GS PAPER: II

The free movement regime

Why in the news?

• Recently the Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced that the Centre has decided to fence the entire length of the India-Myanmar border to stop the free movement of people.
• He also said the Free Movement Regime (FMR) agreement with Myanmar would be reconsidered to stop border residents from moving into each other’s country without any paperwork.

About FMR

• Much of India’s present-day northeast was temporarily under Burmese occupation until the British pushed them out in the 1800s. The victors and the vanquished signed the Treaty of Yandaboo in 1826, leading to the current alignment of the boundary between India and Burma, later renamed Myanmar.
• The border divided people of the same ethnicity and culture — specifically the Nagas of Nagaland and Manipur and the Kuki-Chin-Mizo communities of Manipur and Mizoram — without their consent.
• In some stretches, the border split a village or a house between the two countries. Wary of increasing Chinese influence in Myanmar, New Delhi began working on improving diplomatic ties with the Myanmar government a decade ago.
• After almost a year’s delay, the FMR came about in 2018 as part of the Narendra Modi government’s Act East policy. The Rohingya refugee crisis that began in August 2017 caused the delay.
• The FMR allows people living on either side of the border to travel up to 16 km inside each other’s country without a visa. A border resident needs to have a border pass, valid for a year, to stay in the other country for about two weeks per visit.
• The FMR also envisaged the promotion of localised border trade through customs stations and designated markets apart from helping the people of Myanmar access better education and healthcare facilities on the Indian side of the border.

Need of reconsideration

• Apart from a 10 km stretch in Manipur, the India-Myanmar border through hills and jungles is unfenced. The security forces have for decades grappled with members of extremist groups carrying out hit-and-run operations from their clandestine bases in the Chin and Sagaing regions of Myanmar.
• The ease of cross-border movement, even before the FMR was in place, was often flagged for inward trafficking of drugs and outward trafficking of wildlife body parts.
• The trigger for the rethink on the FMR was the conflict that broke out between the majority Meitei and the tribal Kuki-Zo communities in Manipur on May 3, 2023.
• Over the past decade, the Manipur government has been expressing concern over the “influx” of Myanmar nationals, a euphemism for Kuki-Chins, calling for an Assam-like National Register of Citizens to weed out the “illegal immigrants”.
• The theory gained currency after the conflict, which coincided with a few hundred Myanmar nationals taking refuge in Manipur to escape a civil war back home.
• In September 2023, Manipur Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh blamed the ethnic violence on the free movement of Myanmar nationals into India and urged the Ministry of Home Affairs to end the FMR, which had been suspended on April 1, 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown.
• The suspension was extended after the military coup in Myanmar in February 2021. Kuki-Zo organisations, on the other hand, have accused the Chief Minister of branding the community as “illegal immigrants” and “narco-terrorists” to justify their “ethnic cleansing”.

Scale of migration

• The civil war in Myanmar saw a drastic jump in the number of people seeking refuge in India. In September 2022, authorities in Manipur pushed back 4,300 of some 5,500 Myanmar nationals from the Moreh area along the border after recording their biometrics.
• A committee set up by the State government put the number of such migrants in 2023 at 2,187. The civil war in the neighbouring country also forced some 40,000 people into Mizoram, who, unlike Manipur, made them feel at home primarily due to their ethnic affiliation.
• The Mizoram government has been seeking funds from the Centre to look after the displaced people who it wants to be sent back only after the situation in their country normalises.

Why are Mizoram and Nagaland opposed to ending the FMR?

• Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma said his government does not have the authority to stop the Centre from fencing the India-Myanmar border for perceived security threat and scrapping the FMR, but said he was opposed to the move.
• According to him, the border was imposed by the British to divide the people belonging to the Zo ethnic stock. “We Mizos share ethnic ties with the Chin people across the border. We have the right to live together,” he said. The Nagaland government, in which the BJP is a stakeholder, has not reacted but the influential Naga Students’ Federation condemned the Centre’s move. It said the decision to fence the border and end the FMR was “regressive”, which would exacerbate conflicts in the region.
• It is crucial for India to acknowledge the historical truth that these territories (between the Chindwin River in Myanmar and the Saramati Mountain in Nagaland) belong to the Nagas.

GS PAPER – II

U.S. officials India’s visit

Why in the news?

• Top U.S. diplomats will travel to Delhi this week to discuss bilateral issues, energy cooperation and are also expected to discuss possible dates for the Quad Summit with U.S.-Australia-Japan-India leaders as well as shore up ties amidst speculation of a ‘pause’ in the past few months.
• According to sources, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu will travel to Delhi for the meetings, as well as to attend the U.S.-India Forum organized.

Mr. Lu earlier visit

• Mr. Lu was last in India in November for the 2+2 dialogue, which was overshadowed by the U.S. FBI case against an Indian national for an attempted assassination plot against Khalistani separatist in the U.S. Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, that also accused an unnamed Indian security official.
• The Indian national Nikhil Gupta lost a case against his extradition in Prague earlier this week in a Czech appeals court that ruled that he could be sent to the U.S., and while officials did not confirm the case would come up, it is expected to be discussed.
• He is also expected to discuss the Quad agenda for the upcoming year, where India is the Chair of the grouping. New Delhi had earlier proposed to hold the summit this weekend, on January 27, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had invited U.S. President Joseph Biden as chief guest for Republic Day on the 26th. However, after the U.S. declined the invitation last month, French President Emmanuel Macron agreed to step in India.

