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Underlining that Hindu groups are not barred by the 1991 Places of Worship Act, the Varanasi District Court said that the suits seeking the right to worship inside the Gyanvapi mosque are maintainable.
Therefore, according to the plaintiffs, even after 15th August, 1947 they were worshipping Maa Sringar Gauri, Lord Ganesh and Lord Hanuman daily up to the year 1993. If this contention is proved then the suit is not barred by Section 4 of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991.
The court was hearing civil suits filed by four Hindu women seeking the right to worship the deity, Maa Shringar Gauri, within the Gyanvapi mosque complex. In a 26-page order, District Judge AK Vishvesha dismissed the challenge to the civil suits by Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee.
Advocate Mirajuddin Siddique, appearing for the mosque told The Indian Express that the order will be challenged before the Allahabad High Court.
The Places of Worship Act bars conversion of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on the 15th day of August, 1947.
The mosque had argued that the 1991 law bars the civil suit seeking a right to worship in the mosque premises. The Hindu side argued that until 1993, regular worship of Maa Shringar Gauri was allowed in the “back side of Gyanvapi in Ishan Kon.” Since 1993, they said, the district administration of Varanasi restricted the entry to only once a year.
In Para 43 of the plaint, it has been mentioned that devotees of Lord Shiva were performing daily pooja and worship of Maa Sringar Gauri and other deities within old temple continuously till 1990 when during Ayodhya movement the Government of Uttar Pradesh to appease Muslims put restriction in daily pooja and since 1993 the State Administration working under the oral orders of the State Government are allowing the devotees to perform pooja only on 4th (Fourth) day of Vasantik Navratra in Chaitra.
The dismissal of the challenge to the maintainability means that the case will now have to be heard on merit in detail. The petitioners will have to lead evidence to establish the status of the Gyanvapi mosque as it existed on August 15, 1947.
Citing the Supreme Court’s 2019 verdict in the Ayodhya case, the Varanasi court said that Hindu deity’s existence cannot be extinguished by destruction of the idols.
The destruction of the idol does not result in the termination of the pious purpose and consequently the endowment. Even where the idol is destroyed or the presence of the idol is intermittent or entirely absent, the legal personality created by the endowment continues to subsist.
Express Network
8 cheetahs to arrive this week: Chartered flight with vets, chopper ride (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Species In News)
Eight African cheetahs — five females and three males — will board a chartered Boeing 747 cargo flight from the Namibian capital of Windhoek on September 16, and arrive at the Jaipur airport the next morning, after an over 10-hour-long flight.
From Jaipur, they will take a 42-minute helicopter ride to the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh where a temporary helipad has been constructed.
The cheetahs are between four and six years old. Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said all preparations for the inter-country translocation of the cheetahs were complete. “Sheopur district (where Kuno is located) has similar rainfall levels, temperatures, altitude and conditions as that of South Africa and Namibia. I recently visited the park to oversee the arrangements.
The aim behind the translocation is not only to be able to re-introduce the cheetah in India – it was declared extinct in 1952 – thereby restoring India’s natural heritage, but also to develop a cheetah metapopulation that will help in the global conservation of the animal.
There are now approximately 7,000 cheetahs globally – South Africa has the largest population at about 4,500. We expect to receive the next batch of 12 cheetahs from South Africa soon,’’ he said. Over the next five years, the Indian government will acquire 8-10 cheetahs annually to establish a breeding cheetah metapopulation of 35-40 in the country, said officials.
India was to get 20 African cheetahs this year – eight from Namibia and 12 from South Africa. According to ministry officials, while all the preparations from the Indian side were over, the South African government’s assent was still awaited.
Like their counterparts in Namibia, the cheetahs to be sent from South Africa have already been prepped for the journey, including extensive health check-ups and blood work for detection of diseases, vaccination, and radio collaring. For the cheetahs arriving from Namibia later this week, the plan is not to tranquilise them for the journey.
