THE ASSAM TRIBUNE ANALYSIS
DATE – 18 MARCH 2021
For Preliminary and Mains examination
As per new Pattern of APSC
(Also useful for UPSC and other State level government examinations)
Answers of MCQs of 17-03-2021 1. C 2. D 3. B 4. A 5. A
MCQs of 18-03-2021 Q1. Name the place from where Chandrayaan-1 was launched?
A. Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota B. ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangaluru C. Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram D. Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, Thiruvananthapuram
Q2. What will be the India's second mission to the Moon by ISRO?
A. Chandrayaan-2 B. Chandrayaan-3 C. Chandrayaan-1 D. None of the above
Q3. The National Highway connecting Nagaon to Dimapur through Karbi Anglong district is-
A. NH 37 B. NH 36 C. NH 39
D. NH 40
Q4. The first editor of Jonaki
A. Hemchandra Goswami B. Chandra Kumar Agarwala C. Lakshminath Bezboruah D. Padmanath Gohai Baruah
Q5. Karengar Ligiri was written by
A. Bishnu Prasad Rabha B. Lakshmi Nath Bezboruah C. Jyotiprasad Agarwalla D. Padmanath Gohai Baruah
CONTENTS
1. No decision on nationwide NRC yet (GS 2 – Polity and Governance) 2. Envisaged for a year, Chandrayaan-2 orbiter likely to last for 7 years (GS 3 – Science and Technology) 3. IOC, Israeli firm form JV to manufacture metal-air batteries for EVs (GS 3 – Science and Technology) 4. 41 candidates in 1st phase face criminal cases (GS 5 – Electoral Reforms related)
EDITORIALS
1. Constitutionalizing a coalition (GS 2 – Polity and Governance) 2. Not feasible (GS 3 – Privatization) 3. Meghalaya mining ban (GS 5 – Environment related issue) 4. Orunodoi: A long misunderstood publication (GS 5 – History)
NEWS ARTICLES
No decision on nationwide NRC yet The Centre on Wednesday said it has not taken any decision on the nationwide roll-out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai was replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha on whether the Central government had any plans to implement the NRC throughout the country. “Till now, the government has not taken any decision to prepare the National Register of Indian Citizens at the national level,” Rai said in a written reply. The NRC was updated in Assam under the supervision of the Supreme Court. When the final NRC was published on August 31, 2019, a total of 19.06 lakh people were excluded out of the total 3,30,27,661 applicants, which created ripples across India. Replying to another question, Rai said there is no provision of detention centres under the Citizenship Act, 1955 and the National Register of Indian Citizens. He said the Supreme Court on February 28, 2012 had directed that foreign nationals who completed their sentence shall be released from jail immediately and be kept in an appropriate place with restricted movement pending their deportation or repatriation. – PTI
Envisaged for a year, Chandrayaan-2 orbiter likely to last for 7 years The life of the orbiter of Chandrayaan-2 was initially envisaged for a year but the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) expects it to last for seven years, Union minister Jitendra Singh said on Wednesday. In a written response to a question in the Lok Sabha on India’s second lunar mission, Jitendra Singh, the Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, said Chandrayaan-2 was a highly complex mission to develop and demonstrate the key technologies for end-to-end lunar mission capability, including soft- landing and roving on the lunar surface. The mission comprised an orbiter, lander and rover.
