📰 Controversial Rajasthan bill sent to Assembly select committee
The bill seeks to protect serving and former judges, magistrates and public servants from being investigated for on-duty action, without its prior sanction.
•Facing flak from various quarters, the Rajasthan government on Tuesday referred a controversial bill that seeks to protect public servants and judges from prosecution without its prior sanction to a select committee of the Assembly.
•Amid an uproar from the Opposition Congress, the Criminal Laws (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill was tabled in the Assembly by Home Minister Gulabchand Kataria on Monday to replace an ordinance promulgated on September 7.
•At the beginning of Question Hour on Tuesday, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rajendra Rathore said Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje held a meeting of Ministers on Monday night to discuss the Bill and that the Home Minister would apprise the House of the development.
•The Home Minister said that prior approval of the President was sought before introducing the ordinance in September.
•On Monday, Independent MLA Manik Chand Surana raised the point that no approval of the President was attached with the Bill. As the Opposition MLAs rushed into the well of the House demanding withdrawal of the Bill, Mr. Kataria said the government would consider the suggestions put forward by the members. He then moved a proposal to refer it to the select committee. The proposal was passed by the Assembly. The select committee was asked to submit a report in the next session.
•The Criminal Laws (Rajasthan Amendment) Ordinance, 2017, seeks to protect serving and former judges, magistrates and public servants in the State from being investigated for on-duty action, without government sanction. It also bars the media from reporting on such accusations till the sanction to proceed with the probe is given by the government.
•The move has been severely criticised by the Congress and the National People’s Party (NPP) and senior BJP MLA Ghanshyam Tiwari. The Editors Guild of India too opposed the “harmful ordinance” and demanded its withdrawal.
•On Tuesday, Mr. Tiwari protested when he was not allowed to raise a point of order. He objected to Speaker Kailash Meghwal giving permission to the Home Minister for giving his statement during Question Hour.
📰 Kambala season to begin on Saturday
The first race will be held in Moodbidri and the last one is scheduled at Talapady
•Kambala, the traditional buffalo slush track race, is set to begin in the coastal belt from November 11, with the Supreme Court on Monday refusing to pass an interim stay on the Ordinance allowing kambala.
•The apex court has agreed to examine the Constitutional validity of the Ordinance on November 13. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), a non-governmental organisation, has challenged the Ordinance.
•According to Barkuru Shantharama Shetty, president, Dakshina Kannada and Udupi Jodukere Kambala Samiti, the first kambala of the current season will kick off at Kadalakere in Moodbidri, Dakshina Kannada, on Saturday and the last one is scheduled at Talapady near Mangaluru on March 18, 2018.
•In all, 19 kambalas have been scheduled under the auspices of the samithi.
•Mr. Shetty said that about 150 kambalas are held in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and neighbouring Kasaragod (Kerala) districts in the season between November and March. Not all are organised under the auspices of the samiti. Mr. Shetty said “The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Karnataka Amendment) Ordinance 2017” is valid till January 20, 2018. The State government is expected to table the modified Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Karnataka Amendment) Bill, 2017 in the current winter session of the Assembly to get approval to pave the way for organising kambala without legal hurdles once the Ordinance expires.
•Though the Legislative Assembly passed the Bill in February 2017, the Union Home Ministry suggested modifications to the Bill and returned it to the State in April. The Ordinance was then passed in July.
•K. Abhayachandra Jain, MLA, Moodbidri, said between 175 and 200 pairs of buffaloes are expected at the Koti Chennaya Kadalakere kambala in Moodbidri on Saturday. The kambala would go on for 24 hours from 8 a.m.
•Mr. Jain, who is also president of Koti Chennaya Kadalakere Kambala Samiti, said many Union and State Ministers, including D.V. Sadananda Gowda and T.B. Jayachandra, have been invited to Saturday’s event.
•Mr. Shetty said the race would be conducted in six categories — kane halage, adda halage, negilu junior and senior, and hagga junior and senior.
📰 India, Russia stand united against terror, says Russian envoy
Ties with India unique and will spread to newer avenues: Russian envoy
•Russia’s relation with India is “privileged and strategic” and Moscow shares New Delhi’s counter-terrorism concerns, said the newly appointed envoy of Russia to India.
•Addressing the media for the first time since his appointment, ambassador Nikolay Kudashev said Russia supported India’s pursuit of global convention against terrorism. “We stand united on majority of issues [with India] including the [UN] comprehensive convention on counter-terrorism,” said Mr. Kudashev.
•On Russia’s stand on OBOR, he said, “Our position is very clear that OBOR is an economic venture. We favour China and India coming to an understanding for the preferred route on this [CPEC].”
📰 Breach in the pact
On GATT’s 70th anniversary, globalisation faces a challenge from its chief architect, the U.S.
