Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

Daily Current Affair - UPSC/KAS Exams - 16th Dec 2021

NEWS

Sandur Tahasildar was relieved under premise of Breach of Privilege

ABOUT

Parliamentary privilege - Right and immunity enjoyed by legislatures, in which legislators are granted protection against civil or criminal liability for actions done or statements made in the course of their legislative duties.

Provisions of the Constitution

• Members of the Indian Parliament - Article 105
• Members of State Legislatures - Article 194

What constitutes a breach of this privilege :

• There are no clear, notified rules to decide what constitutes a breach of privilege, and the punishment it attracts.
• Any act that obstructs or impedes either House of the state legislature in performing its functions, or which obstructs or impedes any Member or officer of such House in the discharge of his duty, or has a tendency, directly or indirectly, to produce such results
• To make speeches or to print or publish libel reflecting on the character or proceedings of the House, or its Committees, or on any member of the House for or relating to his character or conduct as a legislator.

How is it decided

• The Legislative Assembly Speaker or Legislative Council Chairman constitutes a Privileges Committee.
• The members to the committee are nominated based on the party strength in the Houses.
• Speaker or Chairman first decides on the motions.
• If the privilege and contempt are found prima facie, then the Speaker or Chairman will forward it to the Privileges Committee by following the due procedure.
• The Committee will examine whether statements made by him had insulted the state legislature and its Members, and whether their image was maligned before the public.
• The Committee, which has quasi-judicial powers, will seek an explanation from all the concerned, will conduct an inquiry and will make a recommendation based on the findings to the state legislature for its consideration.

POLITY

• The Fundamental Rights are defined as the basic human rights of all citizens. These rights, defined in Part III of the Constitution, applied irrespective of race, place of birth, religion, caste, creed, or gender.    
• The Fundamental Duties’ are defined as the moral obligations of all citizens to help promote a spirit of patriotism and to uphold the unity of India.

SHOULD OUR RIGHTS COALESCE WITH OUR DUTIES

• By duty here they do not mean the concomitant obligations that spring out of constitutional promises, but a set of ideals that were written into the Constitution during the acme of the Indira Gandhi-imposed Emergency. In their belief, these otherwise non-binding obligations — the “fundamental duties” as Article 51A describes them — ought to be treated on a par with, if not superior to, the various fundamental rights that the Constitution guarantees. In an inversion of the well-known dictum, they see duties, and not rights, as trumps.
• To be sure, it is a basic proposition that all rights come with duties. But those duties are quite distinct from the meaning ascribed to them in the popular discourse. When a person holds a right, she is owed an obligation by a duty-bearer. For example, when citizens are promised a right against discrimination, the government is obliged to ensure that it treats everybody with equal care and concern. Similarly, the guarantee of a right to freedom of speech enjoins the state to refrain from interfering with that liberty.
• An idea that our rights ought to be made conditional on the performance of a set of extraneous obligations is plainly in the teeth of the Constitution’s text, language, and history.

RIGHTS, LIMITATIONS

• The Constituent Assembly was clear in its belief that the Constitution’s emphasis must always rest on individual dignity. That is, the Constitution’s chief purpose must be to preserve and guarantee basic human rights, to equality, to autonomy, and to liberty, among others.
• Importance placed on every person’s ethical independence did not mean that rights were seen as absolute warrants.
• Part III of the Constitution in which fundamental rights are nestled, contains within it a set of limitations. However, none of those restrictions places a burden on citizens to perform duties as a condition for the enforcement of rights.
• The Constitution’s framers saw the placing of mandates on individual responsibilities as nothing more than a legislative prerogative. Any such imposition would have to conform to the language of fundamental rights, but Parliament was otherwise free to dictate personal behaviour.
• For example, the legislature could impose a duty on individuals to pay a tax on their income, and this duty could be enforced in a variety of ways. If the tax imposed and the sanctions prescribed were reasonable, the obligations placed on the citizen will be constitutionally valid.

MANY DUTIES

• Parliament and the State legislatures have imposed a plethora of duties
• These laws cannot make a person’s fundamental right contingent on the performance of a duty that they impose. A legislation that does so will violate the Constitution.
• To sustain a society, to live peacefully together, one must take seriously our civic responsibilities. But any talk aimed at making these obligations central, and at melding our rights with duties, is aimed only at undermining the Constitution. In its original form, the Constitution did not enlist any obligations that an individual was bound to follow. The fundamental duties that are now contained in Article 51A were introduced through the infamous 42nd constitutional amendment.
• The Swaran Singh Committee, which was set up during the Emergency, and which recommended the insertion of the clause, also suggested that a failure to comply with a duty ought to result in punishment. Ultimately,
• In its finally adopted form, Article 51A encouraged citizens to perform several duties
• When the Emergency came to pass, these directives were largely seen in innocuous terms — for one, they were considered too vague to make any meaningful difference.
• But today, when our popular discourse veers towards a need to place an emphasis on duty over right, the Constitution’s basic ethos once again comes under threat. What these demands overlook is that the social revolution that the Constitution was meant to herald was underpinned by a belief that it is only a guarantee of rights — unimpeded by duty — that could help usher India into a free and egalitarian future.

