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  • Explained: Shreya Singhal case that struck down Section 66A of IT Act

    Six years after it struck down Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, the Supreme Court earlier this month termed its continued use by law enforcement agencies of various states as “a shocking state of affairs” and sought a response from the Centre.

    What did Section 66A do?

    • Introduced in 2008, the amendment to the IT Act, 2000, gave the government power to arrest and imprison an individual for allegedly “offensive and menacing” online posts, and was passed without discussion in Parliament.
    • Section 66A empowered police to make arrests over what policemen, in terms of their subjective discretion, could construe as “offensive” or “menacing” or for the purposes of causing annoyance, inconvenience, etc.
    • It prescribed the punishment for sending messages through a computer or any other communication device like a mobile phone or a tablet, and a conviction could fetch a maximum of three years in jail.
    • In 2015, the apex court struck down the law in the landmark case Shreya Singhal v. Union of India, calling it “open-ended and unconstitutionally vague”, and thus expanded the contours of free speech to the Internet.

    Why was the law criticized?

    • The problem was with the vagueness about what is “offensive”.
    • The word having a very wide connotation was open to distinctive, varied interpretations.
    • It was seen as subjective, and what might have been innocuous for one person, could lead to a complaint from someone else and, consequently, an arrest arbitrarily.

    So, how did 66A come under the Supreme Court’s scrutiny?

    • The first petition came up in the court following the arrest of two girls in Maharashtra by Thane Police in November 2012 over a Facebook post.
    • The girls had made comments on the shutdown of Mumbai for the funeral of a political leader.
    • The arrests triggered outrage from all quarters over the manner in which the cyber law was used.
    • The petition was filed by Shreya Singhal, then a 21-year-old law student.

    What were the grounds for the challenge?

    • The objective behind the 2008 amendment was to prevent the misuse of information technology, particularly through social media.
    • The petitioners argued that Section 66A came with extremely wide parameters, which allowed whimsical interpretations by law enforcement agencies.
    • Most of the terms used in the section had not been specifically defined under the Act.
    • The law was a potential tool to gag legitimate free speech online and to curtail freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under the Constitution, going far beyond the ambit of “reasonable restrictions” on that freedom.

    What did the Supreme Court decide?

    • In March 2015, a bench of Justices J. Chelameswar and R.F. Nariman ruled in Shreya Singhal v. Union of India declared Section 66A unconstitutional for “being violative of Article 19(1)(a) and not saved under Article 19(2).”
    • Article 19(1)(a) gives people the right to speech and expression whereas 19(2) accords the state the power to impose “reasonable restrictions” on the exercise of this right.
    • The decision was considered a landmark judicial pushback against state encroachment on the freedom of speech and expression.
    • The bench also read down Section 79– now at the centre of the ongoing “intermediary liability” battle between the Centre and micro-blogging platform Twitter– defining key rules for the relationship between governments and commercial internet platforms.
    • Section 79 says that any intermediary shall not be held legally or otherwise liable for any third party information, data, or communication link made available or hosted on its platform.

  • Draft Drone Rules, 2021

    The Ministry of Civil Aviation has released Draft Drone Rules, 2021, for public consultation. The rules will replace the Unmanned Aircraft System Rules, 2021.

    Highlights of the Draft Drone Rules 2021

    Number of forms: The rules propose to reduce the number of forms required for manufacturing, importing, testing, certifying and operating drones in India from 25 to six.

    Abolishing authorization number: The draft seeks to abolish the unique authorisation number, unique prototype identification number, and certificate of conformance that were previously required for approval of drone flights.

    Digital Sky Platform: Digital Sky, a platform launched by the government in December 2018, will become a single-window system for all approvals under the newly proposed rules.

    Airspace map: An airspace map segregating the entire landmass of India into Green, Yellow and Red zones will be published on the platform within 30 days of notification of the new rules, the government said. The map will also be machine-readable through an Application Programming Interface (API) for easier plotting of drone flight paths.

