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Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Aya's Academy for the day 9th March 2021. These are the list of news articles chosen for today's discussion they are given along with the page numbers of different editions. Also the link for the handwritten notes in PDF format and the time stamping for the discussed articles are provided in the description box as well as in the comment section for the benefit of mobile phone viewers. Now let us move on to the analysis of the first news article. Now let us take up this editorial article which was written by a former ambassador of India and Afghanistan who is also a former director general of the Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis. So in this article he talks about the plan of United States to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. In this regard we will discuss in detail on the implications of this move over Afghanistan as well as over India. The syllabus covered by this article is given below but before seeing the author's view let's briefly know about the history of the ongoing issues in Afghanistan. See in the year 1979 the Soviet army they invaded Afghanistan in the name of protecting the communist government but this was resisted by several local insurgent groups known as the Mujahideen and these groups were backed by the U.S, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. In the year 1989 the Soviet troops they withdrew from Afghanistan which resulted in the victory of Mujahideen and here it should be noted that the Taliban which originated as a hardcore religious students movement later became a hardcore religious terrorist organization. And on September 11th in the year 2001 the Al Qaeda terrorist group they attacked the U.S which is also known as the 9-11 attacks. Following this incident the U.S invaded Afghanistan to eliminate the Taliban regime and this was because Taliban was supporting Al Qaeda and since then the U.S troops are stationed in Afghanistan and the war is still going on. Remember that in the intervening years the U.S has suffered great losses both in terms of men as well as in terms of money and finally the U.S realized that the Taliban insurgency could not be defeated as long as it enjoys safe and secure sanctuaries in Pakistan. And with this the U.S changed its track and it began to seek the help of Pakistan in getting the Taliban to the negotiating table and as per plan the negotiations began in September 2018 after nine rounds of U.S-Taliban talks in Qatar the two sides came to an agreement. See on February 29 of 2020 the U.S and the Taliban designed an agreement as a first step towards an intra-Afghan peace deal at Doha in Qatar. And this deal contained mechanisms and announcements of a timeline for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan. Also the deal states about the removal of sanctions on Taliban leaders that were imposed by the United Nations as well as the United States and adding to these things a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire was also mentioned on the agenda. So we can say that the Doha deal was de facto recognition of the weight of the fundamentalist militant group Taliban. Now let us see what the author has got to say on this. See he says that now the peace process in Afghanistan has reached a critical turning point since the U.S secretary of state has confirmed about their intention to fully withdraw all U.S military forces from Afghanistan as early as the 1st of May as early as May 1 as specified in the Doha agreement. In this light the author is criticizing the withdrawal of U.S in many ways. He notes that the withdrawal of the United States is contradicting the objective that it stated that is to bring about a just and durable peace in Afghanistan through political negotiations in a manner that allows Afghanistan to remain united, sovereign and democratic. Secondly the U.S government is advocating for a new and inclusive government in Afghanistan. Now here inclusive means that the Taliban will be given an immediate 50% of share in an interim government but this comes without a mandate from the people because elections will be held only in the future and not now and also this is against the democratic principles which the U.S voices to uphold. Here you should also note that despite the Doha agreement the Taliban has not ended its ties with the Al Qaeda and also other similar terrorist groups. So there are a lot of chances for them to still cause serious danger to the country as well as to the region as a whole. The third lead the author talks about the involvement of Pakistan wherein he notes that the government of the United States is not accepting about the Pakistan's negative role in destabilizing the region. So we are all aware of Pakistan's active support for militant groups but U.S has still got defense deals with Pakistan and see if training combat support and the supply of weapons are stopped from Pakistan and the Taliban would be completely defeated but this is not happening. Also the United States is of the opinion that it cannot disengage from Afghanistan without accepting the terms of Pakistan but Afghans patriots they want freedom for Afghanistan to choose their political directions and they don't want the terms to be dictated by Pakistan. So in this light we will see as to what are the implications of this move for India but before that we should know about India-Afghan relations. See India and Afghanistan have got a strong relationship based on historical as well as cultural links and a strategic partnership agreement was signed between the two countries in the year 2011 and this agreement it aimed to provide assistance in rebuilding Afghanistan's infrastructure, institutions, education and technical assistance and also to encourage investment and to provide duty-free access to the Indian market for Afghanistan's exports etc. The agreement also aimed to support for an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned, broad-based and inclusive process of peace and reconciliation and India is also to