📰 Pak. court frees Hafiz Saeed
Saeed, a declared terrorist by the U.N., the U.S. and India for his involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, had been under house arrest since January 2017.
•A Pakistani court on Wednesday ordered the release of Hafiz Saeed, the chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and one of the alleged masterminds of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that killed more than 160 people.
•A review Board of the Lahore High Court overruled the government’s request to extend the detention citing that Saeed’s release may trigger international sanctions against Pakistan.
•“Concept of justice cannot be brutalised and terrorised in the name of fight against terrorism,” the High Court said in its ruling.
•“The review board looking into the case... has refused to extend his house arrest as the government failed to provide any evidence against the charges,” Ahmed Nadeen, a spokesman for the JuD, said.
•Saeed, who carries a bounty of $10 million announced by the U.S. for his role in terror activities, has been under house arrest since January this year.
•He was greeted by dozens of his followers outside the court after the verdict. “Hafiz Saeed is a free man. God is great,” his social media spokesman tweeted.
•Last month, authorities had withdrawn terrorism charges against Saeed and the JuD, a front of the terror organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba, and kept him in detention under the Maintenance of Public Order Act, paving the way for his release.
•Saeed’s detention was extended four times since January when the government cracked down on the JuD and its charity arm Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation.
•Saeed challenged his detention in the Lahore High Court in February. Lawyer A.K. Dogar had urged the court to order the release of Saeed and his four aides as no formal charges had been filed against them after months of detention.
The Kashmir factor
•Analyst and retired Pakistani general Talat Masood told AFP that Saeed is given special treatment by the government “because they think that his organisation was supportive in Kashmir”.
•Saeed said later in a video message that he was detained because of his association with Kashmir.
•“It’s because of Kashmir that India is after me, but all her efforts have been in vain and Allah has set me free,” he said in the video released by his party’s media team. “This is victory of Pakistan’s freedom and God willing Kashmir will also be freed because I’m fighting Kashmir’s case,” Saeed added.
•Following a brief period of house arrest in 2008, Saeed led a high-profile public life and regularly delivered fiery anti-India speeches till January this year.
📰 Hike in salaries of HC, SC judges
•The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved hikes in the salaries of High Court and Supreme Court judges.
•“Today, the Cabinet has taken an important decision to revise the salaries of High Court and Supreme Court judges. After the Seventh Pay Commission, this subject was to be discussed. The Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Act, 1958 and High Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Act, 1954 will be amended as any decision on judges’ salaries is made through legislative instruments,” Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
•“The benefit will be given from January 1, 2016 and the benefits will extend to 31 judges of the Supreme Court, 1,079 judges of the High Courts and about 2,500 retired judges."
Shortage of judges
•A senior government official said this would help solve the shortage of judges.
•“Most lawyers start doing relatively well by the age of 32-33 years and at the age of 45, they are at the peak of their careers. It is difficult to attract them with the position of a judge if they are not paid well. This should hopefully improve the situation,” he said.
📰 Bankruptcy code to be amended
Ordinance likely to ban wilful defaulters from regaining control of companies
•The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal to promulgate an Ordinance to amend the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).
•Official sources said the move is to strengthen the IBC by explicitly preventing certain persons — including wilful defaulters, disqualified directors, those who have indulged in fraudulent transactions as well as promoters whose account is classified as non-performing assets (NPA) beyond a prescribed duration — from regaining control of the defaulting company through the backdoor in the garb of a resolution applicant.
Robust support
•The IBC provides for an effective and robust legal framework for “time-bound insolvency resolution to release assets locked up in NPA and promote maximisation of value of assets, failing which, under-utilised resources of unviable business are released through liquidation.”
•These amendments have been proposed because in the initial phase of the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) under the IBC, a number of cases are likely to have long pending default requiring deep haircut for the creditors, the sources said.
•The ordinance is likely to be tabled during the winter session of Parliament with a view to get its nod soon.
•The President’s nod for the ordinance is expected shortly.
