Women officers can now get permanent commission in Army
Paper:
Mains: General Studies- II: Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations.
Why in news:
The Defence Ministry’s Sanction Letter follows a Supreme Court verdict that directed the government that women Army officers be granted permanent commission and command postings in all services other than combat.
Key Details:
- The Supreme Court in February 2020 had given a verdict that directed the government that women officers be granted PC and command postings in all services other than combat.
Background:
- The Indian Army is what is called a command-oriented Army. That is, anyone who has to be given further positions up the chain of command has to first be experienced in command at the level of a full Colonel, a unit command. So far, this was denied to women. That is the main issue.
Arguments put forward by the Govt.
- The central government told the SC that “motherhood, childcare, psychological limitations” have a bearing on the employment of women officers in the Army.
- Family separation, career prospects of spouses, education of children, prolonged absence due to pregnancy, motherhood were a greater challenge for women to meet the exigencies of service.
- Physical Standards: Soldiers will be asked to work in difficult terrains, isolated posts and adverse climate conditions. Officers have to lead from the front. They should be in prime physical condition to undertake combat tasks. The Govt. said women were not fit to serve in ground combat roles.
- Army units were a “unique all-male environment”. The presence of women officers would require “moderated behaviour”.
- The male troop predominantly comes from a rural background and may not be in a position to accept commands from a female leader.
- The government further said it is also keeping in mind the “greater family demands and danger of them being taken as prisoners of war”.
- Both male and female prisoners are at risk of torture and rape, but misogynistic societies may be more willing to abuse woman prisoners.
Arguments in government affidavit against commanding posts for women in the Army are wrong and discriminatory
- A quick look at the past records reveals, all the arguments put forth against giving women more responsibility have been answered by the armed forces by giving women greater responsibility in uniform — the IAF has allowed women to become fighter pilots, and the Army has sent them to tough UN peacekeeping missions globally.
- The current case in the Supreme Court is not about granting a role to women in combat arms but about the denial of equal opportunity in their existing roles for promotion to higher commands.
- Women officers are already commanding platoons, companies and second in command successfully, with male soldiers accepting orders from them as part of a professional force.
- Now they are being excluded from commanding a unit, only on the basis that they are women. This argument doesn’t hold water.
- A professional force does not discriminate on the basis of gender, it works because of training, norms and culture.
- Denying women, the posts will be an “extremely retrograde step” and “will inflict irreparable injury” to their dignity.
Way forward
- There is a board of officers to decide whether promotions to the rank of Colonel can take place or not for a particular officer. It’s not as if all male officers get automatically promoted as Colonels.
- In some cases, in some services, less than 30% of male officers are promoted to the rank of Colonel. The decision is made by a board of officers.
- Let the same board of officers decide whether a woman officer is fit to command a unit.
- Women should be judged on the basis of their professionalism and on the basis of merit.
Conclusion
- There is no need to give women any special dispensations but the government cannot promote discrimination on the basis of gender.
- It must move towards gender mainstreaming in the army, and further achieve gender equality by establishing professional standards and adhering to them without any bias.
Locals mark 6 places for settling Bru refugees
Paper:
Mains: General Studies- II: Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations.
Why in News:
NonBrus of Tripura have proposed six places for settling the displaced Brus from Mizoram and set a limit for the number of families to be accommodated in two subdivisions that have borne the burnt of the 23yearold refugee crisis.
Key Details:
- Limits have also been placed for the number of families to be accommodated in two subdivisions that have borne the brunt of the 23-year-old refugee crisis.
- There are 7 relief camps among which the Bru families are distributed in these two subdivisions.
Bru Tribe:
- Bru (or Reang) tribals inhabit parts of Northeastern states of Assam, Mizoram and Tripura.
- In Mizoram, they are largely restricted to Mamit and Kolasib.
