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China has set up a ropeway near the Torsa Nala on its side of the India-Bhutan-China tri-junction, and is strengthening roads and other infrastructure along the entire eastern sector, according to defence sources.
In the Yangtse area of Tawang sector in Arunachal Pradesh, which saw a scuffle last week, defence officials with knowledge of the area said China had stepped up patrols some years ago to assert its claims in the area, after finding that their grazers could not move in and out.
The Chinese usually patrol two to three times a year, before and after winter, one of the sources said, adding that there are four major ingress points in the Yangtse area which the PLA uses to enter the region. Yangtse is located 30-35 km northeast of Tawang and is at an altitude of around 17,000 feet.
The PLA has installed a ropeway close to the Torsa Nala on their side near the confluence point, and some new anchor points of the ropeway have been recently observed.
Officials said that there is also a lot of activity near the Torsa Nala near Doklam, a location that saw a 73-day standoff between Indian and Chinese forces in 2017.
States can enact laws on uniform civil code, Law Minister tells Rajya Sabha (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The States are empowered to enact personal laws that decide issues such as succession, marriage and divorce, in their endeavour to secure a uniform civil code (UCC.
The Minister made these remarks in a written reply to a question posed by Communist Party of India (Marxist) member John Brittas, asking whether the Centre was aware of the States formulating their own laws with respect to the uniform civil code.
Article 44 of the Constitution provides that the State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.
Personal laws such as intestacy and succession, wills, joint family and partition, marriage and divorce, relate to Entry 5 of List-III-Concurrent List of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution, and hence, the States are also empowered to legislate upon them.
The Law Minister’s comments assume significance given the backdrop of several Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled States announcing their intention to implement the UCC.
While Uttarakhand was the first to set up a panel to explore the possibility of a common civil code, the Gujarat government also announced its intention of doing so just ahead of its Assembly election.
The party had made the implementation of the UCC a part of its Himachal Pradesh manifesto as well, although it lost the Assembly election.
Earlier this month, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said a committee would be constituted to implement the UCC.
Editorial
Reflections on the fading principle of non-intervention (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The President of India, Draupadi Murmu, and the Vice-President of India, Jagdeep Dhankhar, have weighed in on the surpassing significance of the separation of powers in the Indian Constitution. However, both did so in different ways, in substance and style.
In her valedictory address on November 26 to the Constitution Day celebrations organised by the Supreme Court of India, Ms.Murmu said, “The Constitution outlines a map for good governance.
The most crucial feature in this is the doctrine of separation of functions and powers of the three Organs of the State. It has been the hallmark of our Republic that the three organs have respected the boundaries set in place by the Constitution.
It is understandable that in the zeal to serve the best interests of the citizens, one or the other may be tempted to overstep.
Yet, we can say with satisfaction and pride that the three have always attempted to keep the boundaries in mind while doing their best to function in the service of the people.
These measured words do not point a finger at any particular organ of state. Ms. Murmu cautions them all against excessive “zeal” which may lead to transgressing the “boundaries” set for them by the Constitution.
Indeed, it can be said without fear of contradiction that seldom has a leader sounded a caution so delicately and yet so effectively. Her wise counsel should be a guide to the political class and the judges.
Mr. Dhankhar, in his capacity as Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, addressed the House (“258th session of the Rajya Sabha”) for the first time on December 7.
The sublimity of the Doctrine of Separation of Powers, is realised when Legislature, Judiciary and Executive optimally function in tandem and togetherness, meticulously ensuring scrupulous adherence to respective jurisdictional domain.
Opinion
Is the RTI Act fulfilling its purpose? (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Right to Information (RTI) Act was passed by Parliament in 2005, aiming to give people access to the records of the Central and State governments.
It was a vital reform to help activists and individuals ensure transparency and accountability in governance. In a discussion moderated by Sonikka Loganathan, Anjali Bhardwaj and Saurav Das take stock of what’s working and the issues that appear to be weakening the law. Edited excerpts:
It has been one of the most empowering legislations for people because this is the one law that puts an obligation on the government to respond to them in a time-bound manner, to get them information to hold the government accountable.
The law has, in many ways, tilted the balance of power in favour of those governed. That is, I think, something that people in the country at large have understood.
So when there is denial of their rights and entitlements such as their rations, pensions, medicines in hospitals or education in schools, they reach out to government departments to file an RTI application, and very often they do get information.
We have seen that a majority of the RTI applications are filed by people who are asking about their basic rights and entitlements. So it has fulfilled its purpose to that extent.
The other thing is that to hold high offices to account, people have used the RTI law to know what is happening with taxpayers’ money.
This has enabled them to expose big-ticket scams such as the Adarsh, Commonwealth Games and Vyapam scams. They’ve also been able to expose human rights violations, and then force accountability in those cases as well.
