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In a dramatic turn of events which followed months of speculation that he was cosying up to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar led a split in the party and joined hands with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Though he claimed to have the support of all MLAs of the party, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, his uncle, made it clear that he did not back the move.
Mr. Ajit Pawar took oath as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra for the fifth time, setting a record for the largest number of appointments to this position since it was created in 1978. He will share the post with Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP, who holds a battery of portfolios, including Home and Finance.
In a hurriedly conducted ceremony at the Raj Bhavan, eight NCP legislators — Chhagan Bhujbal, the NCP chief’s close confidant Dilip Walse-Patil, Hasan Mushrif, Aatram Dharamraobaba Bhagwantrao, the late BJP leader Gopinath Munde’s nephew Dhananjay Munde, Aditi Tatkare, Sanjay Bansode, and Anil Patil — were inducted as Ministers in what is now known as the “Shinde-Fadnavis-Pawar government”.
Ms. Tatkare, daughter of Lok Sabha member Sunil Tatkare, became the first woman Minister in the Shinde government. Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal and the NCP’s newly appointed working president and former Union Minister, Praful Patel, were present at the ceremony.
States
Kerala govt. to move SC against Governor sitting on many Bills (Page no. 4)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Faced with an unprecedented constitutional crisis following the Kerala Governor “sitting” on nine Bills passed by the State Legislature, the State government is all set to move the Supreme Court.
The government will approach the top court once it resumes functioning after the vacation. Given the unusual situation, the government is left with no other option but to move the apex court, highly placed legal sources said.
The recent apex court order in a petition by the Telangana government that the Governor shall return the Bills as soon as possible has come as a shot in the arm for the Kerala government.
The State would argue that the Governor holding the Bills indefinitely would lead to the collapse of the parliamentary democracy system and derail the constitutional framework laid down for the governments to function.
However, the move may further widen the divide between Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and the State government, it is feared.
The State government had last week sought the Advocate General’s (AG) opinion on the course of action to be followed to tide over the situation.
The government feels that the Governor’s action went against Article 200 of the Constitution, which provided him the option of giving or withholding assent to a Bill or reserving it for the President’s consideration.
The Constitution also provides that the Governor may, as soon as possible after the presentation of the Bill to him for assent, return it together with a message requesting that the House reconsider the Bill itself or any of its specified provisions.
However, government sources say, the Governor has not opted for any of these constitutional provisions but was inordinately delaying the decision.
Editorial
A case of unchecked power to restrict e-free speech (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Constitution)
On June 30, 2023, the Karnataka High Court dismissed Twitter’s challenge to the issuance of blocking orders by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in connection with the taking down of Twitter accounts and specific tweets.
The High Court admonished Twitter for not complying with the orders and imposed an astounding cost of ₹50 lakh on the United States-based social media company.
The judgment undermines the right to free speech and expression and also paves the way for the state to exercise unchecked power while taking down content without following established procedure.
Moreover, it exhibits a new trend to hinder digital rights and the exercise of free speech on the grounds of the dissemination of false speech.
Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, empowers the state to issue blocking orders in cases of emergency on the grounds such as “sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to the above”.
The Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009 (Blocking Rules) lays down the procedure for any blocking order issued under Section 69A.
This provision’s constitutionality was challenged in Shreya Singhal vs Union of India, where the Supreme Court of India upheld the validity of Section 69A and the Blocking Rules after observing that sufficient procedural safeguards were embedded, such as provision of recording a reasoned order, and providing notice to the intermediary and the originator whose content was sought to be blocked.
Opinion
The master plan and the slaves (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Amitabh Kant, India’s G20 Sherpa, stressed at a recent Urban-20 City Sherpas’ meet that a master plan is crucial for any city to manage urbanisation.
A master plan is an instrument of governance for urban local bodies (ULBs). It has recently received extensive attention in national policy discussions, and rightly so.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has recommended that master plans in cities should be revisited for the improved governance of cities.
The National Mission for Clean Ganga has been advocating such a step to protect urban water bodies; yet, the idea has not advanced beyond exhortations. Much needs to be understood, for the scholarship on master plans is puzzlingly shallow.
The renewed focus on the concept of a master plan is to be welcomed. But few acknowledge its distinct status as the sole statutory instrument of governance.
Many plans to improve sanitation, infrastructure and social inclusion are dependent on particular programmes, but these are at best ephemeral and incremental as they are centrally funded.
The discourse tends to blur this distinction and, as a result, obscures the significance of the master plan as the instrument of governance.
A further complication is that the master plan is an archaic concept whose sales-pitch is more spectacular than its performance. There are at least four reasons for this.
First, the master plan instrument is dated. The concept, configuration and rationalities of this instrument as well as the institutional structures surrounding it are conceived by template legislations drafted in the 1950s.
These were then replicated by States as laws of town planning. These conceptions do not accommodate later sensibilities, such as the imperatives of environmental protection that can be linked to 1974 when the Water Act was enacted.
While this is a central legislation focused on industrial pollution, the legal and institutional frame of the master plan remained unchanged with its archaic conceptions of land development for urban service rationalities.
Second, a master plan is simply a spatial plan of land-use allocation supported by bye-laws and development control regulations. Thus, it essentially embodies a spatial vision for cities.
Explainer
The calm after the storm for Pakistan? (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Over the last 15 months, Pakistan faced a myriad of challenges, including confrontations between the government and the opposition, disagreements between the Parliament and the judiciary, instability in Punjab, clashes between the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and the Establishment (Pakistan army), an economic meltdown, and the devastating impact of the 2022 floods.