    Airport Perimeter: The draft rules reduced the airport perimeter from 45 km to 12 km. The rules state that no flight permissions would be required to fly up to 400 feet in green zones and up to 200 feet in the area between 8 and 12 km from the airport perimeter.

    Drone corridors: The government will also publish a policy framework for Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) within 60 days of notifying the rules. This will also include frameworks for developing “drone corridors” for the safe transfer of goods by drones.

    Drone Promotion Council: The Rules also propose the setting up of a Drone Promotion Council, with the aim of facilitating a business-friendly regulatory regime for drones in India, the establishment of incubators for developing drone technologies and organizing competitive events to showcase drones and counter-drone solutions.

    Others: To implement safety features such as “no permission, no take-off”, real-time tracking and geofencing, drone manufacturers, importers and operators will get six months’ time to comply from the date of notification of the rules.

  • When were Tilak and Gandhi tried under the Sedition Law?

    Recently, Chief Justice of India N V Ramana observed that the “colonial law” was used by the British to silence Mahatma Gandhi and Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

    Must read:

    Sedition Law and its discontents

    Use of sedition law through history

    • According to the LOC blog, the first known instance of the application of the law was the trial of newspaper editor Jogendra Chandra Bose in 1891.
    • Other prominent examples of the application of the law include the trials of Tilak and Gandhi.
    • Apart from this, Jawaharlal Nehru, Abul Kalam Azad and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar were also charged with sedition.

    When was sedition law used against Gandhi and Tilak?

    • In 1922, Gandhi was arrested on charges of sedition in Bombay for taking part in protests against the colonial government.
    • He was sentenced to six years in prison but was released after two years because of medical reasons.
    • Before Gandhi, Tilak faced three trials in cases related to sedition and was imprisoned twice.
    • He was charged with sedition in 1897 for writing an article in his weekly publication called Kesari and was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment.
    • He has tried again in 1908 and was represented by MA Jinnah. But his application for bail was rejected and he was sentenced to six years.
    • The second time he was tried was also because of his writings, one of which referred to the murder of European women in Muzzafarpur when bombs were thrown by Bengali revolutionaries.
    • Interestingly, the judge who announced Tilak’s sentence in the second trial, Justice DD Davar, had represented him in his first trial in 1897.

  • [pib] Kisan Sarathi Platform

    In order to facilitate farmers to get ‘right information at right time’ in their desired language, a digital platform namely ‘Kisan Sarathi’ was launched by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

    Kisan Sarathi

    • This digital platform empowers farmers with the technological interventions to reach farmers in remote areas.
    • Through this platform, the farmers can interact and avail personalized advisories on agriculture and allied areas directly from the respective scientists of Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVKs).
    • Using this platform, farmers can get information about crop and crop production, among other things that will help them in improving the quantity of their produce.
    • Farmers will be able to get information about good crop practices, the right amount of products and many other basic things.

  • [Burning Issue] Rise of Taliban in Afghanistan and its implications for India

    The Taliban’s possible triumph threatens not just India’s diplomatic stakes in Afghanistan, but also 20 years and $3 billion worth of Indian investment in various projects — dams, roads, trade infrastructure. India has been becoming more central to the negotiations with the Taliban. In this article, we will discuss and analyze all aspects of rising of the Taliban in Afghanistan and its implications for India.

    Background of the Taliban

    The Taliban (literally meaning “students”) or ‘Taleban’, who refer to themselves as the ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA)’ is a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist political movement and military organization in Afghanistan currently waging war (an insurgency, or jihad) within that country.

    Their aims were to end the political chaos that had been ongoing in Afghanistan since the Soviet withdrawal in 1989 and to impose a strict interpretation of Islam.

    How it came into existence?

    • After the Soviet Union intervened and occupied Afghanistan in 1979, Islamic Mujahedeen fighters engaged in war with those Soviet forces.
    • A while later, the US CIA and the Saudi General Intelligence Directorate (GID) provided funding and equipment through the Pakistani Inter-Service Intelligence Agency (ISI) to the Afghan Mujahedeen.
    • About 90,000 Afghans, including several bountied terrorists, were trained by Pakistan’s ISI during the 1980s.
    • Hence it can be concluded that the Taliban have arisen from those US-Saudi-Pakistan-supported Mujahedeen: ‘The West helped the Taliban to fight the Soviet takeover of Afghanistan.’

