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From an ivory sculpture of “Moon God Chandra” traced to 2nd-1st century BCE to an eighth-century stone sculpture of “Kamadeva, the God of Love”; from an ink-and-watercolour painting of “Mahishasura Mardini” in 1760 to another in “red ochre and wash on paper” from 1775-80 depicting “Rama and Lakshmana”.
All of them sit, catalogued, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) in New York. What is also common to each is a trail that goes all the way back to a 73-year-old man currently in custody in India.
An investigation by The Indian Express, in association with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and UK-based Finance Uncovered, has found that Met’s catalogue includes at least 77 antiquities spanning centuries, including 59 paintings, with links to Subhash Kapoor, who is serving a 10-year prison term in Tamil Nadu for smuggling antiquities.
Express network
‘Seminal importance’ supreme court refers same sex marriage pleas to 5 judge bench (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 2, Indian Polity)
The Supreme Court referred to a five-judge Constitution Bench the petitions seeking legal recognition to same-sex marriages, saying the matter raises questions of “seminal importance”.
In its order, a three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, said the submissions on the issue involve the interplay between constitutional rights and specific legislative enactments, including the Special Marriage Act, besides the rights of transgender couples.
Having due regard to the broader context of the petitions…and the interrelationship between the statutory regime and constitutional rights, we are of the considered view that it will be appropriate if the issues raised are resolved by a Constitution Bench of five judges of this court having due regard to the provisions of Article 145(3) of the Constitution”.
Under Article 145(3), a minimum of five judges should hear cases that involve “a substantial question of law as to the interpretation” of the Constitution.
The bench, also comprising Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala, listed the matter for hearing on April 18.The government has opposed the petitions and urged the Supreme Court to leave the issue to be decided by the Parliament.
It has told the top court that a “legislative understanding of marriage in the Indian statutory and personal law regime” refers only to marriage between biological men and women and that any interference “would cause complete havoc”.
Editorial page
Price to pay (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Indian Economy)
The data released by the National Statistical Office showed that retail inflation has stayed above the upper threshold of the Reserve Bank of India’s inflation targeting framework for the second straight month.
The headline consumer price index came in at 6.44 per cent in February, only marginally lower than 6.52 per cent in January.
This reversal in the trajectory of inflation — the consumer price index had fallen below the upper threshold of the targeting framework in November and December last year — will complicate the policy options before the monetary policy committee when it meets next in early April as it struggles to balance inflation and growth concerns.
The disaggregated data shows that price pressures continue to remain fairly broad-based. The consumer food price index has eased, but only marginally to 5.95 per cent in February, down from 6 per cent the month before.
Food inflation was driven by cereals, milk and milk products, prepared meals and snacks, and spices, while vegetables fell. Cereal inflation has, in fact, registered six consecutive months of double digit inflation.
Moreover, the outlook is likely to be heavily influenced by rising temperatures. Equally worrying, core inflation continues to remain sticky, signalling price pressures across the economy. Inflation remains elevated in clothing and footwear, household goods and services, health, and personal care and effects.
Ideas page
The great Nicobar choke (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Security)
In a bold, imaginative and strategic move, the government of India has quietly begun to build a holistic naval base on Great Nicobar Island, which stands squarely overlooking the entrance to the Malacca Straits, and is barely 90 miles from the tip of Indonesia.
This step, in terms of chess terminology, is like moving the queen out into the open to give the opposing king a direct check. For instance, it immediately threatens to bring the shutter down on China’s extended neck stretching far out into the Indian Ocean, far westward to Djibouti and Gwadar.
A naval base in Great Nicobar would be the central piece to an oceanic strategy, to offer a counter punch to Chinese aggression in the Himalayas.
Deeply vulnerable in its dependence on imported oil, China’s Indian Ocean lines of communications imports over 65 per cent of its oil dependency. One would think that with such a deep vulnerability, Beijing would tread cautiously on the Himalayan LAC.
But, so far, it has firmly believed that New Delhi is totally and deeply mired in a short-sighted land-centric strategy ignoring the advantages conferred on India by its maritime geography.
Explained
Unrest in Manipur Hills (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The BJP-led Manipur government on March 10 decided to withdraw from the Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement with two hill-based tribal militant groups, alleging they were “influencing agitation among forest encroachers”.
The state government claimed that a protest rally organised recently, defying Section 144, was influenced by the two groups, Kuki National Army (KNA) and Zomi Revolutionary Army (ZRA).
Subsequently, a team of top bureaucrats, including Manipur Chief Secretary Rajesh Kumar, on Sunday (March 12) left Imphal for the national capital to meet the Union Home Secretary to discuss issues pertaining to the withdrawal of the SoO.
While the Naga movement is the country’s longest-running insurgency, underground Kuki groups, too, have fought the Indian government for an ‘independent Kuki homeland’, spread across Manipur.
The Kuki insurgency gained momentum after ethnic clashes with the Nagas of Manipur in the early 1990s, with the Kuki arming themselves against Naga aggression.
What the law says on antiquities abroad (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, Indian Polity)
An investigation, in association with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and Finance Uncovered, has found that the catalogue of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, includes at least 77 items with links to Subhash Kapoor, who is serving a 10-year jail term in Tamil Nadu for smuggling antiquities.
The Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972, implemented on April 1, 1976, defined “antiquity” as “any coin, sculpture, painting, epigraph or other work of art or craftsmanship; any article, object or thing detached from a building or cave; any article, object or thing illustrative of science, art, crafts, literature, religion, customs, morals or politics in bygone ages; any article, object or thing of historical interest” that “has been in existence for not less than one hundred years.”
For “manuscript, record or other document which is of scientific, historical, literary or aesthetic value”, this duration is “not less than seventy-five years.”
The UNESCO 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property defined “cultural property” as the property designated by countries having “importance for archaeology, prehistory, history, literature, art or science.”