29.04.2021

to a Bill envisioning laws to govern the China- Index backed $1.4 billion Colombo Port City. The Mains Value Addition Supreme Court recently heard a case on the matter, following some 20 petitions by Mains Analysis opposition parties and civil society Topic Topic Name Source organisations that challenged the Bill arguing No that it "threatened" Sri Lanka’s sovereignty. 1 Temples are not The Hindu fiefdoms of the state Govt leverage in Covid-19 vaccine pricing 2 The Dirty Truth Indian Syllabus-- GS 2: Health, Government Policy Express Analysis: -

Mains Value Addition During the hearing on issues related to the pandemic on Tuesday, the Supreme Court flagged differential China pushes defence ties with Bangladesh, Sri pricing for vaccines, and directed the central Lanka government to clarify in its affidavit the basis and Syllabus-- GS 2 IR: rationale for pricing.

Analysis: - How does the government regulate the pricing of drugs? China’s Minister of Defence Wei Fenghe, visiting Bangladesh and Sri Lanka this week, To ensure accessibility, the pricing of essential has called on countries in the neighbourhood to drugs is regulated centrally through The Essential resist “powers from outside the region setting up Commodities Act, 1955. Under Section 3 of the Act, military alliances in South Asia”. the government has enacted the Drugs (Prices Control) Order. The DPCO lists over 800 drugs as China on Tuesday also convened a six-country “essential” in its schedule, and has capped their South Asia dialogue on COVID-19 and prices. economic cooperation with the Foreign Ministers of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, The capping of prices is done based on a formula Pakistan and Sri Lanka. that is worked out in each case by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), which The senior Chinese official’s visit to Sri Lanka was set up in 1997. coincides with mounting resistance in Sri Lanka

Can the government regulate the price of Covid- • “Aside from the lack of technical 19 vaccines through DPCO? capabilities, by calling ALKS automated our concern also is that the UK government is Regulation through DPCO is not applicable for contributing to the confusion and frequent patented drugs or fixed-dose combination (FDC) misuse of assisted driving systems that have drugs. unfortunately already led to many tragic This is why the price of the antiviral drug deaths,” said Matthew Avery, research remdesivir, which is currently in great demand for director at Thatcham Research, which has the treatment of serious cases of Covid-19, is not tested ALKS systems. regulated by the government. Last week, a • The dangers of drivers apparently notification by the Ministry of Chemicals & misunderstanding the limits of technology Fertilizers said that on the intervention of the has been an issue in the US, where government, major manufacturers/marketers of the regulators are reviewing about 20 crashes remdesivir injection had reported voluntary involving Tesla’s driver assistance tools. reduction in the Maximum Retail Price (MRP). Mains Analysis UK becomes first country to green-light driverless cars on its roads Temples are not fiefdoms of the state

Syllabus-- GS 3: Science and Technology Why in News?

Analysis: - CM on Friday, revoked the govt's • The UK government on Wednesday became 'Uttarakhand Char Dham Devasthanam the first country to announce it will regulate Management Act', freeing 51 temples the use of self-driving vehicles at slow speeds on motorways, with the first such Syllabus-- GS 1: Indian Culture cars possibly appearing on public roads as • In a major setback to arguments on soon as this year. the state’s control of Hindu temples, the • Britain’s transport ministry said it was Uttarakhand High Court on July 21 upheld working on specific wording to update the the constitutionality of the Uttarakhand Char country’s highway code for the safe use of Dham Devasthanam Management Board self-driving vehicle systems, starting with Act, 2019. Automated Lane Keeping Systems (ALKS) • All religious reforms are resisted. Thus the — which use sensors and software to keep Sabrimala judgment (2018) saw huge public cars within a lane, allowing them to protests similar to those after the Shah Bano accelerate and brake without driver input. judgment (1985).

