 Good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu news analysis session by Shankar IS Academy for the date 14th of December 2021 These are the list of news articles we will be discussing today and before getting into the news article discussion We will be discussing one mains question. Okay. Now without wasting any time. Let us start today's discussion Look at this question. This question is from the 2020 GS mains paper 2. It is a faulty question Let me read out the question first Recent amendments to the right to information act will have a profound impact on the autonomy and independence of the information commission Discuss. Okay. Here the key word or the directive word is discuss What do we have to do when we have the keyword discuss? We have to discuss the given statement We have to discuss the given statement from all perspectives Finally after giving all the perspective, we have to arrive at a conclusion based on the points we have discussed No, you must be clear about how to approach the question. Okay. No, let us get into the answer discussion What should be right in the introduction part? See, this is a 10 mark question So a two or three line introduction to write to information act would be fine You can write about when the act was implemented and what are the features and what the act tried to achieve? In a brief manner, okay The right to information act was enacted in 2005. What does the act do? This act empowers the citizen to question the government and it's working It empowers the ordinary citizen to hold the government accountable We all know that article 19 covers the right to freedom of speech and expression right and the Supreme Court in the Kulwal versus Jaipur Municipal Corporation case said that the people's right to information comes within the explanation of article 19 See the Supreme Court explained that India is a democratic country and when the public is uninformed They cannot enjoy the right to freedom of speech and expression. So the Supreme Court interrupted that right to information is also a fundamental right under Article 19, okay, so right to information act 2005 gave a legal framework for the right to information See in the introduction, you can also write some quotes that link the democracy and information You can write about the famous quote of Thomas Jefferson. That is information is the currency of democracy You can also quote James Madison. He said a popular government without popular information or means of acquiring it Is but a prologue to farce or tragedy or perhaps both So it is up to you about what you have to write in the introduction Don't get over enthusiastic and write a very large introduction Stay cautious and limit the introduction to two or three lines maximum. Okay Now let us get into the body of the answer. Here the question asks about the recent amendment to the right to information act It specifically asks us about the implication of the recent amendment to the autonomy and independence of the information commission That is they are asking us how the recent amendment is affecting the autonomy and independence of the information commission And before going into that, let us first see what are the amendments made in the RTI act See actually we have discussed elaborately about this in our 23rd of February 2021 news analysis Interested aspirants can view the discussion Anyway, today I will discuss this aspect in a brief manner. Okay. Now, let us see the changes made by the 2019 amendment first it amended section 13 of the right to information act before amendment Section 13 says the term of the central chief information commissioner and the information commissioners at five years Or until the age of 65 whichever is earlier and the salaries Alavances and other terms of service of the chief information commissioner Shall be same as that of the chief election commissioner and those of the information commissioner Shall be same as that of the election commissioners. Okay, the government has amended both the provisions The amendment act now says that the term of the Central chief information commissioner and the information commissioners may be prescribed by the central government Also in terms of salary it says that Salaries allowances and other terms of service of the chief information commissioner and the information commissioners shall be prescribed by the Central government. Okay, the second change is that the 2019 amendment amended section 16 See section 16 deals with the state information commission Earlier before the amendment the state government had some say in case of the state information commission No, the central government has full control over the state information commission Actually, the proposed amendment allows the central government to control through rules the terms and conditions of the Appointment of the commissioners of the state information commission. These are the two main amendments made by the 2019 amendment Okay, by looking at these amendments, you can clearly see the issue at hand See we all know that for any institution to stay independent and have autonomy it must have two things First its term of office must be secure second It must be financially independent that is its salaries and allowances must not be controlled by another institution Okay, in case of the information commission the 2019 amendment removed both these aspects Okay, it removed the security of tenure and it also removed the salaries That is security of salaries earlier the salaries of the chief information commissioner was linked to the salary of the chief election Commissioner this part is no removed So by removing both these aspects the amendment affects both the autonomy and independence of the institution Okay, the amendment by diminishing the status of the information commission It reduced its ability to issue directives to senior government functionaries We all know that the