Daily NEWS Analysis | The Hindu Analysis 24th January | UPSC 2020 Exam

Condemned can’t fight endlessly, says CJI for convict on death row

After the Centre requested for guidelines around capital punishment, the CJI made oral remarks on the issue, which will help in formulation of a law on the matter. He said courts punish crime and the law deals with a criminal accordingly. 

“It is not upto a judge to forgive a crime. The cardinal duty of a judge was to see if the punishment was proportionate to the crime. The law applies whether a criminal was a first-timer or a hardened one.”

Context:

The Centre had filed an application over the delays in the capital punishment for convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case, after they had filed for consistent mercy pleas. The matter is currently 8 years old.

The CJI asked Soliciter-General Tushar Mehta whether a condemned person should be spared simply because he reformed after he was given a death sentence. “If that is accepted, there will be no death penalty.”

In 2014, similar guidelines were issued in a verdict where a long delay in carrying out an execution would lead to commuting the death penalty to life imprisonment.

The government, in its plea, had said that such guidelines should be ‘victim-centric’ and ‘society-centric’ rather than convict centric. There should be a time limit for filing curative petitions after a death warrant has been issued. This should not be more than a week, after which the death sentence should be carried out. 

The origin of constitution:

The Hindu carried an expansive origin story for the Constitution of India, ahead of India’s 71st Republic Day. This is a very useful article detailing the history of the Constitution and its salient points and will help any UPSC aspirant in covering the subject.

Context:

The Constitution of India is the longest written constitution of any country in the world containing 444 articles in 22 parts, 12 schedules and 124 amendments. It is the supreme law of India and it states the framework demarcating fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers and duties of government institutions and set of fundamental rights and duties of the citizens.

The history of Constitution of India stretches to over 40 years before its enactment. It should be a matter of pride for all the Indians looking at how well an Indian constitution has kept a diverse country like India intact since 70 years.

BR Ambedkar is considered as the architect as he was the chairman of the drafting committee. It was ratified in the year 1949 on 26th November,70 years ago while it came into effect from 26th January 1959, 69 years ago. It was formulated by a constituent assembly with 284 members, who worked on it for 2 years, 11 months and17 days.

Their work, The Indian constitution, replaced the Government of India Act, 1935 as the country’s fundamental working document. 

As per the Constitution, India has a parliamentary system of governance, with three distinct branches - executive, legislature and judiciary. The legislature is subdivided into two houses - Lok Sabha and Rajya sabha.

The executive branch is being governed by the Prime Minister while the judiciary is governed by

the Supreme Court, High courts and district courts.

India slips two places on Corruption Perceptions Index

Transparency International has ranked India at 80th position on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI-2019), a decline of two places from the 78th position last time. “Unfair and opaque political financing” led to this decline. India has scored 41 out of 100.

By opaque political financing, the report refers to undue influence in decision-making and lobbying by powerful corporate interest groups.

Context:

Transparency International draws 13 surveys and expert assessments as part of the CPI to measure public sector corruption in 180 countries and territories, giving each a score from zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

In Asia-Pacific region, the average score is 45. It has been 44 for many years, signifying stagnation. Despite high-performers like New Zealand, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and Japan, the region has not seen much improvement in anti-corruption efforts.

China, meanwhile, moved from the 87th to 80th position, signifying lessening corruption.

Alert: Virus-hit Wuhan under lock down

China has put the region of Wuhan under a lockdown, with some 20 million people stranded in the epicentre zone, in a bid to curb a new coronavirus outbreak to other countries. The respiratory virus, 2019-nCoV has killed 17 so far, emerging from seafood and animal market in Wuhan.

Trains and planes to the area have been indefinitely suspended. Neighbouring cities are also facing travel curbs.

Context: 

Authorities have asked people in Wuhan not to leave the city, leaving many citizens panicked in the region, claiming of food shortages and fear of a further outbreak. The region had seen many Indians - in fact, one case of an Indian suffering from the disease had also been identified.

Rajasthan govt. to introduce resolution against CAA

Following Kerala and Punjab, the Rajasthan government has announced that it was also pass a resolution against CAA in its state assembly. Rajasthan deputy CM Sachin Pilot announced the move due on Friday.

Context:

Non-BJP states Rajasthan, Kerala and Punjab have been opposing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act for some time now. The ruling Congress has ordered all of its MLAs to attend the state assembly session for the first two days. 

The session will likely happen on the second day of the assembly session after the presentation of the state budget. 

Till now, the Kerala and Punjab assemblies have passed such resolutions against the Centre’s act, while West Bengal has asked for the act to be repealed. They are also planning a similar resolution on January 27. 

Mr. Pilot, who is also the Pradesh Congress Committee president, said the State Assembly would request the Union government to reconsider the statute and withdraw it at the earliest. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had earlier asserted that the CAA will not be implemented in Rajasthan.

644 militants from 8 different organizations surrender in Assam

 644 militants from 8 different terror organizations in Assam have surrendered to CM Sarbananda Sonowal in Guwahati, giving up 177 arms. The militants were members of insurgent groups like ULFA, NDFB,RNLF,KLO,CPI (Maoist),NSLA,ADF and NLFB. This is the biggest surrender in the history of Assam Police.

Context

Altogether 644 cadres and leaders of 8 different militant and terror outfits in Assam have surrendered in the presence of the chief minister of the state in a function held in Guwahati. This surrended follows long negotiations helmed by the centre to make the surrender possible.

These militants will now join the mainstream.

The highest number 301 militants that surrendered included that of NLFB, followed by 178 from ADF and 87 from the NSLA. The others who surrendered included 50 from ULFA, 8 from NDFB, 6 from KLO, 13 from RNLF and 1 from CPI Maoist.

Besides 177 arms, they also laid down 58 magazines, 1.93 kg explosives, 52 grenades, 71 bombs and 3 rocket launcher, 306 detenators, 2 RT sets and 17 khukris.

The government of India has already come up with lot many rehabilitation schemes for the sustenance of the militant groups and these surrendered extremist may avail those opportunities.

All The Best To All The UPSC 2020 Aspirants !