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In parliament
As some of the 100 cities in the Smart Cities Mission have asked for more time to complete projects, the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry has informed a Parliamentary Standing Committee that the extension of the mission beyond its current deadline of June 30 is an “open issue”, as per the panel’s report.
In its report on the Ministry’s demand for grants (2023-2024) presented to the Lok Sabha on Monday, the Standing Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs, said it asked Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Manoj Joshi on February 21 about the “slow progress of the mission”.
The secretary said there were 25 cities where the progress was less. He said these cities had raised the demand of extending the deadline beyond June 30. He added that giving an extension was a matter of discussion with the Department of Expenditure.
The secretary said if the deadline was extended then the work would go on slowly and if not, projects would be incomplete.
The panel noted the “contrasting difference” in performance of cities. “On the one hand, 32 smart cities have completed more than the number of projects planned for implementation under the SCM, in some cases even four times more than the actual target.
On the other hand, the remaining 68 smart cities are yet to meet the project completion targets wherein the performance of some cities is quite dismal.
Therefore, the total number of completed projects gives a misleading picture because it also takes into account the excess projects accomplished by 32 performing smart cities.
Editorial
Russian Ballet, Chinese steps (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
It is hard to overlook the strategic dimensions of the visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Moscow this week to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. As is their wont when they meet, a fairly detailed joint statement was put out.
The main strategic takeaway is that Xi has not just doubled down on Russia but has specifically thrown his considerable weight behind the person of Putin.
How else to explain the fact that even before Putin has announced his candidature for the Russian presidential elections due in March next year, Xi has backed Putin by expressing the hope that the latter would be re-elected as President of Russia.
For Putin, who faces some internal dissent, this is a big deal: He is, after all, getting the endorsement of a big power for his policies in Ukraine.
Xi’s personal endorsement of Putin is also a poke in the eye for the West and the International Criminal Court, which indicted him recently
The language of the joint statement on the war in Ukraine is what may be characterised as boilerplate. There is a predictable reference to the UN charter and to international law, but the reference to the “legitimate security concerns of all countries” and preventing the formation of “bloc confrontation” must have satisfied Russia enough to welcome Chinese attempts at mediation in the Ukraine imbroglio.
Russia, therefore, called the Chinese peace proposals “constructive”. This, of course, means the Chinese peace proposals, such as they are, can be deemed dead on arrival by the Ukrainians and the West. We will have to see how the proposed telephone call between Xi and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy goes.
Ideas page
Press must remain free if a country is to remain a democracy (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
At the very outset, I extend my heartiest congratulations to the winners in all the categories of the awards presented today. Earlier today, I was browsing through the categories in which awards are presented as well as a few stories by previous winners and I must say that I am tremendously impressed by the depth and breadth of the reportage that journalists in our country engage in.
To those journalists who have not won today — you are no less a winner in the game of life for yours is a noble profession.
To have chosen it at all (especially when more lucrative options are available) and to continue to pursue it despite the many difficulties which arise, is admirable indeed.
As I was reflecting on the profession of law and that of journalism, it occurred to me that journalists and lawyers (or judges, as in my case) share some things in common.
Of course, persons of both professions are fierce believers of the aphorism that the pen is mightier than the sword. But, they also share the occupational hazard of being disliked by virtue of their professions — no easy cross to bear.
But members of both professions keep at their daily tasks and hope that one day, the reputations of their professions will receive a makeover.
The magnitude of the task that journalists face in their careers was well described by G K Chesterton, who said “Journalism largely consists in saying ‘Lord Jones is dead’ to people who never knew Lord Jones was alive”. Journalists are constantly engaged in the endeavour of simplifying complex information for the consumption of the public, which is frequently unaware of even the most basic facts underlying the issues sought to be exposed.
This simplification of information must not be at the cost of accuracy, which further complicates the journalist’s job. This is true, the world over.
The media sparks debates and discussion, which are the first step towards action. All societies inevitably become dormant, lethargic and immune to the problems that plague them. Journalism (in all its forms) is one of the key aspects which prods us out of this collective inertia.
The media has always played and continues to play an important role in shaping the course of current events, and by extension, the course of history itself.
Even on a day-to-day basis, some news stories prompt questions and discussion in Parliament and in the legislative assemblies of states.
Explained
What India is doing to eliminate TB by year target year 2025 (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
On World TB Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the One World TB Summit on Friday. He is likely to announce initiatives to help the country meet the 2025 target.
With India setting the target of eliminating tuberculosis by 2025, five years ahead of the global target, scientists are rushing to test newer vaccines and shorter courses of treatment, the government is focusing on active case finding, entrepreneurs have helped increase testing capacity, and the community at large has come forward to provide nutritional support to patients.
