTD was given legislative power which though limited, in many aspects is similar to States. In that sense, with the addition of Article 239AA, the Constitution created an “asymmetric federal model” with the Union of India at the centre, and the NCTD at the regional level.
What does the Ordinance and the judgment say about the LG’s powers?
- The Ordinance has put the LG back in the driver’s seat by giving him the power to take a final call on any decision taken by the NCCSA regarding services. This is despite the fact that the LG’s powers were curtailed way back in 2018 by another Constitution Bench judgment.
- On May 11, the court had agreed with its conclusions in 2018 that the LG was bound by the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers under Article 239AA(4) while exercising executive powers in relation to matters falling within the legislative domain of the legislative assembly of NCTD.
- The court had held that even the “limited discretionary power” afforded to the LG “ought to be exercised in a careful manner in rare circumstances such as on matters of national interest and finance. The Lieutenant Governor could not refer every matter to the President”.
What lies ahead?
- An Ordinance is not beyond judicial review of the apex court. If the 2023 Ordinance is challenged separately, the Union would have to prove the “extraordinary or emergent situation” which necessitated it to promulgate an Ordinance merely days after a Constitution Bench settled the law.
- A Constitution Bench in DC Wadhwa versus State of Bihar had held that the power of the Executive to promulgate an Ordinance should not be “perverted to serve political ends”.
