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.Will states get back their powers to decide on backwardness?
Indications that Cente will amend the 102nd Constitution Amendment Act to restore to state governments the power to identify OBC groups comes in the wake of difficulties that the Centre is facing. The Supreme Court’s judgment ruled that the 102nd Constitution Amendment Act only mandated the President (Centre) for approving the state OBC list based on recommendations by the National Commission for Backward Classes.
Since the ruling, Centre has struggled to address growing questions of why it should sit in judgment over state OBC lists. The premise was that Centre would be under less pressure than states when dealing with quota agitations. But state politicians are pointing fingers at the Centre for delays in deciding issues related to definitions of backwardness. An amendment to the 102nd Constitution Amendment Act will help BJP kill two birds with one stone.
One, it can signal to OBCs that it has its interests covered with the UP elections nearing. Two, the current impasse in Parliament can be broken as no party can afford to be seen as stalling the amendment. And yet the larger question remains: Why in the 21st century, this obsession with backwardness? The failure to match sky high aspirations of citizens stares all politicians in the face. Diverting this failure by focusing on reservations is futile.
2.Politics of death: There should be a nationwide demographic survey to truly measure Covid fatalities
On July 20, GoI made two eye-catching observations in Parliament about the second Covid wave. It said states had reported that there were no deaths due to medical oxygen shortage, or due to lack of testing and treatment. This is plainly inconsistent with collective experience. April 2021 to June was the worst phase in the Covid trajectory, and large parts of the country were locked down as healthcare infrastructure was overwhelmed. GoI’s data showed that 2.35 lakh deaths, or 56% of all Covid fatalities till date, took place in those three months. It beggars belief that not one death was due to the oxygen supply crisis. The problem is states and hospitals are probably using record-keeping protocols to avoid grim facts.
A larger, related question is whether India is undercounting Covid fatalities. There’s been plenty of research on this. The most commonly used source now is the Civil Registration System (CRS), a record of deaths maintained by states. While this system does not offer data on just Covid deaths, it provides a sense of the “excess mortality” in 2020-21 that can be assumed to have been influenced largely by the pandemic. An alternative indicator is the GoI’s Sample Registration System (SRS), a demographic survey, which is available till only 2019.
Arvind Subramanian, a former GoI chief economic advisor, and his associates, recently estimated that, under some assumptions, using CRS shows that excess mortality between April 2020 and June 2021 was 3.4 million. There’s an argument against using CRS, which is that it’s not as accurate as GoI’s SRS. That’s partly true. Data of 2019 shows that in the southern states there’s no mismatch between CRS and SRS. But many other states’ CRS underestimate deaths.
Deaths are often used as a proxy for governance in political rhetoric. Politics over deaths provides perverse incentives to undercount and underplay the severity, helped by the fact that Covid death registration guidelines are too tight. That’s deeply unfair to families of victims of the second wave. They deserve an honest answer. The way out is for GoI to do a proper SRS, a survey that’s been in place for 50 years. GoI’s data shows that so far there are 4.18 lakh Covid fatalities, which is 1.34% of people who tested positive. But if sero surveys indicate that the number of people infected is far larger than test data, what’s the real scale of fatalities? The answer can only come through a nationwide demographic survey.
3.Limits of cooperation: On reforms in cooperative sector
Reforms in cooperative sector should not be at the cost of federal principles
The cooperative movement certainly needs reform and revitalisation. Beset by political interference, many cooperative societies do not hold elections regularly, while some are superseded frequently. The 97th Constitution Amendment, which came into effect in 2012, was a major step towards infusing autonomy, democratic functioning and professional management. The recent Supreme Court verdict holding the amendment unconstitutional to the extent it applied to cooperative societies under the control of the States is a reminder that even well-intentioned efforts towards reforms cannot be at the cost of the quasi-federal principles underlying the Constitution. The amendment added Part IXB to the Constitution, concerning cooperative societies. Part IXB delineated the contours of what State legislation on cooperative societies ought to contain, including provisions on the maximum number of directors in each society, reservation for seats for SCs, or STs, and women, besides the duration of the terms of elected members, among others. The question before the Court was whether the 97th Amendment impacted the legislative domain of the State Legislatures and, therefore, required ratification by half the legislatures, in addition to the required two-thirds majority in Parliament. The Gujarat High Court had found the amendment invalid for want of such ratification. The Supreme Court, by a 2:1 majority, upheld the judgment holding the amendment invalid, but only in relation to cooperatives under the States. The elaborate amendment would hold good for multi-State cooperative societies, on which Parliament was competent to enact laws.