Election seasons

• The U.S. decision to turn down the Republic Day invite, and the U.S.’s allegations in the Pannun matter had led to speculation over trouble in the India-U.S. relationship.
• In addition, possible dates for the Quad summit are unclear as both the U.S. and India enter their election seasons, with the possible window in February fast closing.
• The U.S. officials in Delhi, who are expected to be followed by other senior White House and National Security Council officials in February for the MEA and ORF-organised Raisina Dialogue on February 21-23, will seek to keep up the momentum in ties from 2023, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to the U.S. for a State visit and concluded a number of agreements. 
• Meanwhile, the U.S. State department announced a visit by Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources Geoffrey R. Pyatt from January 26-31 to Delhi and Hyderabad to address the Forum and to speak about India and the U.S.’s “shared agenda around energy transition, reliable supply chains, and energy security.” 
• Mr. Pyatt had visited India in 2022 and 2023 to discuss similar issues, as well as to speak about the need to abide by the G7-EU and Australia ‘price caps’ on Russian oil, and sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine war.
• Last week the U.S. treasury announced it was imposing its first sanctions of the year on a UAE company for transporting Russian oil above the “price cap” that prohibits services like insurance, shipping and freight to such transactions. While India does not accept non-UN unilateral sanctions, it has thus far kept its purchases below the price cap.

GS PAPER – II

French President Macron at Jaipur Shobha Yatra

Why in news?

• As French President Emmanuel Macron lands in Jaipur , India is rolling out the red carpet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his signature style, joining him at a roadshow called the Shobha Yatra.
• During the Shobha Yatra, Macron and Modi will travel from Jantar Mantar to Hawa Mahal, covering a kilometre in the Pink City.

Road show a unique format

• This roadshow will be similar to the one Prime Minister Modi had hosted for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in September 2017 in an open-top vehicle in Ahmedabad. In February 2020, also in Ahmedabad, he led a red-carpet welcome for US President Donald Trump who was greeted by people of the city.
• This is one of the unique formats, where a visiting foreign leader is given a royal style welcome involving people of the country.

Importance of the visit

• Macron, who will be the Chief Guest at the Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi on January 26, will begin his Jaipur trip by visiting Amer Fort, Jantar Mantar and Hawa Mahal. He will be the sixth leader from France to be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations.
• Sources said Macron’s visit is a unique reciprocal gesture involving visits by Heads of States on successive national days — the PM visited France on its National Day on July 13-14, 2023.
• While this visit caps the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Strategic Partnership between the two countries, the two leaders have met half a dozen times in 2023 alone, including on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in New Delhi last September.

India-France Strategic Partnership

• With France, we have a special relationship. Firstly, the visit caps a milestone year of the 25th anniversary of our strategic partnership.
• India-France Strategic Partnership, the first that India signed with any Western country, has seen all round progress – in bilateral, regional and international context.
• India and France have traditionally enjoyed close and friendly relations and share a deep and enduring Strategic Partnership covering all aspects of bilateral cooperation which involves a strategic component.
• Launched on January 26, 1998, the Strategic Partnership that was the first-ever for India among the Western countries and a first for France outside the EU, embodies the core vision of both countries to develop their respective strategic independence by drawing on a concrete bilateral cooperation.
• Defence and security, civil nuclear matters and space constitute principal pillars of this partnership that now includes a strong Indo-Pacific component.
• In recent years, this partnership has broadened to domains including counter-terrorism, maritime security, climate change, renewable and sustainable development, digitalisation and cyber security among others.
• The salience of the partnership is growing in the changing world, complex geo-political environment and in pursuit of respective national ambitions.
• Modi and Macron are also expected to deliberate on expanding maritime cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, the situation in the Red Sea, the Hamas-Israel conflict and the war in Ukraine.

GS PAPER – II

Gyanvapi case: ASI survey report

Why in news?

• The Varanasi Court today ordered that the report of the Gyanvapi Mosque’s scientific survey [conducted by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)] be made public, with all relevant parties getting access to the same.
• The order was made by the district Judge AK Vishvesha while disposing of a bunch of applications filed by concerned parties seeking a copy of the survey report.

What is Survey about?

• The ASI conducted a scientific survey of the Gyanvapi complex in Varanasi as per the July 21 order of the Varanasi District Judge to determine if the mosque was constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple.
• On August 4, 2023 the Supreme Court refused to stop the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) from surveying the Gyanvapi Mosque at Varanasi, except the ‘wuzukhana’ area where a ‘shivling’ was claimed to have been found last year.
• Taking on record an undertaking made on behalf of the ASI that no excavation would be done at the site and no damage will be caused to the structure,the Court had allowed the survey to take place.
• The Court had ordered thus while disposing of a petition filed by Anjuman Intezamia Masjid CommitteeCommittee (which manages the Gyanvapi Mosque at Varanasi) challenging the Allahabad High Court order (of August 3) which permitted the ASI survey.

History behind the Mosque:

• It is a popular belief that the Gyanvapi Mosque was built in 1669 by the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb by demolishing the ancient Vishweshwar temple.
• It is worth mentioning that in Saqib Khan’s book ‘Yasir Alamgiri’, it is also mentioned that Aurangzeb had demolished the temple in 1669 by ordering Governor Abul Hassan.
• The case of Gyanvapi mosque has been in court since 1991, when three persons, including Pandit Somnath Vyas, a descendant of the priests of the Kashi Vishwanath temple, filed a suit in the court of the civil judge of Varanasi claiming that Aurangzeb had demolished the temple of Lord Vishweshwar and built a mosque on it so that the land should be returned to them.
• On August 18, 2021, in the same court in Varanasi, five women had filed a petition demanding to worship in the temple of Mother Makeup Gauri, accepting which the court constituted a commission to know the present status of the Makeup Gauri Temple.