Planned to land on the South Pole of the Moon, Chandrayaan-2 was launched on July 22, 2019. However, the lander Vikram hard-landed on September 7, 2019, crashing India’s dream to become the first nation to successfully land on the lunar surface in its maiden attempt. “But for achieving soft landing at the intended spot, the other objectives of the mission have been significantly attained. So much so, that against an initially envisaged one-year life of orbiter, we expect it to be serving for seven years,” Singh said. The mission has accomplished the objective of expanding lunar scientific knowledge through detailed study of topography, mineralogy, surface chemical composition, thermo-physical characteristics and tenuous lunar atmosphere leading to a better understanding of the origin and evolution of the moon, it added. In August last year, Singh had announced that Chandrayaan-2 orbiter has captured the images of craters on the Moon. They were christened ‘Sarabhai crater’ after Vikram Sarabhai, father of the Indian space programme. The Sarabhai Crater captured in 3D images shows that it has a depth of around 1.7 kilometres, taken from its raised rim, and the slope of crater walls is in between 25 to 35 degree. These findings will help space scientists to understand further the process on the lunar region filled with lava, Singh had said. ISRO’s missions are known to have an enhanced life than what is earlier envisaged. The planned life span of Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan) after its insertion into the Mars orbit on September 24, 2014 was six months and it was to complete on March 24, 2015. However, the MOM is still functioning and sending pictures. – PTI
IOC, Israeli firm form JV to manufacture metal-air batteries for EVs State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Israeli battery developer Phinergy today formalised a joint venture to manufacture ultra-lightweight metal-air batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), a venture that got its first customers in Maruti Suzuki and Ashok Leyland. The equal joint venture will replace lithium with aluminum to make batteries that will charge faster and give a longer run. This will “help overcome most of the challenges facing EVs including range anxiety,” IOC Chairman SM Vaidya said. “Al-air technology will help us overcome most of the current challenges for e-vehicles and address most of the potential customers’ pain-points, including range anxiety, higher cost of purchase, and safety issues.
“This technology will also boost India’s existing aluminum industry and help the nation become self-reliant in the energy field and promote the ‘Make in India’ drive,” he said. IOC had in February last year acquired a minority stake in Phinergy Ltd. Now they have formed a joint venture, IOC Phinergy Pvt Ltd, which will manufacture aluminum-air systems using mostly recycled aluminum. At a virtual event marking the event, Maruti Suzuki and Ashok Leyland signed a letter of intent (LoI) with the newly incorporated JV. Founded in 2008, Phinergy develops an assortment of zero-emission batteries including aluminum-air and zinc-air batteries designed to offer power sources for electric cars. The IOC and Phinergy joint venture will set up a factory in India to manufacture aluminum-air batteries for electric vehicles and stationary applications. Aluminum is naturally available in India and its extraction and recycling technologies are also very well established. Speaking on occasion, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the joint venture will help India in its journey towards clean, sustainable, affordable, safe and long-lasting energy options and facilitate much faster adoption of e-vehicles in the country. The minister said that based on domestically available aluminum, the joint venture plans to manufacture aluminum-air systems in the country, which will provide a boost to ‘Make in India’. Minister of Energy of Israel, Yuval Steinitz, lauded the initiative, saying that this is indicative of increasingly close cooperation between the two countries. Oil Secretary Tarun Kapoor said India’s energy demand is going to increase at a faster pace compared to the world, and the country is looking for a breakthrough in storage technology-batteries that are compact, cheaper, lighter and have higher energy density. He described today’s initiative as pathbreaking. – PTI
41 candidates in 1st phase face criminal cases
Forty one candidates contesting in the first phase of Assembly elections in Assam have declared criminal cases against them. As per a report prepared by the National Election Watch and Association for
Democratic Reforms (ADR), 34 candidates contesting election in the first phase have declared serious criminal cases against them. The ADR analysed 259 of the 264 candidates in the fray. Affidavits of five candidates could not be analysed due to incomplete or unclear affidavits uploaded in the Election Commission website. A party-wise analysis of the candidates shows that among the major political parties, 10 of the 43 Congress nominees, eight of the 41 Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) nominees, three of the 39 BJP candidates and one candidate each from NCP, AGP and SUCI(C) have declared criminal cases against them in their self-sworn affidavits. Three constituencies – Bokakhat, Margherita and Biswanath Chariali – have been marked as ‘red alert constituencies’, where three or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against them. According to the report, five candidates have declared cases related to crime against women. While one candidate has declared cases related to rape, two candidates have cases related to murder, and four others have declared cases related to attempt to murder. The directions of the Supreme Court have had no effect on the political parties in selection of candidates in phase one of the Assam Assembly Elections 2021 as they have again followed their old practice of giving tickets to around 16 per cent candidates with criminal cases. All major parties contesting in the first phase have given tickets to eight per cent to 23 per cent candidates who have declared criminal cases against themselves, the report said. Meanwhile, AGP has earned the distinction