23 Nov 2020: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

B. GS 2 Related

Category: POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. Uproar over Kerala law to curb abusive content

Context:

Kerala Governor recently signed an ordinance amending the law to give the police more powers to prosecute persons who exploit various communication platforms to slander fellow citizens.

Details:

• The ordinance has introduced a new provision, Section 118-A, to the Kerala Police Act, 2011.
• The amendment proposes three years of imprisonment and a fine of up to ₹10,000 for those convicted of producing, publishing or disseminating derogatory content through any means of communication to intimidate, insult or defame any person.

Issues:

• The drastic amendment to the Kerala Police Act, 2011, would give the local law enforcement more powers to curb defamation.
• The ordinance would allow whimsical interpretations by law enforcement agencies.
• Opposition parties, journalists’ bodies and civil rights activists see it as a threat to the freedom of the press and free speech in the State. It is argued that the amendment would reverse the course on media freedom, muzzle free speech and jeopardize civil liberties.
• It is opined that conferring power on the police to gauge mental injury, loss of reputation and such matters due to dissemination of information would result in widespread abuse.

Section 66 A of the Information Technology Act, 2000:

• In 2015, the Supreme Court struck down Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, which gave the government power to arrest and imprison an individual for allegedly offensive online posts.
• The court ruled that as it did not distinguish between speech that was merely “offensive or annoying” and that which was guilty of inciting a disruption of public order, Section 66A was liable to have a chilling effect on free speech.
• The same judgment also declared as invalid Section 118 (d) of the Kerala Police Act, which prescribed a jail term for those who caused annoyance to others by indecent statements, comments, calls or messages.

In effect, the new ordinance tries to resurrect a section struck down as unconstitutional by the apex court.

Conclusion:

• Despite the guarantees in the Constitution, free speech, dissent and even legitimate criticism is looked at as an exercise in bad faith, and projected as an attack on democratically elected authority. As a result, existing laws are being weaponised to arrest journalists and citizens for a tweet or a slogan or a Facebook post.
• The ordinance decides to strike a blow against liberty and is a sign of an endemic intolerance to dissent, cutting across ideological lines.
• The institutions of a mature democracy should shrug off such comments.
• The Kerala government must withdraw an ordinance that does not pass the constitutional test.

E. Editorials

Category: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

1. Chinese dam projects on Brahmaputra are a threat to lives and livelihoods downstream

This editorial has been taken from ‘The Indian Express’.

Context

• China’s dam constructions on the Brahmaputra River in Tibet.

About the Brahmaputra

• The 2,880 km-long Brahmaputra is a perennial river which originates in Tibet, where it is known as Yarlung Tsangpo.
• It flows eastwards through southern Tibet for a distance of 1,625 kilometers and at its easternmost point, it swings around to make a spectacular U-turn at the Shuomatan Point or Great Bend before it enters India’s easternmost state, Arunachal Pradesh. Here it is known as the Siang River.

Issues faced by inhabitants along the river

• People living near the Brahmaputra region have to deal with two floods annually:
  • One caused by the melting of the Himalayan snow in summer.
  • The other due to the monsoon flows.
• Climate change has further intensified the frequency of floods in this region which has posed a major threat to lower riparian countries like India and Bangladesh, which is impacting their food security.
• The river is in itself dynamic as frequent landslides and geological activity force it to change course very often.

Why is China constructing more dams on the Chinese side?

• China is growing economically and demographically, which is resulting in increased water consumption.
• China, which is home to close to 20 per cent of the world’s population, has only 7 per cent of its water resources.
• Rapid industrialization has polluted the surface and the groundwater.
• China’s northern part is water-stressed and its southern part is water-rich. The southern region is a major food producer and has a significant industrial capacity as a consequence of more people living there.
• China has an ambitious plan to link its south and north through canals, aqueducts and linking of major rivers to ensure water security. In pursuit of these goals, China, being an upper riparian state in Asia, has been blocking rivers like the Mekong and its tributaries.

Impact

• It is affecting Southeast Asian countries like Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Dam construction has resulted in widely fluctuating river flow, threatening fish productivity, which is key to the region’s people and economy.
• It has caused immense damage to the environment.

Why India is worried?

Water scarcity in India

• India is severely water-stressed as well.
• In summer, a vast majority of urban areas face water shortages. Similar to China, India has 17 per cent of the world’s population and 4 per cent of water.
• While a majority of India’s population reside in the Gangetic plains, the southern and western regions experience harsh and dry summer and the rainfall is scarce and erratic in the eastern coast.
• As in China, an equally ambitious north-south river-linking project has been proposed in India, though it has come under criticism for potentially disturbing fragile ecosystems.

Concerns

• First, they will eventually lead to degradation of the entire basin: Massive amounts of silt carried by the river would get blocked by dams leading to a fall in the quality of soil and eventual reduction in agricultural productivity.
• Second, the location of the dams in the Himalayas poses a risk. Seismologists consider the Himalayas as most vulnerable to earthquakes and seismic activity.
  • Landslides resulting from earthquakes pose a significant threat — the 2015 Nepal earthquake and the resultant landslides wiped out several dams and other facilities.
  • The sheer size of the infrastructure projects undertaken by China, and increasingly by India, poses a significant threat to the populations living downstream.
  • Close to a million people live in the Brahmaputra basin in India and tens of millions further downstream in Bangladesh. The projects in the Himalayas threaten the existence of hundreds of thousands of people.
• Third, for the Chinese, water is a key weapon in their expansionist designs. China believes dam building on the Brahmaputra helps it assert a claim over Arunachal Pradesh.
• Fourth, dams, canals, irrigation systems can turn water into a political weapon to be wielded in war, or during peace to signal annoyance with a co-riparian state.
  • Many feel low lying areas in India will be completely inundated if China suddenly releases all this stored up water.

Way forward

• Both sides must cease new constructions on the river and commit to potentially less destructive solutions.
• Building a decentralised network of check dams, rain-capturing lakes and using traditional means of water capture have shown effective results in restoring the ecological balance while supporting the populations of the regions in a sustainable manner.

Q1. “SITMEX” is a maritime exercise between the navies of which of the following countries?

Q2. Consider the following pairs:

Q3. Consider the following statements regarding the United Nations Framework Convention 
on Climate Change (UNFCCC):

Q4. Consider the following statements with respect to River Brahmaputra:

I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

1. Discuss the concerns of India and other lower riparian countries with China’s dam construction on the River Brahmaputra. What are the alternative solutions in the interest of all the stakeholders? (15 Marks, 250 Words) (GS 2, IR)
2. Kerala Government’s law on social media posts violates the principles of free speech and individual liberty. Critically Analyze.  (10 Marks, 150 Words) (GS 2, Polity)

Read the previous CNA here.