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.Cooperative spirit: On the new Union Ministry of Cooperation
The new Ministry should seek to be a catalyst, and not the command centre, of the sector
Alongside the state and the market, cooperatives play a vital role in the country’s development but are seldom the focus of policy planning. The creation of a new Union Ministry to oversee the cooperatives sector will redeem it from negligence, according to the Government. Critics fear that this Ministry is purposed to concentrate even more powers in the hands of the Centre. Cooperatives are dominant in agriculture, credit and marketing, but not limited to those. Some are big — IFFCO has around a third of the market share in fertilizers. In milk, cotton, handlooms, housing, edible oils, sugar and fisheries, they are formidable. As market conditions are evolving, cooperatives in States such as Kerala have got into complex operations: running IT parks and medical colleges. More avenues for expansion, such as insurance, remain untapped and the regulatory regime must evolve in step. The legal architecture of the sector began evolving since 1904 under colonial rule, and in 2002, the Multi State Cooperative Societies Act was passed, taking into account the challenges arising out of liberalisation. Considering the fact that cooperatives fall in the State list of the Constitution, the Centre will have to innovate to provide legal sanctity for the new Ministry. A separate Ministry can marshal the diffused capacity of the sector, however.
That said, this move will turn disastrous if the attempt is to appropriate the political capital of the sector, which is significant. Cooperatives are not meant to operate by the market logic of maximising profits but to share the benefits to all stakeholders equitably. Though not uniform across India, cooperatives have made significant contributions in poverty alleviation, food security, management of natural resources and the environment. True, the sector has become an instrument of patronage and pilferage. Mismanagement and corruption destroyed the sector in some States. The potency of cooperatives as an apparatus of political control is personally known to Minister-in-charge Amit Shah, once president of a district cooperative bank. Besides serving localities and segments that markets might ignore, cooperatives are also effective in mediating politics at the local level, outside of the parliamentary system. Despite regulatory oversight by the RBI and States, there is considerable autonomy for the sector which is often misused. The remedy is not an overarching Ministry and diktats from Delhi. The premise of a cooperative is that decisions are made by those affected by them. The case for transparency and efficiency in the sector is strong; that goal must be pursued not by scaring the very soul of the sector but by advancing the cooperative spirit. The new Ministry could indeed be a catalyst, but it must not fashion itself as a command authority.
- Silver win: Messi-led Argentina’s Copa America win
Messi needed the Copa America more than the rest of Argentina
Sport is a distillation of micro-tragedies and mega-ecstasies enmeshed with whirring limbs, glistening sweat, unabashed tears and booming laughter. And football presents a wider canvas for all these attributes, which were exhibited at Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana Stadium late on Saturday night. When the Copa America final that pitted eternal rivals Argentina and Brazil wound to a close, it primarily offered redemption to Lionel Messi, of the phlegmatic smile and magical feet fame. One of the greatest ever footballers and fit to join a pantheon headlined by Pele and Diego Maradona, until now Messi had one missing link — a cup triumph for Argentina. After his 34 summers, that aberration was finally erased once his team defeated Brazil 1-0 in a scrappy contest with the odd streaks of brilliance. Messi, miracle-dispenser with FC Barcelona, was seen by his countrymen as the prodigal son, who never delivered, and they embalmed for posterity their affection towards the late Maradona. Messi and his fellow Argentines constituted a dysfunctional family of unspoken hurts. All that anguish could dissipate thanks to the latest victory which came after a 28-year title drought for the Albiceleste. Their 15th Copa America trophy put them on a par with toppers Uruguay, well ahead of Brazil with nine. Incidentally, Copa America with its 1916 inception even predates the FIFA World Cup, which commenced in 1930.