information commission is a quasi judicial body, right? When the central government that is the executive gets into the function of the information commission Then the executive is encroaching upon the rights of the judiciary This goes against the concept of separation of powers and separation of powers is a part of the basic structure of the Constitution okay, although not related to the question asked by taking over the controls of the state Information commission the central government has breached the principle of federalism. This also goes against the Constitution See since this point is not directly related to the question You can mention it as a last point So till now we saw about the negative aspects of the amendment now. Let us see the other side that is now Let us see what are the justifications that the government gave for the amendment see There is an anomaly in case of central information commission the central information commissioner has the status of the Supreme Court judge but an appeal against the judgment of the central information commission can be made in a high court This is contradictory the government said that the proposed amendment does not dilute the information commission in any way But it strengthens the overall right to information structure Now we have clearly addressed the question We have discussed the implications of the amendment on the independence and the autonomy of the information commission Now, let us see the conclusion part here You can mention that the success of the right to information act lies in the Independent functioning of the information commissions see the right to information act gives the power to the common citizens To bring transparency and accountability in government functioning So the success of the right to information act lies in the Inevalent functioning of the information commissions and the government must take steps to ensure its Inevalence and not take steps to dilute its independence. Okay, this is a well-balanced conclusion So now we have discussed the answer holistically Now let us conclude the mains question discuss and session and take up the first news article for our discussion Look at this editorial This editorial discusses about the US withdrawal from Afghanistan The editorial also discusses the impacts of the US withdrawal on the overall global geopolitical situation Then it also mentions some challenges that the United States might face in the future So in this discussion, let us discuss all these aspects Okay, the syllabus regarding this discussion is highlighted here for your reference Now let us get into our discussion in the modern geopolitical perspective the year 2021 is a very important year This is the year when the United States finally decided to come out of Afghanistan The geopolitical changes associated with the American withdrawal from the Afghanistan has not fully unfolded But one thing is for sure when the changes does take place in the future. It will have far-reaching impacts So why did America withdrew from Afghanistan? The author here mentions two popular narratives explaining this First is that the United States did this on its own will that is the United States Withdrew from Afghanistan on its own free will this is because the United States is making major changes in its foreign policy This is one narrative The second narrative is that the United States had failed to win the war in Afghanistan And they are forced to do withdraw from the country. This is compared with the case of Vietnam We all know that in Vietnam the United States failed to win a war against the communist government They were thus forced to move out So in the second narrative the American withdrawal from Afghanistan is compared to the American withdrawal from Vietnam See both these narratives have some merits to it. So we have to credit them both Okay, see this is not the first time in the world history that a superpower is facing a crisis There are so many examples some are given in this editorial. Let us see them one by one First let us take Britain. See we all know that after the world war two Britain's imperial glory came to an end But Britain realized this reality only later. See earlier the Western powers controlled the Suez Canal But the president of Egypt later Nationalized it and took Suez canal under his control. That is Egypt's control So Israel with the backing of Britain and France invaded Egypt and they tried to bring Suez canal back to the control of the Western powers, but the plan backfired This was due to the pressure of United States and the Soviet Union So due to this pressure the Anglo-French and the Israeli troops had to withdraw from Egypt This was a huge event. This finally made British understand that it is not a superpower anymore This marked the end of the British influence in West Asia. This is the first example The second is the one relating to former Soviet Union The United States pulled out its troops from Vietnam in the 1970s after suffering a defeat The Soviet Union viewed this as a sign of Western weakness The Soviet Union decided to take this opportunity to aggressively pursue its goals So in 1978 when the communists of Afghanistan asked for the help from Soviet Union They actively supported them and they helped them establish a communist rule in Afghanistan Later to place a Soviet ally in power in Afghanistan. The Soviet Union sent her troops There was constant fighting and finally in 1989 the Soviet Union withdrew her troops accepting the defeat to Mujahideen and the Islamist guerrillas who were backed by the United States Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. We all know what happened two years later, right? Yes, you are correct The Soviet Union collapsed. So this is why Afghanistan is famously called the graveyard of empires Now coming back to the United States See the United States is still a superpower even after its