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.
- Nuanced approach to Myanmar’s struggles
India’s call for restoration of the rule of law and democracy in Myanmar and condemnation of violence by the military junta on the people of Myanmar constitute the right way to proceed.New Delhi should back the democratic aspirations of the people of Myanmar: people’s faith in their governments as thevia medium for realising their aspirations of a better life is central to peace and security in the region.
Imposing sanctions as the US and Britain have done is not an option for India. Myanmar is a neighbour, therefore India’s approach should be the one it has adopted since the 1990s, of engaging the military while being supportive of democratic forces. An approach that persisted even after the restoration of democracy, since the military continued to be a power centre even as civilian institutions were slowly coming into their own. Insurgency in the border areas, rebellion in the Arakan province, an assertive China and its relationship with Suu Kyi, and the military are also factors that India must consider. In this context, India’s wariness about opening borders is understandable. India’s offer of medical and other aid to those fleeing is a good first step. India must support the aspirations for democracy while protecting its strategic interests and investments in Myanmar.
New Delhi must ensure the safety of over 100 Indian private companies operating in the country and their investments of about $1.2 billion and $1.7 billion spent in development partnership. India must engage at the bilateral, regional and multilateral levels to find a resolution that recognises the rule of law, aspirations of the people and the economic prosperity and development of the region. That way lies a long-term solution, even if it is not easy.
2.Time to shift gears in the Covid battle
A second wave of Covid is washing across certain parts of the country. There is no cause for panic or knee-jerk lockdowns. But there is every reason to shift gears and change the strategy followed hitherto. Intensifying efforts to modulate everyday behaviour to Covid-appropriate conduct is just one part of the solution. Scaling up vaccination is another. However, changing the pattern of vaccination in the select few regions where new Covid infections are concentrated might be even more relevant. Focus the vaccination drive in the most vulnerable areas, and saturate the population, not just those of any age group, with inoculation.
This will mean diverting vaccines from allocations that correspond to an equitable distribution of vaccines among states. The reasons for this must be articulated, and communicated effectively to the relatively lightly affected regions, where people might need to wait a tad bit more to receive their vaccination. At the same time, the government should take appropriate steps to increase the supply of vaccines. Vaccines that have applied for authorization must be approved for emergency use, based on approvals granted in other jurisdictions, particularly the US, whose sizeable Indian diaspora has seen largescale vaccination without any indication that people of Indian origin are at any special risk from the vaccines already in use. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, of which a single shot suffices, and the Novavax vaccine, which can be stored in a normal fridge, are of special interest to India.
The time is past for India to keep waiting for the World Trade Organization to heed calls to waive intellectual property rights on Covid-related therapeutics and vaccines. India should issue compulsory licences to Indian vaccine makers who have or can build additional capacity to manufacture vaccines. It is vital to secure herd immunity for the global population to prevent virus mutations into strains that are ever more difficult to contain. Long Covid can maim lives even of those who manage to survive an infection.
3.Shared future: Earth’s resilience demands voluntary collective actions. Heed learnings from pandemic
India’s sharply surging second Covid wave will hopefully train authorities and citizens to recognise our unmasked peril. The East Asian success in taming the novel coronavirus thanks to a collective adherence to masking was evident early into the pandemic. But the subsidence of India’s first wave after mid-September sent caution packing, despite entreaties by health experts not to abandon masks. Besides averting the second wave, exemplary masking would have saved lives, livelihoods and the economic costs of movement curbs, testing and medical expenditure.
Climate change, public health, gender inequality, learning outcomes, deforestation, air pollution, livestock and paddy cultivation have wide ramifications – which can only be tackled if we do so collectively instead of looking only at short-term interest and temporary convenience. The pandemic disrupted business as usual, but old habits die hard. The staggering Covid second wave should wake up the body politic – no different from a vaccine booster shot that perks up antibodies – to aggressively counter the threats. Otherwise, a tragedy of the commons where social and ecological well-being is neglected in the pursuit of personal gain and narrow political choices will extract increasingly greater costs.
Expenditure on public health, long stagnant at 1% of GDP, must scale up. Exotic wild meats and industrialised livestock and poultry farming can set off more pandemics. Deforestation is closely linked to climate change, and perhaps even to the SARS-CoV-2 jumping into humans. Suddenly the idea of “One Health” has moved out from theoretical paradigms with recognition that threats to human, animal and ecological health are closely interrelated. Even those obsessed with GDP growth cannot ignore the economic benefits of averting the tragedy of the commons and channelling public investment into these areas.