They will be fed two-three days before they begin the journey, and will be accompanied in the aircraft by a team of three veterinarians – an Indian, a Namibian and a South African. The cheetahs will be transported in cages measuring 114 cm X 118 cm X 84 cm.
On September 17, when the cheetahs will be released at the Kuno National Park by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, they will first be kept in a quarantine enclosure, measuring 1,500 square metres, for about a month to not only ensure their adaptation to the new environment, but to also check that they are not carrying any diseases.
They will be monitored closely during this period, after which they will be released into a bigger enclosure of 6 square kilometres for the remaining period that it takes them to adapt.
World Dairy Summit | Efforts on to curb lumpy skin disease (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Economics of Animal Rearing)
Observing that there has been a loss of livestock because of the lumpy skin disease (LSD) reported across several states in the country recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that the Centre, along with various state governments, is trying hard to control it.
Modi was speaking at the inaugural session of the four-day International Dairy Federation World Dairy Summit (IDF WDS) 2022, the theme of which is ‘Dairy for Nutrition and Livelihood’.
In the event, about 1,500 participants from 50 countries, including industry leaders, experts, farmers, and policy planners, will exchange ideas and discuss issues related to the sector.
Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath welcomed PM Modi at the summit along with other dignitaries. The last such dairy summit was held in India about half a century ago in 1974.
Addressing the inaugural session, the PM said that the concept of ‘pashu dhan’ and occupations associated with milk have been an important part of the 1,000-year-old Indian culture.
The PM listed out unique characteristics of the Indian dairy sector, the first being the small farmers who contribute the most.
The second is the vast network of dairy cooperatives which are spread across 2-lakh villages involving 2-crore farmers, he said. “There are no middle men in this system; more than 70 per cent of the money received from the customers goes directly to the farmers,” the PM said. He also pointed out the indigenous species of dairy animals which can adapt to extreme climates.
Highlighting the role of women in the dairy sector, as another unique feature of the Indian dairy sector, the Prime Minister said that women make for 70 per cent of the workforce in the sector. “The real leaders of India’s dairy sector are women,” he said, adding the sector provides livelihood to 8-crore families.
“In the recent past, there has been a loss of livestock due to lumpy skin disease across many states in India. Our scientists have developed an indigenous vaccine for lumpy skin disease,” the Prime Minister said, adding efforts are also being made to control the disease by expediting testing and restricting the movement of animals.
The PM also said the total value of dairy production in the country is about Rs 8.5 lakh crore, which is more than the combined value of paddy and wheat production. The Indian dairy sector is known more for ‘production by masses’ than ‘mass production’, Modi said, adding the per capita availability of milk in India is higher than the world average.
Govt’s FY19 health spending dropped from previous year (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
The Union government’s healthcare spend dropped to 1.28 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2018-19 from the previous year’s figure of 1.35 per cent.
In fact, total health expenditure — the total money spent on healthcare by the government, people, private entities and external funding — has fallen from 3.9% of the GDP to 3.2% in five years ending in 2018-19, according to the National Health Accounts Estimates 2018-19 released Monday.
The decline in proportion to GDP has happened despite an increase in the government’s share of the country’s total health expenditure — from 29 per cent in 2014-15 to 40.6 per cent in 2018-19.
“Even though the GDP or the size of the country’s economy must have increased in the five years, we would expect the spending on healthcare to either go up or at the very least remain constant.
This, however, has not happened. And, the chronic under-funding of the healthcare sector affects the poorest. Bad infrastructure in public facilities, long queues at hospitals such as AIIMS, or issues with accessing the facility leads to even the poorest spending out of pocket and going even to unlicensed practitioners,” said an expert on health financing, requesting anonymity.
Government spending on health schemes contributed 9.6 per cent of the total health expenditure, as against 9 per cent the previous year. Ayushman Bharat was rolled out in the September of the same year to which the report pertains. Hence, this proportion is likely to increase in the subsequent reports.