Even by Pakistan’s standards, the situation was tumultuous, with fears of a debt default and a military takeover looming on the horizon. However, a few developments in June across political, military and economic sectors suggest a semblance of normalcy returning to Pakistan.
During the last week of June, the Parliament passed the Elections (Amendment) Act 2023, providing the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) the sole responsibility of deciding when to conduct elections.
Now the ECP decides the next election date, instead of the President as was previously the case. In March 2023, the President, who was appointed by former Pakistan Prime Minister and PTI chief Imran Khan, announced the election date for the Punjab provincial assembly without consulting the Parliament.
The Supreme Court supported this decision, which created a conflict between the court and the Parliament, leading to political instability. The situation played right into Mr. Khan’s hands.
However, the new legislation would inevitably result in the ECP announcing the election dates for the national and provincial assemblies at a later date during 2023. This aligns with the ruling Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition.
A delayed election would suit the Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), something that Mr. Khan was totally opposed to.
The new legislation also means that self-exiled former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif can return and contest the forthcoming elections.
A primary reason for PTI to insist on early elections and the PML-N to refuse it, is related to this reason. Mr. Khan believed that the existing situation favoured him in Punjab.
But if Mr. Sharif is to return, and the elections get delayed, then the Sharifs would hold an edge in Punjab (and thereby also at the national level). It is now looking like an advantage for the PML-N.
Text
Why has the IMF’s view on the crypto market in Latin America changed? (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
On June 22, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued a statement on the use of cryptocurrency in the Latin American and Caribbean market, and about the rising interest in blockchain-based central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
The global monetary authority ended its statement noting that a ban on crypto “may not be effective in the long run” in the region. The international organisation’s change in stance on crypto in the LatAm market has raised eyebrows everywhere.
Countries like Argentina, Chile, and Columbia have experienced devaluation of their currency against the U.S. dollar. To preserve the value of their savings, some residents have explored converting their funds to U.S. dollars.
However, there are legal restrictions controlling this. Others have chosen to convert their assets to stablecoins — cryptocurrencies designed to reflect the value of fiat currencies such as the U.S dollar. Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Ecuador are among the top 20 in Chainalysis’ 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index.
Separately, a number of central banks in the Latin American market are considering CBDCs, meaning that more people could soon be exposed to blockchain-based infrastructure.
El Salvador is the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin — the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation — as its legal tender.
The country with a population of 6.5 million adopted Bitcoin on September 7, 2021 under the leadership of President Nayib Bukele, who is an ardent crypto supporter.
He has since bought over 2,000 BTC and continued to buy even as the crypto market suffered crashes, joking about getting the asset for cheap.
El Salvador uses a digital wallet known as Chivo to regulate users’ crypto transactions. However, there have been complaints about the wallet causing funds to disappear and enabling identity fraud.
News
India, China ramp up infra on north bank of Pangong lake (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Three years after the violent clash between Indian and Chinese forces in Galwan followed by tanks facing each other around the Pangong Tso — a lake spanning eastern Ladakh and western Tibet — there is hectic activity in the area from both sides.
While China is rushing to complete a bridge across the Pangong Tso, connecting the north and south banks, India is also building a black-topped road on its side on the north bank.
These are among a number of infrastructure projects initiated on both sides since the stand-off, permanently altering the status quo on the ground in eastern Ladakh, even as the two sides await the 19th round of Corps Commander-level talks to find a resolution to their dispute in the region.
“Construction of black-topped road towards Finger 4 on our side is on and is expected to be completed by 2025. There is major impetus on infrastructure, road networks, advanced landing grounds and so on,” an official source said, on condition of anonymity.
This was also confirmed by another official source. In addition, construction work is at an advanced stage on the alternative axis to the critical Darbuk-Skyok-Daulat Beg Oldie road through the Saser La, the source stated.
On the Chinese side, the source said that work is now under way on the main bridge, while the secondary bridge has been completed.
Recently, large-scale construction activity was observed on the north bank. Apart from the bridge, work on road connectivity along the south bank towards Shandong village is also under progress, another official source said, citing intelligence inputs. A Chinese air defence site is located east of the Khurnak fort.
A 22-km tunnel is under construction along the G-0177 expressway at Yuli, connecting to the very important G-216 highway in Tibet.
News
MPs on Standing Committee given paper that says UCC is ‘not necessary or desirable’ (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice, headed by Sushil Modi, BJP MP, will meet on Monday to begin deliberations on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).
The panel has circulated the 2018 consultation paper of the 21st Law Commission on the subject to its members. The paper argued against the UCC, saying it is “neither necessary nor desirable”.
Representatives from the Legal Affairs Department, Legislative Department and Law Commission have been invited for the meeting.
The consultation paper, “Reform of family law”, which the committee is using as the basis for its debate while advocating against the UCC, has argued for the “codification of all personal laws so that prejudices and stereotypes in every one of them would come to light and could be tested on the anvil of Fundamental Rights guaranteed by the Constitution”.
By the codification of different personal laws, the paper said, one can arrive at certain universal principles that prioritise equity rather than the imposition of a UCC.
The commission then suggested certain measures in marriage and divorce that should be uniformly accepted in the personal laws of all religions.
The Congress has also quoted this very document to draft its stand on the issue. Congress general secretary (communication) Jairam Ramesh, in a statement on June 15, a day after the 22nd Law Commission announced its intention to revisit the subject, pointed to para 1.15 of the paper, which states that a UCC is “neither necessary nor desirable” at this stage.
Questioning the Law Commission’s decision to revisit the issue, “This latest attempt represents the Modi government’s desperation for legitimate justification of its continuing agenda of polarisation and diversion from its glaring failures.”