of having highest number of crorepati candidates (90 per cent). The Congress and BJP both have 72 per cent crorepati candidates, while Assam Jatiya Parishad has 37 per cent such candidates, according to the report. The average of assets per candidate in the first phase is Rs 1.84 crore. Among major parties, the average asset per Congress candidate is Rs 3.54 crore, while per BJP nominee it is Rs 3.64 crore. For the AGP and the AJP, it is Rs 6.71 crore and Rs 1.23 crore, respectively. The top three candidates with highest declared assets are Naresh Sonowal (AGP) with assets of Rs 33.8 crore, Naba Kumar Doley (BJP) with assets calculated at Rs 25.52 crore and Bharat Narah (Congress) with assets valued at Rs 21.78 crore. On the other hand, among the candidates with lowest assets are Anupam Chetia (SUCI) with assets worth Rs 15,000, Simon Tanti (Independent) with assets calculated at Rs 16,300 and Suresh Bhumij (AJP) with total assets of Rs 24,755. The candidates with high liabilities are Bhaskarjyoti Barua (Congress) with a liability of Rs 6.45 crore, Naren Sonowal (AGP) with a liability of Rs 5.94 crore and Biswajit Phukan (BJP) with a liability of Rs 5.84 crore.
Meanwhile, 97 (37 per cent) candidates have declared their educational qualification to be between fifth and twelfth standard, while 157 (61 per cent) candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate and above.
EDITORIALS
Constitutionalizing a coalition If the regional forces want a space in India’s centralized electoral democracy, then they must bring their innovative DNA into coalition politics. Constitutional pre-commitment is a potential antidote to horse- trading that is the sad reality of government formation in India. It is also a vote gatherer as a picture of stability for coalitions. Contrary to cultural stereotypes, the history of the people of Assam is a history of innovation. The ingenuous reclaiming of marshlands, the Paik system, and pragmatic alliances between communities transforming into sustained relationships laid the foundations of the community. Blending of indigenous beliefs, Tai-Ahom traditions, Vaishnavite Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, and cultural practices yielded an enduring multi-cultural heritage. Despite ethnic strife, Assam continues as an exemplar of multicultural life in India. This innovative Assamese trait of pragmatically and rationally responding to challenges needs marshalling to thrive in Indian electoral politics. The fresh regional upsurge in Assam today faces a twin political challenge: seat-sharing pre-elections, and government formation post elections. These are familiar but beleaguering challenges. Ordinarily, seat- sharing precedes government formation and thus is thought to be more pressing. But it is government formation that is the end game. A view of the end game can wisely inform other strategies, including seat- sharing. It is a grandma’s tale in coalition politics that coalitions may agree on seat-sharing and win elections but fail to form government. This is especially true when a powerful opponent with superior financial and coercive power can divide coalitions easily. Is there a strategy apart from interest gratification that can
prevent coalition splitting? Are there principles that coalition members can agree to, before elections, for government formation? Having a picture of a pre-electoral commitment for government formation has several benefits. First, it gives voters the impression that the coalition is confident and stable as it is far-sighted. This addresses the primary fear related to coalitions: that they will collapse soon and put the state in a political crisis, a vote- losing logic. This is often the fear that strong parties stoke in the minds of voters. Ram Vilas Paswan’s mid-90s cry of able government and not stable government is but a half-truth. Voters want both able and stable government. Stability is important as then one can forget about elections for five years and get on with life. Second, a principle of government formation will form the background against which negotiations will take place post-election. A coalition will not be rudderless. It is an antidote to purely selfish interests taking over discussions about government formation. The effect a principle has is primarily psychological. Coalition partners will feel bound by their previous commitment. They also know that their electorate is watching. Those who breakaway lose legitimacy, as they appear to have no fidelity to a specific promise. Ordinarily, the election manifesto is the only such public pre- election commitment. But unlike a manifesto that is idealistic, a government formation principle is practical and simple. Such a public commitment has more chance of being obeyed. You can fool people on ideals, but not on specific principles about the highest stake involved. The third benefit of a principle is that it can tackle the question: Who is your CM candidate? Single leader- dominated parties such as the BJP answer the question in two ways: X is our CM candidate who is subservient to the PM. They have two personalities to rely on. They profit from the certainty of leadership. Coalitions cannot do that having multiple leaders. They can however say: we have a neutral, rational, democratic, and specific principle that will ensure that the most popular leaders will lead the government. But what is such a principle? The answer lies in the idea of ‘constitutional pre-commitment’: just as all governments in India are bound by the Constitution, a coalition politics will in addition be bound by a government formation pre- commitment. The pre-commitment along with the manifesto is constitutional in nature – the grammar of politics – that the coalition will speak. It will be their basic terms of agreement. In addition to the manifesto, it will lay out the basis of the coalition. The specific principle stemming from constitutional pre-commitment is a kind of ‘blinded equity’. It requires preparing two independent lists. The first is a pre-election ‘list of posts’ that lists all the posts in government in an order of priority: 1) CM; 2) Home; 3) Finance, etc. The second post-election ‘list of parties’ will rank the coalition partners in the order of vote share.