    What is its ideology?

    • Early Taliban were motivated by the suffering among the Afghan people, which they believed resulted from power struggles between Afghan groups not adhering to the moral code of Islam; in their religious schools they had been taught a belief in strict Islamic law.
    • The military ambitions of the afghans led to it’s the infamous civil war from 1992-96 which ultimately demanded a political emirate.

    The 9-11

    • The United States invasion of Afghanistan occurred after the September 11 attacks in late 2001 and was supported by close US allies.
    • Its public aims were to dismantle Al-Qaeda and deny it a safe base of operations in Afghanistan by removing the Taliban from power.
    • US demanded that the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden and expel Al-Qaeda; bin Laden had already been wanted by the FBI since 1998.
    • The Taliban declined to extradite him unless given what they deemed convincing evidence of his involvement in the 9/11 attacks.
    • They ignored demands to shut down terrorist bases and hand over other terrorist suspects apart from bin Laden.

    Taliban prowess is ever-increasing

    • Every single day since the ceasefire, the Taliban is strengthening and violence is mounting high.
    • Taliban is now more organized as an organization with diplomats on par with modern democratic nations with state apparatus propaganda.
    • The Taliban strategy seems to be to capture power in Kabul by violence and intimidation despite warnings from the international community.
    • At the core of its diplomacy lies the untenable violent extremism based on radical religious ideology.

    Afghan Peace Process: A failure

    • The Afghan peace process comprises the proposals and negotiations in a bid to end the ongoing war in Afghanistan.
    • This ‘US-Taliban deal signed in February 2020 was seen in India as a “victory for Taliban and Pakistan”.
    • Besides the US, major powers such as China, India, Russia, as well as NATO play a part that they see as facilitating the peace process.
    • The peace process has not made much headway mainly because violence by the Taliban continues unabated.
    • The Taliban now view this as an important milestone and is busy trying to establish their military superiority on the ground.

    What are the implications of the deal for India?

    • India has been backing the Ghani-led government and was among very few countries to congratulate Ghani on his victory.
    • There has not been formal contact with top Taliban leaders, the Indian mission has a fair amount of access to the Pashtun community throughout Afghanistan through community development projects of about $3 billion.
    • Due to so, although the Pakistan military and its ally Taliban have become dominant players in Kabul’s power circles, South Block insiders insist that it is not all that grim for New Delhi.
    • These high-impact projects, diplomats feel India has gained goodwill among ordinary Afghans, the majority of whom are Pashtuns and some may be aligned with the Taliban as well.

    What are India’s key investments in Afghanistan?

    India’s contribution has been phenomenal in every area in Afghanistan since India built the Afghan Parliament. India has been a major military and developmental assistance partner for Afghanistan. Let us have a look at various projects India has built across Afghanistan.

    (1) Salma Dam:

    • It is one of India’s high-visibility projects is located — the 42MW Salma Dam in Herat province.

    (2) Zaranj-Delaram Highway:

    • The other high-profile project was the 218-km Zaranj-Delaram highway built by the Border Roads Organisation.
    • India had transported 75,000 tonnes of wheat through Chabahar to Afghanistan during the pandemic.

    (3) Parliament building:

    • The Afghan Parliament in Kabul was built by India at $90 million. It was opened in 2015.

    (4) Stor Palace:

    • It is the restored Stor Palace in Kabul, originally built in the late 19th century, and which was the setting for the 1919 Rawalpindi Agreement by which Afghanistan became an independent country.

    (5) Power Infra:

    • Other Indian projects in Afghanistan include the rebuilding of power infrastructure such as the 220kV DC transmission line from Pul-e-Khumri, to the north of Kabul.  

