The Hindu Editorial Analysis In English | Free PDF Download

Table of Contents

Beyond words

• Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s swearing-in ceremony

• Mr. Khan: “Two steps for every one step”

• Mr. Modi responded with a phone call, and they spoke of a shared vision of “peace and development”.

• Mr Khan: Trade and resolution of differences through dialogue are the “best way” to “uplift the people in the subcontinent”.

• To begin with, the situation at the Line of Control urgently needs attention, and a restoration of the ceasefire would be a major move forward for both countries.

Front Page

Clearing the path

• Close 27 resorts operating in corridors in the Nilgiris

• Weak regulation of ecotourism affect animals that have large home ranges.

• Fragmentation of forests makes it all the more important to preserve migratory corridors.

• The movement of elephants is essential to ensure that their populations are genetically viable, and help regenerate forests on which other species, including tigers, depend.

• 40% of elephant reserves are not within protected parks and sanctuaries. Illegal structures in these pathways should be removed without delay.

Strengthening the federal link

• The State Finance Commission (SFC) is a unique institution created by the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments (CAs) to rationalise and systematise State/sub-State-level fiscal relations in India. It has few parallels in other federal systems.

• Its primary task is to rectify growing horizontal imbalances in the delivery of essential public services to citizens.

• But there has been inadequate appreciation of the significance of this institution by the Union, States as well as the professional community.

• Article 243I of the Constitution mandat

• Now that the Planning Commission has been dismantled, the 15th UFC has to spell out its decision-making domain.

• While the UFC is tasked with rectifying vertical and horizontal imbalances at the Union-State level, the SFC has to perform the same with reference to State/sub-State-level institutions.

• It is important to disabuse the notion among several politicians, policy makers and even experts that SFCs and the local governments they deal with have an inferior constitutional status when compared to the UFC.

• The SFC is undoubtedly modelled on the UFC created under Article 280 and exemplified in Articles 243I and 243Y.

• This means fifth generation SFCs ought to have submitted reports by now, with around 140 reports available in the public domain.

• Till date, only Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala have submitted their fifth SFC reports.

• Many States are yet to cross the third SFC stage.

• The large majority has violated the mandate of the Constitution with impunity.

• The moot question is this: Is honouring the Constitution a matter of convenience?

• When it comes to SFCs we find overwhelming presence of serving and/or retired bureaucrats rather than academics.

• By implication, an SFC is the institutional agency to implement the golden rule of cooperative federalism that every citizen should be assured minimum public goods irrespective of her choice of residence.

• Article 280(3) has been amended to add clauses (bb) and (c) in order to take measures to augment the resources of panchayats and municipalities on the basis of the recommendations “made by the finance commission of the state”.

• It is only when inter-State disparities are reduced by the UFCs through their inter-se distribution criteria and intra-State disparities are reduced by SFCs through the horizontal distribution criteria, that the Indian federation becomes a sustainable and inclusive nation-state.

‘It’s time for India to talk about the instant runoff voting method’

• The two previous waves of democratic expansion ended tragically with reverse waves of democratic implosions.

• You would have loss of confidence in democracy, and what would seem like uninterrupted ascendance of major authoritarian regimes.

• Philippines, Uganda, Cambodia, Russia, China, Turkey etc

• The rules-based order is heavily rooted in the rules and institutions that were set up after World War II, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

• One of the things that social media does is enable people to descend into filter bubbles that reinforce opinion.

• It’s wonderful to have high rates of economic growth and it’s also absolutely necessary to lift people out of poverty. It’s a necessary but not sufficient condition.

Important News

SC scraps NOTA option for RS polls

• The court pointed out that in the voting in Rajya Sabha elections, there is a whip and the elector is bound to obey the command of the party.

• “The party discipline… is of extreme significance, for that is the fulcrum of the existence of parties. The thought of cross-voting and corruption is obnoxious…” SC plan to clean up politics

• The five-judge Constitution Bench, led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, suggested it could direct the Election Commission to insist that parties get new members to declare in an affidavit their criminal antecedents and publish them so that the “entire country knows how many criminals there are in a party.”