Argentina and Brazil have embellished the championship’s storied history and in South America with its seize-the-day spirit, novels infused with magical realism and samba dance, football is seen as an extension of aesthetic joy. The final though did not live up to that esoteric aim. There were sparks marred by some rough tackles. Messi was not in his elements, marked tightly and weighed down by expectations, he even missed scoring his team’s second goal in the closing minutes. But having drawn the Brazilian defenders towards him all through the game, Messi created spaces that his team-mates could exploit. Even in that missed goal-scoring opportunity, Messi seemed keen on doing an assist rather than performing the deed and this is the mark of a man desperate for affection from his squad and country. The match was by then firmly in Argentina’s grip thanks to the 22nd minute goal slotted by Angel Di Maria, who capitalised on a long-pass from Rodrigo De Paul. A stung Brazil, especially Neymar, mounted rapid sorties on either side of half-time. Two attempts were adroitly foisted by Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez and when the Selecao seemingly breached the citadel, it was deemed off-side. Argentina and Messi were destined for their shot at glory in a 10-team intra-continental tournament, which despite other simultaneous global attractions like the Euro and Wimbledon, had its own effervescent charms
3.Courts, protect media: IT rules attack media’s core freedom. Judges should see legal challenges to rules in that light
New IT rules that apply indiscriminately to all digital content are facing a slew of legal challenges. This is exactly how it should be, given that government rules didn’t make some basic distinctions. Digital news and current affairs publishers are correctly questioning why the news media is treated on a par with social media and OTT platforms. Recently, in a petition brought by the National Broadcasters Association, the Kerala HC shielded broadcasters from coercive action. The Digital News Publishers Association, which includes the Times of India, has also challenged the constitutionality of these rules in the Madras HC. News agency PTI has moved the Delhi HC. Let’s also note here that, strangely, there was no consultation with the news media before these rules were made, contrary to normal practice.
Unlike social media platforms, news is already regulated by the Press Council, the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act and the National Broadcasting Standards Authority. Therefore, additional rules were unnecessary in the first place. In fact, the IT Act, which deals with digital intermediaries, does not even apply to news publishers. Nor does it deal with any content regulation except in cases of cyberterrorism, sexually explicit and obscene material, child pornography. Note that these simply do not apply to news media.
Therefore, IT rules, as subordinate legislation, cannot roam widely beyond the scope of the parent act. These rules, with their three-tiered grievance redressal system, place heavy compliance burdens and ultimately empower the central government to hold the media to a ‘code of ethics’, with vague and subjective notions like ‘half-truths’, ‘good taste’ and ‘decency’. They have been shoehorned in as rules, to obviate parliamentary scrutiny and debate. As they stand, these rules seem like an attempt to intimidate the news media into self-censorship, apart from vesting government with overreaching powers over news content. News publishers are right to fear arm-twisting and coercion.
India lacks an explicit First-Amendment style provision for press freedom. However, when other ill-considered media gagging legislation was proposed in the past, the SC has strongly protected media rights with its interpretation of Article 19(a) as part of the fundamental right to free speech and expression. It should not be just the SC, though. All courts must demonstrate robust commitment to media independence. As some of the challenging petitions say, these rules will bring in surveillance of news outlets and fear of government diktats. That’s unacceptable and anti-democratic.
4.Population bogey: UP’s new policy and draft bill are conceptually weak & disruptive. No good can come of them
UP’s population policy for 2021-30 unveiled by CM Yogi Adityanath wants to incentivise couples to stick to a two-child norm. It’s an idea whose time has long gone. The past decade has witnessed a sharp fall in India’s total fertility rates, even in UP, India’s most populous state. NFHS-4 data from 2015-16 indicates UP’s TFR fell to 2.7 in 2015-16 from 3.8 ten years prior. Sample Registration System report for 2018 pegged UP’s TFR slightly higher at 2.9 in 2018 but even this was a fall of 23.1% in a decade, bettering the national TFR decline of 18.5%.
Falling TFRs are massive demographic changes catalysed by education of girls, economic growth, migration, falling infant mortality rates and higher institutional births. All happened without drastic population control policies. By all indications, UP will also hit replacement TFR levels of 2.1 in due course like other states.
Apart from being unnecessary, the approach taken by the UP Law Commission’s draft Population (Control, Stabilisation and Welfare) Bill is also dangerous. It has prescriptions portending a bureaucratic nightmare for ordinary citizens, especially the poor. It requires devoting energies to identifying state employees and the general public who qualify for a raft of special incentives. Disincentives barring access to welfare schemes and even the PDS for larger families, though not retrospective, poses exclusion risks, massive corruption and social discrimination.
Badly conceived laws which trust bureaucracy with inordinate control over people’s lives are a recipe for disaster. Ironically, the poor, and especially UP’s rural areas where TFR is 3.0 against 2.1 in cities, will be penalised for structural deficiencies in schooling, public healthcare, and employment opportunities. The potential for widespread social disruption can even undermine any political gains Adityanath may expect in the UP assembly polls from the draft bill’s ample references to polygamy. UP should junk this idea.