    (6) Health Infra:

    • India has reconstructed a children’s hospital it had helped build in Kabul in 1972 —named Indira Gandhi Institute for Child Health in 1985 — that was in shambles after the war.
    • ‘Indian Medical Missions’ have held free consultation camps in several areas. Thousands who lost their limbs after stepping on mines left over from the war have been fitted with the Jaipur Foot.

    (7) Transportation:

    • India gifted 400 buses and 200 mini-buses for urban transportation, 105 utility vehicles for municipalities, 285 military vehicles for the Afghan National Army, and 10 ambulances for public hospitals in five cities.
    • It also gave three Air India aircraft to Ariana, the Afghan national carrier, when it was restarting operations.

     (8) Ongoing Projects:

    • India had concluded with Afghanistan an agreement for the construction of the Shatoot Dam in Kabul district, which would provide safe drinking water to 2 million residents.

    India’s and the Taliban

    • As the world and India have changed there is an aspiration that Afghan can’t be brought back from the brink.
    • India wants to play a positive role and sabotage those countries that support other terror groups in Afghan.
    • It is visibly clear and Taliban has claimed that the US withdrawal is a victory for them. At the same time, the democratically elected Afghan government is crashing.
    • India is pressing on a peace process all around Afghanistan so that all countries shall be peaceful.

    Why Taliban’s control over Afghanistan is a matter of concern for India and the world?

    (1) Taliban is strengthening its control in Border areas:

    • The Taliban is occupying the border areas with other countries instead of central Afghanistan and have taken control of the districts bordering Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan.
    • And this time, the Taliban’s strategy is clear that it will strengthen itself on the border areas so that when its government comes there, the neighboring countries cannot put pressure on it, and once again it can run its brutal rule in Afghanistan.

    (2) Taliban’s presence near Indian Borders:

    • The Taliban is only 400 km away from the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. The Taliban have captured the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan, which borders PoK.
    • If Taliban establish their government by capturing all the districts of Afghanistan, then they will be able to easily send their terrorists to Jammu and Kashmir and help Pakistan.

    (3) China factor:

    • Apart from Pakistan, China can also become a challenge for India. That is because while Pakistan has influence over the Taliban, China is currently the biggest investor for Afghanistan.
    • At present, there are big Chinese projects going on in Afghanistan and the Taliban knows that if it wants to keep its position strong then it will need Chinese money the most.

    (4) Silence of Western countries and UN over the situation in Afghanistan:

    • It is also an irony that the think tanks of Western countries and the United Nations, which give lectures to the whole world on human rights, are not very active about the current situation in Afghanistan.
    • At that time, the Taliban strictly enforced Sharia law. It had issued a Taliban decree for men to keep beards and women to keep their full bodies covered, violating which was publicly punished.
    • Apart from this, there was also a ban on watching music, movies and television at that time and girls above the age of 10 were not allowed to go to school.

    (5) Violence and loss of lives:

    • India is concerned over the violence and loss of lives in Afghanistan. Violence has increased manifold after peace talks have started.
    • New Delhi wants an all-inclusive “Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled” peace process—not one that is remote-controlled by Pakistan, seen as the backers of the Taliban.
    • It supports zero tolerance against violence.
    • Our EAM has iterated that there is need of double peace i.e., within and around Afghan indirectly pointing towards the terror breeding centre, Pakistan.

    (6) India’s investments are at stake:

    India, which has committed $3 billion in development aid and reconstruction activities, backs the Ashraf Ghani government in the war-torn country.

    What are the stakes for India?

    • Afghanistan is a part  of  India’s extended  neighbourhood and a link to Central Asia. But for PoK, India would have had a direct border with Afghanistan.
    • Despite claims that the Taliban have changed in the past two decades, there is no proof that it has shed any of its obscurantist ideology which leans heavily towards Pakistan’s official foreign policy towards India.
    • A Taliban-controlled government in Kabul would mean Pakistan controlling Afghan policy on India.
    • And a repeat of the past when Pakistan used Afghanistan territory for anti-India activities.