be a part of the future consultation process on Afghanistan. So the author here notes that in order to establish and maintain peace in the region India's active involvement seems to be imperative and then he concludes by saying that India should directly engage with the legitimate leaders of Afghanistan in order to take forward the peace process and also India should step up to assist materially those who want to defend the Afghan Republic. The author also reminds that in the late 1990s only India and Iran had scaled up their support to help the democratic forces in Afghanistan. With this we have come to the end of discussion of this particular news article. Let us now move on to the next news article. Now let's take up this open article in which the authors have discussed about the issues with the electoral bond scheme. So in this discussion let us see about the electoral bond scheme, the issues or controversies around it and also about the stand of supreme court and the election commission of India in this regard. First what is an electoral bond? Electoral bond is a bearer banking instrument which is an instrument that is payable to anyone who is possessing the instrument and this electoral bond is a negotiable instrument which means that it is a signed document that promises a sum of payment to a specified person or the assigning. So this electoral bond is a bearer banking instrument which is to be used for funding eligible political parties and for this purpose the government has notified the electoral bond scheme in the year 2018. Now here the eligible political party is the one that is registered under section 29a of the representation of the people act of 1951 and such a registered political party should have secured not less than 1% of the votes in the last general election to the Lok Sabha or legislative assembly. Now why is this electoral bond scheme needed? See according to the government electoral bonds would keep a tab on the use of black money for funding elections because in the absence of electoral bonds the donors would have no option but to donate by cash after illegally drawing money from their businesses or there are also chances for them to donate their black money. So this is the main reason stated by the government for legitimizing this electoral bond scheme. Now let us see certain features of this electoral bond scheme. See an electoral bond is designed to be a bearer instrument like a promissory note that is it will be similar to a bank note that is payable to the bearer of the note on demand and free of interest. The electoral bonds will be issued in multiples of thousand, ten thousand, one lakh, ten lakh and one crore. So therefore the minimum amount for donation in an electoral bond is rupees thousand but there is no maximum limit for donation and the bonds will be available for purchase for a period of 10 days each in the beginning of every quarter that is in January, April, July and October has specified by the central government. Next we will see who can purchase these bonds. See these bonds can be purchased by a person who is a citizen of India or incorporated or established in India and this person includes an individual or a Hindu undivided family, a company, a firm or an association of persons or a body of individuals or even any agency, office or branch owned or controlled by such person. Most importantly these electoral bonds can be bought by the donor without know your customer complaint account and further a person being an individual can buy electoral bonds either individually or jointly with other individuals. So after purchasing the electoral bonds donors can donate the bond to the party of their choice and then the party can cash it via its verified account within 15 days that is these electoral bonds can be redeemed only by an eligible political party and by depositing the electoral bonds in their designated bank account that is maintained with an authorized bank. Now here the state bank of India or the SBI has been authorized to issue and to encash the electoral bonds. Note that these electoral bonds have to be deposited within 15 days because they are valid only for 15 days from the date of issue and no payment will be made to any payee or political party if the electoral bond is deposited after the expiry of the validity period. Say for example an electoral bond is issued on 1st of April 2021 it means that it will be valid only up to 15th of April 2021 after which it cannot be encashed. Another important feature is the anonymity that is offered under the electoral bond scheme that is these bonds will not wear the name of the donor. So does that mean the name will not be known? No. Basically the donor and the party details will be available with the bank but the political party might not be aware of who the donor is. Here the stated intention is that this will ensure that all the donations made to a party will be accounted for in the balance sheets without exposing the donor details to the public. So this will ensure transparency. So with this information now let us see the issues in this electoral bond scheme or the various controversies around it. See the major issue is that the electoral bond scheme allows donors to anonymously donate unlimited amounts of funds to political parties. Now here first comes the anonymity issue. We saw that the donor and the party details will be available with the bank it is because of the know your customer norms. Now the legal basis for this anonymity is provided by the representation of People's Act of 1951 and the Income Tax Act of 1961. See under section 29c of the representation of People's Act political parties have to declare the donation received by them through contribution reports which has to be submitted to the Election Commission of India. And this report should contain donations exceeding 20,000 rupees and along with this section 13a clause b of the IT Act mandates recording electoral bond donations that exceed 20,000s with details such as the name and address of the donor. See this indirectly means that the representation of People's Act allows political