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.Beyond courts: Vendetta politics muddies the logic for speedier resolution of cases against MPs, MLAs
The Supreme Court’s long ongoing effort to fast-track criminal cases against politicians isn’t making progress: Criminal cases pending against sitting and former MPs and MLAs registered an 18% jump from 4,122 in December 2018 to 4,859 in September 2020. Solutions like fast-track courts haven’t enthused state governments. The 2013 SC judgment, which finally allowed the Representation of People Act to instantly disqualify convicted lawmakers, had given urgency to tackle criminalisation of politics. But eight years later, the process is proving quite unwieldy.
For instance, many alleged cases are “political”, registered against netas involved in agitations with offences like rioting, unlawful assembly and obstructing public servants. In these muddied waters, cases like heinous and sexual offences or corruption and economic offences need prioritisation. But agencies like CBI and ED have left cases hanging for years, which is injustice to the accused as well. If these cases are never going to reach trial, they deserve closure. The CJI’s bench, hearing an IPS officer from Chhattisgarh, took a grim view of cops framing opponents of their political masters and later facing vendetta when political winds change. The exercise of fast-tracking mustn’t descend into a witch-hunt against opposition netas.
A related issue that keeps cropping up is the government of the day’s eagerness to withdraw cases against its favourites. With such partisanship, prosecutors and police cannot freely and fairly subject such accused persons through the motions of an investigation and trial. SC has prudently ruled that state governments must take high court approval before withdrawal of cases.
While GoI supported the demand for speedy, timebound investigation and trial of netas, the SC bench quipped: “It’s easy for us to say: expedite trial … But where are the judges?” This is a pertinent issue. Setting up special courts to try netas takes away judges hearing matters of ordinary citizens. GoI and SC must requisition the services of retired HC and district court judges with meritorious records. Their retirement at 62 and 60 prematurely lets go of valuable judicial experience amid the struggles to fill judicial vacancies and dispose of long pending cases. Like netas, ordinary citizens also deserve speedier justice. Spare a thought for those who suffer miscarriage of justice in UP: Its average wait time for a convict appealing a trial court verdict is 35 years. Rather than symbolism of special courts, the justice system must scale up for everyone.
2.Sugar daddies: The sugarcane economy is miles away from lofty reforms of farm laws. And politics will keep it that way
GoI announced that sugarcane’s Fair and Remunerative Price, or floor price, for the 2021-22 season will be Rs 290/quintal. It’s expected to lead to business of Rs 1 lakh crore, of which UP, India’s largest producer with about 45% share, will reap the most. Maharashtra too will benefit. UP’s centrality to India’s electoral politics is the primary determinant of the political economy of sugar. And the highlight is that it’s completely detached from the debates and confrontations that animate India’s agricultural reforms push.
The main contest in farm reforms is over the extent to which governments withdraw from a direct role in setting prices and controlling markets. GoI has staked a lot in pushing for state withdrawal in operational aspects of the agricultural economy. In sugar, however, it’s moved in the opposite direction. Sugarcane, a controlled commodity to begin with, has seen an expansion of controls that now cover even the end product, retail price of refined sugar. The basics of this system are similar to the MSP of paddy and wheat. GoI sets the FRP for sugarcane and sugar mills have to buy the cane from the farmers at that price.
FRP is out of sync with market realities and returns from cane cultivation are 60-70% higher than most other crops. It was unsustainable as sugar consumption in India plateaued at about 25 million tonnes a year amidst increasing cane production. An outcome was delayed payment by sugar mills facing increasing input costs and falling prices of the end product, sugar. In June 2018, GoI tried to deal with it by fixing an MSP on the retail price of refined sugar. It’s created another lobby seeking price hikes. Unaddressed is the growing ecological problem as producing a kg of sugar needs 1,500-2,000 kgs of water. It is, in short, a jalebi of irrational policies on a syrup of electoral politics.
3.Hark Neeraj Chopra’s golden message: Sports teaches us to be together and united
For those worried about the decline of free speech in India or a growing intolerance, Neeraj Chopra should be a wellspring of hope. The way in which he has shut down the attacks on Pakistani javelinist Arshad Nadeem is just the latest among impressive public interventions since the 23-year-old shot into national spotlight after winning India its first track & field Olympic gold.
By all accounts the feudal power asymmetry between the country’s athletes and sports administrators still persists. The way in which wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Sonam Malik are being put on the mat for “gross indiscipline” and “misconducts” is just one example. When Neeraj tweeted that, “Vinesh Phogat is one of India’s most accomplished sportspersons who has made the country proud many times. We are all proud of you and will continue to support you through the next phase of your life,” it must have meaningfully braced her for a difficult fight.
The Arshad controversy followed from Neeraj’s interview with TOI, where he shared that at the start of the Olympic final he took the javelin from Arshad saying, “Bhai give this javelin to me, it is my javelin! I have to throw with it.” When this resulted in hate being unleashed on Arshad, Neeraj put out a video with an extremely coherent and sharp message.
He schools us on the rules of the game, where personal javelins are kept in a common pool that all throwers can use. It is a powerful reminder of what developing a sporting culture means. Inundating the medallists with garlanding functions does not cut it. As Neeraj shared in the above interview, for him this has meant falling ill, losing sleep and fitness, and having to pull out from the Diamond League, the elite track and field competition underway in Lausanne where all other Olympic champions are participating.