Misadventure in Afghanistan and there is no immediate threat to its superpower status But the gradual erosion of the United States Ability in shaping geopolitical outcomes in faraway regions has already shaken up the structure of American unipolarity that is the world order is slowly moving away from the Unipolarity see the Afghan incident is not an isolated event in recent history There are many examples in Iraq and Libya the United States Failed to establish political stability and order after infasions It could not stop Russia from taking over Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 in Syria It was outmaneuvered by Waldemar Prudin All these events are making the rivals of the United States that is China and Russia Openly challenged the United States centric world order hence the United States must learn from the superpowers like United Kingdom and Soviet Union and not commit the same mistake Okay, that is they must not over extend its power Okay, the United States is now confronted by challenges mainly by Russia Iran and China Let us see them one by one and how these countries are challenging the American hegemony First is Russia. We have elaborately discussed about the issue in Belarus and the Russia-Ukraine Confrontation as a part of our second December news analysis So interested aspirants can revisit that video and have a revision to explain in a brief manner Russia is supporting Belarus to show the vested that it still has a sphere of influence in Eastern Europe In case of Ukraine it is mobilizing its troops to prevent the expansion of NATO's influence Here, how can the United States deal with Russia with regards to Russia? The United States has ruled out a military confrontation. The other option is sanctions That is the United States can ask its allies in Europe to impose harsher sanctions on Russia But when we look at history the sanctions that were applied after the 2014 Crimean annex section had little to no effect on Russia Also any further sanctions would clearly push Russia closer to China which goes against the US interest So the United States has a very tough decision at hand. Okay. Now. Let us look at Iran Iran has stepped up its nuclear program after the Trump administration Unilaterally withdrew the United States from the 2015 nuclear deal The Biden administration has promised to lift the nuclear sanctions on Iran if it returns to the deal But Iran insists that the United States should first remove the sanctions and give assurance that a future President would not violate the terms of the agreement Here also the United States has a very tough decision to make See if it lifts the sanction it could be interrupted as the sign of weakness If the United States does not remove the sanction then Iran could continue to enrich uranium to a higher purity If Iran continues to enrich uranium to a higher purity It would become a de facto nuclear power without having a nuclear bomb like that of Japan So here also the United States has a very tough choice to make now finally China See China is sending its military aircrafts over the aircraft identification zone of Taiwan China is indirectly signaling that it could take over Taiwan by force So the United States is focusing more on the Indo-Pacific to contain China's rise This is proved in the AUKUS partnership, which is a trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States The Afghan withdrawal and the downsizing of troops in West Asia suggests that America's strategic focus has shifted towards China Here also there is a dilemma for the United States Should the United States focus on China preparing itself for the next bipolar contest or the United States Continue to act as a global policeman of the liberal order that is under attack from multiple fronts All these are the evidence of the slow erosion of American hegemony in the unipolar world order These are the points discussed in this editorial Now for our exam perspective. Let us see what steps India must take in the present scenario In the specific case of Afghanistan, India must take the following measures First is India has lot of investments in Afghanistan So it must take steps to protect these investments Second is that India must ensure that Afghanistan function as a sovereign government and not act as a pawn of Pakistan India must also ensure that Afghan soil must not be used to nurture terrorist activities against India India must also try to ensure political stability in Afghanistan because if there is no political stability The instability might spill over into India and in case of global geopolitical perspective India should follow the policy of strategic autonomy We must engage with all the global powers and at that same time India must maintain its sovereignty also India must ensure that the rule-based world order continue to stay and the global world order be Democratic in nature. These are some points you can use in your main sensor Since this was a long discussion. Let me recap So in this discussion, we saw about the two possible narratives explaining the US withdrawal from Afghanistan We saw two events from history where global superpowers lost their status due to miscalculations Then we saw about the challenges for us in the form of Russia China and Iran and all the tough choices that the United States has to make and Finally, we saw some points about the steps that India could take in the changing geopolitical situation With this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article Look at this editorial this editorial talks about the action taken by the USA on the series of human rights violations around the group This includes sanctions against entities of countries like Bangladesh China Myanmar, etc At the same time Bangladesh was also not invited to the democracy summit held by the United States Administration so in this discussion, we are going to see about the sanctions on