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The post and the person

Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court is examining a PIL.
Proposal in PIL: to create an independent mechanism to appoint CEC & ECs.
Chief Election Commissioner cannot be removed from his office except in same manner and on the same grounds as a judge of the Supreme Court.
At present, simply appointed by the government of the day, without any defined criteria or processes. • Constituent Assembly: fundamental rights or an independent institution

First

With legal back up and the resources to develop and enforce a transparent electoral system, the ECI made free and fair elections a reality.
The second critical decision was to have a single, centralised body for elections to the Lok Sabha and State legislatures.
ECI be confined to federal elections
A separate institutions be set up to conduct elections to State legislatures.
Central institutions have generally been more robust than State institutions.
State Election Commissions lack autonomy, are short on manpower and funds, and are frequently subject to attempts by State governments to manipulate elections.
On the other, this decision could have led to an autocratic institution being established and possibly manipulated by powerful national actors.

Second

In 1966, this possibility was contained because elections became subject to judicial review.
Ensuring the independence of the ECI.
Shibban Lal Saxena: argued that while the then Prime Minister was a man of independence, this may not always be the case, and proposed ratification of the CEC’s appointment by the legislature.
But the Assembly disagreed, and provided simply for the CEC to be appointed by the President, leaving it to the legislature to enact a suitable law, which never happened.

Third

From 1967 to 1991, the election process deteriorated as the Congress lost its dominance, political competition intensified, and political actors stepped up violence and electoral malpractices.
The CEC, T.N. Seshan, reinterpreted the ECI’s role and powers, and provided combative, forceful leadership.
But the ECI got the right leadership accidentally, not by design.
As history shows, inadequate leadership is the bane of our public institutions.

Retweeting brahminical patriarchy

Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey had an informal discussion with a group of Indian women journalists, activists and writers about their experience on Twitter.

Mr. Dorsey was accused of being a “brahmin-hating, racist bigot”.
He was accused of propagating hatred towards “people who constitute 5% or less” of India’s population.
What was wrong with that poster? And what is wrong with Twitter?
‘Brahminism’ refers not to members of the brahmin community but to the oppressive social order of caste. ‘Smash Brahminical Patriarchy’

This social order, as has been well established by feminist historians such as Uma Chakravarti, is premised on two hierarchies that are inter-connected: gender hierarchy and caste hierarchy.
The former accords women an inferior social status vis-à-vis men, while the latter accords brahmins a superior social status vis-à-vis all other varnas, or caste groups.
B.R. Ambedkar, defined the term thus: “By Brahmanism I do not mean the power, privileges and interests of the Brahmans as a community. By Brahmanism I mean the negation of the spirit of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. In that sense it is rampant in all classes and is not confined to the Brahmans alone, though they have been the originators of it.”

War without end?

The clerics had gathered to mark the birth anniversary of Prophet Mohammed when the suicide bomber blew himself up.
A major religious gathering in the Afghan capital can be so easily assaulted by terrorists is worrying.
Afghan forces face a war on two fronts.
Taliban
ISIS
The U.S. has already appointed a special envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad. He has held talks with Taliban representatives in Doha.

The RBI concedes a vital principle

- The precise relationship between the RBI board and the RBI management is something of a grey area.
- Various experts have made the point that the RBI Act vests all powers in the board and, concurrently, it vests those very powers in the RBI Governor.
- Whether the board can issue directions to the RBI Governor in the event of a difference of opinion between the two is not clear; some experts reject the suggestion outright.
- Many contend that the RBI board has played an advisory role in the past and should continue to do so.
- The RBI management may or may not accept the inputs of the board. But the board must have its say.

This is elementary corporate governance. In accepting this principle, the November 19 meeting of the RBI board marks a big step forward.
The government’s position is that the RBI’s reserves are in excess of reserves typically held by central banks elsewhere.
Some commentators have described the government’s position as an attempt to ‘raid the reserves’ of the RBI to fund its fiscal deficit.
The RBI’s reserves fall into two categories A. Revaluation reserves, which have mostly to do with the change in the rupee value of the RBI’s holdings of gold and foreign currencies. B. Contingent reserves, are intended for risks related to the RBI’s balance sheet.
Banks are subject to capital adequacy requirements — that is, they have to hold a minimum of capital against every rupee of loans they make.
The RBI’s requirement of capital adequacy is one percentage point higher than that of the internationally accepted Basel norms laid down by the Bank for International Settlements.
The RBI has also agreed to consider the government’s suggestion for easing the norms for Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) for banks.

Important News

Amid contrasting claims, J&K Governor dissolves Assembly
Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik on Wednesday dissolved the State Assembly, as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Peoples Conference (PC) separately staked claim to form a government after a day-long political drama.

U.S. citizen killed by Andaman tribals
An American national was killed by members of a protected and reclusive tribe in the Andamans, possibly with arrows, when he tried to enter the North Sentinel Island, the police said on Wednesday.
John Allen Chau, the American national allegedly killed by people belonging to the protected Sentinelese tribe in the North Sentinel Island, had hired fishermen to take him there clandestinely, Dependra Pathak, DGP, Andaman and Nicobar Police said on Wednesday.
The Govt. of India issued the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Protection of Aboriginal Tribes) Regulation, 1956 to declare the traditional areas occupied by the tribes as reserves, and prohibited entry of all persons except those with authorisation. Photographing or filming the tribe members is also an offence. The rules were amended later to enhance penalties. But restricted area permits were relaxed for some islands recently. • Birds flee devastated Pt. Calimere
After Cyclone Gaja struck, the wildlife sanctuary looks like a deserted war zone
Point Calimere, the renowned wildlife and bird sanctuary on the seashore in district of Tamil Nadu, resembles a forest in Vietnam laid waste by Agent Orange.
“Around 2,000 birds were killed and the damage is also widespread in Muthupet,” said K. Arivoli, District Forest Officer, Tiruvarur.
‘First photo’ of Ortolan Bunting in India is out
In a rare sighting that has been photographed, birder K. Vivek Nayak from Mangaluru captured through his lens the ‘Ortolan Bunting’, which breeds from Mongolia to Europe and migrates to Africa via the Middle East.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) red list of threatened species has placed Ortolan bunting in the “Least Concern” category.

WTO panels to review U.S. steel, aluminium tariffs
The World Trade Organization agreed on Wednesday to hear complaints from a range of countries over new U.S. steel and aluminium tariffs, as well as complaints from Washington over retaliatory duties.
The WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) agreed to establish panels to review U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to hit a long line of countries with tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium.
‘Hunger may have killed 84,700 Yemen children’
An estimated 85,000 children under five may have died from extreme hunger in Yemen since a Saudi-led coalition intervened in the civil war in 2015, a humanitarian body said on Wednesday, as the UN special envoy arrived in Yemen to pursue peace talks. • ₹29,088-cr. indirect tax evasion detected
Service tax dodgers formed the bulk
The investigation arm of the Finance Ministry has detected tax evasion worth ₹29,088 crore in 1,835 cases in the April-October period of the current financial year, a senior official said Wednesday.