News
Need a new appointment system to fill vacancies in higher judiciary: Rijiju (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The issue of vacancies and appointments in the higher judiciary will continue to arise until a new system is created. The Law Minister’s comments, made while giving answers to supplementaries during the Question Hour, comes in the midst of an ongoing war of words between the government and the Supreme Court over the delay in appointments to the higher judiciary.
Asked if the government would revive the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act, Mr. Rijiju said that several prominent jurists, retired judges, advocates, and leaders of political parties have opined that the striking down of the Act by the Supreme Court was not correct.
The issue of the NJAC Act, which sought to replace the current Collegium system, has also been raised by Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar twice over the past 15 days.
As on December 9, 777 judges are working in the High Courts against the sanctioned strength of 1,108, leaving a vacancy of 331 or 30%.
To fill these vacancies, 147 proposals are at various stages of discussion between the Supreme Court Collegium and the Union government, while the names for another 184 vacancies are yet to be received by the Collegiums of various High Courts.
In a written response, the Minister said that while the government had returned 20 names back to the Collegium, it has appointed 165 judges across various High Courts, making it the highest for a calendar year.
Mr. Rijiju said the total number of cases pending in various courts is about to touch five crore, adding that the impact of such a huge pendency of court cases on the public is obvious.
Curbing air pollution in India needs efforts across South Asia: WB report (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
India has six large airsheds, some of them shared with Pakistan, between which air pollutants move. While existing measures by the government can reduce particulate matter, significant reduction is possible only if the territories spanning the airsheds implement coordinated policies, says a report by the World Bank made public.
Using a modelling approach over South Asia as a whole, the report lays out multiple scenarios and the costs involved in reducing the average South Asian’s exposure to particulate matter.
Currently over 60% of South Asians are exposed to an average 35 g/m3 of PM2.5 annually. In some parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) it spiked to as much as 100 g/m3 – nearly 20 times the upper limit of 5 g/m3 recommended by the World Health Organisation, says the World Bank report.
The six major airsheds in South Asia where air quality in one affected the other were: West/Central IGP that included Punjab (Pakistan), Punjab (India), Haryana, part of Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh; Central/Eastern IGP: Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bangladesh; Middle India: Odisha/Chhattisgarh; Middle India: Eastern Gujarat/Western Maharashtra; Northern/Central Indus River Plain: Pakistan, part of Afghanistan; and Southern Indus Plain and further west: South Pakistan, Western Afghanistan extending into Eastern Iran.
When the wind direction was predominantly northwest to the southeast, 30% of the air pollution in Indian Punjab came from the Punjab Province in Pakistan and, on average, 30% of the air pollution in the largest cities of Bangladesh (Dhaka, Chittagong, and Khulna) originated in India. In some years, substantial pollution flowed in the other direction across borders.
What this means is that even if Delhi National Capital Territory were to fully implement all air pollution control measures by 2030 while other parts of South Asia continued to follow current policies, it wouldn’t keep pollution exposure below 35 g/m3.
World
‘U.S. created Indo-Pacific concept to contain China (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
There “is no such concept as Indo-Pacific” which was “created by the United States” to bring in partners such as India to “contain” China, a Chinese diplomat has said, reflecting Beijing’s hardening opposition to both Washington’s Indo-Pacific strategy as well as regional groupings such as the Quad.
“In fact, there is no such concept as an ‘Indo-Pacific in geopolitics,” Chinese diplomat and Ambassador to France Lu Shaye said in an interaction with French journalists, a transcript of which was published by China’s Embassy in Paris.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who initially dismissed the Quad as an idea that was as transient “as sea foam”, also struck a harder tone earlier this year, when he equated the U.S., Australia, India, Japan Quad grouping with the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance involving the Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the U.S. and U.K. and the AUKUS (Australia-U.K.-U.S.) defence pact.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy is becoming a byword for bloc politics. It professes desire for international cooperation, but in reality is stoking regional rivalry. From Five Eyes and Quad to AUKUS. It is by no means a blessing but a sinister move. The real goal for the Indo-Pacific strategy is to establish an Indo-Pacific version of NATO.
India has strongly pushed back against China’s invoking of NATO as a comparison, and pointed to the fact that India is not a U.S. ally and the Quad was not a military alliance. Indian officials have also rejected China’s argument that the U.S. was “stoking” recent tensions in India-China relations, which New Delhi attributes to Beijing’s aggressive posture along the Line of Actual Control. Most Chinese strategic experts, in contrast, attribute the downturn in relations to India’s increasingly close ties with the U.S.
Mr. Lu, in the interview, also accused unnamed “foreign forces” for being involved in November’s protests in China against lockdowns and restrictions under the “zero-COVID” policy, which were removed finally on December 7.
Beijing had initially announced easing measures in early November, but an outbreak of cases around the country that month led to only more lockdowns, fanning public frustration and culminating in protests end-November.