Bangladesh and the background for it We will also see about the summit briefly in the course of discussion We will see the implications of such sanctions also the syllabus regarding this discussion is highlighted here for your reference Now let us start our discussion first the USA has imposed the sanctions on a paramilitary unit in Bangladesh The unit is called the rapid action battalion. That is RAB See, let us see about RAB first. See RAB is a joint task force of Bangladesh It was founded in 2004 and it includes members of the police army navy air force and border guards The members are deputed to the RAB from their respective units see deputation here means Transfer of a government worker to other employment or another position temporarily See the mandate of RAB is internal security intelligence gathering related to criminal activities and government directed investigations know what is the issue with RAB it has been alleged by NGOs that RAB and other Bangladesh's law enforcement agencies are responsible for many human rights violations such as Disappearances and extra judicial killings this includes disappearance of more than 600 people since the year 2009 and Since 2018 nearly 600 people have been extra judicially killed and tortured here extra judicial killing refers to the unlawful and Deliberate killing carried out by the law enforcement agencies. Okay in our country. We call it encounters So 600 people have been Encountered in Bangladesh in the last four years in addition to this It is also said that these human rights violations and incidents Targeted a portion party members journalist and human rights activists in Bangladesh So due to these allegations now USA has taken the action in the form of sanctions on many Entities of Bangladesh. It has announced visa restriction on the former director general of RAB Mr. Benazir Agamath. He was the director general from January 2015 to April 14 2020 that means he was the official Responsible for the above mentioned human rights violations Committed by the RAB that we just saw Secondly it has designated RAB as a foreign entity responsible for and being complicit in Serious human rights abuses in Bangladesh Additionally the incumbent and former director generals of RAB has been Designated as the foreign persons who headed RAB in their tenure and were part of serious human rights abuse by RAB But note the broader picture of the US application of sanctions here The latest list of allegations includes not just the RAB It also includes officers and military firms of China for human rights violation against Uggar This is the list of entities against whom sanctions has been imposed by the United States Just go through the list. We'll discuss these human rights violation some other day Here you may have a question of how USA can impose sanctions on entities from foreign countries See this is made possible by USA's Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act This act which was enacted in 2016 Provides certain rights to the United States government That is it allows the United States government to sanction foreign government officials Implicated in human rights abuses anywhere in the world Note the point anywhere in the world here So such sanctions include freezing the assets of those officials and also ban them from entering the United States Thus based on this only the United States Administration has imposed visa restriction on the former director general of rapid action battalion. That is RAB USA has such an act because these government violations they threaten USA's National security interest because these violations Undermine the rule of law and undermine the respect for human rights and fundamental freedom Okay, now the author of the editorial welcomes this move by USA author feels that these sanctions Directly pinpoint the officials involved in the human rights violations plus such sanctions will do away with the Human rights violations by law enforcement agencies in the future Because now they will be afraid of such infamous recognition and restriction by other countries also in this manner The sanction acts as a deterrent, but there is a criticism around this move by USA Critics are challenging the moral authority of USA in these violations because in America itself There are grave human rights violations against the African Americans, but the US administration is turning Blamed eye to its problem. So along with addressing the issues in other countries United States should also focus on issues at its own land. So this is all about the editorial Now, let us briefly see about the democracy summit 2021 this summit was conducted by USA last week The last week summit was first of the two summits for democracy It aims to bring together the leaders from government civil society and the private sector This will start an affirmative agenda for Democratic renewal and to tackle the greatest threats faced by democracies through collective action Overall the summit provides an opportunity to discuss how to strengthen democracy in times of peril and to also Show how democracy still works and can improve people's life in tangible ways It aims to show how open rights respecting societies can work together to effectively tackle the challenges of our time Such as COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis and inequality So on those lines the summit aims for innovative and bold commitments, which are centered around three principal themes The themes are defending against authoritarianism addressing and fighting corruption advancing respect for human rights Finally, just to note that among the democracies, India also participated in the summit Surprisingly, among the Indian neighbors, Nepal and Pakistan were also present in the summit In this segment, we discussed about the recent sanctions by the United States on rapid action battalion of Bangladesh We briefly discussed the background