EDITORIAL TODAY (ENGLISH)

1.The illiteracy penalty: Too many children are punished for the ‘crime’ of being poorly educated and poor

How just is our justice system? NCRB data indicates that it is stacked against the poor and the poorly educated, with ‘literacy’ serving as a useful proxy where data regarding economic status is not available. The disparity starts with the young and continues among the adults. As many as one-third of juveniles apprehended in 2020 had studied only upto the primary level or were illiterate. The profile of prisoners is similar. In 2019, the latest year for which data is available, a jaw-dropping 28% were illiterate and another 42% of them had education below Class X. The two categories taken together accounted for 69% of convicts, 69% of undertrials, and 66% of detenues.

One takeaway of this data is the social costs of letting so many Indian children fall off the education grid. Poor schooling drastically shortens the odds of standard employment and increases those of crime. As the situation has worsened considerably since March 2020, several states need to make a concerted effort to get the ‘lost generation’ back to classrooms. But another takeaway is that there is a class bias in the registration of cases. Better-off children enjoy the benefits of much better legal representation while poorer children fall afoul of the system more easily, and thereafter an ugly recidivist cycle can kick in.

In 2015, when such data was made available by NCRB, a glaring 42% of apprehended juveniles came from families with annual income of upto Rs 25,000. Justice Chandrachud had noted at the time that in our country children often “inherit crime”. From improvement in legal aid to reform of bail, there’s plenty India can do to improve this situation. It must stop holding children in dismal and even unsafe juvenile homes just because they are poor.

2.Too much, too late: New Congress govt in Punjab has to answer too many knotty questions in very little time.

Running out of time to mollify Punjab voters – elections less than five months away and model code of conduct imposition even more closer – Congress had no option but to remove Amarinder Singh, its tallest regional leader with sterling nationalist credentials. Charanjit Singh Channi has a tough battle ahead ensuring that camps led by the stalwart ex-CM and his sworn rival Navjot Sidhu do not act at cross-purposes any longer. But Amarinder’s sacking, with the high command calling a legislature party meeting at short notice and even securing signatures of 60 MLAs, may have sowed the seeds of further rancour.

Channi, a Dalit CM in a state with over 31% Dalit voters, is a bold experiment given the Jat Sikh dominance. But the stopgap CM is up against long standing issues that predate even Amarinder’s stint. Congress may even have to conceive a 100-day mission that newly elected governments often pursue. Inability to make headway in the 2015 sacrilege incidents, which had damaged Akali Dal, is hurting Congress. Many years were lost amid CBI’s inconclusive probe but even the state government’s SIT faced a massive setback in the Kotkapura firing case. Continuing hooch and illicit drugs trade are also marked out now as a Congress failure. Further, the state recorded India’s worst Covid case fatality rate, which at 2.7% is twice the national average, indicating the health system failed too many patients.

After decimating the opposition in 2017, Amarinder could brush off the critics without changing his style of functioning or addressing their grievances. But Sidhu’s rise as an internal corrective force, taking on both Amarinder and Badals, hastened Captain’s fall. The former’s anointment as PCC chief helped create an alternate official power centre for the rebels to safely rally around.

If Congress was hoping to benefit from the anti-Centre farm agitation, Amarinder’s decline has allowed AAP room to regroup. Akali Dal remains scarred by its brief continuance in NDA after the farm ordinances were promulgated. BJP’s surgical operation in Gujarat is a comparable warning to Congress to put its house in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in quick order before it’s too late. While Ashok Gehlot still enjoys the legislature party’s backing, he was conclusively routed as incumbent CM in the 2003 and 2013 Rajasthan polls. Both national parties have state-level problems, but winning the perception battle remains a bigger problem for Congress. With the unorthodox choice of Channi, has GoP salvaged a bad situation?

3.No rush to recognise Taliban

India makes stance clear, wants visible change first

Prime Minister Modi’s appeal to the global community to not rush into recognising the Taliban government in Afghanistan, which he said was not inclusive enough and was formed without negotiations, has lifted the ambiguity around India’s stand on the new regime. Sticking to the policy of wait and watch as events unfold in the neighbourhood reflects the mounting concerns over the Taliban unwilling to unglue themselves from the brutish and violent blueprint that defined their rule 20 years ago. The PM’s address at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit sends a strong message that expecting a hand of friendship should be commensurate with visible change on the ground that shows Kabul’s commitment to peace and basic human rights.

The call to member-countries for a code of conduct to stop terror financing and cross-border terrorism is a timely reminder of what an unstable Afghanistan and a fiddling Pakistan could portend for not only the region, but also countries across the world. The suggestion to formulate a collective template to deal with the challenges of extremism and radicalisation may not find ready acceptance, but the need to confront the trust deficit could, and that’s where India must pull out all stops. The assurance to increase connectivity with Central Asia is an encouraging step on the journey, and needs to be pursued with renewed vigour.