- In 1995, following a clash between Mizos and Brus, the Young Mizo Association and Mizo Students’ Association demanded that Brus be removed from the state’s electoral rolls, contending that the tribe was not indigenous to Mizoram.
- This led to an armed movement led by the militant outfit Bru National Liberation Front (BNLF), and a political one by the Bru National Union (BNU).
- Many Bru villages were burnt down and scores allegedly raped and killed, which led to the displacement of 40,000 Bru people.
- A large number of Bru families fled to North Tripura.
- The first phase of repatriation started in November 2010, when 1,622 Bru families with 8,573 members were resettled in Mizoram.
- The process was stalled in 2011, 2012 and 2015 amid protests by Mizo NGOs.
- Brus settled in Tripura also expressed fears for their security in Mizoram.
Background:
- Due to ethnic tensions in Mizoram, around 34,000 people were forced to live in sub-human conditions in tents in Tripura.
- No solution could be reached all these years. In 2018, an agreement was signed and a package was sanctioned, but many people did not want to go back to Mizoram.
- Only 328 families moved back.
- Due to the initiative by Prime Minister, negotiations were started afresh. The displaced people will now be settled in Tripura permanently.
- The Ministry of Home Affairs brought the stakeholders to the talks in 2015, and a financial package of Rs. 435 crores were arrived at.
- The package covers 32,876 members of 5,407 Bru families. It included a one-time assistance of Rs. 4 lakhs in a fixed deposit within a month of repatriation, monthly assistance of Rs. 5,000 through direct benefit transfer, free rations for two years, and finally, Rs. 1.5 lakh in three instalments for building houses.
Concerns:
- Non-Bru groups have been maintaining that the Brus were difficult to coexist with.
- The onus was put on the state government by the Bru leaders, to honor a quadripartite agreement in January 2020 for resettling more than 6,500 families in suitable areas.
- The areas proposed by the Joint Movement Committee (comprising Bengali, Mizo and other indigenous communities of the subdivisions of North Tripura district) and those sought by the Bru organizations do not match.
U.K., EU rule out quick post-Brexit deal
Paper:
Mains: General Studies- II: Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations.
Why in news:
Britain and the European Union on Thursday broke up their latest round of post Brexit trade negotiations by ruling out a quick deal but voicing hope for agreement in the coming months.
Key Details:
- Both the sides ruled out a quick deal but voiced hope for agreement in the coming months.
- The UK formally left the EU on 31 January 2020 and immediately entered into an 11-month transition period.
- During this period, the UK will continue to follow all of the EU’s rules and its trading relationship will remain the same.
- However, it is no longer part of the EU’s political institutions – so there are no longer any British Member of the European Parliament (MEPs) in the European Parliament.
- The transition gives both sides some time to decide the terms of the future UK-EU relationship.
- The UK will leave the single market and customs union at the end of the transition.
- A free trade agreement will allow UK goods to move around the EU without extra charges and keep other barriers (like checks) to a minimum.
- If an agreement cannot be reached by 31 December, then tariffs (taxes) and full border checks will be applied to UK goods travelling to the EU.
Way forward:
- A deal has to be reached and be ratified by all 27 EU member states and the UK Parliament.
- Failure to do so would see ties reduced to minimum standards set by the World Trade Organization, leading to high tariffs and serious disruptions to business.
‘Pak. failed to give access to Jadhav’
Paper:
Mains: General Studies- II: Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations.
Why in news:
India accused Pakistan of stalling the process of providing legal assistance to death row prisoner Kul Bhushan Jadhav. In the weekly press briefing of the Ministry of External Affairs, official spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said a petition to review the death sentence by a Pakistan military court could not be filed because of the absence of the documents that required Mr. Jadhav’s signature.
Background:
- Jadhav was arrested by the Pakistani government for ‘spying’ and allegedly plotting terror acts in Baluchistan.
- Subsequently, Pakistan held a secret trial of Mr. Jadhav in a military court, where evidence and processes were not made public.