of this issue We also discussed the implication of the sanction Finally, we saw some points relating to the recently concluded democracy summit With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next article Look at this article. This news article talks about the counting of votes for the legislative council elections So in this context, let us have a revision about the various differences between legislative assembly and legislative council Legislative council is also known as Vidhan Parishad It is the upper house of the state assembly The presiding officer of the legislative council is its chairman Now we will see some important differences between the legislative assembly and legislative council See, first we will see the difference between them with respect to money bill This money bill can be introduced only in the legislative assembly and not in the legislative council The final power to decide whether the particular bill is a money bill or not Is vested with the speaker of the assembly Also, the legislative council cannot amend or reject a money bill Note that the legislative council should return the bill to the assembly within 14 days Either with recommendations or without recommendations But the assembly can either accept or reject all or any of the recommendations of the council Second difference we will see with respect to ordinary bill See, the final power of passing an ordinary bill also lies with the assembly At the most, the council can detain or delay the bill But even this delay has some specific time period Say, in the first instance, it can take 3 months For the second instance, it can take only 1 month Thus, the legislative council is just like an advisory body Remember, the council is not even a revising body like that of Rajesh Saba One more point to be remembered here is that an ordinary bill with its origin in the council will be sent to the assembly But if the assembly rejects the bill, it becomes dead We know in certain constitutional amendment bills, ratification by the states is necessary Even in this, the council has no effective control Meaning, here also the will of the assembly prevails over that of council The third difference we will see is with respect to budget See, the council can only discuss the budget That is, the legislative council cannot vote on the demands for grants The fourth difference we will see with respect to collective responsibility See, the council of ministers are collectively responsible only to the legislative assembly Here, the legislative council cannot remove the council of ministers by passing a no-confidence motion But remember, the council can discuss and criticise the policies and activities of the government Lastly, we will see the difference with respect to the election of the president of India In case of presidential election, the council does not even participate Finally, the very existence of the council depends on the will of the assembly The council can be abolished by the parliament on the recommendation of the legislative assembly Remember, not all states have legislative council The states having both legislative assembly and legislative council are called bicameral legislature Now, we will see the list of states in India having legislative council At present, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana are the Six states that have legislative council I hope this discussion helped you to revise some basic differences between legislative assembly and legislative council With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next article Look at this news article The news is that India has reiterated its support for the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea See, India is a state party to this convention So, India promoted utmost respect for the UN clause So, in this context, let us see about this convention called the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas First, it is an international agreement that came into force in 1994 It establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities It also protects the marine environment by directing governing states to control their pollution to the ocean Apart from this, it also puts restriction on the amount of toxins and pollutants that can come from the ships internationally This convention is a result of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea This conference took place between 1973 and 1982 So, note that this UN clause replaced the Four Treaties of the 1958 Convention on the High Seas So, what is the role of UN here? The Secretary General of the UN receives instruments of ratification and accession to this convention Additionally, UN also provides support for the meetings of the states' parties to the convention Here, note that the United Nations Secretariat has no direct operational role in the implementation of the convention Now, let us see some of the features of the convention First, it establishes the International Vailing Commission and the International Sea Bed Authority This convention has set the limit of various areas These areas have been measured from a carefully defined baseline as you can see in this image See, baseline in general is the low waterline along the coast It is marked on large scale charts that are officially recognized by the coastal state Now, these areas include internal waters, territorial sea, contiguous zone and exclusive economic zones That is EEZs So, let us briefly see about some of these areas now First comes the internal waters This area covers all the water and waterways on the landward side of the baseline It comprises of saltwater areas and internal freshwater areas such as rivers and lakes So, in this internal water, the coastal state has full sovereignty Therefore, it is free to set laws and shall also regulate use of any resources Crucial point to note here is that the foreign vessels have no right of passage