On World TB Day 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the One World TB Summit on Friday. He is likely to announce initiatives to help the country meet the 2025 target. This year’s theme ‘Yes! We can end TB!’ also relates to India’s goal for itself.
Although India continues to be the largest contributor to global TB cases, there has been a decline in the number of cases in 2021.
Reporting of TB cases also improved in 2021 – although it didn’t reach the pre-pandemic levels, it bounced back from the lows seen during the first year of the pandemic, according to the Global TB Report 2022.
The incidence of TB – new cases detected through the year – reduced by 18% in 2021 over the 2015 baseline, dropping to 210 cases per lakh population as compared to 256 cases per lakh population.
The incidence of drug-resistant TB also went down by 20% during the period from 1.49 lakh cases in 2015 to 1.19 lakh cases in 2021.
India accounts for 28% of all TB cases in the world, according to the Global TB Report 2022. There were 21.3 lakh cases detected in 2021 as compared to 18.05 lakh cases in 2020.
The numbers are still lower than the 24.04 lakh cases reported before the pandemic in 2019, according to data from the government’s Ni-kshay portal that can help in real-time reporting of new TB cases.
Guillotine, in parliament (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Amidst the ongoing stalemate in Parliament, some MPs said the government may guillotine the demands for grants and pass the Finance Bill without any discussion in the Lok Sabha.
A guillotine is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading. It consists of a large, weighted blade that is raised to the top of a tall, erect frame and released to fall on the neck of a condemned person secured at the bottom of the frame, executing them in a single, clean pass. The origin of the exact device as well as the term can be found in France.
The design of the guillotine was intended to make capital punishment more reliable and less painful in accordance with new Enlightenment ideas of human rights.
Prior to use of the guillotine, France had inflicted manual beheading and a variety of methods of execution, many of which were more gruesome and required a high level of precision and skill to carry out successfully.
The guillotine is most widely associated with the French Revolution, when it became popular with the revolutionaries meting out capital punishment to members and supporters of the Ancien Regime, including King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette. It was a method of execution in France until the country stopped capital punishment in 1981.
After Rahul Gandhi’s conviction (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been disqualified from the Lok Sabha, a day after he was convicted in a defamation case by a Surat court.
A notice issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat said he stood disqualified from the House from March 23, the day of his conviction. Rahul Gandhi has to now move a higher court and get his conviction stayed.
On Thursday (March 23), Gandhi was held guilty and sentenced to two years in jail by a Surat court in a 2019 defamation case, over his remarks about the “Modi” surname.
Chief Judicial Magistrate HH Verma convicted Gandhi in a 2019 defamation case, for saying ‘why do all thieves have the name Modi’, and sentenced him to two years in prison.
The remarks were made during a rally in Kolar, Karnataka, in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. “Why do all thieves, be it Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi or Narendra Modi, have Modi in their names,” Gandhi had said in Hindi.
Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) prescribes for defamation a simple imprisonment for a “term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.”
The court also approved Gandhi’s bail on a surety of Rs 15,000 and suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow him to appeal.
What is SC’s the Lily Thomas verdict, which impacts Rahul Gandhi case (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
A Surat court sentenced Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to two years in jail in a 2019 defamation case over his remarks about the “Modi surname”.
The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate HH Varma, which held Gandhi guilty under IPC Sections 499 and 500, also granted him bail and suspended his sentence for 30 days to allow him to appeal.
As per Section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act of 1951, conviction of a lawmaker for an offence with a two-year sentence or more leads to disqualification from the House.
Section 8(4) of the RPA said that the disqualification takes effect only “after three months have elapsed” from the date of conviction. Within that period, the convicted lawmaker could have filed an appeal against the sentence before a higher court.
However, this provision was struck down as “unconstitutional” in the Supreme Court’s landmark 2013 ruling in ‘Lily Thomas v Union of India’.
In 2005, a PIL was filed before the Apex Court by a Kerala-based lawyer Lily Thomas and NGO Lok Prahari, through its General Secretary SN Shukla, challenging Section 8(4) of the RPA as “ultra vires” to the Constitution, which protects convicted legislators from disqualification on account of their appeals pending before the higher courts.
This plea sought to clean Indian politics of criminal elements by barring convicted politicians from contesting elections or holding an official seat.
It drew attention to Articles 102(1) and 191(1) of the Constitution. Article 102(1) lays down the disqualifications for membership to either House of Parliament and Article 191(1) lays down the disqualifications for membership to the Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council of the state. The plea argued that these provisions empower the Centre to add more disqualifications.