THE NEW SOUTH ASIA :-
Issue :-
- India’s neighbourhood policy
Background :-
Soon after coming to power, the Modi government had promised to give priority to the immediate neighbourhood
- Relations with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh saw a dramatic improvement.
- Nepal was given due attention.
- With Afghanistan, ties were galvanised with security cooperation taking centre stage.
- Except for the Maldives, Mr. Modi visited all of India’s neighbours and tried to reassure them of New Delhi’s commitment to deliver the goods.
Present Situation :-
At the end of four years of the Modi government, the situation is vastly different.
- In Sri Lanka, domestic political developments are affecting India.
- In the Maldives, India has found its diminishing clout being publicly taken apart.
- A vocal critic of India has assumed power in Nepal, and with a massive political mandate.
- In the Seychelles, India is struggling to operationalize a pact to build a military facility.
China’s influence, meanwhile, is growing markedly around India’s periphery, further constraining New Delhi’s ability to push its regional agenda & There have always been ‘extra regional’ powers which have come to the aid of India’s neighbours, often to New Delhi’s discomfiture.
Factors :-
The China factor :- Post-Independence, India has never encountered anything like China in its neighbourhood whose intent and capabilities are posing the kind of challenge to Indian interests which New Delhi is finding hard to manage.
- China’s entry into the South Asian region has opened up new avenues for smaller neighbours which can be leveraged in their dealings with India. As a result, the very idea of what South Asian geography means is undergoing a change.
Domestic Politics Factor :- India is also part of the domestic politics of most regional states where anti-India sentiment is often used to bolster the nationalist credentials of various political formations. State identity in South Asia often gets linked to oppositional politics vis-Ã -vis India.
What India can do ?
- The idea of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) can potentially allow India to break through the straitjacket of the traditional confines of South Asia and leverage its Bay of Bengal identity to link up with the wider Southeast Asian region. In that sense, it is about reimagining India’s strategic geography altogether.
- It also needs to evolve new terms of engagement with its neighbours, terms which reflect the reality of our times in which both India and its neighbours can have a stake in each other’s success.
CLAMOUR FOR DEATH :-
Issue :-
- Each time a horrific sexual crime hits the headlines, there is a clamour for prescribing the death penalty for such offences.
Background :-
- Gang-rape and Murder of an eight-year-old girl in Jammu and Kashmir.
Govt Response :-
- Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi has said her ministry will seek an amendment to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, to provide for death as the maximum punishment for the rape of those below 12.
2012 - Joyti Singh "Nirbhaya Rape Case" :-
- It led to set of amendments to criminal law largely based on the recommendations of a committee of eminent jurists in which, the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, set the death penalty for rape in the event of it causing the victim’s death or a persistent vegetative state, and for repeat offenders.
- In its January 2013 report, the committee, headed by former Chief Justice of India J.S. Verma, decided against recommending the death penalty for rape, despite demands. It rightly took into account the possibility of awarding life sentences without remission for aggravated sexual assault, as well as “the current thinking in favour of the abolition of the death penalty”.
Present Situation :- In recent months, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh have sought to amend the law to prescribe the death penalty for the rape of a minor below the age of 12.
- It reflects a clear division of views on the desirability of prescribing a death penalty. Moreover, it should not be forgotten that the death penalty has never been a deterrent against any sort of crime. There is little empirical evidence to show that those about to commit a capital offence would stop themselves merely out of the fear of being hanged.
- Further, there is a legitimate concern that the country’s judicial system has not been consistent in awarding the death penalty. The Law Commission, while recommending abolition of the death penalty, except in terrorism-related cases, observed that it is difficult to operate the ‘rarest of rare cases’ principle without a hint of arbitrariness.
- It will be especially wrong to force judges to compare the relative ‘merits’ of rape victims based on their age and choose between death sentence and life.
Conclusion :- Lengthy prison sentences, constituting both well-deserved consequences for grave crimes and a life-long opportunity for penitence, will adequately meet the ends of justice.
NON-ALIGNMENT REDUX :-
Issue :-
- As the 18th mid-term ministerial meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) concluded in early April in Azerbaijan, the question of India’s non-alignment status resurfaced, even if the country’s official position on the matter has arguably remained unchanged over the years.
Background :- The NAM question initially arose in response to the erstwhile bipolarity of political power during the Cold War years, with most nations aligning themselves to either the U.S. or the Soviet Union. The end of the Cold War and the disintegration of the Soviet Union spurred the question of what the essence of NAM was, and with respect to whom the NAM countries remained non-aligned.
NAM - Non Aligned Movement :-
- The ‘Ten principles of Bandung’, which were proclaimed in the Asian-African Conference in 1955, outlined the principles of NAM.
- Being the largest member-state of NAM, India has been one of the leaders of the movement since the time of Jawaharlal Nehru, one of the founding fathers of this movement & India has remained committed to the purposes and principles of the movement.
- Non-alignment stood — and presumably still stands — for policy autonomy for the erstwhile newly independent countries. These countries bandied together because of their shared traditions and history, which included anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism and anti-racism.
- The idea behind non-alignment thus conceived was to promote peace and security in a global arena where superpowers were constantly posturing to achieve their hegemonic ambitions.
NAM helped preserve the sovereignty of many young nations, including democracies such as India which wished to follow the path of strategic independence & It would be a mistake to see NAM merely as a rejection of Cold War bloc politics.
Question over India :-
Questions are being raised about India’s non-aligned credentials, particularly after India joined the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, a coalition seen by many as a counterforce to China’s rise in the Indo-Pacific. Coinciding with this is Russia’s drift from India and the emergence of a Russia-China-Pakistan trilateral.
The key question is: Given the perception in some quarters that India is well-inclined towards the U.S. and its allies, while it has simultaneously allowed a drift away from its old allies such as Russia, is it not far less credible for India to claim to be non-aligned?
Conclusion :-
- If Non-Alignment is seen purely through the prism of alliances, a question mark hangs over India’s non-aligned credentials.
- However, India can still claim to be non-aligned if non-alignment is assessed through the principles of NAM.
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