The party with the highest vote-share will have post 1 or a group of posts, say group 1 consisting of posts 1-3. The second largest vote-share will get you post 2 or group 2 and so forth. Complications can be solved by cyclical appointments: the cycle changes according to the number of parties. If there are 4 parties, then the cycle is repeated after every 4 posts or group of posts. The lists only need to have the most important posts. Once the leaders of the parties are slotted in the most important positions, the other posts will self-determine through internal discussions. The virtues of this arrangement are that first, it is fair because it is unbiased and goes by the democratic principle. Greater number of votes (performance) will get you the higher ministries. Second, it is binding because parties will be held accountable for their own word, nothing else. Third, it leverages time because interest-based government formation negotiations can only be pre- empted by a principle that is agreed to in advance. Left to a later time, horse-trading and selfish bargaining will become the rule. Fourth, exceptions are possible because specific persons can be unanimously declared as CM candidate, etc. What is inviolable is that the coalition will not violate their constitutional pre-commitment. Number of seats won should not figure in the arrangement as coalition parties may have given up seats for various pragmatic reasons. The seat-sharing logic will be distinct from the government formation logic. If the regional forces want a space in India’s centralized electoral democracy, then they must bring their innovative DNA into coalition politics. Constitutional pre-commitment is a potential antidote to horse- trading that is the sad reality of government formation in India. It is also a vote gatherer as a picture of stability for coalitions.
Not feasible If India, after independence, had adopted the mixed economy concept, it had been because the need was felt to balance social welfare along with development. In particular Indira Gandhi had given the public sector concept a boost by nationalizing major private sector banks. However, the public sector experiment had failed at the broader level, with units due to inbuilt drawbacks failing to become profitable and bleeding the nation’s economy. An airline like Air India, which was used by Indian politicians and bureaucrats as their private domain, has been a salient example of all that bedevils the public sector.
Public sector enterprises do not fit in with the fiscal philosophy of a right wing party like the BJP, which is essentially pro-corporate in its ideology. In fact, if segments of society like the farming community harbour deep suspicions of the intentions of the BJP, it is primarily due to this pro-corporate image. It is also an open secret that the NDA Government has identified 18 strategic sectors, including banking, insurance, steel, fertilizer, petroleum and defence equipment, where it will retain only a limited presence, thereby exiting non-strategic sectors through privatization or strategic disinvestment. It has made strategic disinvestments in Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO) and Hindustan Zinc (to Sterlite Industries), Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited (to Reliance Industries) and VSNL (to the Tata group). In fact, the NDA, so far, has sold off public sector assets worth more than Rs 2 lakh crore. It has handed over the operation of public sector assets to private sector players – for instance, the Adani Group has been given rights to operate six airports – Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangalore, Trivandrum and Guwahati. In order to facilitate privatization, the Government has repealed what it deems to be ‘obsolete and redundant laws,’ which would do away with the need to seek parliamentary approval. Thus the assertion of Railways Minister Piyush Goyal that the Indian Railways will never be privatized and that it was a property of every Indian and will remain so has to be viewed in its context. It must be noted that the Indian Railways is a behemoth, being the largest railway system under a single management in Asia and the second largest in the world. Privatization of the entire system is not practically feasible since no Indian corporate entity has the resources to manage such a gargantuan organization. It may also be noted that, in the same breath, Goyal had added that private investment should be encouraged in the Railways for more efficient functioning, and that the country can progress towards high growth and create more employment opportunities only when the public and private sectors work together. The tacit implication, therefore, is that while the Railways will not be wholly privatised, the corporate sector would in the future be given slices of the Railways pie!
