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No country can take even an inch of Indian territory, Home Minister Amit Shah said on Monday during a visit to Arunachal Pradesh, as he launched a village development programme right at the country’s easternmost border village.
Taking aim at China just days after Beijing attempted to rename a number of places in the State, Mr. Shah said India’s borders were secure and could not be violated, even if the land measured only “the tip of a needle”.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry responded sharply to the visit, claiming it violated Chinese territory. Today, the entire country can sleep peacefully because of the bravery and sacrifices of our ITBP [Indo-Tibetan Border Police] and Army jawans.
As ITBP and Army personnel are deployed, nobody can encroach upon our land covered even by the tip of a needle,” Mr. Shah said, adding “there can be no compromise with the respect of our Army and borders.”
Mr. Shah was addressing a public gathering after unveiling the ₹4,800-crore Vibrant Villages Programme (VVP) to be executed in 2,967 villages across 19 districts in four border States, including Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, and the union territory of Ladakh.
The project cost includes ₹2,500 crore for road connectivity from 2022-23 fiscal to 2025-26. The event was held at Kibithoo in Arunachal Pradesh’s an jaw district, which shares borders with China and Myanmar.
The Home Minister’s visit came one week after Beijing said it would “rename” 11 places in the north eastern State, in an attempt to lay claim to the entire State.
Editorial
Finland’s journey, from neutral to NATO (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
On April 4, 2023, Finland joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), becoming its 31st member. Undoubtedly, this is a significant event, given that NATO security guarantees will extend to this country which shares a 1,340 kilometre border with Russia.
This historical moment in NATO’s history was full of symbolism, since NATO had clearly scored an additional point against Russia. During the flag-raising ceremony in Brussels, the NATO Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg, said, “Finland is safer, and NATO is stronger with Finland as an ally.”
As predicted, Russian authorities have signalled possible ‘countermeasures’ to the alleged ‘assault on its security and national interests’.
Though they have blamed NATO for aggravating the tensions, this development must be seen as an independent decision of both Finland and Sweden, triggered largely by the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Finland is certainly not the first and will not be the last neighbour of Russia to join the alliance. Before Finland’s accession, countries such as Norway (1949, and a founding member), Latvia (2004), Estonia (2004), Poland (1999) and Lithuania (2004) were already a part of NATO. In this scenario, Russia needs to learn how to navigate through these growing complexities, which it is partly responsible for.
For nearly 200 years, the ‘relationship between Finland and Russia has been a combination of struggle and compromise. In 1809, the Russian Tsar Alexander I defeated Sweden, acquired Finland, and made it an autonomous Grand Duchy of the Russian empire. In 1917, the collapse of the Tsarist regime and the Bolshevik Revolution paved the way for the full independence of Finland’.
Between the two world wars, the Finns felt ‘less threatened by Germany than by Russia, even during the era of the Third Reich. In October 1939, Stalin proposed a revision of the Finnish-Russian border — where Peter the Great’s frontier had been laid out in 1721.
A month later, the Soviet Union attacked Finland, employing fraudulent pretexts and justifications. The Winter War of 1939-1940 lasted three and a half months; the Finns lost important portions of their territory but retained their independence’.
The war between the (erstwhile) Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Finland resumed in 1941, supported by the Finnish alliance with the Third Reich. Finland had been defeated but was able to avert enemy occupation.
Opinion
A crucial six months for India-U.S. ties (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
The next six months are going to be crucial for India-U.S. ties. In March, the U.S. finally announced its next Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti, after a gap of two years.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to head to the U.S. in June, and U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to visit India for the G20 summit later this year. There will also be greater engagement between the two countries on forums such as the G20, Quad, and I2U2.
The presence of Mr. Garcetti, who is known to be a close confidante of Mr. Biden, in Delhi is a sign of things to come. While his appointment signifies the potential for greater partnership, there are also differences in opinion to be overcome in the U.S.-India relationship.
The U.S. may want India to change its stance on the Ukraine crisis, while India may seek to persuade the U.S. to have a stronger position against China. While India would seek greater partnership with the U.S., it would also be reluctant to sever its stable relations with Russia. Moscow has just released its foreign policy strategy in which it has identified China and India as its main allies. India is also the president of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a forum that includes China and Russia, until September. On the other hand, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s overtures to India will be watched as it seeks greater participation from Delhi.
There are also strong areas of convergence between India and the U.S. The India-U.S. Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology, launched in 2022, is expected to expand strategic technology partnership and defence industrial cooperation between the governments, businesses, and academic institutions of the two countries.
