Table of Contents
Layers of protection
• The amendments to the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, adopted recently by both Houses of Parliament, are a mixed bag.
• 13(1)d: many honest officials being prosecuted even when they gained nothing and merely exercised their power or discretion in favour of someone.
• This resulted in many honest officials being prosecuted even when they gained nothing and
merely exercised their power or discretion in favour of someone.
• deterred bold decision-making
• A person “shall be presumed to have intentionally enriched himself” if he cannot account for his assets through known sources of income.
• UN Convention Against Corruption: giving bribe a crime
• Exception: forced bribe
• what happens when the police or any other agency refuses to register a complaint?
• The most unacceptable change is the introduction of a prior approval norm to start an investigation.
• Public servants need to be protected against unfair prosecution, but a genuine drive against
corruption needs a package of legislative measures.
• Lokpal or Lokayukta, time-bound services, whistle-blower protection
The umpire takes all
• Who calls the shots in Pakistan?
• Nawaz Sharif: The first time he became Prime Minister, in 1990, he ended up being dismissed by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan in 1993 over growing differences with Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen. Abdul Waheed Kakar; elected again in 1997, he was ousted in a coup by
COAS Gen. Musharraf in 1999.
• ‘Dawn leaks’ : meeting where the Army’s flawed Afghan policy was held responsible for Pakistan’s international isolation and worsening law and order situation at home.
• Panama Papers: came in useful to begin an inquiry into Mr. Sharif’s financial assets
• While the opposition and his coalition partners will keep Imran Khan in check, Pakistan’s Army will call the shots
Climb the escalator of reason
• Political scientist Thomas Homer-Dixon notes that when one’s perception of justice is combined with a lack of accountability, it creates ‘the other’ and allows for dehumanisation and violence.
• This dehumanisation is layered with de-individuation, or the inability to see the other beyond the wrong he or she may have committed, and the use of pejorative caricatures to refer to the other.
• When viewed in such a framework, dehumanisation explains how India’s expanding death penalty regime has moulded people’s perception of justice.
• The government contradicted its own stance before the Supreme Court when earlier this year it submitted that the death penalty could not be the solution for everything.
• The courts have in the recent past showcased language with helpless frustration. ‘Monstrous,’ ‘beastly,’ ‘diabolical’ and ‘unfathomable’ have been used to refer to offenders.
• This language is then read with approval across television studios in India, feeding the public with an idea of the other against whom violence is the only means of justice.
• Judicially expressed disgust does not aid in understanding crime, or
preventing its recurrence.
• The 2013 Justice Verma Committee’s restraint in not recommending the death penalty for rape, and the Law Commission’s recommendation to restrict the death penalty only to crimes against the state have been forgotten in this impassioned discourse.
• Rationality seems to suffer at the hands of retribution.
• Eradicating the evil-doer provides seductive comfort to the mob and the state.
• The court must resist being the avenger for society in favour of nurturing a culture where justice and retribution are not the same.
• For India’s criminal justice system to climb the escalator of reason, our political and judicial leadership need to create and preserve a culture of the dispassionate study of the human costs and benefits of
retribution, no matter how serious the shock to our conscience.
• The cognitive psychologist, Steven Pinker, identifies ‘the escalator of reason’ as a historical force, which has helped reduce violence in societies.
Know the neighbour
• Among the various regional groupings, intra-regional reporting within South Asia has been one of the weakest.
• In 1985, when SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) was formed, its charter laid out some lofty objectives such as
to promote the welfare of the people of South Asia and to improve their quality of life;
to accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region and to provide all individuals the opportunity to live in dignity and to realise their full potentials;
to promote and strengthen collective self-reliance among the countries of South Asia.
• Composite Dialogue
• Later, three categories of people (journalists, businesspersons and sportspersons) can be given multiple-entry visas for 90 days after prior clearance is taken.
• It is strange that two neighbours who have a shared history and culture have to get information about each other through Western news agencies.
• There is a marked difference between South Asian reports written for a national readership and reports written by global news agencies for a general international readership.
Keeping friends close
• “Our relationship with Iran has been built carefully by all past governments as Iran for us is not just an energy supplier… For us, Iran is a land power on the other side of Pakistan that provides us with an alternative route to Afghanistan.” – Mr. Hamid Ansari
• U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, that unless India drastically reduces its energy imports from Iran by November 4, it would be subject to American sanctions.
• Ms. Haley’s threat reflects the Trump administration’s hubris and is an insult to Indian sovereignty.
• Unfortunately, India was unable to take full advantage of Iran’s new anti-Pakistan orientation despite repeated exhortations by the then Indian Ambassador to Tehran, Akbar Mirza Khaleeli, for several reasons.
Front Page
• ‘No fear in being seen with industrialists’
• Suspected thief lynched in Gujarat
• Ajmal Vahonia, 22, was beaten to death and his aide Bhadu Mathur seriously
injured by a mob of around 30 persons in Gujarat’s Dahod district on Saturday on
suspicion of having stolen mobile phones.
• ‘ISRO-like’ ocean mission planned
• The Union Earth Sciences Ministry — tasked with coordinating the exercise —
unveiled a blueprint of the ‘Deep Ocean Mission (DOM)’ on Friday.
• Among the key deliverables to achieve these goals are an offshore desalination
plant that will work with tidal energy, and developing a submersible vehicle that
can go to a depth of at least 6,000 metres with three people on board. “The
mission proposes to explore the deep ocean, similar to the space exploration
started by ISRO about 35 years ago,” the report notes.
• India has been allotted a site of 1,50,000 sq. km in the Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB) by the UN International Sea Bed Authority for exploitation of polymetallic nodules (PMN).
• These are rocks scattered on the seabed containing iron, manganese, nickel and cobalt. “It is envisaged that 10% of recovery of that large reserve can meet the energy requirement of India for the next 100 years.
• It has been estimated that 380 million metric tonnes of polymetallic nodules are available at the bottom of the seas in the Central Indian Ocean,” the report adds.
• India’s Exclusive Economic Zone spreads over 2.2 million sq. km and in the deep sea, lies “unexplored and unutilised.”
• The focus will be on technologies for deep-sea mining, underwater vehicles, underwater robotics and ocean climate change advisory services, among other aspects
• 52 Bangladeshi nationals sent back from Assam
• Make festivals eco-friendly: PM
• ‘Data on Sharma was not hacked from UIDAI servers’
• The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Sunday issued a statement
dismissing the claims by several individuals that they had obtained the personal
details of TRAI Chairman R.S. Sharma using his Aadhaar number.
• All the details were in the public domain and can be accessed without Aadhaar,
the UIDAI said.
• India plans to procure missile shield from U.S.
• National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System-II (NASAMS-II)
• We pose no threat to India, says Rohingya militant group
• FASTags aim to quicken pace of journey through toll booths
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