Meghalaya mining ban After nearly eight years, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has disposed of the proceedings relating to the ban on unscientific and unregulated mining in Meghalaya. The NGT’s observations that include a number of recommendations including those for restoration of the natural environment are a scathing indictment on the State Government’s deplorable role on a wide gamut of issues. Coal mining was banned in Meghalaya by NGT on April 17, 2014 and several committees were set up to ensure that illegal mining – known as rat-hole mining – did not take place and environmental damages reversed. In July 2019, the Supreme Court, following an appeal by the State Government, lifted the ban on mining subject to compliance to the Mines and Mineral (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 and formulating a mining plan. Regrettably, little has been done by the State Government to honour the Supreme Court mandate. The NGT has further directed that ownership of the task of compliance of the SC judgment should be taken over by the State authorities, to be overseen by an oversight committee. The State Government has been asked not only to prevent unscientific and unregulated mining but also to effectively restore the environment, rehabilitate the victims besides scientific handling of illegally mined coal. Even incidents of crime centring on coal mining is to be dealt with by the OC which will submit periodical reports to various authorities. Illegal coal mining in Meghalaya has been a thriving business perpetuate with the blessings of powerful vested interest coteries that also involve influential politicians. The prevalence of such unscientific coal mining has over the years caused irreparable harm to the region’s natural environment and unless this is checked with a firm hand, things will turn catastrophic in the days ahead. As these mines are continuously flouting all environment protection laws including environmental discharges, life-giving rivers, cropland and overall biodiversity in the region are bearing its brunt. Then, scant regard is paid to workers’ safety in this highly-hazardous activity, as testified to by the recurring accidental fatalities. That the government authorities continue to look the other way to the rat-hole mining should be evident from the fact that there is no data available on the extent of the mining and nobody knows how many rate hole or box mines are there in the State.
The media has been focusing extensively on the issue as have been a few daring activists risking their lives but the authorities look totally unperturbed. Lawlessness and growing crimes in and around mining areas have been the discernible fallout. As rat-hole mining labourers are largely an unorganized lot with immigrants figuring in substantial numbers, there is a lack of formal documentation and hence workplace fatalities and injuries are often understated. Now, the onus is on the Meghalaya Government to put a complete stop on all the illegalities and take effective measures for preservation of the natural environment of the biodiversity-rich scenic State.