• From the bogey of ‘minority appeasement’, as the chairman and members to the temple's the nation has now moved to injustices boards for its management. against Hindus. • The Act was heavily criticised by the • The court held that Article 26 cannot be Opposition and aggrieved priests who invoked if the denomination never had the reportedly claim that they were 'kept in the right to manage temple properties. It merely dark' regarding the law. acknowledges the pre-existing right. • BJP's Subramanian Swamy had filed a PIL challenging the constitutional validity Colonial legacy claiming that it violates Articles 31 A(1) (b), • When the British government realised that a Article 25 and 26 of the Constitution. secular government should take no part in Various aspects of State and Religion: the management of religious institutions, it enacted the Religious Endowments Act (Act • A myth is trotted out to justify sovereign XX of 1863) repealing the pre-existing control of temples: that Hindu temples were Bengal and Madras Regulations. supervised and managed by kings, who • “habitually employed ministries to • Section 8 of the Act provided that the supervise temples and charitable bodies”. members of the committee to be appointed • Like many myths the colonials perpetuated, from persons professing the religion, for this too must be disabused: there is not a purposes of which the religious shred of historical source to support this establishment was founded or maintained claim. and in accordance with the general wishes of • On the contrary there are inscriptions, cast in those who are interested in the maintenance stone, that attest that temples were managed of the institution. wholly and entirely by local communities.

State in religion

Uttarakhand Char Dham Devasthanam • The state has assumed the role of religious Management Act? functionaries to determine who will be heads of Mutts and the authority to conduct poojas. • In 2019, the Trivendra Singh Rawat • For example, The Shri Jagannath Temple government had passed the Uttarakhand Act, 1954 entrusted the committee Char Dham Devasthanam Management Act appointed by the state with the task of in the Assembly taking over control of major ensuring the performance of seva pooja. Hindu religious institutions. • When the Act was questioned by the Raja of • The Act allowed the government to Puri before the Supreme Court, in Raja nominate MPs, MLAs, and representatives Birakishore vs The State Of Orissa, the

Court made a revelation: the performance of • Thus, the control of secular aspects a puja is in fact a secular act and, therefore, associated with religion and the power to the state is justified in its regulation. throw open Hindu temples to all classes and sections of society are distinct.

State Regulation of Religion and Supreme Secular aspects and social reform. Court: - • Viewed from this standpoint, the Hindu • The exercise of state regulation of secular Religious and Charitable Endowments aspects of religion was taken to extreme Department is not a “tribune for social lengths when the Court ruled that the state, justice” as argued in the article nor has it by appointing temple priests, was exercising ever guaranteed equal access to worship. a secular function (Seshammal & Ors, Etc. • Nowhere does the text of the Constitution Etc vs State Of Tamil Nadu). permit the state to assume ownership of • Whatever style of secularism we subscribe properties belonging to religious institutions to, surely the Indian state is not to tell the and treat them as state largesse to be believer how he/she is to offer worship to the siphoned off. deity nor is it to tell the custodian of the deity • The only vestige of authority under the how she will be appointed. Constitution empowering the state to take • Constituent Assembly framed the religious over property of religious institutions is liberty clauses keeping in mind the historical under Article 31A (b). prohibition of entry to certain classes and • The history of legislative practice of sections of Hindu society. endowment laws reveals the state prerogative in ensuring regulation of only Constitutional Obligation: - secular activities. • Article 25(2) grants power to the State to • As a matter of fact, the Shirur Mutt case, enact law on two distinct aspects. while upholding certain provisions of the • Article 25(2)(a) empowers the state to 1951 Act, struck down a major portion of the regulate “economic, financial, political or Act characterising the provisions as a other secular activities which may be “disastrous invasion” of religious liberty. associated with religious practice”. • In 1959, the Legislature ‘cured’ the defects • Article 25(2)(b) enables the state to enact pointed out by the Supreme Court, by law to prohibit the exclusion of ‘classes and inserting verbatim the very provisions that sections’ of Hindu society to enter into the Supreme Court had stuck down in 1954. Hindu temples of a public character and also Applicable to charities make law for social welfare and reform.

• The Waqf Act justification for the considers the value of each religion and legitimacy of control of Hindu religious empathize towards the people to profess any endowments is misleading. religion of their choice. • A reading of the Act reveals that it applies to • In a country as diverse as India, there are charities and specifically excludes places of several religions and communal groups with worship such as mosques. various interests, belief and faith. There is a • In fact the scheme of the Waqf Act supports possibility of religious conflicts in India, the argument that the government should not since the interest of one religious group may regulate places of worship. be violating other groups faith. • The most fundamental criticism against the • In such a situation the state plays an release of Hindu temples from government important role in regulating the acts of the control to the society is two-fold. people, protecting the religious beliefs and preventing the destruction of lives and Solutions ahead: - property. • What is being asserted by the community is • For this purpose the local government the right of representation in the affairs of caused an election. the management of temples. • In the spirit of equality of all religions, this • This right of representation can be scheme should be applicable to all religious effectuated by the creation of boards institutions which would guarantee adequate representative of religious heads, priests and community representation in the responsible members from the dharmik management of their places of worship. sampradaya. Question: - • The logic is simple. Members who profess a particular dharmik sampradaya will have its The 42nd amendment to the Constitution of India due interest in mind. inserted the word "secular" into the preamble thus making India a "secular" Republic. Critically Way Forward: - evaluate the statement with suitable arguments. • The founding fathers of the Indian The Dirty Truth Constitution always had secularism as a foundation of a democratic India. Why in News?