    Way Forward

    • India’s role in Afghan’s peace process and the road ahead is difficult as we see more process and less peace. India has urged for a permanent & comprehensive ceasefire in Afghanistan.
    • Durable peace requires peace within & around Afghanistan. India also asserted the need for zero tolerance for terrorism.
    • Diplomatic, policing, and intelligence cooperation with countries that border Afghanistan can help to contain terrorist groups and inhibit their ability to travel beyond the region.
    • International organizations like the UN must come forward to stop Pakistan sponsor of terrorism. The FATF should move beyond grey-listing itself.
    • Aid and developmental cooperation through the UN, India, USA must be done simultaneously for the restoration of democracy.

    Conclusion

    Terrorism safe havens are mostly a myth. A lot of complexities are involved in the Afghan theatre; tangible demonstration of commitment is required from all stakeholders for a political settlement and to have a permanent ceasefire in Afghanistan.

  • Interference an investigating officer can do without

    Context

    Instances of judiciary directing the investigating officer point to the need for restraint from the judiciary.

    Challenging the discretion of investigating officer

    • There have been growing instances of subordinate judicial officers, and even High Courts sometimes, directing the investigating officer to effect the arrest of a particular individual.
    • To deal with the issue, the Supreme Court of India recently made the observation that courts have no authority to direct an investigating officer to in turn direct the arrest of any particular individual connected with a crime
    • This points to the need for a slightly kindlier view of police conduct and more latitude to them in the standard operating procedures which they follow, especially when they investigate a complicated crime.
    • The Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) vests sufficient discretion in the investigating officer to take such decisions as arrests and searches.

    Issues with court’s directions

    • Court observations that smack of a lack of faith in police ability and integrity will make grass-root level policemen even more arbitrary than now and force them into carrying out questionable actions that will cast aspersions on an officer’s ability to think for himself.
    • Court interference in the day-to-day investigation is not only undesirable but is also not sanctioned by law.
    • Only the Supreme Court, has been vested with enormous authority and discretion by the Constitution, the lesser courts shall not give directions in the matter of arrests and searches.

    Safeguard against police misconduct

    • We need to educate the Executive and the common man that it is now well-established law that the police have to register an FIR.
    • It is mandatory that every police station in the land should register a complaint under the relevant sections of a statute the moment a cognisable offence is made out in the complaint
    • There is another safeguard against police misconduct.
    • The CrPC makes it obligatory for the investigating officer to write a diary that details the action taken every day following registration.
    • When in doubt, the competent court, which already has a copy of the first information report, can demand to see the case diary.
    • Courts should remember that the police are a well-established hierarchy that is obligated to ensure objectivity during a criminal investigation.
    • Every investigation is supervised by at least two immediate senior officers.

    Conclusion

    Judicial interference in an investigation is counterproductive to the idea of justice. Therefore, there is a need for allowing more freedom to the investigating officers in the standard operating procedure that they follow.

  • Webinar on The Art of Answer Writing: Boost your Marks in UPSC Mains|| 18th JULY || Registration Open

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    And we want students to learn this skill and apply it effectively during the exam. This is why we are pleased to present an absolutely FREE webinar by Sukanya ma’am for serious IAS aspirants to learn the techniques of answer writing that will fetch you high scores in your UPSC Mains.

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  • [RSTV Archive] Subsidy Reforms & Fiscal Position

    Finance Secretary has recently underlined the need for improving the fiscal position of the government through reforms in farm, food and fertilizer subsidies so that additional funds can be generated for the development of infrastructure and education systems.

    In this article we will discuss and analyse all aspects of this issue.

    Financial crunch of India

    • India’s fiscal deficit at 9.3% of GDP for FY21, down from a revised estimate of 9.5%.
    • This is expected to rise due to covid induced welfare schemes announced recently.

    Role of Subsidies

    • In India, food and fertilizer subsidies formed a major chunk of the overall subsidy followed by education, health, corporate concession, etc.
    • Farm, food and fertilizer reforms are administratively easy but politically difficult in view of the ramifications.