•On the 70th anniversary (October 30) of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the multilateral system faces a challenge to its very foundations – from its chief architect. But the genesis of this predecessor agreement to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) holds important lessons for today’s isolationist America under President Donald Trump. It was the U.S. which, since the midst of World War II, championed international cooperation as the only means to counter the rampant restrictive trade practices of the inter-war period.
•This was no mean feat for a country that had legislated the notorious 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. An ostensible move to protect agricultural products, the law raised import duties on some 900 goods, averaging about a 50% hike. To counteract its effects, Canada diverted exports away from its immediate neighbour and largest trading nation, to cash in on the imperial preferences under the British dominion. The retaliation to Smoot-Hawley was no less severe from Europe and Japan.
The birth of WTO
•In its new incarnation, Washington emerged as a staunch votary of the GATT’s so-called Most Favoured Nation principle. Under this non-discrimination provision, tariff concessions agreed by any two contracting parties would be extended immediately and unconditionally to all others. Given the reciprocal nature of commitments agreed among countries, the U.S. was forced to withdraw many of its proposed duty cuts at the 1947 Geneva conference. These proved to be far too ambitious for the British Commonwealth nations which, gripped by a balance of payments crisis, were unwilling to grant matching concessions. There were strong reactions among top U.S. diplomats against Britain’s recalcitrance. The Truman administration, however, deemed it prudent not to walk away from the GATT negotiations in the larger interest of cementing the Western alliance at the beginning of the Cold War. Similarly, despite the incorporation of provisions against protectionism, GATT also codified exceptions that allowed countries to retain the old restrictions on imports for a time. The final Uruguay Round of GATT heralded its successor, the WTO, whose scope extends well beyond tariff reductions to trade in services and much else.
•Seventy years on, there has been a rapid proliferation of bilateral and regional free-trade agreements around the world, raising concerns over trade diversion rather than generation. Even so, the erosion of the larger commitment to the post-war global liberal order has never been more pronounced than under the current Trump administration. The context to this regression is the populist tide against the opening of the U.S. market under the North American Free-Trade Agreement (NAFTA), portraying trade liberalisation as a zero-sum game. Similarly, the rhetoric on the surge in Chinese imports since Beijing’s 2001 accession to the WTO seeks to play down the benefits of cheaper consumer goods and the opportunities in outsourcing and exports. Earlier this year, Washington quit the Trans-Pacific Partnership trading bloc, and continues to threaten taxes on overseas operations of domestic industries and astronomical import tariffs. But as long as the rhetoric does not move into the realm of real action, there is still hope that the damage could be undone.
📰 Spirit of Paris: on the climate change meet in Bonn
The climate change meet in Bonn must heed the 2015 targets, despite the U.S. reversal
•The 23rd conference of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change under way in Bonn faces the challenge of raising the ambition of the world’s leaders, and giving practical form to the provisions of the Paris Agreement. Although 169 countries have ratified the accord, and there is tremendous support for greener, low-risk pathways to growth worldwide, the Trump administration in the U.S., one of the top emitters of greenhouse gases (GHGs), has announced it will withdraw from the pact. Even if it will take until 2020 to achieve an actual withdrawal, the U.S. action reverses the overall momentum achieved in Paris in 2015, and negates President Barack Obama’s legacy of regulations designed to reduce America’s GHG emissions, especially from the use of coal. It is heartening that China, which has achieved rapid economic growth and leads in GHG emissions, is firmly behind the pact to reduce the risk of climate change. There is steady progress in the growth of renewable energy sources as they become cheaper and the efficiency of solar, wind and energy storage technologies improves. As UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa has said, the time is now to firm up the tasks set out in the agreement reached in Paris, notably on funds to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The Agreement has a benchmark of raising $100 billion a year by 2020.
•Major risks from climate change, such as extreme weather phenomena, loss of agriculture, water stress and harm to human health, pose a threat to millions around the world. For some countries, such as Fiji, which holds the presidency of the Bonn conference, and other small island-states, the future is deeply worrying because of the fear that sea levels may rise sharply due to climate change. The recent Emissions Gap Report from the UN underscores the terrible mismatch between the voluntary pledges made by countries for the Paris Agreement and what is necessary to keep a rise in global average temperature below 2º C, preferably 1.5º C. All major countries, especially those that have depleted the global carbon budget by releasing massive amounts of GHGs since the Industrial Revolution, have to respond with stronger caps in their updated pledges under the Paris Agreement. India’s emissions have been rising overall, but it has committed itself to lowering the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33-35% by 2030 from the 2005 level. By some estimates, India has been awarded among the highest levels of multilateral climate funding at $745 million since 2013. Securing funds for mitigation and adaptation is a high priority for India, but it must ensure that States acquire the capacity to absorb such assistance efficiently. While the emphasis on a giant renewable energy programme has won global acclaim, the focus is equally on India’s readiness to embrace green technologies across the spectrum of activity, including buildings and transport.