- Pakistan had argued, unsuccessfully, that Article 36 of the Vienna Convention does not apply to people involved in espionage.
- On May 8, 2017, after the Pakistani court convicted and sentenced Mr. Jadhav, India went to the ICJ as a last resort of appeal.
- India approached the ICJ in May 2017, following Jadhav’s death sentence by Pakistani military court, in which India accused Pakistan of “egregious violations of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations”.
- The same month, ICJ put a stay on Jadhav’s death sentence and asked both countries to make their final cases by December 2017.
- In that month, after months of requests by India, Pakistan allowed Jadhav’s mother and wife to meet him.
India’s focused strategy:
- India’s strategy in this case has been to exploit increasing international acceptance that Pakistan was an emerging ‘rogue’ state.
- Laying stress on Pakistan’s scant regard for Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations — it deals with the arrest, detention and trial of a foreign citizen — India’s counsel, Harish Salve, highlighted two compelling arguments.
- First was the arrest process, which was not accompanied by an immediate notification to Indian consular officials in Islamabad. There was a delay of over three weeks before India was informed, and it was during this period, according to reliable sources from within Pakistan, that Mr. Jadhav was subjected to all means of coercion and forced to sign a ‘confession taken under custody’ without adequate legal representation.
- Second was the two-way denial of access and communication by any means between Mr. Jadhav and consular officials and a failure to inform him of the rights he enjoyed under the convention.
- The legitimacy of military courts has always been controversial within the international legal system that emerged in the post-World War II era as a fast-track system of delivering skewed justice by authoritarian regimes and military dictatorships.
- Purportedly set up in Pakistan in 2015 as a counter-terrorist and anti-corruption initiative, Mr. Jadhav’s sentencing in April 2017 was based on confessions taken in captivity and is part of several arbitrary sentencings by Pakistan’s Military Court.
ICJ judgement:
- The 16 judge ICJ panel ruled 15-1 in India’s favor. Pakistani Judge, Justice Jillani, was the lone dissenter on those rulings.
- The ICJ held that the denial of consular access constituted a “breach” of article 36 para 1(b) of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (1963) which Pakistan is a signatory to, which stipulates that all foreign nationals arrested must be given access to their government or local embassy, and rejected Pakistan’s counter-claim that the Vienna convention didn’t apply in a case of espionage.
- It also upheld India’s contention that the Vienna convention overrides a 2008 bilateral agreement between India and Pakistan on consular access.
- The court, however, rejected India’s call to annul the military court decision and ensure his release and safe passage home.
- In reality, this judgment underlines that Jadhav must get access to consular and legal assistance but does not rule that he can be tried under the civilian court of law.
- On Pakistan’s argument that India has failed to prove Jadhav’s nationality, ICJ said it was satisfied that the evidence before it leaves no room for doubt that Jadhav is of Indian nationality.
- This is a major diplomatic and legal victory for India in Kulbhushan Jadhav case.
Other diplomatic wins for India against Pakistan:
The ICJ verdict needs to be seen in the context of a string of India’s diplomatic successes in the last few years — a culmination of the painstaking diplomatic and legal groundwork to isolate Pakistan.
- The ICJ’s verdict, granting consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav and directing Islamabad to review and reconsider his conviction and sentencing, is being perceived as a major diplomatic and legal success for India, which has consistently tried to isolate Pakistan on the global stage over the last few years.
- The most recent was the listing of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
- According to Indian officials, the pressure mounted against Pakistan on terrorism seems to have worked. Pakistan recently arrested Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed on charges of terror financing.
- India’s attempt over the last two years to first “greylist” Pakistan, and then build pressure to “blacklist” Pakistan at the Financial Action Task Force, also seems to have worked.
