The Hindu Editorial Analysis In English | Free PDF Download

Warning: Undefined array key "file" in /var/www/html/wp-includes/media.php on line 1712

Deprecated: preg_match(): Passing null to parameter #2 ($subject) of type string is deprecated in /var/www/html/wp-includes/media.php on line 1712

Table of Contents

Freedom to pray

Protects religious freedom in 2 ways

Individual: right to profess, practise and propagate a religion
Religious denomination: Article 26, to manage its own affairs

Legal challenge: exclusion of women in the 10-50 age group from the Sabarimala temple in Kerala.
Conflict: above given Point 1 and Point 2
Supreme Court ruled: 4:1 majority said that exclusionary practice violates the rights of women devotees
Right to worship under Article 25(1) was equally available to men and women.
Establishes the legal principle that individual freedom prevails over purported group rights, even in matters of religion.

Defense argument

Sabarimala devotees have constitutionally protected denominational rights
They are entitled to prevent the entry of women to preserve the strict celibate nature of the deity
Allowing women would interfere with an essential religious practice. Supreme Court
Devotees of Lord Ayyappa do not constitute a separate religious denomination
Prohibition on women is not an essential part of Hindu religion

Stigmatisation of women devotees based on a medieval view of menstruation as symbolising impurity and pollution.
Chief Justice Dipak Misra: any rule based on segregation of women pertaining to biological characteristics is indefensible and unconstitutional.
Devotion cannot be subjected to the stereotypes of gender.
Justice D.Y. Chandrachud: stigma built around traditional notions of impurity has no place in the constitutional order, and exclusion based on the notion of impurity is a form of untouchability.
Justice Rohinton F. Nariman said the fundamental rights claimed by worshippers based on ‘custom and usage’ must yield to the fundamental right of women to practise religion.
SC also dismissed arguments that judicial intervention was an infringement.
Burden of a man’s celibacy on a woman
The decision reaffirms the Constitution’s transformative character and derives strength from the centrality it accords to fundamental rights.

Think big

Centre’s decision to increase customs duty on imports of 19 “non-essential” items.
Centre’s objective: narrowing the current account deficit
Aggregate value of these imported items in the last fiscal year was just ₹86,000 crore.
Less than 3% of the country’s merchandise import bill in 2017-18.
The tariff on aviation turbine fuel — which will now attract 5% customs duty instead of nil — may add to the stress of domestic airline operators.
July 2018: task force to reduce imports
We should be paying attention to boost Exports.
Policymakers must renew efforts to ensure that export growth starts outpacing the expansion in merchandise imports.
Expediting the refunds on GST to exporters
Woo some of the labour-intensive supply chains that are moving out of China
Irony: despite the abundance of coal reserves, thermal coal is one of India’s fastest-growing imports.
consequence of under-investment
Advisory Group Formed to Help Boost India’s Share in International Trade
The government has constituted a high level advisory group (HLAG) to look into the challenges arising from the current global trade scenario and suggest ways to boost the country’s goods and services exports.
“HLAG will consider ways for boosting India’s share and importance in global merchandise and services trade, managing pressing bilateral trade relations and mainstreaming new age policy making,” commerce and industry ministry said in a statement on Friday.
The panel, to be chaired by Surjit S Bhalla, director of Oxus Research and Investments, will examine the prevailing international trade dynamics, the rising protectionist tendencies, nonengagement by some countries on outstanding trade negotiation issues and their insistence on pursuing negotiating mandates.

Dumping an archaic law

India was in group of few nations in the world that still considered adultery an offence.
Adultery was seen as a crime against the institution of marriage and well-being of society.
The court observed that the issue of adultery between spouses was a private matter, and could be a ground for divorce under civil law.
It did not warrant the use of criminal sanction against any party involved.
Moreover, no justification can be given by the state for penalising people with imprisonment for making intimate and personal choices.
The court observed that women were treated as passive entities, and possessions of their husband.
K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union: deprivation of autonomy as a violation of right to privacy.
The adultery provision also violated the right to equality guaranteed under Article 14.
The struggle for equality in many other spheres still continues.

The poor are left to themselves

The first death anniversary of Santoshi Kumar, a Dalit girl from Simdega, Jharkhand, was this week.
She died of hunger, at the age of 11, a few weeks after her family’s ration card was cancelled by the State government because they failed to link it to Aadhaar.
“The entire aim behind launching this programme is the ‘inclusion’ of the deserving persons who need to get such benefits. When it is serving much larger purpose by reaching hundreds of millions of deserving persons, it cannot be crucified on the unproven plea of exclusion of some. We again repeat that the Court is not trivialising the problem of exclusion if it is there.” (p. 389.)
Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)
failed percentage of iris: 8.54%
failed percentage of figure: 6%
Page 384: UIDAI is said to have claimed 99.76% “biometric accuracy”
October 24, 2017 (after Santoshi’s death) UIDAI issued a circular: put in place an exemption mechanism, until then there was no exemption.
2017: 20 deaths occurred after the aforementioned circular was issued
The idea that Aadhaar enables inclusion has taken firm root in people’s minds, as well as the judges’.

Many people who have paid to get Aadhaar
The number of people excluded from getting Aadhaar may be small but they happen to be the most vulnerable.
99.97% of those who got Aadhaar numbers did so on the basis of existing IDs.
Each government programme has its own eligibility criterion.
Quantity fraud continues even today.
Aadhaar cards with the PDS in Odisha led to the discovery of 0.3% duplicates.

Important News

Not a crackdown on dissent, says SC
The Supreme Court, in a majority opinion on Friday, held that the pan-India crackdown and arrests of five activists in the BhimaKoregaon violence case on August 28 was not an attempt to silence dissent.
Centre for new Bench in Manipur case
River pollution: NGT directs States to act
National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed all States and Union Territories to prepare action plans within two months.
Number of polluted river stretches in the country had increased to 351 from 302 over the last two years.
Terrorism is largest threat to peace in S. Asia: Sushma
Ms. Swaraj left the meeting after her remarks, before Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s speech.
“It is necessary that we eliminate the scourge of terrorism in all its forms, without any discrimination, and end the ecosystem of its support,” said Ms. Swaraj.
U.S. Senate panel backs Kavanaugh
Republican Senator Jeff Flake calls for an FBI investigation before final vote Overshot Locals moving to rescue the 47 passengers and crew members of an Air Niugini aircraft that fell into a lagoon after overshooting the runway on the remote Island of Weno in Micronesia.
First human case of rat virus found
A man has developed the world’s first ever human case of the rat version of the hepatitis E virus, according to new research from one of the Hong Kong’s leading universities.
There had previously been no evidence the disease could jump from rats to humans, the University of Hong Kong said on Friday, warning the discovery had “major public health significance”.
“This study conclusively proves for the first time in the world that rat HEV can infect humans to cause clinical infection,” the university added.
Rat hepatitis E virus is very distantly related to human hepatitis E virus variants, researchers said.
The disease was found in a 56-year-old man who persistently produced abnormal liver function tests following a liver transplant.
He could have contracted the illness through food infected by rat droppings, researchers said.

Financial News

GST Collections Continue to Fall Short of ₹ 1-Lakh Crore Target
Five northeastern states and Andhra Pradesh were the only states with surplus revenue, while all the others are staring at a shortfall and will have to be compensated by the Centre.
The finance ministry set monthly GST collections of ₹1 lakh crore for this financial year, which has been missed every time, except in April, when it exceeded the target