A significant limitation on Parliament’s amending power is the requirement that certain kinds of amendments to the Constitution must be ratified by 50% of the State legislatures. The Union government believed that as the subject of ‘cooperative societies’ in the State List was not altered in any way by the 97th Amendment, and that it only outlined guidelines on any law on cooperatives that the Assemblies may enact, the ratification was not necessary. A key principle from the judgment is that the ratification requirement will apply if there is any attempt to fetter the State legislatures in any way while enacting a law in their own domain, even if there is no attempt to alter the distribution of legislative powers between the Union and States. Thus, in the absence of ratification by the States, the amendment that sought to prescribe the outlines of State laws on a State subject did not pass constitutional muster. The judgment may mean that the concern expressed by some about the adverse implications of the formation of a new Ministry of Cooperation on federal principles could be true. However, there is no denying that the scope for democratising the functioning of cooperative societies and enhancing their autonomy remains unchanged.
4. In search of gold: On Tokyo Olympics
The Olympic Games remain the greatest sporting event for fans and athletes alike
A medal can lose its lustre but the athlete’s sporting immortality is set in stone, such is the enduring allure of triumphs at the Olympics. Even a participant without any titles, is referred to as an Olympian and it is an eternal stamp that sportspersons obsess about. The quadrennial congregation of the world’s finest athletes is set to begin, after a year’s delay imposed by the pandemic’s shadow. ‘Tokyo 2020’, as the Olympics is branded for the latest edition, will commence at Japan’s capital on Friday while COVID-19 protocols are in place. Tokyo and Fukushima will conduct events without spectators while a limited number may be allowed at stadiums in the Miyagi and Shizuoka regions. Local approval ratings for the Games now stand at the half-way mark, a considerable improvement especially after an 83% opposition as recent as May. Having previously hosted the Olympics in 1964, Tokyo’s second dalliance with the premier championship has been extremely tough. Even two days ago, there were whispers of cancellation as the coronavirus graph linked to the Games and to Japan revealed an upward climb. Within the Olympics Village ecosystem of athletes, coaches, officials and volunteers, around 70 have tested positive for COVID-19. But the Olympics harking back to its Athens roots in 1896, is expected to hold steady till its conclusion on August 8.
When it comes to winning at the Olympics, the United States of America, Russia, China, European nations and Australia have excelled. India meanwhile has a mere 28 medals to show despite turning up since 1900. India’s initial share came from hockey but even that tap has run dry since the gold at Moscow in 1980. India’s tilts in the Olympics have often been infused with pathos. Legendary runners Milkha Singh and P.T. Usha missing their bronzes in 1960 and 1984 respectively, still test the tear glands of die-hard fans. However, over the years and through diverse sports such as shooting, tennis, badminton, wrestling, boxing and weight-lifting, India has earned a few medals. This time around, the pursuit to better the best-ever tally of six, gained at London in 2012, continues. Headlined by P.V. Sindhu and Mary Kom besides the talent in shooting, weight-lifting and wrestling, India hopes to push its Olympic envelope further while the yearning for excellence in hockey lingers. A sobering truth is that the demographic-dividend of being the second most populous nation, does not really convert into a better yield in multi-event jousts. It is a pointer to the need to improve sports infrastructure as India at the Olympics remains a work in progress. An Olympic medal offers sporting nirvana; even tennis legend Serbian Novak Djokovic is not immune to its charm.
5. It is the Olympics
While the challenge this time is greater, if the Tokyo bubble holds, the world and India will witness the human spirit at its finest
The modern Olympics is a curious beast. Every four years — in the case of this edition, five years — it rolls into the host city like a juggernaut, trailing tales of destruction, corruption, inflated budgets, development at the cost of citizens and the environment, apathy towards those suffering from natural disasters, relocation or disease. And then the Games begin. All the negativity dissolves into the background, replaced by nervous excitement and hypnotic awe at the sheer range of human endeavour, at the sight of athletes from every corner of the planet performing at the most breathtaking level possible.