parties to skip recording donations and details of donors in their contribution reports if the received donation is less than 20,000. So donations or contributions below rupees 20,000 are anonymous donations only. Thus the Election Commission of India or the IT department and even the public will not know the identity of such donors. So the authors argue that this has legitimized opacity in donations affecting the author's right to know and further this anonymity also paves way for other issues. For instance it allows foreign contributions that is financing by foreign entities. See section 3 clause 1 of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act or the FCRA Act of 2010 prohibits political parties to receive foreign contributions. But since anonymous donations up to rupees 20,000 is allowed, foreign entities may donate using this electoral bond scheme and this opens Indian elections to the influence of foreign interest. Another example would be that these anonymous donations up to rupees 20,000 allows non-disclosure of sources. So it means that it encourages those who want to donate large amount or donate black money because they can split black money because they can split the large amount into small amounts not exceeding rupees 20,000 and it can be shown as multiple small donations. So thus the authors argue that this directly affects the government's goal of eradicating black money in political funding. The second controversy is related to the unlimited donation issue. As we saw earlier there is no limit on donations this was enabled after 2017. Prior to 2017 the section 182 of the Companies Act of 2013 stipulated that a company could donate only up to 7.5 percentage of its average profit of the last three years and it must disclose this amount and the beneficiary political party. But this cap was removed through an amendment and it was ensured that this provision would not be applicable to companies in case of electoral bonds. And the amendment also removed the requirement for such firms to have existed for the last three years on a profit making basis. So the implication is that even loss making companies or shell companies can be used to purchase electoral bonds. A shell company is a company that exists only on paper. So this allows illegitimate person or businesses to channel unlimited amounts of money to a political party through electoral bonds anonymously by using shell companies and by way of money laundering. As we know in money laundering black money is laundered or routed through multiple shell companies to make it look like white or legitimate money. That means electoral bonds are likely to encourage money laundering. So in short electoral bonds prevent every known principle of transparency and also it allows to be used by special interest groups, corporate lobbyists and as well as foreign entities. Now let's see what is the stand of the election commission of India on this electoral bond scheme. See the election commission of India supports this electoral bond scheme but it is against the anonymity feature of the electoral bonds. And also a petition challenging the electoral bond scheme is pending before the Supreme Court since September 2017 and no judgments have been given in this regard. So the author criticizes this delay by the Supreme Court and urges the Supreme Court to decide on the matter swiftly. Therefore we can conclude that to safeguard democracy donations must be made transparent and party should be mandated to disclose the names of donors and the amounts that they have received. And also such information must be available in the public domain in order to ensure transparency. Now let us move on to the next news article. Recently Haryana Gawana Satya Deo Nareen Arya gave his assent to the Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Bill 2020. The author of this editorial calls this act as a harbinger of doom or a kind of warning of bad things to come. So let us discuss in brief about the act and its impact on India's investment climate and also in India's socio-economic framework. The syllabus for this news article has highlighted below. Coming to the salient features of the act, it mandates private firms to provide 75% reservation and employment for those candidates who are domiciled in the state of Haryana. And this act will be applicable for post carrying monthly salary of not more than Rs. 50,000. The employer may claim exemption if adequate number of local candidates of the desired skill, qualification or proficiency are not available. And in cases where the employer opt for such exemption, the designated officer will be inquiring on it and this designated officer may either accept the claim or reject the claim or he may direct the employer to train the local candidates in order to achieve the desired skill, qualification or proficiency. Also the establishments must mandatorily register all those employees who are earning less than Rs. 50,000 on a designated portal. Know that this act applies to all the companies, societies, trusts, limited liability, partnership firms, partnership firm and any person employing 10 or more persons. Also this act will be enforced for a period of 10 years from the date of its commencement. The bill also specifies penalties in case of various offenses say for example failure to provide 75% of new employment to local candidates can attract a fine between Rs. 50,000 to 2 lakh rupees and also there will be an additional penalty of Rs. 1000 for each day till the contravention continues. The Haryana state government said that the bill is desirable since there has been an influx of a large number of migrants in the state competing for low-paid jobs and according to 2011 census when it comes to the difference between in-migration and out-migration Maharashtra stood at the top and it was followed by Delhi, Gujarat and Haryana. Now here it is to be noted that Haryana is not just the first state to provide such reservation for the sons of the soil because in 2019 Andhra Pradesh had passed a similar law but then the Andhra Pradesh High Court had observed that 75% quota for locals