• Secularism means the acceptance and The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the dire respect of all the religions in a country state of rural sanitation infra (Toilet) & manifold without any coercion and minimal increase in open defecation in rural India. interference of state in the religious matters. Syllabus-- GS2: Issues related to Sanitation • A country is considered secular only when (Health) the state without any discrimination,

• In India’s context, where more than 74 • There is a stark contrast between urban & million are homeless or live in slums, rural water & sanitation coverage in India. controlling this infectious disease requires • The dependence on unimproved water targeted policies to provide access to sources in rural areas even within sanitary sanitation facilities, soap, and water in toilets increases the need to re-evaluate the addition to social distancing. obsession with toilet construction in India. • India is also unique because it has recently Challenges and Concerns: transitioned millions who previously defecated in the open to using a toilet. • Forfeited bills & corruption by contractors • Shared sanitation facilities are prone to keep toilets from having long-lasting unhygienic conditions due to poor infrastructure. maintenance. • Long queues in the semi-urban & rural areas • The COVID-19 crisis may intensify these changed sanitation behavior. specific challenges because use by multiple • In rural India, long power cuts with no water households can increase the risk of contact coverage amidst the pandemic have again and formite exposures. put the burden of maintaining sanitary toilets • As social distancing measures restrict on sanitation workers. movement, it may limit access to public or As sanitary toilets have become hotbeds of disease communal toilets. that made people to construct illegal toilets. • It is therefore important to understand whether such barriers have increased open defecation practices to avoid potential perceived risks of using shared toilet facilities.

Sanitation in times of Pandemic:

• Sanitary toilet usage has declined because of the COVID-19 scare where more than 6lakh

toilets have an acute water shortage. • Nearly 1.2lakh toilets have no water supply & completely abandoned. • Despite the strict ban under Prohibition of Employment of Manual Scavengers & their Rehabilitation Act 2013, due to lockdowns of 2020-21, there is a surge in Newly-built “dry latrines” & “hanging toilets”.

Impact:

• The usage of both dry latrines & hanging toilets puts the communities at high risk of illness beyond COVID-19. • As toilet usage becomes a problem, another trend is the four-fold increase in open defecation in rural India.

• The defecation sites are close to garbage & Way Forward: water bodies which further aggravate the

situation. • Both construction & usage of dry latrines & hanging toilets needs to be eradicated. • The biggest curse for India’s sanitation • Both “value of service” & maintenance workers is “dry latrines”, now with the systems need to be tackled immediately by increase of new “dry latrines”, the burden on re-surveying the state of the toilets that were them increased manifold that is beyond their built 3-5 years ago. carrying capacity. • At every single step, the sanitation system State of sanitation crisis across “Indian States”: needs to go hand in hand with the water • In UP, re-emergence of Small pits filled with system combined with an assessment of human excrement near construction sites has sanitation behavior & sanitation labour been found. reforms in India. • In Bengal, more & more hanging toilets are • The leakage & corruption free in marinating built by families who do not want to use & construction of toilets has to be strictly sanitary toilets as they are always filled with implemented. sludge. • The need of the hour is instead of focusing • In , a pattern of small segregated pits so heavily on building new toilets, India & dry latrines are found at landfills. needs to address the problems of acute toilet • In Tamil Nadu & , unused toilets usage in rural India.

became playgrounds for wild animals & Question: - snakes. With no escape from COVID-19, the toilet • In MP& , toilets became “death traditions have highlighted major loopholes in traps” because of the usage of substandard India’s Sanitation system where the focus is majorly material for construction. on building new infrastructure. Discuss. • In Mizoram, there is a prevalence of unique “tree-house” toilets similar to hanging toilets but 3 times higher.