The fallout of the uncontrolled flow of drugs, illegal weapons and human trafficking as a consequence of the deepening economic woes of the Afghan people poses another serious challenge. India has expressed commitment to be a part of any global effort to provide urgent humanitarian aid for Afghanistan, but in an unhindered manner, and for that, it has reiterated support for a central role of the United Nations. Not only for ensuring that the assistance reaches all sections of Afghan society without any discrimination, but also for global deliberation regarding the current system in Afghanistan.

4.Congress fiasco

Captain’s exit as CM leaves party on sticky wicket in Punjab

Capt Amarinder Singh’s unceremonious exit as the Punjab Chief Minister is a new low for the self-destructive Congress. It’s inexplicable that a party with an ever-dwindling national footprint is bent on frittering away its few gains in the states. Sheer mishandling of the situation by the high command has destabilised the state government and triggered chaos in Punjab, which will go to the polls in barely five months. The gross failure to tackle the crisis and take timely remedial action has severely dented the party’s electoral prospects, and that too at a time when the main Opposition parties — the Shiromani Akali Dal and Aam Aadmi Party — are desperately trying to regroup and regain the electorate’s trust.

The party stirred a hornets’ nest two months ago when it elevated Navjot Singh Sidhu as the PPCC chief, overruling objections by Capt Amarinder. If the top brass had wanted Sidhu to be the CM face, it should have made things clear right from the outset. Giving Sidhu carte blanche to take potshots at the CM was an invitation to disaster. The feeble, unconvincing attempts to bring about a patch-up between Capt Amarinder and Sidhu only made things worse.

The high command’s lackadaisical approach can be gauged from the fact that it set up the election manifesto implementation committee in Punjab as late as January 2020, almost three years after Capt Amarinder led the party to a thumping victory in 2017. If misgovernance and the failure to fulfil poll promises were the all-important issues, course correction should have been done much earlier, not at the eleventh hour when the party needs all hands on deck. Now, it would be naive of the Congress to consider Punjab as a low-hanging fruit. The party will have to go back to the drawing board to gear up for the 2022 elections. The state leaders have already expended too much time and energy on political intrigue and one-upmanship. With the Congress’ credibility in tatters, it will be an uphill task for the grand old party to retain power.

5.Punjab: The Congress gamble

While picking a Dalit chief minister may work, the party has mismanaged the state, and erred on Captain

By making it untenable for Captain Amarinder Singh to continue as Punjab’s chief minister (CM), and now picking Charanjeet Singh Channi as the next CM, the Congress leadership appears to believe it has warded off anti-incumbency, ended the internal factional battle between Mr Singh and state party president Navjot Singh Sidhu, and strengthened the party in the run-up to the 2022 polls. Appointing Mr Channi, a Dalit leader, as CM is indeed smart political symbolism — he will be the first Dalit CM in a state with 31% Dalits. But this does not take away from the Congress’s poor management of the Punjab crisis, which has potentially jeopardised its electoral prospects and enhanced the trust deficit between senior party leaders and the Nehru-Gandhi family nationally.

Captain Amarinder Singh led the party to a win in Punjab in 2017. He is also a rare national figure in the party who is respected for his military service, politics of moderation, and personal temperament. It is indeed true that his popularity had dipped in recent years, and this needed correction. But working with the CM, rather than against him, would have been far more productive. After all, the Congress has lived with CMs with a less-than-impressive track record, and allowed them the opportunity to test their credentials in elections. But the fact that the leadership did not do so stems from Captain being far more autonomous than the party leadership in Delhi (particularly Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi) was comfortable with. Instead, the encouragement to Mr Sidhu, a recent recruit to the party who was openly undermining a party leader; his elevation as party president; and possible signals to party legislators against Mr Singh contributed to undermining the CM’s authority.

As the Bharatiya Janata Party showed in Uttarakhand, Karnataka and Gujarat, it has the ability to change CMs without a major backlash — largely due to Narendra Modi’s authority and a culture of organisational discipline. The Congress is attempting to replicate the same pattern of control, except that its party leadership does not carry the same credibility, given its depleted ability to win votes. Mr Singh’s sense of hurt, and fierce criticism of both Delhi and Mr Sidhu, will cost the Congress in terms of both optics and votes in Punjab; it will also lead to deeper unease among other senior leaders about the direction of the party; and Mr Channi’s elevation could well sow the seeds of a new power conflict for leadership in the state unit. Instead of resolving a crisis, the Congress may have created another one.