13 Feb 2023: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

E. Editorials

Category: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

1. India-U.S. Space Cooperation

Syllabus: Bilateral, Regional & Global Groupings & Agreements Involving India and/or Affecting India’s Interests

Mains: Changing dynamics of India-US space cooperation

Context: India-US group met in January 2023  to advance bilateral space collaboration.

Introduction:

• The eighth meeting of India-US Civil Space Joint Working Group (CSJWG) took place from January 30-31 in Washington DC.
• It was co-chaired by representatives from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the United States, and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for India.
  • The US delegation included officials from the Department of State, NASA, Department of Homeland Security, Federal Aviation Administration, United States Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the Department of Commerce.
  • The Indian delegation included representatives from ISRO, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Ministry of Earth Sciences and the Ministry of External Affairs. 
• The CSJWG discussions covered collaboration in earth and space science as well as human space exploration, global navigation satellite systems, spaceflight safety and space situational awareness, and policies for commercial space.
• Participants also considered implementation of guidelines and best practices developed by the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Use of Outer Space (COPUOS) to ensure the long-term sustainability of outer space activities.

Significance of India-US Space Collaboration:

• The United States and India have strong bilateral cooperation in space, the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission planned to launch in 2024, is expected to systematically map the earth, using two different radar frequencies to monitor resources such as water, forests and agriculture.
  • The mission will provide important earth science data related to ecosystems, earth’s surface, natural hazards, sea level rise and the cryosphere, it said.
• Both countries have agreed to advance space collaboration in several areas, under the ‘initiative on critical and emerging technology’ umbrella, including human space exploration and commercial space partnership.
• In November 2022, the U.S. began its Artemis programme by launching the Orion spacecraft towards the moon and bringing it safely back to earth. This can be crucial to India for its first human spaceflight mission (Gaganyaan) in 2024. 
• Both countries have also taken significant strides in advancing the private space sector. Together, these endeavours will shape and impact U.S. and Indian space policies and programmes over the next decade. 
• India could secure technologies and expertise by collaborating with an advanced spacefaring nation. 

Roadblocks:

• Certain structural factors limit the extent to which the U.S. and India can collaborate in the short term. Even though countries have a mindset to collaborate, the structural factors overpower diplomatic incentives to pursue long-term cooperation.

      a. Different Interests

• Two nations’ interests in outer space are different right now, which is a structural factor that limits long-term India-U.S. space cooperation
• Although, the U.S. and its partners stress the importance of maintaining capabilities in low-earth orbit. It has ambitions firmly set on the exploration of the moon for the long term. 
  • In this regard, the Artemis Program, the Artemis Accords, and the Biden administration’s National Cislunar Science & Technology Strategy constitute the foundation for American ambitions beyond earth orbits.
• Meanwhile, India is focusing on building the nation’s capability in and under earth orbits. 
  • ISRO currently undertakes fewer than 10 launches each year. The Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme hopes to sustain India’s human presence in space for the long term. 
  • India’s top priority is to substantially increase its satellite and launch capabilities in earth orbits and catch up with other spacefaring nations such as China.

      b. Asymmetry in capabilities is the second structural factor limiting India-U.S. space cooperation. 

• The U.S. has the highest number of registered satellites in space. It also has a range of launch vehicles serving both commercial and national-security needs. 
• Private entity SpaceX, for example, managed to achieve a record 61 launches in 2022, far higher than the number of launches undertaken by any other commercial entity or country. 
• The American private sector has also assumed the challenge of replacing the International Space Station by 2030 with many smaller stations.

• India has just over 60 satellites in orbit and cannot undertake double-digit launches annually. 
  • The Indian government also opened the space industry to the private sector only in 2020. Since the U.S. already has an extensive network of partners for space cooperation, it has few technical incentives to cooperate with India.

      c. Disagreements on how best to govern space activities on the moon and other celestial bodies is another factor limiting India-U.S. space cooperation. 

Way Forward:

• Sustaining the engagement between academics, the private sector and state-led entities would  induce long-term cooperation between two countries.
  • Sustained engagement could also take the form of collaborating on highly specialised projects such as the NISAR mission.
• Partnership between state and private entities could substantially help in building a long-term cooperation.
  • A convention of American and Indian aerospace companies to advance collaboration under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) programme was agreed in the recent meeting.

• India can send its astronauts to train at American private companies which could help India reduce its dependence on Russia while ISRO builds its own astronaut training centre.

• A consortium led by the government-owned NewSpace India Limited involving private companies in the U.S could accelerate India’s human spaceflight programme and give the U.S. an opportunity to accommodate Indian interests in earth orbits.