within internal waters Or we can say that right of innocent passage does not apply in internal waters See, right of innocent passage means such passage is not prejudicial to the peace, good order Or security of the coastal state And such passage should be according to the unclass and other rules of international law Therefore, fishing, polluting, weapons practice and spying for foreign ships are not considered innocent Next is territorial sea It is the water from the baseline up to 12 nautical mines on the seaward side of the baseline Coastal states have full sovereignty So, it is free to set laws and regulate the use of any resources Also, coastal states have sovereignty over airspace above the territorial seas And the sea bed and the subsoil beneath the territorial seas Also, note that here the foreign vessels are given the right of innocent passage Next is the contiguous zone See, this is the zone which is contiguous to the territorial sea It is up to 24 nautical miles from the baseline That means it is beyond the 12 nautical mile territorial sea limit but up to 24 nautical miles Here, a state can continue to enforce laws in four specific areas They are customs, taxation, immigration and pollution So, it can prevent and punish infringement of laws related to these areas Importantly, in the contiguous zone, state has jurisdiction only on the ocean surface and floor It does not have air and space rights I hope through this discussion, you have got the basic understanding about the zone class With this, let us conclude this new sortical discussion Now, let us take up the practice prelims questions We have five practice prelims questions today Let us see them one by one Let us take up the first question With reference to the world map, through which among the countries, tropics of cancer does not pass Look at this map This map shows all the countries through which tropics of cancer passes The countries are Mexico, Bahamas, Martina, Western Sahara, Mali, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, China and Taiwan So, from this map, we can know that tropics of cancer does not pass through Afghanistan So, the correct answer is option D, Afghanistan Now, let us take up the second question This question is about air defence identification zone Three statements are given We have to find which of the statements are correct Let me read out the statements First statement It is an airspace over land or water in which identification, location and control of civil aircrafts are performed in the interest of the national security Second statement India is yet to establish an air defence identification zone Third statement Concept of an air defence identification zone is not defined in any international treaty See, the first statement is correct Air defence identification zone's definition is given in the first statement So, the first statement is correct Second statement is wrong Because India has established air defence identification zone See, only few countries in the world have established air defence identification zone The countries are Canada, India, Japan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Finland, Norway, United Kingdom, China, South Korea, Taiwan, United States, Sweden, Iceland and Iran In addition to these countries, Russia and North Korea have unofficial air defence identification zones So, the second statement is wrong Let us take up the third statement See, this statement is correct See, the concept of air defence identification zone is not defined in any international treaty So, since only the second statement is wrong The correct answer is option B, 1 and 3 only Now, let us take up the third question With reference to democracy summit, consider the following statement It was held in Russia It is the first statement Second statement India was a participant Third statement Pakistan was a participant We have to find the correct statements See, from our discussion, we know that democracy summit was held in United States So, the first statement is wrong And from our discussion, we know that India and Pakistan also attended democracy summit In South Asia, in addition to India and Pakistan, Nepal also attended Only Bangladesh did not attend So, first statement is wrong Second statement and third statement are correct So, the correct answer is option B, 2 and 3 only Now, let us take up the fourth practice prelims question With reference to the legislative council in India Which among the following states have legislative council? See, in India, only six states have legislative council That is, six states have bicameral legislature The states are Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana From this, we know that the correct answer is option A, Bihar See, additional information, Jammu and Kashmir used to have a bicameral legislature But since now Jammu and Kashmir is made into a unilaterary, it does not have a legislature So, currently only six states have legislative council And Bihar is one among them So, the correct answer is option A, Bihar Now, let us take up the last practice prelims question Let me read out the question With reference to Unklaas, consider the following statements First statement, India is a state party to this convention From our discussion, we know this statement is correct Second statement, it came into force in 1994 This statement is also correct Third statement, it established the International Vailing Commission And the International Seabed Authority The third statement is also correct So, since they are asking the correct statements And all the statements are correct The correct answer is option D, 1, 2 and 3 The main questions based on today's discussion is here Write the answers and post them in the comment section for me to evaluate So, if you like today's discussion Like, comment and share it with your friends And subscribe to Shankarae's Academy YouTube channel Thank you