•The move boosted the shares of Public Sector Banks as they gained 1-4% intra-day. Incidentally, the decision comes a fortnight after the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) amended its CIRP Regulations to ensure that as part of due diligence, prior to approval of a ‘Resolution Plan’, the antecedents, credit worthiness and credibility of a Resolution Applicant, including promoters, are taken into account by the Committee of Creditors (CoC).
•Corporate Affairs and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters, “Some changes are proposed to the IBC. Since this is being done by an ordinance, till it is approved, as a matter of propriety, we don’t give details. But the fact that the Cabinet has recommended such an ordinance is the information I am giving.”
•On speculation that the ordinance will limit wilful defaulters from picking up stressed assets, Mr. Jaitley said: “I won’t react on its contents as the recommendations are still with the President and till it gets the assent, we normally don’t comment. The whole process is at an advanced stage, and therefore, you want to make it go on a correct track. That’s the reason.”
•A senior official said the government is keen to ensure that promoters of defaulting firms are prevented from bidding for businesses that they ran to the ground in the first place. “If as part of the insolvency process, the bank takes a 40% haircut on its exposure to a particular business, the same promoter is then able to make a bid for the business, then the only loser in the process is the banker. Why should such a system be perpetuated?” the official said.
📰 Gram panchayat certificate no proof of citizenship: SC
It is only a supporting document, says the apex court
•A certificate of residency issued by a gram panchayat is not a document of citizenship and is “meaningless” unless supported by some other valid record to make a claim for inclusion in the National Register of Citizenship (NRC), the Supreme Court said on Wednesday.
•A Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and R.F. Nariman said no verification is made before such certificates are issued.
•The apex court said it will pass orders on whether the Gauhati High Court was right in invalidating the document for making a claim in the NRC or whether further opportunity needs to be given to the people to establish their claims of citizenship.
•“A certificate issued by gram panchayat secretary is not a document for citizenship, rather it is meaningless unless it is supported by some other valid document for claim to NRC. This is only a supporting document and, for it to be valid, there needs to be proper verification,” the Bench said.
Batch of pleas
•The apex court was hearing a batch of pleas challenging the Gauhati High Court order holding that a certificate of residency issued by a gram panchayat (village council) secretary was not a legal and valid document for claim to citizenship.
•About 48 lakh claims have been made using certificates issued by gram panchayat secretaries, out of a total of 3.29 crore claims made so far for inclusion in the NRC which is being prepared in Assam to identify illegal migrants.
•The draft NRC is required to be published on or before December 31.
•NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela had earlier informed the court that out of the 48 lakh claims made for the NRC, 20 lakh were the indigenous people and if the fact of being original inhabitants of the State is established, then no further verification is required.
•Senior advocate B.H. Marlapalle, appearing for petitioner Rupajan Begum who has challenged the High Court verdict, said it needs to be considered that many people are illiterates and Muslim marriages were not registered till it was made mandatory and births or deaths are not registered.
•“This document is just a supporting document for inclusion in the NRC and the authenticity of the document has to be scrutinised even if the high court order is set aside. People who have made claim on the basis of this document need to be given further opportunity to adduce evidence in support of their claim to the NRC,” the Bench said.
•Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, said without verification, this document cannot be accepted as it only specifies the name of the father, place of residence and nothing else.
•The Assam government said the High Court was justified in invalidating the document as it cannot be claim to citizenship.
📰 New direct tax law coming
Panel, led by CBDT Member Arbind Modi, given 6 months to review IT Act 1961
•With the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in place, the government has now turned its attention towards improving India’s direct tax regime by constituting a task force to review the country’s 56-year old Income Tax law and suggest a new law to replace it.
•On Wednesday, the Finance Ministry formed a task force led by Central Board of Direct Taxes Member Arbind Modi to review the Income Tax Act, 1961 and draft a new direct tax law in consonance with economic needs of the country.
Terms of reference
•“The terms of reference of the task force is to draft an appropriate direct tax legislation keeping in view the direct tax system prevalent in various countries, international best practices, the economic needs of the country and any other matter connected thereto,” the Ministry said in a statement.