WAY FORWARD

• We may want to ask ourselves if the promise of a right to free expression imposes on the state something more than a duty to forebear from making an unwarranted restriction on that liberty.
• Does it require the state to also work towards creating an equal society where each person finds herself in a position to express herself freely.
• Similarly, does the right to life include within it a positive obligation on the state to provide shelter, livelihood, and health care
• When we speak about the importance of obligations, it is these questions that must animate our discussions. Should we instead allow the language of fundamental duties — as contained in Article 51A — to subsume our political debates, we would only be placing in jeopardy the moral principles at the heart of India’s republic.

NEWS

The Cabinet has given its approval to extend Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana for another five years till 2026

ABOUT PMKSY

• Initiated in 2015
• Aim
  • Enhance physical access of water on farm and expand cultivable area under assured irrigation
  • Improve on-farm water use efficiency
  • Introduce sustainable water conservation practices, etc.
• Umbrella scheme consisting of
  • Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP)
  • Har Khet Ko Pani (HKKP)
• Sub-components of HKKP
  • Command Area Development (CAD),
  • Surface Minor Irrigation (SMI),
  • Repair, Renovation and Restoration (RRR) of Water Bodies, and
  • Ground Water (GW) Development component.4
• Per Drop More Crop (PDMC) component is being implemented by Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare.
• Watershed Development component (WDC) of PMKSY is being implemented by Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development.
• Vision - To ensure access to irrigation to all agricultural farms in country, to produce 'per drop more crop'.
• Original Tenure: 5 years from 2015-16 to 2019-20.
• Amalgamated 3 ongoing schemes viz.
  • Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) of Ministry of Water Resources;
  • Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) of Department of Land Resources (Ministry of Rural Development)
  • On Farm Water Management (OFWM) component of NMSA of Dept of Agriculture and Cooperation (Ministry of AFW)

NEWS

Durga Puja in Kolkata has been included by UNESCO in its representative list of 'Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity'.

ABOUT DURGA POOJA

• Major annual festival celebrated most notably in Kolkata, West Bengal, in September or October month
• Ten-day festival
• Held to worship Goddess Durga
• Small artisanal workshops make sculptures of Goddess Durga and her family-Lakshmi, Ganesh, Saraswati and Kartik -using unfired clay from the river bed of the Ganga River.
• Worship of Goddess Durga begins on the inaugural day of Mahalaya, when eyes are painted on the clay Sculptures to bring the goddess to life.
• Sculptures are immersed in the river from where the clay came from on the tenth day of the festival, also known as Vijay Dashami.

WHAT IS INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE

As per UNESCO

• Includes traditions or living expressions inherited from ancestors such as oral traditions, performing arts, rituals, social practices, festive events and knowledge and practices concerning nature, universe or traditional crafts
• Fragile, intangible cultural heritage is an important factor in maintaining cultural diversity in the wake of growing globalization and an understanding of the intangible heritage of different communities helps build intercultural dialogue and also encourages mutual respect for each other.

UNESCO

• UNESCO full form-  United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
• Cultural arm of the United Nations
• Seeks to build peace and bring together people and nations through international cooperation in education, sciences and culture
• Programmes aim to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals defined in the 2030 Agenda, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015.
• Established in 1945 as a successor of the League of Nations' International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation
• Founding mission is to advance peace, sustainable development and human rights by facilitating collaboration and dialogue among nations.

UNESCO Intangible Heritage list

• Tradition of Vedic chanting.
• Ramlila, the traditional performance of the Ramayana.
• Kutiyattam, Sanskrit theatre.
• Ramman, religious festival and ritual theatre of the Garhwal Himalayas.
• Mudiyettu, ritual theatre and dance drama of Kerala.
• Kalbelia folk songs and dances of Rajasthan.
• Chhau dance.
• Buddhist chanting of Ladakh: recitation of sacred Buddhist texts in the trans-Himalayan Ladakh region, Jammu and Kashmir.
• Sankirtana, ritual singing, drumming and dancing of Manipur.
• Traditional brass and copper craft of utensil making among the Thatheras of Jandiala Guru, Punjab.
• Kumbh Mela.
• Yoga

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

NEWS

December 16, “Bijoy Dibosh”, is celebrated in Bangladesh as the day marking the country’s formal victory over Pakistan

ABOUT

• In 1947, Pakistan and India became independent from British rule. Pakistan has two parts. East Pakistan and West Pakistan. Bangladesh was known as East Pakistan. The West Pakistani rulers dominated, oppressed and suppressed us right from the beginning. We protested, but they tried to stop us by bullets.
• The general election of 1970, the Awami League won majority seats. But without handing over power to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The West Pakistani army started mass killing on the night of 25 March 1971 in East Pakistan. On March 26, Major Zia Declared Independence of Bangladesh on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Who was then under arrest. From that day our liberation war began.
• The students, teachers, youths, the EPR personnel, the police force and people from all walks of life launched a high resistance. Our freedom fighters did not have sufficient arms and ammunitions. The barbarians killed thousands of people, burnt their houses and looted everything. A reign of terror was let loose. About 30 lac people fled to India.
• The freedom fighters got training in India, entered Bangladesh and resorted to guerrilla warfare. In the meantime, India recognized Bangladesh, sent arms to help us and the joint forces inflicted crushing blow on the Pakistanis. At last, they were compelled to lay down arms on 16 December 1971.
• Bhutan and India became (1st Bhutan and 2nd India) the first country in the universe to recognized the newly independent state on 6 December 1971.After that, other countries recognized Bangladesh.
• The victory day first celebrated in 1972.

SNIPPETS

An internet-based platform called ‘VIHANGAM’ integrated with a Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) at Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) was inaugurated recently