- New Delhi also scored a major win after the Pulwama attack in February this year, when it got the UNSC to issue a statement condemning the attack. It was the first time that the UNSC condemned a terrorist attack on security personnel in Jammu and Kashmir, and named the Pakistan-based terrorist group JeM. What was equally important was that China also signed the statement, despite it being an “iron brother” of Pakistan.
- And after the Balakot airstrikes deep inside Pakistan, India got a chorus of support from the international community. The release of IAF fighter pilot Abhinandan Varthaman was a case in point, where Delhi’s pressure seemed to have worked.
- Much before Pulwama, India got global support after the surgical strikes following the Uri attack in 2016. The SAARC countries rallied around India to boycott the summit in Pakistan.
Conclusion:
While a part of the argument in the Kulbhushan Jhadav case has been won, India still awaits the annulment of his death sentence. He is still in Pakistani custody.
China launches ambitious Mars mission
Paper:
Mains: General Studies- II: Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations.
Why in news:
China launched its most ambitious Mars mission yet in a bold attempt to join the U.S. in successfully landing a spacecraft on the red planet.
Tianwen-1:
- It is China’s first fully home-grown Mars mission.
- It was launched atop Long March-5 carrier rocket.
- It consists of an orbiter and a lander/rover duo, a combination of craft that had never before been launched together towards Mars.
Details:
- It is especially striking given that it’s China’s first attempt at a full-on Mars mission.
- China did launch a Mars orbiter called Yinghuo-1 in 2011, but the spacecraft accompanied Russia’s Phobos-Grunt mission. However, the launch failed, leaving the probes trapped in Earth orbit.
- Tianwen-1 is expected to arrive at the Red Planet in February 2021.
- The lander/rover pair will touch down on the Martian surface two to three months later somewhere within Utopia Planitia.
- Utopia Planitia is a large plain in Mars’ Northern Hemisphere.
- NASA’s Viking 2 lander landed there in 1976.
- The solar-powered rover will then spend about 90 Martian days (called sols, and slightly longer than Earth Days), studying its surroundings in detail.
- The orbiter will eventually settle into a polar elliptical orbit.
- The lander apparently will not do any substantive science work, serving as a delivery system for the rover.
Objectives of Tianwen-1:
- To map the morphology and geological structure.
- To investigate the surface soil characteristics and water-ice distribution.
- To analyze the surface material composition.
- To measure the ionosphere and the characteristics of the Martian climate and environment at the surface.
- To perceive the physical fields (electromagnetic, gravitational) and internal structure of Mars.
Conservation, preservation key to Lonar lake development: HC
Paper:
Mains: General Studies-III: Technology, Economic Development, Bio diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management
Why in news:
The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court has said the development of Lonar lake also includes conservation and preservation of the water body.
Key Details:
- The Lonar lake was recently in the news as its water turned pink, raising concerns.
- According to a study, the colour of water in Lonar lake in Maharashtra turned pink due to a large presence of the salt-loving Haloarchaea microbes.
Haloarchaea:
- Haloarchaea or halophilic archaea is a bacteria culture, which produces pink pigment.
- It is found in water saturated with salt.
- Since Haloarchaea produces a pink pigment, it formed a pink colour mat on the water surface in the Lonar Lake.
- The report also concluded that the change in colour was not permanent.
- It said that when the water was allowed to stand still, the biomass settled down, concluding that it was the biomass of these microbes that turned the surface of the water red or pink
Lonar Lake
- Lonar Lake was created by an asteroid collision with earth impact during the Pleistocene Epoch some 50,000 years ago.
- It is one of the four known, hyper-velocity, impact craters in basaltic rock anywhere on Earth. The other three basaltic impact structures are in southern Brazil.
- Lonar Lake has a mean diameter of 1.2 kilometres.
- Lonar lake has saline water and is a notified national geo-heritage monument.
- Recently the colour of water in Lonar lake turned pink. Some experts have attributed the change to the mixing of Dunaliella algae with halobacteria, forming a beta carotine pigment and turning the water pink.