in this section, we are presenting our readers/aspirants compilation of selected editorials of national daily viz. The Hindu, The live mint,The Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Economic Times, PIB etc. This section caters the requirement of Civil Services Mains (GS + Essay) , PCS, HAS Mains (GS + Essay) & others essay writing competition.

1.Lesson from Tokyo: Fan-less means joyless. Vaccinate faster

Short of cancellation, the worst has befallen the Tokyo Olympics. With Japan having declared a Covid emergency in its capital, no fans will be allowed at any of the events being held there. The fastest man in the world and the fastest woman will get to the finishing line without the crowd’s passion giving them wings. Simone Biles and Roger Federer, PV Sindhu and Bajrang Punia, everyone will now compete in a spectator-less cheerless event. And that opening parade of nations, where the humblest to the largest contingent gets to wave their flag with pride, will now look into not warmly welcoming but empty stands.

As melancholy as this development is, it makes sense to a country like India which had to suspend even a fanless IPL because of a second Covid wave. But in a parallel world, Euro 2020 has been taking place amidst roaring audiences. And for sure, they have made a big difference. In Hungary, which allowed a full stadium for the football championship, deafening walls of noise helped lift the home team’s performance. The final this weekend will be at Wembley, where even at 75% capacity raucous crowds are expected to play to England’s advantage.

Like so many things these days the fate of sports has become deeply tied to vaccines. In Japan only around 15% of the population is fully vaccinated but in the UK around 50%. An unmasked and packed Centre Court at Wimbledon recently gave a standing ovation to Sarah Gilbert, who helped develop the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. Sports mean humans pursuing excellence, entertainment and solidarity simultaneously. Olympics is where we do this on the largest and most collective scale. But the inches and seconds, the records and medals, will feel colder now. Even for TV audiences, canned applause is a poor substitute. Without the crowds, is it even the same sport?

2.Ayushmati Bharat? Longevity without good health spells suffering for women

While women tend to live longer than men, they suffer more health-related misery than men too. Recent findings from the World Health Statistics report of 2021 show how gender inequality mars the quality of life as women age, in much of the world. Hostile social norms undo women’s bodily advantage – in gender-unequal countries, men’s healthy life expectancy is ahead of women’s.

Apart from nutritional deficits and time poverty, women have less access to healthcare, with barriers of resources and mobility as well as a social trivialising and misdiagnosing of their conditions. Often their reproductive illnesses or cardiovascular problems are not attended to in full.

Remember, ‘hysteria’ was once a common medical diagnosis. Supposedly an emotional excess caused by the uterus (hystera), it was actually just a word to dismiss health complaints as ‘irrational’ feminine panic. Medical injustice ranges from clinical trial skews to disparities in treatment. Chronic pain conditions that affect us, from fibromyalgia to osteoporosis are still under-diagnosed around the world. Studies show that women wait longer in emergency rooms and are less likely to be given painkillers. Families, institutions, women themselves are trained to ignore their distress. This is exacerbated by factors like poverty and location.

This gap between life expectancy and healthy life expectancy is troubling, especially in countries like ours with minimal social security. For all too many women, longevity is clearly not a blessing.

3. Undead section: On Section 66A of the IT Act

he invalid Section 66A is often invoked out of ignorance, but it serves as a tool of harassment

It is quite disconcerting that the Supreme Court has been informed for the second time in two years that Section 66A of the IT Act, which was struck down as unconstitutional six years ago, is still being invoked by the police and in some trial courts. One can see why the Court deemed it “a shocking state of affairs” when a petition by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) came up for hearing. Section 66A made messages deemed by the police to be offensive or menacing to anyone, or those that caused “annoyance”, a criminal offence if these were sent through a computer or computer resource. It prescribed a prison term of up to three years on conviction. In its landmark judgment in Shreya Singhal (2015), the Court ruled that the provision was vague and violated the freedom of free speech. It was so broadly defined that it took into its sweep protected speech also, and therefore upset the balance between the exercise of the free speech right and the imposition of reasonable restrictions on it. In January 2019, too, the Court’s attention was drawn to the same problem of the invalidated provision being used by the police to register cases based on complaints. Not much seems to have changed since then, and it is quite surprising that the police headquarters and prosecutors in the various States had not disseminated the effect of the Court ruling among officers manning police stations.

There were also instances of courts framing charges under Section 66A even after lawyers had cited the 2015 judgment. The PUCL has said as many as 745 cases are still pending in district courts in 11 States. It is not difficult to surmise that police officers who receive complaints and register them as First Information Reports may not be aware of the judgment, though one cannot rule out instances of the section being invoked deliberately as a tool of harassment. Ignorance of the law is no excuse for the citizen, and it must equally be no excuse for police officers who include invalidated sections in FIRs. Recently, police in Uttar Pradesh booked a journalist for defamation under Section 500 of the IPC, even though the Supreme Court has ruled that defamation can be pursued only by way of private complaints and there can be no FIR. The current hearing may result in directions to States and the police, as well as the court registries, for appropriate advisories to both station-house officers and magistrates, but it is not necessary for those concerned to wait for such orders. Police chiefs and the directorates of prosecution must proactively begin a process of conveying to the lower courts and investigators all important judgments and their effect on the practices relating to investigation, prosecution and the framing of charges from time to time.

4. Murder of a President: On assassination of Jovenel Moise

Haiti needs to hold both legislative and presidential elections soon for a legitimate government

The brazen assassination of Jovenel Moïse, the 53-year-old President of Haiti, has pushed the impoverished Caribbean country battered by political and economic crises into more chaos. Haitian police say 28 foreign mercenaries, including retired Colombian soldiers, killed the President at his residence in Port-au-Prince early Wednesday. Most of them were arrested and some were killed in a gun battle. But key questions — who the mastermind was, what the motive was and how a group of armed foreigners could walk into a presidential residence, shoot him dead and exit — are yet to be answered. Moïse was at the centre of a political crisis that had shaken the country in recent months. His opponents claimed that his five-year-term came to an end on February 7 and demanded his resignation. Moïse, who took over office in February 2017, months after his disputed election in 2016, claimed that his term would be over only in February 2022. When the Opposition formed a parallel government, Moïse alleged a coup and cracked down on them. Moïse came to power promising to strengthen Haiti’s institutions, fix its economy, fight corruption and stabilise governance. But he himself faced serious corruption allegations, his government could not hold the 2019 parliamentary elections and the economy contracted under his watch. The outbreak of COVID-19 made matters worse.

Now, Haiti stares into an uncertain future. According to the Constitution, the President of the Supreme Court should take charge. But the Supreme Court chief died of COVID-19 last month. There is no legislature as the 2019 elections have been postponed. For now, interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph has taken charge. But Moïse had fired him two days before his death and nominated Ariel Henry, a neurosurgeon, for the post. Mr. Joseph is now consolidating the government, but Mr. Henry has asked him to step down, signalling that another political crisis is taking shape in the midst of security worries. This is not the time for another power struggle. Haiti’s politicians and military should take a phased approach of uncovering the truth, stabilising the country and ensuring the formation of a legitimate administration. The government’s immediate priority should be to get to the bottom of the assassination. If foreign nationals were involved in the attack, as the police have claimed, Haiti should get international help in the investigation. And Haitian leaders should not allow the vacuum left by Moïse’s assassination to destabilise the country further. Part of the problems Haiti faces is its inability to hold free, fair and credible elections in time and ensure a peaceful transition of power. Interim Prime Minister Joseph, Mr. Henry and other leaders should come together and hold legislative and presidential elections at the opportune time to ensure that a stable government with popular legitimacy is in place to address the myriad problems the country is facing.