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi had sought a redrafting of the archaic Income Tax law to make it simpler and raise India’s low direct tax base, at a meeting with tax administrators this September.
•The task force had been given six months to submit its report to the Centre. Hence, a decision on the tax law overhaul is unlikely in the 2018-19 Union Budget.
•Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian will be a permanent special invitee in the task force that also includes academics, private sector tax experts and a retired Indian Revenue Service officer.
•Incidentally, Mr. Arbind Modi was also instrumental in drafting the direct taxes code which was introduced in 2009 by the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. The UPA Government subsequently diluted the provisions proposed in the code.
•The NDA government had put the code in cold storage after assuming office in May 2014.
‘Future-ready’
•Rajiv Memani, chairman and regional managing partner, EY, who is one of the members of the tax force, said the government’s steadfast focus on undertaking ‘bold yet much needed reforms will enhance India’s competitiveness and make the country future-ready.’
📰 Cabinet approves new finance panel
Fifteenth Finance Commission will have its task cut out with the new tax system
•The Cabinet on Wednesday set the ball rolling for the constitution of the Fifteenth Finance Commission, which will decide the devolution formula for revenue-sharing between the Centre and States from the year 2020 till 2025.
•The Commission, whose members and terms of reference will be notified soon, will have to grapple with the significant changes in the taxation framework, such as the Goods and Services Tax, which has replaced the earlier indirect taxation system.
•Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the Cabinet had given an in-principle nod to constitute the Commission and finalise its terms of reference.
•“The next step would be to decide on who its members would be and notify the same so that it can begin its work,” he said.
•The Fourteenth Finance Commission, whose recommendations were accepted by the government and are effective till March 31, 2020, had mooted a ten percentage points jump in States’ share of the central pool of taxes from 32% earlier to 42%.
Taxes shared
•“India is a Union of States, the Union also has to survive,” Mr. Jaitley said in jest, hinting that the Centre hoped the devolution of shareable taxes did not compromise on its own capacity to spend.
•“The Fifteenth Finance Commission’s recommendations have to be in place before April 1, 2020. The normal experience is that a Finance Comission takes about two years to undertake consultations and finalise its report,” said Mr. Jaitley, explaining the timing of the Cabinet decision.
•When asked about the terms of reference for the Commission, the Minister said: “Many changes have taken place (since the previous Commission’s tenure). Both the Centre and States’ expenditure patterns need to be retained and the impact of the new distribution of taxes system on States and the Centre has to be considered by the Commission.”
•“It is natural that compared to the previous Finance Commissions, the exercise will be different this time. Because, after the GST, it’s no longer the same pattern,” Mr. Jaitley pointed out.
📰 Migratory birds start arriving in Chilika
Low pressure area over the Bay of Bengal and heavy rain delayed the arrival of birds
•After a long flight of thousands of miles, not often punctuated by breaks, lakhs of migratory birds have made their way to the Chilika Lake, Asia’s largest brackish water lagoon.
•Major bird congregations have been spotted in the wetlands of the Nalabana Bird Sanctuary inside Chilika and Mangalajodi, a major village on the banks of the lake.
•“Usually, congregation of migratory birds are noticed from the second week of October. By this time, Nalabana alone would have hosted more than 4 lakh birds. But brewing of a low pressure area over the Bay of Bengal and heavy rain experienced for four days during the second week of November delayed the arrival of birds,” said Sushant Nanda, Chief Executive of Chilika Development Authority.
•Mr. Nanda said several portions of the vast mudflats are still under water. “As of now about 2 lakh birds have arrived. Most of these bird species can adapt to watery areas,” he said.
•Nalabana with a 15.59-sq.-km area is hosting the highest number of migratory birds this time round. Similarly, the wetlands of Mangalajodi have begun to fill up with lakhs of ruffs, godwits, plovers, sandpipers and migratory ducks. With 11.59 sq km of mudflats, Mangalajodi receives about 3 lakh birds during winter.