Other than government spending and people spending out-of-pocket, private health insurance accounted for 6.6 per cent of the total health expenditure, against 5.8 per cent the previous year.
The expert quoted above said: “We need to look at whether the number of people covered has increased or just the amount they are paying as premiums.
There have been huge increases in the premiums over the last few years. People paying for healthcare expenses out-of-pocket made up 48.2 per cent of the total health expenses in the year 2018-19, a small drop from 48.8 per cent the previous year. Out-of-pocket expenses have now decreased substantially from the seen 62.6 per cent during 2014-15.
What worries experts is a 10-percentage point drop that was recorded in the 2017-18 report. “There is no on-ground explanation for the drastic drop in out of pocket expenditure, so we need to look at the methodology. This drop has been worrying many.
Editorial Page
Not by the law (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Varanasi district judge A K Visvesha, in Rakhi Singh & others, rather than waiting for the Supreme Court’s three-judge bench to render its judgment on the constitutionality of the Places of Worship Act,1991, has ordered that the petition by the five Hindu women is maintainable under the Civil Procedure Code (CPC) 1908 and will now be heard on merit.
The judge has noted that the petitioners are seeking neither the conversion of the Gyanvapi mosque into a Shiv temple nor making any claim to ownership.
They are merely seeking a right to worship as a civil right and, therefore, the bar of the 1991 Act is not applicable. He also held that the entry of the property as waqf in the revenue records, as per settled law, does not create ownership rights.
The Masjid Anjuman Committee’s objections on the maintainability under Order 7, Rule 11 of the CPC have been rejected. The Anjuman may appeal to the High Court and eventually to the Supreme Court (SC).
At the heart of the debate is the Places of Worship Act, its constitutionality and what it permits or prohibits. Why do we, as a nation, refuse to learn from the past? Is litigation the best method to resolve disputes between faith-based communities? Why can’t local Hindus and Muslims of Kashi come up with an out-of-the-box solution?
The five petitioners mosque wanted to pray inside the complex at “Shringar Gauri Sthal”. The matter went to the SC, which transferred it to the district judge.
Many genuinely believed that the Babri Masjid verdict (2019) would mean curtains on demands for conversion of religious places.
Even the RSS chief had reiterated several times that the Sangh joined the Ram Janmabhoomi movement due to historical reasons and it would no longer be closely associated with any other demand for the conversion of a mosque to a temple.
Simultaneously, he emphasised that Kashi and Mathura do have great religious and sentimental significance for Hindus. He even discouraged the search for shivlings here and there.
Ideally, such a positive reaction should have been welcomed by the Muslim leadership and an out-of-court amicable settlement should have been arrived at by the residents of Kashi and Mathura.
Our obsession with the law as a solution to problems — particularly religious and social problems — is the real problem.
In the context of both Kashi and Mathura, many Muslims and liberals relied excessively on the Places of Worship Act. Laws are not written in stone and are routinely amended and struck down. Moreover, the law is what the judges say it is.
The 1991 Act was passed when the Ram temple movement was at its peak. The legislative intent was to freeze the religious character of places of worship as on August 15, 1947.
Idea Page
A setback for Moscow (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
It might be too early to call it a Russian rout as some in the Western media have described it, but a major military retreat it is. Russia suffered a serious setback in Ukraine over the weekend. Unless Moscow can quickly get the Russian military act together, the new momentum in favour of Kyiv could prove to be the decisive moment in the war for Ukraine.
All major powers are beginning to take a fresh look at the potential outcomes of the war and recalibrate their geopolitical calculus. India will not be an exception.
Triggering a fresh look at the war is the lightning offensive by Kyiv that saw Ukraine’s armed forces capture some key towns in the northeast of the country that have been under Russian occupation.
Russia has formally acknowledged that it has pulled out of a large part of the Kharkiv region and is regrouping to mount a better defence of its territorial gains in the Donbas region.