Explainer
On Finland’s journey to join NATO (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
On April 4, 2023, Finland finally became the 31st country to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) after applying last May.
The Finnish president, Sauli Niinistö, marked the event by stating that “the era of military non-alignment in our history has come to an end”.
The move to join the security alliance was precipitated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year, Finland’s historical experience with Moscow, and the changing nature of international geopolitics with a declining Russian influence.
The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, responded to Finland joining NATO with “naturally, this forces us to take countermeasures to ensure our own tactical and strategic security”.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that while it will respond with “military-technical measures”, the specifics of its actions will depend on the terms under which Finland joins NATO.
The Ministry deemed the now-defunct policy of non-alignment as a “wise decision” and said that Finland has now “lost its independence”.
It made clear, in no ambiguous terms, that this decision “will have a negative effect on the bilateral relations between Russia and Finland”.
Before the First Soviet-Finnish War, Russia sought to establish a buffer zone along its western border as a means of protecting itself because of its history of being invaded by foreign powers through Finland.
Lingering tensions from the Russian Revolution and the Finnish Civil War between 1917 and 1918 as well as unresolved issues from the Treaty of Dorpat in 1920 were responsible for the First Soviet-Finnish War.
The Second Soviet-Finnish War, which took place between 1941 and 1944 ended with the defeat of Finland. Finland lost territories to the Soviet Union and had to pay war reparations.
This, coupled with the independence process in 1917, the civil war between 1918 and 1919, and the Lapland War in 1944 impacted the collective psyche of the Finns.
This made Finland pursue a pragmatic security policy which was flexible enough to balance its autonomy with the need for military cooperation with the West. It was careful of not taking overt actions which could be seen as a security threat by Moscow.
How have recent weather events affected wheat crop? (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Agriculture)
The unusual rise in mercury in February this year, followed by an untimely spell of widespread rain accompanied by gusty winds and hails during the month of March in parts of the country’s key grain-producing States — Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Gujarat — have left wheat-growing farmers worried as they anticipate a drop in yield (productivity), output (production) and quality.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), fairly widespread rains along with stormy winds between 40-50 kilometers per hour lashed several parts of the major wheat-growing States in the country during March, under the influence of consecutive western disturbances.
Rain spells accompanied by winds are not considered to be a good sign for the crop’s health if they are close to the ripening and harvesting stage, especially if there are instances of water logging in the fields.
Unfortunately, there have been instances of crop flattening in fields, besides water logging, which could be detrimental for the ready-to-harvest wheat crop.
Wheat, a key rabi (winter) crop is sown between late October till December; it nears the ripening stage in the month of mid-March, and harvesting of the early sown varieties usually commences by the end of March itself.
The IMD data suggests that between March 1 and April 9, large excess rains (40% more rain than normal) were received in several States.
News
Efforts on to open Zojila Tunnel ahead of deadline: Gadkari (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Infrastructure)
Union Minister for Transport and Roadways Minister Nitin Gadkari, who inspected the strategically important Zojila Tunnel that connects the Kashmir Valley with the Union Territory of Ladakh, said it will realise the dream to have an all-weather road from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.
Mr. Gadkari said efforts are being made to open the tunnel for traffic ahead of its deadline set for 2026. “We are planning to open part of the project earlier than 2026.
He said the importance of connecting Kashmir and Ladakh was strongly felt by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee during the Kargil war between India and Pakistan.
The decision to speed up work comes at a time when troops of India and China are eyeball to eyeball in parts of Ladakh since the Galwan incident in 2020.
India has matched its build-up to the Chinese along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh. Sonamarg is a key route for troops to reach Ladakh.
However, the Zojila Pass becomes inaccessible for more than three months in winter and is prone to accidents due to shooting stones and landslides.
The 13.14-km tunnel will facilitate round-the-year transportation of goods to Ladakh and better movement of the armed forces in case of emergency.
Preventive detention gives arbitrary power to the state’ (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Supreme Court observed in a judgment that preventive detention laws in India are a colonial legacy and confer arbitrary power to the state.
A 27-page judgment authored by a Bench led by Justice Krishna Murari described preventive detention laws as “extremely powerful”. They have an ability to provide the state with unfettered discretion, the court warned.
In such a circumstance, where there is a possibility of an unfettered discretion of power by the government, this court must analyse cases arising from such laws with extreme caution, to ensure that there are checks and balances on the power of the government.
The court said judges should ensure that the government has followed every procedure of law while flexing preventive detention powers against individuals. “Every lapse in procedure must give rise to a benefit to the case of the detenue,” Justice Murari observed.