Better facilities
•“This year, tourists would experience better facilities as boats have been equipped with facilities for drinking water and toilets,” said Mr. Nanda, who dedicated the Mangalajodi Bird Interpretation Centre to the public on Wednesday.
•Only 30 boats carrying tourists would be allowed in the Chilika Lake near Mangalajodi to savour the beauty of bird congregation.
•This year, Chilika has witnessed the arrival of 9,47,119 birds compared with 8,58,855 in 2016. As per bird census, 167 species of bird had arrived in Chilika in January 2017.
•Migratory birds fly across continents from Caspian Sea, Baikal Lake and remote parts of Russia, Mongolia and Siberia and flock to the marshy lands of the Nalabana Bird Sanctuary inside the Chilika Lake, which is spread across over 1000 sq. km.
•The Odisha government has announced a bird festival for the first time in January, showcasing the diversity of migratory birds and their numbers.
📰 In a first, air-launched Brahmos missile test-fired
The missile was gravity dropped from the Su-30MKI from its fuselage, and the two-stage missile’s engine fired up and was propelled towards the intended target in the Bay of Bengal.
•In a milestone, a BrahMos supersonic cruise missile was on Wednesday fired succesfully for the first time from a Sukhoi-30MKI fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force.
•“The successful maiden test-firing of Brahmos Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM) from Su-30MKI will significantly bolster the IAF’s air combat operations capability from stand-off ranges,” the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.
•The missile was gravity dropped from the Su-30MKI from its fuselage, and the two-stage missile’s engine fired up and was propelled towards the intended target in the Bay of Bengal.
•Brahmos ALCM, which weighs 2.5 tonnes, is the heaviest weapon to be deployed on India’s Su-30 fighter aircraft. It has a range of 290 km.
Completes tactical cruise missile triad
•“Brahmos, the world class weapon with multi-platform, multi-mission role is now capable of being launched from land, sea and air, completing the tactical cruise missile triad for India,” the statement noted.
•The land and sea variants of Brahmos are already operational with the Army and the Navy. Recently, the range variants were upgraded from 290 km to 450 km after India joined the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR).
•BrahMos is a joint venture between India and Russia and named after the Brahmaputra and Moscowa rivers.
📰 Pill talk — On antibiotic resistance
Consumer awareness is needed on the danger of reckless antibiotic use
•Around the time the UN Climate Change Conference drew to a close in Bonn last week, so did the World Antibiotic Awareness Week, a World Health Organisation campaign to focus attention on antibiotic resistance. The global threats of climate change and antibiotic resistance have much in common. In both cases, the actions of people in one region have consequences across the globe. Also, tackling both requires collective action across multiple focus areas. For resistance, this means cutting the misuse of antibiotics in humans and farm animals, fighting environmental pollution, improving infection control in hospitals, and boosting surveillance. While most of these goals need government intervention, individuals have a critical part to play too. This is especially true for India, which faces a unique predicament when it comes to restricting the sale of antibiotics — some Indians use too few antibiotics, while others use too many. Many of the 410,000 Indian children who die of pneumonia each year do not get the antibiotics they need, while others misuse drugs, buying them without prescription and taking them for viral illnesses like influenza. Sometimes this irrational use is driven by quacks. But just as often, qualified doctors add to the problem by yielding to pressure from patients or drug-makers. This tussle — between increasing antibiotic use among those who really need them, and decreasing misuse among the irresponsible — has kept India from imposing blanket bans on the non-prescription sale of these drugs.
•When policymakers did propose such a ban in 2011, it was met with strong opposition. Instead, India turned to fine-edged tools such as the Schedule H1, a list of 24 critical antibiotics such as cephalosporins and carbapenems, whose sale is tightly controlled. But even Schedule H1 hasn’t accomplished much: pharmacists often flout rules, and drug controllers are unable to monitor them. Thus, the power to purchase antibiotics still remains in the hands of the consumer. It is up to consumers now to appreciate the threat of antibiotic resistance and exercise this power with care. These miracle drugs form the bedrock of modern medicine today, and are needed for everything from prophylaxis for a complicated hip surgery to treatment for an infected knee scrape. Losing these drugs would mean that even minor illnesses could become killers, and the cost of health care will soar. Consumers need to remember that not all illnesses need antibiotics, and the decision on when to take them and for how long is best left to a doctor. Multi-resistance in some tertiary-care hospitals to bugs like Staphylococcus aureus has grown to dangerous levels. But the experience of countries like Australia shows that cutting down on antibiotics can reverse such trends. The National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance aims to repeat such successes in India. Meanwhile, awareness must be built among consumers so that they see the coming crisis and take up the baton.