    At the present juncture we have two main kinds of buckets of reform-

    1. We have to set our fiscal house in order and also provide for the many things that governments legitimately should provide.
    2. We will need to reform some of our subsidies — farm subsidies, food subsidies, fertilizer subsidies. Some of them are intertwined with each other.

    Burden of Subsidies in India

    (1) Farm Subsidies

    • The continued trust in Centre is established with the ever-increasing support to farmers.
    • Various farm subsidies from the govt include fertilizers, farm credit, crop insurance and MSP etc.
    • A similar support from State Governments towards electricity power subsidies, irrigation subsidies crop insurance subsidies.
    • Public investment in agriculture through major irrigation projects by States, is almost equal to the annual farm subsidies of the Government of India.
    • In addition, 50% of the food subsidies are granted to farmers under National Food Security Mission, as 75% of rural population covered.
    • State Governments also waived farm loans of Rs. 1,22,000 crores.

    Thus, farm subsidies form about two percent of India’s GDP.

    (2) Fertilizer Subsidies

    • The government’s role in shaping the fertilizer landscape goes back to 1957 when it introduced the Fertilizer Control Order (FCO) to regulate the sale, price, and quality of fertilizers in the market.
    • This has not only contributed to the start of a green revolution but also increased the use of fertilizer by farmers and resulted in higher yields.
    • India is currently the second-largest consumer of fertilizer globally after China.

    Over the years, the distribution of fertilizer in India became prone to leakages. This is due to:

    1. Lack of a dedicated fertilizer beneficiary database
    2. Absence of a cap on fertilizer entitlements (Presently farmers can buy any amount, irrespective of need)
    3. Different levels of subsidy provided to the manufacturing plants based on their cost of production
    4. Disproportionate use of urea as opposed to other types of fertilizer, such as fertilizers containing phosphorous (P) or Potassium (K) nutrients, or both.

    (3) Food Subsidies

    India has one of the largest food subsidy programmes in the world that has created a relatively effective social safety net.

    • Food subsidies are under increasing criticism because of its large contributions to government budget deficits, economic inefficiency and poor targeting.
    • The food subsidy bill is becoming unmanageably large.
    • For the 2021/22 fiscal year, India’s total outlay toward the food subsidy is expected to cross Rs 2.1 lakh crore.
    • The Economic Survey 2020-21 released on Friday recommended an increase in the issue price at which poor households receive food grains.
    • Central issue price (CIP) is the amount priority households pay, ₹2 per kg of wheat and ₹3 per kg of rice, to avail grain from the subsidized PDS.
    • This issue price for wheat and rice has not been revised since the introduction of the National Food Security Act in 2013.

    The total cost of food subsidies that amounted to about 2.2 per cent of agricultural GDP during the 1990s increased significantly to about 5 per cent during the last decade.

    Why these subsidies are a cause of concern?

    • Current level of fiscal deficit is difficult to address as even during 1991, fiscal deficit was around 7.5%
    • Historically countries like England and Germany faced similar problems during global meltdown.
    • Our type of subsidy pattern is similar to these countries.
    • Giving subsidies are not empowering people is not the true way. It is not helping the poors the way it should have been.

    Challenges to bring subsidies reforms in India

    • Subsidy benefits are not reaching to intended person in supply chain due to leakages like middlemen in MSP payments, fertilizer leakage to industry, etc.
    • Over the years, subsidies have not empowered the poor people. Ex. Poor spends lakh and lakh of crores on health even after getting subsidy.
    • Political will and cooperation from opposition is required in bringing changes to subsidy structure. Ex. Due to lack of opposition support, farmers are protesting against new farm laws
    • Government needs to address those details mentioned in NFSA. Ex. Provision of providing rice at Rs. 3 per kg.

    Subsidy reforms is really a big fraud affair that it’s hard for govt to go forward.

    Way forward

    • Indian needs to implement Brazil “Conditional Subsidy Model” called ‘Bolsa Família’ which even Bangladesh has also adopted. It is based on conditional cash transfer.
    • Reform should be focused on two points – Direction of change and Time of change. In the direction of change, food subsidy reform should be at last due to covid.
    • There should be a public and private partnership model for community health center and public health center in rural India to utilize subsidies in a much better manner.
    • A voucher system can be the perfect alternative to food subsidy as it will significantly reduce administrative costs.
    • Active centre & states partnership is required to strengthen the health and education sector as both these comes under state legislature.