Read more on India-US relations

Nut Graf: The United States and India have strong bilateral cooperation in space. This cooperation can advance at a measured pace, to enable sustainable long-term civilian and military space partnerships by finding novel solutions to cooperate in the new space age .

Category: POLITY

1. Constitutional Morality

Syllabus: Significant Provisions of Indian Constitution

Mains: Significance of Constitution morality to protect individual rights.

Context: Larger Bench to hear plea against Dawoodi Bohra practice.

Background:

• The Bombay Prevention of the Excommunication Act, 1949  prohibited religious communities from expelling individuals from a group’s membership. 
• The practice of excommunication was prevalent in certain  communities and  the definition of the word “community”  contained in Section 2  of  the Act included the  religious denomination of Dawoodi  Bohras. 
• In Sardar Syedna Taher Saifuddin vs The State Of Bombay Case, 1962, the petitioner, who was  the religious head of the Dawoodi Bohra community challenged the constitutional validity of the Act on the ground that it violated its fundamental rights guaranteed by Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution. 
  • He claimed that he served not only as a trustee of the community’s properties but that he had also been vested with a power to excommunicate from the denomination any member of his choice. In his belief, this power was integral to the Dawoodi Bohras’ collective right to religious freedom.
• The Supreme Court of India, through a 4:1 ruling declared the law unconstitutional. 
  • It held that the power to excommunicate was so essential to the group’s faith that a legislation, in the name of social welfare, cannot be allowed to reform a religion out of its existence. 
  • The verdict has long been a subject of critique. 

Reconsideration of the judgement:

• A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court referred to a larger Bench of nine judges a series of petitions challenging the authority of Dawoodi Bohra community leaders to excommunicate their members.
• The five-judge Bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul was dealing with the question of whether the practice of excommunication in the Dawoodi Bohra community could continue as a “protected practice” despite the coming into force of the Maharashtra Protection of People from Social Boycott (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act of 2016.
• The Supreme Court agreed that it merited reconsideration, for at least two reasons.

• First, the original ruling had failed to examine whether the rights of religious denominations ought to be balanced with other fundamental rights, particularly the rights of its individual members to be treated with equal care and dignity. 
  • A person who had been excommunicated would be disentitled from using the communal mosque and burial ground, and would practically be regarded as an outcast. 
• Second, since the 1962 judgement, The law in India has developed to the point where any act of excommunication must pass muster with constitutional morality.

• In referring Sardar Syedna to a larger Bench, Justice Oka makes clear that morality today must be understood to mean “constitutional morality”. The essential principles that uphold the Constitution, such as those of liberty, equality, and fraternity, must be incorporated into it.
  • Therefore, the effect and consequences on the person excommunicated needs to be considered in the context of justiciable constitutional rights. 

Group Right V/s Individual Freedom in  India:

• Because of the close relationship between religion and society, which is particularly pronounced in India, denominational rights usually clash with both general laws and the personal freedoms of group members.
• The Supreme Court, in the Shirur Mutt case,1954 held that it was only those aspects of religion which are “essential” to faith that deserve constitutional protection. 
  • ‘Essential practices’ would depend on what devotees to the faith deem as integral to that religion. 
• Later the Court, through a series of rulings, assumed theological authority and interpreted religious scriptures to determine which practices were, in fact, central to faith and deserve constitutional protection.
  • However, this approach undermined the elementary rationale behind the guarantee of religious freedom: that members of religious groups must enjoy an ethical autonomy to determine for themselves how best to lead their lives.
• A law that favours autonomy of the group over the autonomy of the individual will have the harmful effect of favouring the view of the association proffered by the powerful over the views proffered by less powerful members of the group that is, traditionally subordinate members such as women, children, and sexual minorities.
• The fundamental principles of the Constitution will be undermined if the authority granted to groups over religious affairs is prioritised over the rights provided to individual members.

Who are the Dawoodi Bohras?

• The Dawoodi Bohras are Shia Muslims whose leader is known as the Al-Dai-Al-Mutlaq. According to members of the community, there are around 1 million Dawoodi Bohras spread around the world.
• For over 400 years, the leader of the community has been based in India, including the current and 53rd leader, His Holiness Dr Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin.
• The leader of the community is recognised by the members as having the right to excommunicate its members. The practice was claimed to be essential to the Dawoodi Bohra faith.
  • In practical terms, excommunication means not being allowed to access a mosque belonging to the community or a burial dedicated to the community.
• Among the members of the community who have faced excommunication in the past are those who contested the headship of the leaders.

Nut Graf: A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court referred a series of petitions to a larger Bench of nine judges to consider the broad issues on the interpretation of Articles 25 and 26 and the issue of challenging the constitutionality of the practice of excommunication of Dawoodi Bohra members by its community leaders.