📰 Far from keeping the world safe
Much more needs to be done by the international community to truly grapple with climate change
•The 23rd meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-23) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change concluded on November 17 in Bonn, Germany. The two-week meeting was regarded by many as primarily intended to clarify processes for the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement through the creation of a rule book, with technical guidelines and processes. This would explain what compliance with the Paris Agreement means and how it would be monitored.
•The key topics of contention were related to financial support, mitigation action, differentiation, and loss and damage — the same knots of disagreements that came up at COP-21 in Paris. The questions raised in Bonn were: Are developed countries going to do their fair share to support poor and emerging countries, having occupied the bulk of the planet’s available carbon space? What actions have thus far been taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by rich countries? Shouldn’t there be greater emphasis to phase out coal? There was also some apprehension about the role of the U.S. in the discussions since President Donald Trump had earlier declared that it would leave the Paris Agreement.
Fulfilling obligations
•Actions related to the Paris Agreement are intended for 2020-2030. However, the pre-2020 period is part of the second phase of the Kyoto Protocol. Both the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol (2005-2012) and the second (2013-2020)principally laid out the responsibilities for reducing emissions by rich countries. However, there has been little progress and the 2012 Doha Amendment, the agreement concerning the second phase of the Kyoto Protocol, has not been ratified by a sufficient number of countries to enter into force.
•Under pressure from poor and emerging economies, actions on the pre-2020 Kyoto period were added to the agenda in the first week of the Bonn meeting. As a result, in 2018 and 2019 there will be additional stocktaking on progress made on the Kyoto Protocol. There will also be climate finance assessments and all of these will be part of the overall process undertaken before 2020. It is reported that several countries have since expressed interest in ratifying the Doha Amendment and all these changes indicate some advancement.
•Another aspect of the obligations that need to be fulfilled by big emitters is related to economic and non-economic losses under the work programme on loss and damage. In Warsaw, Poland, COP-19 established the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage to address the destruction likely from climate change, including extreme events (such as severe storms) and slow-onset events (such as sea-level rise). This track of negotiations recognised that even if the world were to drastically reduce its emissions, anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions already in the atmosphere would cause warming. This would severely affect the poorest countries that are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
•It is important that such countries have access to economic and non-economic support, especially since their actions have not led to these increased concentrations of harmful greenhouse gas emissions. The Paris Agreement recognises loss and damage and calls for enhanced action and support from the parties. However, loss and damage was not included in the agenda for the Paris rule book, and this was rightly a big bone of contention with poor and developing economies. There are no funds currently available for this stream and the discussion on this has been postponed to 2018. This is alarming given that the world has already faced the wrath of numerous extreme events just in the last couple of years.
•A third aspect of the support from rich countries is about providing finance, technology, and building capacity for poorer countries, both to protect themselves from the effects of climate change and to help them move along a low-carbon pathway. There were conflicts on financial support at various points, and on this topic, COP-23 was a failure. Without the means of implementation, the targets set by each country in Paris will not be achieved. There is also the promise of $100 billion each year by 2020 into the Green Climate Fund, which has not seen much inflow to meet the goal. There was therefore little progress on the key issue of finance and several important decisions were moved forward to be discussed at the next meeting to be held in Katowice, Poland in 2018.
•There have been a number of advances in renewable energy over the last several years. These were highlighted at various side events at COP-23. There were also several state and substate actors from the U.S. at Bonn, some of whom tried to distance themselves from the actions and statements of the Trump administration, along with a series of colourful protests and interactions.