However, seeding a new ethos of collective benefit has become harder in these populist times, which promote extreme political polarisation demonising the other side. Democratic societies are fraying when the crying need is to come together. Even a nation speaking its own language of collectivism is ill-equipped to deal with ecological threats. These would demand a whole of humanity approach and a planetary consciousness. Thinking in terms of this unbounded collective is alien to most people. The collectivist essence of the mask is that it protects another person just as it protects the self. Steering society in the direction of common interest and shared futures while resisting authoritarian temptations can reinvigorate democracies, increasingly retreating inwards.
- Taiwan message: New Delhi-Taipei cooperation is both mutually beneficial and a pointed signal to China
Taiwan recently saw its worst rail accident in 40 years that killed at least 51 people and left 188 injured on Friday, and reaching out in this situation is in one sense natural. Nevertheless, when foreign affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi put out a condolence message on social media and Taiwan’s foreign minister Joseph Wu responded, it was seen to be laden with geopolitical significance as China sees Taiwan as a renegade province and is extremely sensitive about countries making official contact with the island.
However, India shouldn’t be overly concerned about China’s political claims on Taiwan. After all, Taiwan is a vibrant nation of 23 million people that cherishes its multi-party democracy. It’s also an Asian economic dynamo and a world leader in semiconductors. And under current President Tsai Ing-wen’s New Southbound Policy, Taiwan is looking to actively engage Southeast and South Asian nations like India. In fact, there are multiple areas where India and Taiwan can collaborate from smart cities and farm tech to semiconductors, renewable energy and even Mandarin learning – Taiwan Education Centres can easily substitute for China’s problematic Confucius Institutes.
With China becoming a country of global consequence, we need to understand the Sinic world better. And Taiwan knows China best, which is why cooperation with Taipei makes strategic sense for New Delhi. Plus, with the troop disengagement process in eastern Ladakh stalled, Beijing clearly doesn’t respect ‘One India’. There is no reason then for India to be overly sensitive about China’s territorial claims. Add to this the China-Pakistan axis that aims to strategically hem in India. If Beijing insists on treating Islamabad as its ‘iron brother’, it may be time for New Delhi and Taipei to elevate their relationship and forge their own fraternity as well.
5. Battling Covid-19 in Mumbai
Vaccinating a million people in Maharashtra a day for the next three weeks will cover at least a fourth of its adult population. Yet, New Delhi has been happy to watch the state government fail spectacularly. Given its connectedness to the rest of the country, it is just a matter of time before the fire in Mumbai spreads. Both the state and the central government must act, now.
Who is responsible for Mumbai’s mess? The answer is simple: Years of apathy under successive governments that sought to treat the city as a cash machine, rather than a living ecosystem. The city of dreams, whose engine is powered by money, does not have enough of anything — roads, housing, buses and trains, schools, hospitals, parks and public places. Before the lockdown last March, an average of seven people lost their lives, daily, on the railway tracks of the city’s famed suburban network. But the city that never sleeps chugged on nevertheless, just as it is, now, with an average of 16 deaths from Covid-19 a day for the past week. What the world takes for resilience — evident in that completely inappropriate term for people who go through hell just to make a living, the spirit of Mumbai — is largely resignation.
Extraneous factors may have driven Mumbai’s (and Maharashtra’s) Covid-19 trajectory in the first wave. A mutant strain of the virus that’s more infectious is probably driving the second. These are beyond any government’s control. But restrictions that make work, life, play, travel safe for people are well within the state government’s remit. It was only on Sunday evening that the Uddhav Thackeray-led government decided to impose a weekend lockdown, restrict the use of public transport to 50% of its capacity, and order the closure of theatres, malls, religious places, among other steps, till April 30. This was necessary, and if anything, is too delayed and partial. The right time to impose these restrictions would have been March 1. As opposed as this newspaper is to the idea of a complete lockdown — it makes sense only if the period is used to strengthen health infrastructure, or arrest a raging wave that is threatening to go out of control — Maharashtra may well require a short, hard lockdown to make up for that lapse.