“Sports teaches us to be together and united,” he reminds us. The Olympic motto indeed is Citius, Altius, Fortius – Communiter. Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together. In an era of populism he does not flinch from an unpopulist scolding: “I’m extremely disappointed to see some of the reactions from the public.” And he emphatically refuses to consent to his words being used to further “vested interests and propaganda”. For those who worry about the future of our country, Neeraj Chopra is a reminder that our bravura youth are golden.
4.Risks and rewards: On asset monetisation scheme
The asset monetisation push needs careful calibration to evade future hazards
Following through on the Budget’s plan to monetise public assets in order to fund fresh capital expenditure on infrastructure, the Government has released an exhaustive list of projects and facilities to be offered to private investors over the next four years. What distinguishes it from the new public sector disinvestment policy is that a change of ownership is not envisaged. The Government estimates these assets — airports, coal mines, highway stretches, even urban tracts, stadia and hotels — to fetch around ₹5.96-lakh crore through structured leasing and securitisation transactions. This, in turn, could help fund the National Infrastructure Pipeline with new projects worth ₹100-lakh crore, although the Government has said fiscal constraints are not the trigger for this plan. As Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has emphasised, these assets or the land therein will not be sold but private players will be asked to pay for operation and management rights and expected to modernise assets that are either languishing or are simply under-utilised. An infrastructure investment trust (InvIT) structure has already been used this year by the PowerGrid Corporation to raise funds against its transmission lines network and could be used for highways, gas pipelines and railway tracks, including the Dedicated Freight Corridor. For ports, mining, railway stations, concession agreements laying out the contours for a PPP are proposed.
About ₹88,000 crore is expected from the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) in this year itself, in addition to the ₹1.75-lakh crore already estimated in the Budget from the sale of public firms such as Air India and BPCL. While this Government is yet to complete a single PSU sale, the risks of adverse audit paras about valuations and processes hang over monetisation deals too. However, post-transaction troubles in outright sales can be of a limited nature. With proposed concession periods running up to 60 years for some assets, NMP deals, by contrast, could pose a long-term headache if they are not structured with end-user interests in mind, balancing the profit and utility motives. The sharing of risk and rewards between the public and private partners needs to be weighed carefully for each sector. Checks and balances are needed for actual infrastructure usage versus projections at the time of bidding. If the Government had implemented its 2014 Budget promise to set up an apex body to devise new PPP models, learning from past mistakes, India’s institutional capacity for the NMP would have been more mature by now. Just like disinvestment deals during a downturn could crowd out new investments and risk the tag of ‘fire sales’, revenue projections for PPP assets could be deflated now leading to lower bids followed by super-normal gains for the operator in the future. Getting the nitty-gritty right is critical for this grand plan.
5.Learning safely: On schools reopening
As schools prepare to reopen, the focus has to be on vaccination and safe behaviour
The Centre’s move to allocate 2 crore coronavirus vaccine doses for universal coverage of all teaching and non-teaching staff in schools by Teachers’ Day (September 5) adds a measure of confidence that resumption of face-to-face classes from September is not fraught with high risk. Several States are preparing to reopen schools, mostly for Class 9 and higher, next month. Some, including Haryana, Telangana and Gujarat, have announced that they will allow offline classes even for younger children. Amidst fears of a third wave of the pandemic, epidemiologists, academicians and policymakers have been wrestling with the question of a low-risk trade-off, balancing protection from the virus with some bridging of the learning deficit caused by prolonged school closures that are crippling future prospects of millions of children. It is encouraging that half of the 97 lakh teachers in the country have already been immunised, by official estimates, making it feasible to reach the rest by September 5. The risk of infection to children in schools remains, however, and must be addressed with utmost seriousness, particularly with fast-transmitting virus variants present in all States. This calls for a coherent response that incorporates the best learnings from epidemiology and decentralises decision-making to the districts based on local circumstances. It is, of course, a step forward that a vaccine, the three-dose ZyCoV-D, has been approved for the 12-18 age group, but this is to be administered only from October. The reversion to physical classes will, therefore, have to be carefully calibrated.
Vaccination of children over 12 years of age has been allowed in some countries, but the pandemic’s course has remained unpredictable. In Israel, one of the most vaccinated countries with an estimated 78% coverage of the over-12 population, the Delta variant swiftly caused a spike in infections as distancing norms, the mask mandate and travel bans were eliminated. In one instance, an entire class of students was infected by one unvaccinated child who had been on vacation. This cautionary tale serves to emphasise the importance of priority vaccination of children, starting with those who may have other health conditions, maintaining safety protocols, and adopting low-cost non-pharmaceutical interventions such as good classroom ventilation and open-air instruction wherever feasible. Credentialed studies in the U.S. indicate that these are effective measures, along with vaccination. It is vitally important for the Centre to share information on the school reopening experience with all States and issue alerts in real time to enable decision-making. An empirical approach will also enable organisations such as the National Institute of Disaster Management collate useful insights. Parents must be convinced by transparent official measures that the health and education prospects of their children are in safe hands.