The latest reports suggest that Ukraine has regained an estimated area of nearly 3,000 sq km and is threatening to take more, including in regions in the eastern part of the country that have been under Russian control since 2014-15. But Ukraine has a long way to go before it can push the Russian forces back into their own territory.
There are moments in a war when the balance of forces shifts in favour of one of the belligerents. Are we at that moment now in Ukraine?
Until this weekend, the consensus view was that the prolonged stalemate between the two sides is likely to endure and that any plan for terminating the war must come to terms with that reality.
Ukraine’s territorial gains in the last few days have made Kyiv’s victory a real possibility. Russia has by no means lost the war in Ukraine but it surely is losing ground. The probability of a Russian defeat in Ukraine may no longer be a trivial one.
This is not the first time that Russia had to pull back in the last seven months. After its initial multi-pronged attack on Ukraine on February 24, Russia hoped to quickly reach Kyiv and oust the government headed by Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
But as the advance on Kyiv fizzled out, Russia decided to concentrate its forces to make a determined onslaught on eastern Ukraine.
After some significant advances in the east and southeast of Ukraine, Russian forces got locked into a stalemate. Ukraine has now broken the framework of an extended “war of attrition”.
With its major counter-offensive in the last few days, Ukraine has seized the political initiative in the war for the first time, raised the operational tempo, altered the terms of military engagement with Russia, and reaffirmed the demand for complete Russian withdrawal.
Supreme court and CAA puzzle (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
After a long wait, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the arguments on the constitutional validity of the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019.
Parliament has changed the Citizenship Act 1955, India’s principal citizenship law, on numerous occasions in the past. But its most recent amendment has ignited an unprecedentedly intense and divided public reaction.
The Court is now poised to decide several significant constitutional questions for the first time, which could shape India’s constitutional identity.
The CAA introduces important changes to the Indian citizenship law. Since 2003, Indian law has disqualified persons deemed to be “illegal migrants” from citizenship and disqualified their progeny even if they are born in India.
The Act exempts non-Muslim immigrants from being considered “illegal migrants” if they arrived from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before 2015. It also provides accelerated naturalisation to these non-Muslim immigrants.
The first question for the Supreme Court is whether this “religious test” for Indian citizenship is arbitrary and discriminatory.
In its counter affidavit filed in the court, the government has argued that the CAA does not discriminate on the basis of religion but provides relief to persecuted minorities in the region.
But while it is uncontroversial that non-Muslims in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are persecuted, the government will still need to justify limiting CAA’s benefits on the basis of religion and countries of origin.
This is because Indian constitutional law requires that the government must show a “rational connection” between the law’s purpose and the distinctions the law makes among groups.
Muslim groups like Ahmadiyyas, Shias, Rohingyas and Uyghurs, and non-Muslims like Sri Lankan Tamils, Tibetan Buddhists and the Lhotshampa continue to be persecuted in India’s neighbourhood.
The burden for the government will be to show why choosing only non-Muslim minorities from three countries satisfies the CAA’s proclaimed purpose of addressing persecution.
Perhaps the most accessible argument for the government is that the CAA addresses the plight of the minorities affected by Partition.
In its affidavit, the government has argued that under the 1950 Nehru-Liaquat Pact, India and Pakistan had promised “complete equality of citizenship” and “a full sense of security” to their religious minorities.
The failure of Pakistan and by extension today’s Bangladesh to honour this promise, according to the government, justifies targeting relief to non-Muslim refugees from these two countries.
The inclusion of Afghanistan under the CAA, though, will stick out like a sore thumb. The Act’s exclusion of immigrants after 2015 also appears inconsistent with the law’s apparent purpose of addressing persecution, which is ongoing by all accounts.
For critics of the government, these anomalies show that the real aim and effect of the CAA is to selectively give citizenship to the alleged Hindu undocumented immigrants living in regions like Assam.