Progress and actions needed
•On the plus side, negotiators did move forward on developing other details for the Paris Agreement implementation, a process that is carried out under the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement and a policy should be ready in 2018. There was also a draft of a document integrating positions from parties on information needed to communicate the Nationally Determined Contributions. Steps were also taken to spell out the details of the global stock-taking that will occur every five years starting in 2023 and on transparency measures that are part of the overall process.
•Nevertheless, the science on climate change has been grim this year. Greenhouse gas emissions which appeared to have stabilised for a few years, probably for economic reasons, rose by 2% in 2017, perhaps due to additional electricity drawn from coal power plants in China. When coal will be phased out globally was a major question. In fact, there were protests organised by activists at Europe’s largest open pit coal mine near the Hambach Forest in Germany, not far from the COP-23. Clearly, greater ambition on clamping down on fossil fuels is needed for the Paris Agreement to be successful. The Bonn meeting saw the launch of the Powering Past Coal Alliance, which was led by Canada and the U.K., and joined by numerous countries and substate actors.
•There was small but significant headway made regarding agriculture where a work plan was proposed by Parties on items related to climate change and agriculture, including improvements in soil fertility and carbon, management of land use and livestock maintenance. For India, these developments could be an excellent opportunity for learning from others and sharing local knowledge.
•Much more needs to be done for the international community to truly grapple with climate change — we are still far from keeping the world safe from its harmful consequences. And for India, there is unfortunately no time left for delaying action on multiple fronts on the landscape of sustainable development, which itself will be derailed by a warming world.
📰 Time to change the House rules
Parliament and State legislatures need to meet more regularly
•The dates for the winter session of Parliament for this year have not been announced yet. In the last few years, the session usually started in the third or fourth week of November and closed just before Christmas. In 2013, the last winter session of the previous Lok Sabha started in the first week of December, was adjourned after 10 sittings, and continued in early February. Given the notice period of two weeks to summon a session, it is unlikely that we will see the commencement of the session before the second week of December.
Fewer, shorter
•In the past, sessions have been shortened or even ‘merged’. The year 2008 presents an interesting glimpse into this process. A special two-day session was summoned in July for a confidence vote, after the Left parties support to the UPA coalition government. The government won the vote narrowly. This session was termed the monsoon session and the regular sessions held in October and December were termed as a continuation of the same session in different parts. The reason is that the government wanted to take advantage of one of the rules of procedure which stipulates that a motion cannot be proposed twice within the same session. This enabled the government to avoid having to prove its numbers again.
•This brings us to the question of the key roles of Parliament. The lawmaking and financial functions of Parliament are primarily to examine and endorse government proposals. (Though the Constitution permits any member to propose a bill, private member bills are rarely enacted.) Parliament also has the important role of holding the government to account for its actions.
•Defending the parliamentary system versus the presidential system, B.R. Ambedkar argued that all such systems attempted a balance between stability and responsibility. Both systems provide a periodic assessment by the electorate through elections. However, the parliamentary system provides a higher level of responsibility on the government through daily assessment by members in the form of questions, resolutions, no-confidence motions, adjournment motions and debates on addresses. He felt that daily assessment was more effective in holding governments to account, and more appropriate for India.
•This argument presupposes frequent sittings of Parliament. In the initial years of our Republic, Lok Sabha sat for about 125-140 days a year. The size of the country and poor connectivity meant that MPs could not make a quick dash to their constituencies and there were planned intersession gaps to enable them to split their time between Delhi and their constituencies. Though it is far easier to travel today, Parliament has met for just 65-75 days per year in the last couple of decades. A direct consequence has been less scrutiny of the government’s actions, and even that of bills and budgets. A clear requirement for a more effective Parliament would be more sitting dates and a clear plan of those dates.
•The Constitution specifies that Parliament will be summoned by the President; the President shall act on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers; and there cannot be more than six months between two sittings of Parliament. Similar provisions exist for State legislatures. Thus, it is effectively the Prime Minister (or the Chief Minister) who determines when Parliament (or an Assembly) will meet, subject to the gap being less than six months.