in government and private sector jobs may be violated of Article 16 of the Indian constitution. Have a look at this image as we know Article 16 is about the equality of opportunity in matters of public employment and Article 16 clause 2 says that no citizen shall on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them be discriminated against and respect of any employment under the state. And apart from this we also know that Article 19 clause 1 clause G guarantees the right to freedom to practice any profession or to carry on any occupation trade or business. Now the author says that Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister has also promised to reserve 70% of private sector jobs for locals but like Andhra Pradesh's law Haryana's and any other similar upcoming law could definitely face legal challenges since they are violator of Article 19 clause 1 clause G as well as Article 16 clause 2. And apart from violating constitutional right the Haryana Act has also got the potential to establish the Longfield Inspector Raj system and this is because of the power that is given to the designated officer which we have discussed before. Since this could dissuade employers from operating in the state thus acting against the idea of boosting local jobs. And also such a legal burden on doing business will cause a damage to India's long achieved ease of doing business. And not just that rising unemployment could also force more states to follow similar laws so therefore it is high time for the centre to dissuade such legislations which create a sort of work visa regime for Indians within their country and also because it damages India's legacy of unity and diversity. With this we will move on to the next news article. Now we have this news article which talks about the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. The article says that a local court in Surat acquitted 122 persons arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and after their acquittal some of the accused demanded compensation for being illegally framed by the police without any evidence against them. So in this context let us have a brief understanding about this Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. See the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act was passed in 1967 and it is an act to provide for more effective prevention of certain unlawful activities of individuals and associations and for dealing with terrorist activities. See an unlawful activity refers to any action taken by an individual or an association intended to disrupt the territorial integrity and the sovereignty of India. If the central government is of the opinion that any association is or has become an unlawful association then it has got all the right to declare such association to be unlawful by notification in the official gasset. And the central government may constitute a tribunal which is known as the Unlawful Activities Prevention Tribunal as and when required for the purpose of adjudicating whether or not an association can be declared as unlawful. And if the declaration made therein is confirmed by the tribunal then the declaration will remain in force for a period of five years from the date on which the notification became effective. And remember in August 2019 the act was amended to designate individuals as terrorists on certain grounds provided in the act. Also it is to be noted that under this act both Indian as well as foreign nationals can be charged and it will be applicable to the offenders in the same manner even if even if the crime is committed on a foreign land outside India. Now we will see some of the important sections under the act. Section 13 of the act prescribes that any act causing disaffection against India is seen as an unlawful act and this includes taking part or committing or advocating advising or inciting the commission of any unlawful activity by any person and the accused person shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend up to seven years and he or she will also be liable to fine. And also section 14 says that an offence punishable under this act is a cognisable offence. Now according to section 15 whoever does whoever does any act with an intention to threaten the unity, integrity, security, economic security or the sovereignty of India or with an intention to strike terror in the people of India or in any foreign country will be viewed as committing a terrorist act. Remember the highest punishment for terrorist will be death. Note that under the unlawful activities prevention act the investigating agency can file a charge sheet in maximum 180 days after the arrest and the duration can be extended further after intimating the court and accordingly the act empowers the director general of the national investigation agency to grant approval of seizure or attachment of property when the case is investigated by the said agency and the act also empowers the officers of the national investigation agency of the rank of inspector or above to investigate cases of terrorism in addition to those conducted by the DSP or assistant commissioner of police or above rank officer in the state. Now look at this article but before that on 4th March 2021 we have discussed elaborately about the freedom in the world 2021 report that was released by freedom house which is a US based think tank. So we recommend you to watch that for a better understanding. Now coming to the news article see freedom in the world 2021 evaluates the state of freedom in 195 countries and 15 territories during the calendar year 2020 and each country and territory is assigned between zero and four points based on a series of 25 indicators for an aggregate score of up to 100 and these indicators are grouped into categories of political rights and civil liberties and this methodology of assessing is derived from the universal declaration of human rights and it is applied to all countries and territories irrespective of geographical location, ethnic or religious composition or the level of economic development. Know that freedom in the world assesses the