Explained Page
Supreme Court’s three-question test for validity of 10% EWS quota (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Beginning Tuesday, the Supreme Court will examine whether The Constitution (103rd Amendment) Act, which introduced a 10 per cent quota for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in government jobs and admissions, violates the basic structure of the Constitution.
A five-judge Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) U U Lalit and also comprising Justices S Ravindra Bhat, Dinesh Maheshwari, S B Pardiwala, and Bela Trivedi last week decided to examine three key issues to ascertain the validity of the amendment. The challenge to the EWS quota was referred to a five-judge Bench in August 2020.
Attorney General K K Venugopal had drafted four issues for the consideration of the Bench. On September 8, the court decided to take up three of them:
Whether the 103rd Constitution Amendment can be said to breach the basic structure of the Constitution by permitting the state to make special provisions, including reservation, based on economic criteria;
Whether it (the amendment) can be said to breach the basic structure…by permitting the state to make special provisions in relation to admission to private unaided institutions;
Whether the basic structure is violated by “excluding the SEBCs (Socially and Educationally Backward Classes)/ OBCs (Other Backward Classes)/ SCs (Scheduled Castes)/ STs (Scheduled Tribes) from the scope of EWS reservation.
The 103rd Amendment inserted Articles 15(6) and 16(6) in the Constitution to provide up to 10 per cent reservation to EWS other than backward classes, SCs, and STs in higher educational institutions and initial recruitment in government jobs.
The amendment empowered state governments to provide reservation on the basis of economic backwardness.
Article 15 prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth. Article 16 guarantees equal opportunity in matters of public employment.
The additional clauses gave Parliament the power to make special laws for EWS like it does for SCs, STs, and OBCs.
The EWS reservation was granted based on the recommendations of a commission headed by Major General (retd) S R Sinho.
The commission, which was constituted by the UPA government in March 2005, submitted its report in July 2010.
The Sinho Commission recommended that all below-poverty-line (BPL) families within the general category as notified from time to time, and also all families whose annual family income from all sources is below the taxable limit, should be identified as EBCs (economically backward classes).
How G7 plans to price cap Russian oil (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
The Group of Seven countries is working to cap the price of Russian oil in an attempt to limit Moscow’s ability to fund its invasion of Ukraine, a plan analysts say could work in the long term but might boost oil prices in coming months.
Officials in G7 countries, including U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, say the unprecedented measure, set to begin Dec. 5, will cut the price Russia receives for oil without reducing its petroleum exports to world consumers. Russian President Vladimir Putin could push back, causing stress in oil markets even as the plan comes together.
The G7 wealthy nations – the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada – and the EU are hammering out details of the plan.
The G7 wants to enlist other countries, including India and China, which have been snapping up heavily-discounted oil from Russia since its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow has managed to maintain its revenues through those increased crude sales to India and China. But even if India and China don’t join, a cap could help force down prices for Asia and other consumers. U.S. Treasury Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy Ben Harris said on Sept. 9 that if China negotiates a separate 30%-40% discount on Russian oil because of the price cap “we consider that a win.”
The consensus on the price cap level will be reached with the aid of a “rotating lead coordinator,” the U.S. Treasury Department said on Friday, suggesting that countries in the coalition will have a temporary leadership role as the plan proceeds.
It will likely be weeks before the price of Russian crude oil and two oil products will be decided, Harris said. Washington-based ClearView Energy Partners has said officials have been talking about a $40-$60 per barrel range for crude.
The upper end of that range is consistent with historical prices for Russian crude, while the lower end is closer to Russia’s marginal production cost, analysts say.
Coalition members with long economic and military relations with Russia could push for a higher cap, while a limit too low could take market share away from Saudi Arabia and other oil producers.
The level will be determined by both quantitative and qualitative reasons,” said Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group.
Russian crude is priced at a discount to the international Brent benchmark and the G7 wants to keep that spread wide, to keep down Russian oil revenue. However, achieving a widespread could mean higher prices for Western consumers as Russia is the world’s second-largest crude exporter, after Saudi Arabia.