•One can see where this could go. Indeed, in several States the situation is dire. Data for 20 Assemblies over the last five years indicate that they meet for 29 days a year on average. States such as Haryana (12 days a year) and Uttarakhand (13 days) rarely meet. There have also been some extreme cases in terms of session time. On September 25, 2015, the Puducherry Assembly commenced a session at 9.30 a.m. and closed at 9.38 a.m., which included a two-minute silence for obituary references, just short of the record of the shortest session by the same Assembly in October 1986, five minutes. Even a large State such as Uttar Pradesh has held a 10-minute session, in November 2011, in which the resolution to divide the State into four parts was passed.
Is there a way out?
•One has to address the structural issue of the government deciding when to summon the legislature, and its ability to adjust the dates in response to emerging circumstances. That is, dilute the power of the government to be the sole decider of session dates.
•A simple solution is to have a calendar of sittings announced at the beginning of each year. This would help members and others plan better for the whole year. Just imagine the trouble members currently face in scheduling other engagements in the absence of any certainty of the parliamentary schedule. One also needs to build in the possibility of additional sittings that the government can require if it needs urgent parliamentary approval for action under unforeseen situations.
•A variant, such as that followed by the British Parliament, is to have year-long sessions. Thus, the five-year term of Parliament consists of five sessions of a year each. This would require some minor changes in rules such as permitting no-confidence motions to be taken up multiple times in a session if a significant minority asks for it.
•A different approach would be to allow a significant minority of members to call for a session. Pakistan’s Constitution requires a session of Parliament within 14 days if one-fourth of its membership demands one. It also states that Parliament should meet at least 130 days every year and there should be at least three sessions.
•The legitimacy of the government in a democracy is derived from constant scrutiny by elected representatives. Perhaps it is time to tweak the rules of the game to strengthen the system and ensure that key institutions such as Parliament and State legislatures are able to perform their roles more effectively.
📰 The numbers game — On India’s victory at the ICJ
India’s victory at the ICJ reinforces the importance of small power diplomacy
•The election of Justice Dalveer Bhandari to the International Court of Justice for a second term is a major diplomatic success for India. Five of the 15 judges of the ICJ are elected every three years. This year there were six candidates for five slots. The winning candidates required a majority in both the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council in simultaneous voting through secret ballot. While four candidates were elected smoothly, Justice Bhandari and Christopher Greenwood of the United Kingdom ended in a dead heat as the former won the UNGA and the latter the UNSC in multiple rounds of voting. The U.K. wanted to end the voting and move to a conference mechanism, which involves selecting a panel of three UNGA members and three UNSC members, who would then elect the judge. This mechanism has never been used before. India opposed the move, and the U.K. could not gather adequate support for its demand in the UNSC. The U.K. then withdrew its candidate, paving the way for Justice Bhandari’s re-election. India and the U.K. had staked considerable diplomatic goodwill in the election, and the outcome is significant politically for both.
•For the first time, the U.K. will not have a judge on the ICJ. It is also the first time that a permanent member of the UNSC has lost at the ICJ on a vote. For British Prime Minister Theresa May the loss comes at a difficult time as she struggles with the process of leaving the European Union and with her own leadership coming under assault from Conservative MPs. In this context, the loss at the ICJ is being read as confirmation of the U.K.’s diminishing role in global affairs. As America’s inseparable and unquestioning junior partner, the country had asserted its relevance in the post-War order even as its military and economic power eroded. With the U.S. under President Donald Trump less guided by the “special relationship” with the U.K., a post-Brexit U.K. will have to do much more heavy-lifting in multilateral forums. For India, soon after its failure to gain membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the lobbying for the ICJ election has different lessons. With all five permanent members of the UNSC fiercely locking arms to protect their collective interest of dominating the world body, India’s success was built primarily on the support of developing countries, among whom it has nurtured goodwill over the decades. Japan also appeared to align with the P-5. India’s call for a more equitable world order has a better resonance among developing countries than the custodians of the current order. India’s support in the UNGA was expanding with subsequent rounds of voting, a reality the U.K. and the U.S. could not brush aside. For India, the takeaway is clear: to find a louder global voice, it also needs to put more emphasis on ties with countries away from the high table.