  • Addressing claims of backwardness by various politically powerful castes

    Context

    Two rulings of the Supreme Court have frayed nerves in Maharashtra on the broader question of “reservation”. The other pertains to OBC reservation in local bodies. Both issues have relevance beyond Maharashtra.

    Challenges in addressing the demand for reservation

    • Lack of quantitative data: The issue of actual numbers or population share of OBCs has been talked about for over a decade.
    • Besides, there is a need to understand the socio-economic situation of different backward communities.
    • In the last instance, we have to decide which groups are backward and what needs to be done for them.
    • The political class have consistently avoided the juridical reality.

    Consensus between judiciary and political class

    • That consensus after implementation of Mandal commission recommendation had three dimensions:
    • 1) Accepting that caste is the main cause of tradition-born backwardness among a large section of the population.
    • 2) Resorting to “reservation” as the easiest policy response.
    • 3) Recognising and accommodating the political aspirations of the backward sections by expanding the social base of the political elite.
    • But this resulted in the current deadlock on the question of social justice.
    • Today, not only the Marathas, but Jats and Patidars, too, claim that vast numbers among them have been left behind in the contemporary economy.
    • These demands have deflected attention from two matters.
    • 1) That the enabling provision of the Constitution aims at social backwardness (caused by societal location).
    • 2) That the causes of economic distress originating in development policies are distinct from backwardness primarily originating in caste location.
    • Granting reservations on an economic basis seems to have complicated matters.

    Five reservation-related issues gaining renewed urgency

    • Intra-OBC differentiations: This issue was already raised by a member of the Mandal Commission itself.
    • Most states have failed to come up with an effective arrangement to addressing the issue.
    • The Centre is currently waiting for a report on this question.
    • Intra-caste stratification: Intra-caste stratification is increasing — something that was rather limited at the time of Mandal.
    • What sociologist D L Sheth called as classification is now becoming the central issue, with many complications.
    • Advantages and logic: The third question is about the specific advantages and logic of reservation in the three different arenas of employment, education and political representation.
    • Limits of reservation: There is need to discuss the limits of reservation and the need to think of additional measures to augment the policy of social justice.
    • Setting boundaries: With such widespread poverty and suffering, how do we distinguish between backwardness primarily caused by a group’s social location in traditional social order and backwardness resulting from distortions of the political economy?
    • Unless we grapple with this question, reservation is bound to remain a contentious issue.

    Way forward

    • The above questions are best left ideally to a third backward classes commission whose time has come.
    • Removing the 50 per cent cap legislatively needs to be considered.

    Conclusion

    We need to devise a mechanism to verify the claims of backwardness to address the increasing demands for reservation from the politically strong section of society.

  • Explained: India’s Afghan investment

    As the Taliban push ahead with military offensives across Afghanistan, preparing to take over after the exit of US and NATO forces, India faces a situation in which it may lose all its stakes.

    India-Afghan ties

    • After a break between 1996 and 2001, when India joined the world in shunning the previous Taliban regime (only Pakistan, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia kept ties).
    • One-way New Delhi re-established ties with the country in the two decades after the 9/11 attacks was to pour in development assistance, under the protective umbrella of the US presence.
    • India built vital roads, dams, electricity transmission lines and substations, schools and hospitals, etc. India’s development assistance is now estimated to be worth well over $3 billion.
    • And unlike in other countries where India’s infrastructure projects have barely got off the ground or are mired in the host nation’s politics, it has delivered in Afghanistan.

    A soft corner

    • Afghanistan is vital to India’s strategic interests in the region.
    • It is also perhaps the only SAARC nation whose people have much affection for India.
    • Taliban takeover would mean a reversal of nearly 20 years of rebuilding a relationship that goes back centuries.