What the Varanasi court said (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Varanasi District Court on Monday dismissed the challenge by Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee against the civil suits that sought the right to worship Maa Shringar Gauri and other deities within the Gyanvapi mosque premises. The preliminary ruling by District Judge A K Vishvesha means that the cases can now be heard on merits where the parties have to present evidence to prove their claims.
Last year, five women filed a civil suit seeking enforcement of their right to worship deities within the Gyanvapi mosque complex.
In April, the Civil Judge (Senior Division) allowed a video survey of the mosque where a Shivling was said to have been found in the wazukhana. The Anjuman Intezamia moved the Supreme Court, arguing that the proceedings were an attempt to change the religious character of the mosque.
The Places of Worship Act, 1991 bars the conversion of the religious character of a place of worship from how it existed on August 15, 1947.
On May 20, the Supreme Court, underlining the “complexity of the issues involved in the civil suit”, transferred the case to the District Judge.
The SC subsequently said it would intervene only after the District Judge had decided on the preliminary aspects of the case.
District Judge Vishvesha ruled on Monday that he did not find any law that barred the petitioners from filing such a suit.
Under the Code of Civil Procedure, in the initial stage, averments made in a suit must be prima facie accepted without going into the veracity of the claims, unless such a suit is barred by law. Once the suit is accepted, the onus of proving the claims would be on the plaintiffs. The mosque side had argued that the suits were barred under three specific laws.
Section 4 of the Act is a declaration that “the religious character of a place of worship existing on the 15th day of August, 1947 shall continue to be the same as it existed on that day”.
The provision states that if “any suit, appeal or other proceeding with respect to the conversion of the religious character of any place of worship, existing on [that day]… is pending before any court, tribunal or other authority, the same shall abate, and no suit, appeal or other proceeding with respect to any such matter shall lie on or after such commencement in any court, tribunal or other authority”.
The Muslim side argued that allowing the civil suits would alter the character of the mosque as it has existed for over 600 years.
The Hindu petitioners argued that until 1993, regular prayers were offered inside the Gyanvapi mosque complex to Hindu deities — and since 1993, prayers have been allowed on a designated day annually.
Economy
States may have NITI Aayog-like bodies soon (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The NITI Aayog — the think-tank at the Central level — will handhold each state to set up similar bodies, replacing their planning boards for faster and inclusive economic growth, in tandem with the vision of becoming a developed nation by 2047.
The move is in recognition of the fact that except for sectors like defence, railways and highways, the national gross domestic product (GDP) growth is an aggregation of states’ rates of growth. Health, education and skilling are primarily with the state government.
The NITI Aayog notes that state governments’ role is critical to improving ease of doing business, land reforms, infrastructure development, credit flows and urbanisation, all of which are vital for sustained economic growth.
In his Independence Day speech last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi set an ambitious target of making India a developed nation by 2047.
The NITI Aayog has already initiated the “state support mission” by holding a meeting of state planning secretaries on September 6. The think-tank, which will likely extend support to states including experts from IIMs and IITs, has received positive responses from states, according to sources.
Initially, it aims for 8-10 states to set up such bodies, before reaching out to all by March 2023. Four states — Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Assam — have already begun work in this regard while Maharashtra, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat will likely begin work soon.
It has been seven years since the 65-year-old Planning Commission was replaced with the NITI Aayog by the Modi government in January 2015, mainly as a think-tank for forging a national vision on development. The Centre has since given the plan fund allocation powers to the Finance Ministry.
However, most states so far have done little to rejuvenate their planning departments/ boards, which earlier dealt with the Planning Commission and prepared parallel state five year-plans with the Centre.
Most states’ planning departments, with huge manpower, are almost defunct and have no clarity what work they will do,” said a senior official said. “A plan has been chalked out by NITI Aayog to help in the creation of teams that will examine the existing structure of state planning boards, and in the next 4-6 months conceptualise the State Institution for Transformation (SIT).