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Underlining that allegations of misuse do not warrant a repeal of Indian Penal Code Section 124A which criminalises sedition, the Law Commission of India has recommended that the provision be retained with procedural safeguards and enhanced jail term.
This comes at a time when there is widespread criticism of the sedition law. The Commission, in its 279th report, recommended amending Section 124A to qualify that the law penalise only those “with a tendency to incite violence or cause public disorder,” and proposed enhancing the jail term up to seven years or life imprisonment. The offence currently carries a jail term up to three years or life imprisonment.
The report also recommended adding a procedural safeguard as a proviso to Section 124A to state that no FIR shall be registered for sedition “unless a police officer, not below the rank of Inspector, conducts a preliminary inquiry and on the basis of the report made by the said police officer the Central Government or the State Government, as the case may be, grants permission for registering a First Information Report”.
The Commission, in its report, said, “There are a plethora of examples of various laws being misused by ill-intentioned individuals only to settle their scores in cases of personal rivalries and vested interests, with even the Supreme Court recognising the same in a number of decisions.
Never has there been any plausible demand to repeal any such laws merely on the ground that they are being misused by a section of the populace.
This is so because for every abuser of that law, there might be ten other genuine victims of any offence who direly need the protection of such a law.
What is then required in such cases is only to introduce legal ways and means to prevent the misuse of such a law.
Express Network
Karnataka latest state to join DBT bandwagon (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Targeted direct benefit transfers (DBT) enabled by the so-called JAM trinity of Jan Dhan bank accounts, Aadhaar and mobile numbers may have been originally pushed by the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, but it is the states — the newly-elected Congress government in Karnataka being the latest — that seem to be the most enthusiastic adopters on the ground.
The Siddaramaiah-led government formally cleared the implementation of two DBT schemes: Gruha Lakshmi (transferring Rs 2,000/month to women heads of all households) and Yuvanidhi (unemployment allowance of Rs 3,000/month for graduates and Rs 1,500/month for diploma holders).
The two schemes — along with the other three Congress manifesto “guarantees” of 200 units of free power per month to all houses, 10 kg grain/person/month for below-poverty-line families and free public transport bus travel for women — estimated to annually cost around Rs 50,000 crore
Karnataka had 1.34 crore households in the 2011 Census. The annual tab for Gruha Lakshmi alone, if one crore of those households are covered, will be Rs 24,000 crore.
Gruha Lakshmi, to be rolled out from August 15, is a variant of the Tamil Nadu government’s Magalir Urimai Thogai scheme.
The latter, which gives Rs 1,000 per month to women heads of “eligible households”, was promised in the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s 2021 assembly election manifesto. But its actual launch is scheduled only this September.
Also, the scheme, with a budget of Rs 7,000 crore for 2023-24, covers only women of “eligible” households, not all of them.
Editorial
Show your carbon content (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Three years after the pandemic and despite 8 per cent average growth over the last two years, the level of India’s GDP is still running 5 per cent below that implied by its pre-pandemic trajectory.
This is a measure of the permanent scarring from the pandemic and unless India grows over 7-8 per cent in the coming years, the potential loss of GDP will only widen.
Many would argue that, as in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC), the post-pandemic trend growth is likely to be lower, and thus, this is an artificially high benchmark.
In the five years prior to the GFC, India averaged 8 per cent growth when rapid globalisation boosted exports and private investment soared to set up the needed supply chains. Since the GFC, global trade has languished and with it, so has investment.
After rising from 5.5 per cent of GDP in 2000-01 to nearly 14.5 per cent by 2007-08, corporate investment has flatlined around 10.5 per cent of GDP.
Household investment rose to 15.7 per cent of GDP by 2011-12, declined to 9.4 per cent of GDP by 2015-16 and has recovered to just over 11.5 per cent of the GDP today.
While some of this decline reflects the slowdown in residential housing, one suspects that a large part is due to falling SME investment, which is subsumed in this category.
Ideas Page
Indian Dharmocracy (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 1, Culture)
2023 BC said the front page of a newspaper, with a picture of the saints of the Adheenams from Tamil Nadu standing in the well of the Parliament while Prime Minister Narendra Modi was installing the Sengol near the Speaker’s podium.
Many other commentaries followed, discussing the significance or otherwise of the new Parliament building and the Sengol. While supporters elatedly declared the arrival of Hindu Rashtra, critics bemoaned the death of the spirit of free India as envisioned by leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru.
In the hyper-animated debate, too little attention was paid to what the prime minister, the prime mover of the project, had said at the inauguration.
He did not dismiss the important contributions after Independence, nor did he proclaim that India was being taken back to any bygone era.
He acknowledged that after losing so much during colonial rule, India began its new journey after Independence and that “journey has gone through many ups and downs, overcoming many challenges”, and now entered the “Amrit Kaal”.
World
UN agency warns of flow of illegal drugs from Asia's Golden Triangle (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 2, International Organisation)
The huge trade in methamphetamine and other illegal drugs originating from a small corner of Southeast Asia shows no signs of slowing down, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime warned.
High volumes of methamphetamine continue to be produced and trafficked in and from the region while the production of ketamine and other synthetic drugs has expanded,” said the agency’s 2023 report, Synthetic Drugs in East and Southeast Asia — the first since the borders reopened post-COVID-19 pandemic.
The report shows a pattern of criminal groups reestablishing themselves to the pre-pandemic stage, and significantly changing trafficking routes.
The lion’s share of methamphetamine, in the form of tablets and crystal meth, comes from the area known as the Golden Triangle, where the borders of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet.
The production of opium and heroin used to flourish there, mainly because of the lawlessness around Myanmar’s remote eastern Shan State.
The area, much of it jungle, remains the domain of various ethnic minority militias, some of them partners in the drug trade.
Methamphetamine continues to be the most used drug in East and Southeast Asia and that use has increased over the past decade.
Explained
Oil reserves in salt caverns (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Government-owned engineering consultancy firm Engineers India (EIL) is studying the prospects and feasibility of developing salt cavern-based strategic oil reserves in Rajasthan, in line with the government’s objective of increasing the country’s strategic oil storage capacity.
If the idea comes to fruition, India could get its first salt cavern-based oil storage facility. The country’s three existing strategic oil storage facilities — at Mangaluru and Padur in Karnataka, and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh — are made up of excavated rock caverns.
Countries build strategic crude oil reserves to mitigate major supply disruptions in the global supply chain. India, the world’s third-largest consumer of crude, depends on imports for more than 85% of its requirement — and strategic petroleum reserves (SPR) could help ensure energy security and availability during global supply shocks and other emergencies.
India currently has an SPR capacity of 5.33 million tonnes, or around 39 million barrels of crude, that can meet around 9.5 days of demand.
The country is in the process of expanding its SPR capacity by a cumulative 6.5 million tonnes at two locations — Chandikhol in Odisha (4 million tonnes) and Padur (2.5 million tonnes).
India’s strategic oil reserves come under the Petroleum Ministry’s special purpose vehicle Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve (ISPRL). EIL was instrumental in setting up the country’s existing SPR as the project management consultant.
Salt cavern-based storage, which is considered cheaper and less labour- and cost-intensive than rock caverns, could add a new, much needed chapter to India’s SPR story.