📰 Inclusive lessons
Private Islamic schools are a great help, but mainstreaming Muslim girls will require their political participation
•As Indian Muslim women live in a maze of stereotypes that perpetrate socioeconomic inequalities, a vision of ‘new India’ cannot be successful if the questions of their inclusion and equality are unattended. Such an equality cannot be secured without addressing the fundamental conditions of social justice: education and political participation.
Educational disparity
•Proponents of inclusion often lose sight of obvious divisions between Muslim men and women and between upper-class (Ashraf) and other (Ajlaf) Muslims. By equating the needs of poorer women with privileged Muslim women, a great disservice is done to Ajlaf women. This brings into focus the issue of educational under-representation and low political participation rates among disadvantaged Muslim women, particularly those belonging to the lower castes and classes, and a way to accommodate their aspirations in a new India.
•As per the 2011 Census, 48.1% of Muslim women were illiterate; only 2.07% were graduates. Deliverance from ignorance and backwardness for Muslim women lies in their educational and economic advancement. Keeping pace with modernising India, many parents now consider it important to send their daughters to mainstream schools. However, this is largely limited to privileged, Ashraf Muslims. As highlighted by the Sachar Committee Report, lack of resources, discriminatory attitudes in schools, and the declining faith in the public schooling system have left Ajlaf women excluded from the mainstream. Such issues have brought girls closer to locally available, niche schooling options like nearby madrasas that are limited to a religious curriculum.
•There is an emerging trend of private Islamic schools within less privileged Muslim society. Such schools not only offer training in Islamic subjects, such as value-oriented adab (discipline) literature, but also follow the CBSE curriculum. Lying at the intersection of modern and religious curriculum, these hybrid schools offer new educational opportunities for many marginalised adolescent Muslim girls. My research has noted that the rise of such schools in Bihar is reflective of the growth of educational aspirations in girls who come from poorer, more religiously conservative families compared to elite Muslims. In Bihar alone, there are around 50 State-recognised girls’ hybrid schools.
•The entry of girls into these schools is a bold step towards mainstreaming. Research suggests that graduates from these schools are opting for higher education in central universities like Jamia Millia Islamia. Education policy must account for such community efforts. To address the curriculum gap left by hybrid schools, universities could start bridge courses for such students, such as that offered by Aligarh Muslim University, thus offering a much-needed inclusiveness.
•Education is a necessary, though insufficient, condition for Muslim women to become aware of and also change their sociopolitical circumstances. For this to happen, political representation and civil society participation is a must.
Place in politics
•There has been an appreciable decline in active civil society engagement of Muslims post-Independence. Bodies like the All India Muslim Personal Law Board or the Ulema have stepped into this void as spokespersons for Muslim women, but the efforts of feminist groups like the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan have tended to get silenced in the largely undiscerning media coverage of issues that concern Muslim women.
•The representation of Muslim women has been abysmal across political institutions. The Lok Sabha has had only 13 Muslim women MPs since Independence. There has been only one Muslim woman in the Union Council of Ministers in the last 25 years. To improve this situation, policy measures should aim at setting achievable goals for Muslim women and their improved presence in deliberative bodies like the National Commission for Women and the National Commission for Minorities. The government commissioned a study in 2007 with an aim to frame a ‘National Plan of Action for Advancement of Muslim Women’s Education in India’. A decade on, it is yet to see the light of the day. Further, affirmative action can be brought through parliamentary laws on the lines of the now lapsed 110th and 112th Constitution Amendment Bills, 2009, which sought to reserve half the seats in rural and urban local bodies for women.
•Agenda-driven interventions by the state could be a beginning in undoing the injustices of the last seven decades for Muslim women. Equality and social justice should not be hollow promises but articles of faith in a dream of ‘new India’.