Orunodoi: A long misunderstood publication The first Assamese newspaper-cum-magazine, the Orunodoi, published by the Baptist Mission at Sivasagar from January 1846 was more an institute for imparting knowledge than an ordinary paper for general news. The enterprise was taken up by the Christian Missionaries sent by the American Baptist Mission to Assam. It was at a time when the literacy rate in Assam was too low and reading habits among the people even lower except in case of the reading materials like the sacred texts. The Orunodoi was declared to be devoted to ‘religion, science and general intelligence’. Information or news at that time of low literacy in the mid-19th century could be understood only in the sense of gossip or hearsay. Also the traditional literati of the time could hardly think of religion being tagged to science and information or intelligence. Bringing out a newspaper to spread scientific knowledge and ideas, information of facts or daily events and incidents was, therefore, a daring venture. But even then a paper of this nature was possible because of the backing of a Christian Mission of the West. However, this advantage of financial backing became at the same time its disadvantage in getting unstinted support of the local people for whom it was intended. The local people who were by and large Hindus regarded anything Christian as taboo. Its declared aim of spreading secular knowledge was also taken for a disguised way of propagation of Christianity. But with the appearance of a new generation of people with liberal secular education in the Assamese society from the 20th century, the religio-social dogma was gradually vanishing. When ultimately Assam had its first university at Guwahati in 1948 with the Department of Assamese where the most erudite
scholar Dr Banikanta Kakati as the head, and Dr Birinchi Kumar Barua, a famous scholar of Oriental Studies as the next man beside him, started their work, the orthodox society around saw a new ray of sunrise. As Dr Kakati and Dr Barua were at their work with their bright junior colleagues Maheswar Neog and Satyendra Nath Sarma, a proper atmosphere for cultivation of liberal knowledge in Assam began. They had above them for their inspiration and support the great Orientologist Krishna Kanta Handiqui as the Vice-Chancellor of the university. About this time, the government of new independent India took up a project for the study and promotion of the modern Indian languages in association with the State governments. The Assam Government while accepting the project gave the responsibility of executing it to Asam Sahitya Sabha, the premier literary organization of Assam. The Sabha while accepting the offer sought help from the university’s Assamese Department. Thus the task of opening the door for study of Assamese language and literature as Modern Indian Language and Literature fell on Dr Birinchi Kumar Barua, with Dr Banikanta Kakati passing away in 1952. Barua with his deep and wide knowledge of Pali, Prakrit and Assamese languages, literatures and cultures traced the origin of modern Assamese literature to the first Christian Assamese newspaper and magazine combined, the Orunodoi. To establish his point that it was in the pages of this missionary journal, modern Assamese language and literature came into existence, he made a selection of the writings from this journal with a plan to add an introduction to it establishing the fact of its being the first magazine to usher in modernity in thought and outlook to Assam. It would also show, inter alia, how it gave a modern form of expression to the Assamese language through its pages. But before Dr Barua could write out the introduction to his selections which he was to call Orunodoir Dhal Phat, he died prematurely in 1964. The task now fell on his able student and follower Dr Maheswar Neog. Dr Neog entrusted the publication of the work to Asam Sahitya Sabha after adding a long introduction of 84 pages explaining the modern nature of the work. But Dr Neog, a fastidious scholar as he was, could not remain satisfied with that only. He worked on it further, considering the importance of the work in the development of Assamese language and literature. To explain it broadly and in detail, he wrote a much longer introduction, going to the history of the Baptist missionaries from their American origin to the Assam Mission of Sivasagar. He even went to the works of the missionaries of Serampore near Calcutta, headed by William Carey who also worked for the local language and literature there. Dwelling at full length on all the aspects of their missionary work, Dr Neog studied the issues of the journal in-depth and showed clearly what an arduous
historic work they did. He showed through his introduction how this missionary journal turned the medieval Assamese mind into a modern one by laying emphasis on science and the scientific. He went not only to their linguistic, literary and journalistic works but also to their personal and family lives which were adversely affected for their zeal for service to the Assamese language. The serious blow Rev. Nathan Brown suffered for his heroic work for Assamese language brings him out at last as a tragic hero. As a result of his long drawn fight along with his fellow missionaries and an English educated Assamese youth Ananda Ram Dhekial Phukan, an alumnus of Presidency College, Calcutta, he won the long battle and restored the Assamese language to its proper place of honour in government offices, courts and schools. But though a victorious hero in Assam in the fields of language, literature and other matters of the intellect, his work in the field of religion for which he was sent by the Christian Mission was found deficient. He was therefore recalled by his home Mission. Dr Brown regarded this call to him to go back to the home Mission in America not as a reward but as a punishment at a time when he could have celebrated the victory of the restoration of the Assamese language from its relegated place of dishonour. He had no intention to leave his place of work in Assam. Besides his work for the Orunodoi and the Assamese language, he loved this place, its hills and rivers. And it is here that he lost his wife and daughter. He had for all these no mind to leave this place. But go he must! And as he was ready to leave, he muttered to himself, as Dr Neog writes, “But my heart will remain forever here with its language flowing as strongly as the waters of the Brahmaputra.”