real world rights and freedoms that are enjoyed by individuals rather than government or government performances. Remember the political rights and civil liberties can be affected by both state and non-state actors including insurgents and other armed groups. So based on the score the countries are divided into three types which includes free countries partly free countries and not free countries and as per the 2021 report out of 195 countries 82 were declared free countries 59 as partly free countries and 54 countries at not free countries. So this report is significant since India was degraded from free country to partly free country that is India's score dropped to 67 from 71 in which it was placed last year and India scored 34 out of 40 in the political rights category and 33 out of 60 in the civil liberties category. Now have a look at the image to understand the democracy gap worldwide. See the democracy gap is estimated based on the number of countries that improved their score minus the number of countries that is declined over the last few years. So when you look at the data for the past 15 years you can find that those countries that had faced a decline in the aggregate score in freedom in the world report are found to out number or are found to be more than the countries that has witnessed growth heavier. So it is a cause of concern that with India's decline to partly free category less than 20 percent of the world's population now lives in a free country and it is the smallest such proportion since 1995. So what is the way forward? See the first and foremost thing is that there should be a support for peaceful civil society and grassroots movements that are calling for democracy and then comes the need to support free and independent media and the protected access to information. Also when disbusing aid democracies should prioritize democracy strengthening programs in the aid-resaving countries. Next comes a need for the policymakers from democratic nations to engage in high level public diplomacy with those states where democratic progress is threatened and apart from these countries shall also invest in alliances with other democracies and with multilateral institutions and can strengthen public support for democratic principle by investing in civic education. So with this information let's move on to the next news article. Let us now move on to the prelims practice question discussion. Look at this prelims practice question about electoral bond scheme. The question wants us to identify the correct statement. Statement one says that electoral bonds are tradable and listed. Statement two there is no minimum and maximum limit for donation under the scheme. Statement three under the scheme bonds for contributions to political parties can be issued by the state bank of India and can be brought by a donor with a know your customer compliant account. Which of the statements given above is or are correct? See when you look at statement one that is which says that electoral bonds are tradable and listed we can find that it is incorrect because electoral bonds are not eligible for trading and also electoral bonds are not listed on any stock exchange. Coming to the second statement which says that there is no minimum and maximum limit for donation under the scheme. If you remember we discussed in the article that the electoral bonds will be issued in multiples of thousand, ten thousand, one lakh, ten lakh and one crore. So which means that the minimum amount for donation in electoral bonds is rupees thousand but there was no mention about the maximum amount for donation which shows that there is no maximum limit. So this sentence, I mean this statement is also incorrect and statement three says that the bonds for contribution to political parties can be issued by the state bank of India and can be brought by a donor with a know your customer compliant account. So both these details mentioned in this statement is correct because we saw in the article that the state bank of India has been authorized to issue and encourage the electoral bonds and it can be bought by the donor with a know your customer compliant account. So since the question wants us to identify the correct statement the right option is option D that is three only. This prelims question on the unlawful activities prevention act consists of two statements and we need to identify the incorrect statement. So statement one says that according to the act when an organization is declared as unlawful the declaration will remain in force till the central government removes the set organization from the list of unlawful organizations maintained by the government and statement two says that according to the act the highest punishment provided for unlawful activities is death sentence. So as discussed in the article the highest punishment provided for unlawful activity is death. So therefore second option is correct but when you look at the first option we can find that it is incorrect because it says that the declaration will remain in force till the central government remove the set organization from the list. See while discussing we saw that the central government may constitute a tribunal known as the unlawful activities prevention tribunal whenever it finds it to be necessary for the purpose of adjudicating whether an association can be declared as unlawful and if the declaration is confirmed by the tribunal then the declaration will remain in force on that organization for a period of five years from the date on which the notification becomes effective. But in this statement it is given that it will be there in force till the central government removes it. So therefore this particular statement that the statement one is incorrect and since the question wants us to find the incorrect statement the right option is option A that is one only. The list of mains practice question questions is displayed here. You can write your answers and post them in the comment section below. With this we have come to the end of today's Hindu news analysis. 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