Table of Contents
Passing the buck
• Over the past couple of months, mobs have materialized to beat to kill people they suspect — almost always without basis — of plotting to kidnap children to harvest their organs.
• Mob numbering hundreds are overpowering the few policemen present
• June 28 Tripura: a man hired by the State government to spread awareness against precisely such rumors was lynched.
• The problem is not the medium.
• Rumour has historically found its way around communication walls.
• Rumour’s potency predates mobile phones
• Effective local administration
Allies, interrupted
• JCPOA + CAATSA have set up an inevitable conflict.
• Tough sanctions against all those continuing to engage with Iran and Russia limits India’s options on energy security and defence procurement.
• Nikki Haley: told us to “revise” its relationship with Iran
• Shangri-La Dialogue: “strategic autonomy”
• Informal summits: Chinese and Russian Presidents
• Invited the Iranian President to Delhi.
• India-USA: political will to address these issues is now considerably diminished
• U.S. has traditionally applied pressure on its allies to limit their engagement with countries it considers to be threats to the international order U.S. envoy to the UN.
Why we need Governors
• Governors/L-Gs for ceremonial duties only?
• October 30, 1946: M.K. Gandhi met Frederick Burrows last Governor of undivided — and communally disturbed — Bengal.
• A popular government headed by Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy had been installed in the State and maintaining peace in the State was now the responsibility of the elected ministry.
• “What would you like me to do?” said Frederick
• “Nothing, Your Excellency,” Gandhi said
• He meant that after the British declaration to quit, the Governor’s position in India’s provinces was that of a constitutional head of state and he must “let” the representative government do its duty.
• Gandhi’s advice was consistent with Walter Bagehot’s dictum about the Crown having ‘the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, the right to warn’ but not to be the engine of government.
• Governors in their detached position they would be able to see things in their proper perspective and thus prevent mistakes by their cabinets.
• Governors should have enough power enabling them to influence ministerial policy for the better.
• Governors and, for that matter, the President of India are vital because they can and should exert the moral voltage, the sense of the rightness and wrongness of things that would underscore the republican credence and democratic credentials of elected governments.
• Women and men in education, commerce, administration, science, medicine, law and public life within and outside of politics, across the party divide, can surely be found who, as well-wishers, will strengthen and not threaten elected governments working ‘for the better’.
• Chief Ministers and Prime Ministers head the government. Governors and Presidents head the state.
• Governments govern, states sustain. And in a democratic republic, the people power both.
• They do so, wanting the Chief Minister to act conscientiously and the Governor to act constitutionally, to ensure self-government is good government, swa-raj is also su-raj.
Is India’s foreign policy adrift?
• India has lost its eminent position in South Asia as a consequence of reckless adventurism in its neighbourhood. Today, the neighbourhood
is bending towards China, with India looking on like a hapless bystander.
• India has lost its pre-eminent position in the developing world as a consequence of its willful abandonment of the leadership of the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) and other such institutions of the postcolonial world order.
• Beneath the contrived angst and Twitter storms is a well-calibrated intent to write the obituary of the post-Second World War order as it has outlived its utility to the U.S., and create a new paradigm.
• Russia holding antiterror exercises with Pakistan in DRUZBA-2017.
• Mr. Modi’s vision of turning India into a leading power that is a net provider of security and prosperity is a much-needed booster shot of ambition that has transformed the hitherto cautious and bureaucratic character of Indian diplomacy.
• Mr. Modi’s strategy is to adopt a proactive and flexible diplomacy that transcends previous reactive and rigid stances.
• He has filled a serious attention deficit in Indian foreign policy by personally visiting a record 55 countries and hosting dozens of foreign counterparts at home.
• In today’s impressionistic social media age, Mr. Modi has made India omnipresent.
• Two areas where Indian foreign policy has leapfrogged under Mr. Modi are cultural and commercial diplomacy.
• Record levels of inward FDI flows and improvements in a range of global ranking indices bear testament to Mr. Modi’s success in selling the India story abroad and linking his economic diplomacy with domestic reforms.
• India is facing a unique combination of diplomatic, security and strategic challenges today.
• The growing economic, defence and strategic partnership with the U.S. is being questioned on account of the transnational nature of the Trump administration, its unreasonable trade demands, its focus on other issues such as North Korea, and its sanctions related to Iran and
Russia that are unmindful of India’s interests and costs.
• India’s hitherto reliable and largest defence partner, Russia, is becoming increasingly enmeshed with China.
• China now has a GDP that is five times that of India’s and military expenditure that is three times larger than ours.
• Some of India’s efforts, such as membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group and a facility in Seychelles, have been stymied.
• Debate continues endlessly on expansion of the UN Security Council.
• In the Indo-Pacific, relations with Japan and ASEAN countries continue to strengthen.
• A renewed thrust has been made in the Gulf
• The picture is complicated.
Fraying democracy
• Over 20,000 Cambodian men, women and children were killed here during the Khmer Rouge’s dictatorial regime.
• “For your sake, remember us – and remember our past as you look to your future,” says the narrator, a genocide survivor, during the chilling audio tour.
• Polls on July 29.
• Hun Sen, is the longest currently-serving Prime Minister in the world.
• His 33-year-old rule, peppered with accusations of human rights violations, is expected to be extended as the field has been bulldozed clear.
• On the back of large investments from China and booming tourism revenues, Cambodia’s GDP has grown, yet its human rights record has plummeted.
• India, which carries a special place in Cambodia’s history, has chosen to limit bilateral engagements to economic and cultural cooperation.
• Meanwhile, the U.S. and Europe have reprimanded, warned and even imposed sanctions against some in the Hun Sen government.
Important News
• Taiwan protests against use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ on AI website
• The resident trade representative of Taiwan on Thursday expressed deep disappointment with the Air India changing ‘Taiwan’ into ‘Chinese Taipei’ on its website.
• Ambassador Chung Kwang Tien, who heads the Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre (TECC) here, said the change of name on the website of the state-owned carrier might impact freedom of doing business.
1. Which nation would be getting a grant from the World Bank to meet the basic needs of the Rohingyas?
A) Bangladesh
B) Philippines
C) Myanmar
D) India
2. Which nation moved its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, despite concerns from the international community?
A) North Korea
B) US
C) Russia
D) China
Answers-
1. Which countries have won a united bid to host FIFA 2026?
A) US, Canada and Mexico
B) Brazil, Colombia and Chile
C) Spain, Portugal and Germany
D) UK, Germany and France
2. What was India’s rank in the Global Peace Index 2018?
A) 136th
B) 138th
C) 149th
D) 158th
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