    Projects across the country

    [1] SALMA DAM

    • Already, there has been fighting in the area where one of India’s high-visibility projects is located — the 42MW Salma Dam in Herat province.
    • The hydropower and irrigation project, completed against many odds and inaugurated in 2016, is known as the Afghan-India Friendship Dam.
    • In the past few weeks, the Taliban have mounted attacks in nearby places, killing several security personnel.
    • The Taliban claim the area around the dam is now under their control.

    [2] ZARANJ-DELARAM HIGHWAY

    • The other high-profile project was the 218-km Zaranj-Delaram highway built by the Border Roads Organisation. Zaranj is located close to Afghanistan’s border with Iran.
    • With Pakistan denying India overland access for trade with Afghanistan, the highway is of strategic importance to New Delhi, as it provides an alternative route into landlocked Afghanistan through Iran’s Chabahar port.

    [3] AFGHAN PARLIAMENT

    • The Afghan Parliament in Kabul was built by India at $90 million.
    • It was opened in 2015; PM Modi inaugurated the building.
    • A block in the building is named after former PM AB Vajpayee.

    [4] STOR PALACE

    • In 2016, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and PM Modi inaugurated the restored Stor Palace in Kabul, originally built in the late 19th century.
    • It is famous for the 1919 Rawalpindi Agreement by which Afghanistan became an independent country.

    [5] POWER INFRA

    • Other Indian projects in Afghanistan include the rebuilding of power infrastructure such as the 220kV DC transmission line from Pul-e-Khumri, the capital of Baghlan province to the north of Kabul.
    • Indian contractors and workers also restored telecommunications infrastructure in many provinces.

    [6] HEALTH INFRA

    • India has reconstructed a children’s hospital it had helped build in Kabul in 1972 —named Indira Gandhi Institute for Child Health in 1985 — that was in shambles after the war.
    • ‘Indian Medical Missions’ have held free consultation camps in several areas.
    • Thousands who lost their limbs after stepping on mines left over from the war have been fitted with the Jaipur Foot.
    • India has also built clinics in the border provinces of Badakhshan, Balkh, Kandahar, Khost, Kunar, Nangarhar, Nimruz, Nooristan, Paktia and Paktika.

    [7] TRANSPORTATION

    • According to the MEA, India gifted 400 buses and 200 mini-buses for urban transportation, 105 utility vehicles for municipalities, 285 military vehicles for the Afghan Army.
    • It also gave three Air India aircraft to Ariana, the Afghan national carrier, when it was restarting operations.

    [8] OTHER PROJECTS

    • India has contributed desks and benches for schools, and built solar panels in remote villages, and Sulabh toilet blocks in Kabul.
    • New Delhi has also played a role in building capacity, with vocational training institutes, scholarships to Afghan students, mentoring programmes in the civil service, and training for doctors and others.

    Various ongoing project

    • India had concluded with Afghanistan an agreement for the construction of the Shatoot Dam in Kabul district, which would provide safe drinking water to 2 million residents.
    • Last year, India pledged $1 million for another Aga Khan heritage project, the restoration of the Bala Hissar Fort south of Kabul, whose origins go back to the 6th century.
    • Bala Hissar went on to become a significant Mughal fort, parts of it were rebuilt by Jahangir, and it was used as a residence by Shah Jahan.

    Bilateral trade

    • Despite the denial of an overland route by Pakistan, the India-Afghanistan trade has grown with the establishment in 2017 of an air freight corridor.
    • In 2019-20, bilateral trade crossed $1.3 billion.
    • The balance of trade is heavily tilted — exports from India are worth approximately $900 million, while Afghanistan’s exports to India are about $500 million.
    • Afghan exports are mainly fresh and dried fruit.
    • Some of this comes overland through the Wagah border; Pakistan has permitted Afghan trade with India through its territory.
    • Indian exports to Afghanistan take place mainly through government-to-government contracts with Indian companies.
    • Exports include pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, computers and related materials, cement, and sugar.
    • Trade through Chabahar started in 2017 but is restricted by the absence of connectivity from the port to the Afghan border.

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