Moral policing to extortion: Yogi Adityanath must disband anti-Romeo squads. . . .

Statistics shows that crimes against women are on the rise. Given this, any move by a government to increase women’s safety should be welcomed. But Uttar Pradesh’s anti-Romeo squads, set up by chief minister Yogi Adityanath with the aim of protecting women from public harassment, has been in the news for the wrong reasons.

Police personnel were appointed to these squads which started operations in March, but soon the initiative was hijacked by fringe groups that misused this for moral policing and in some cases targeting minorities.

If this was not enough, an investigative report by a TV news channel recently exposed these squads indulging in extortion and falsely implicating innocent people.

Using NSA against cattle smuggling is excessive and uncalled for, , , ,

The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to use the National Security Act (NSA) — a law primarily enacted to deal with the defence of the country, India’s relations with foreign powers, and the security of India — to deal with instances of cow slaughter and smuggling. Equating crimes like this as a threat to national security is really taking things too far. The Uttar Pradesh DGP has permitted preventive detention of a suspected person for three months without bail in matters of cow slaughter and smuggling. This despite the fact that the state already has a law that makes cow smuggling and slaughter offences punishable with seven years in jail and a fine of Rs 10,000.

This move by the Uttar Pradesh government is not only scary but also disproportionate. Enacted in 1980, the NSA has draconian provisions which permit the government to detain a citizen on presumption alone without any recourse to challenge the detention order. Preventive detention envisaged under the NSA is different from ordinary detention under normal laws, i.e. the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). Under the IPC and the CrPC, persons are arrested for having committed acts violative of the law. But under preventive detention, persons are arrested to prevent them from doing whatever the government does not wish them to do.

The use of the NSA in this context shows the lengths the UP police is willing to go to enforce cow smuggling laws. While the BJP has enacted cow protection laws in several states – Madhya Pradesh was the first state to use the stringent provisions of the NSA against its citizens. Last year, the Dewas district administration slapped the National Security Act (NSA) against Anwar Mev, an office-bearer of the BJP who was expelled from the party after meat alleged to be beef was found from his house. He was arrested and sent to Ujjain Jail.But a question that is often asked is if the NSA puts irrational curbs on rights of citizens, why is it not struck down by courts? Because the states takes the plea that prevention detentions are necessary to avoid potential public order situations.While state governments continue to enact laws and rules for cow protection, there is a rising fear that new measures by government towards cow protection could be used to harass the minority community.

Namaste...

Is AAP repeating the mistake of over-reaching once again?

Fortune favours the brave, but this seems like sheer recklessness. Delhi chief minister and national convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Arvind Kejriwal has decided to launch a nationwide protest on June 10 over the agrarian distress. This he hopes will reach out to rural people across India and help expand the party’s base for future elections.

This is commendable given the acute problems that farmers are facing. But politically, the party is going down the same route that did not pay off for it in the past — becoming too ambitious before consolidating. When it got the chance to make a real difference in Delhi for a second time, it frittered away its goodwill and time in a ruinous fight with the former lieutenant governor. Many people initially invested in the party hoping for a genuine alternative to the established political formations which were all seen as cynical and out of touch in varying degrees.

AAP has the huge task of governing Delhi and the excuse that others are not allowing it to work may be valid but wearing thin. Its lack of success in the recent elections suggests that it has gone far from the core values, which were once so attractive to the people.

Mr Kejriwal’s combative style alone won’t work when the city is facing a scorching summer with all its attendant problems. He and his government should be seen to be addressing these rather than taking on a national issue in the hope that this will yield to future political gain.

This is precisely the sort of cynical politics that AAP had said it would stay away from when it began. Recouping lost ground in Punjab should not be at the cost of Delhi whatever the constraints.

There were many innovative schemes that the party began, among them mohalla clinics, that are in need of attention. There is a huge problem of the lack of proper housing for migrant workers. No doubt the party is hobbled by the complicated nature of political power in Delhi but it has not even been seen to try to deal with these since its poor showing in Punjab and the municipal elections in Delhi.

If anyone had hoped that the recent defeats would have jolted the party into some degree of realism, they are bound to be disappointed.

There is still no clarity whether the loose ends can be tied up in time for the July 1 deadline

e Goods and Services Tax Council has finalised the rates at which tax will be levied for almost all products and services under the tax regime, just four weeks before the July 1 deadline for rollout. The decisions amount to a balancing act between competing demands. The Council has set the tax rate on gold, silver, diamonds and other jewellery at 3%, while uncut diamonds will attract a ‘notional’ duty of 0.25%; a credit can be claimed for exports of such diamonds after they are polished and cut in India’s gem clusters. Footwear and readymade textiles will have differential tax slabs based on sale price (with a concessional 5% for footwear below ₹500 and clothes below ₹1,000). But oddly, no such distinction has been made for mass consumption items such as glucose biscuits. Textiles, leather, diamonds and food processing already are, or have the potential to be, India’s biggest employment engines, and repercussions of tax structure anomalies can be felt hard and fast in a competitive global market. Though the low rates on gold and diamond can dampen smuggling opportunities, they introduce two more rates to an already complex GST structure of five rate slabs plus a variable cess on ‘sin’ goods. Taken together, with the exemptions for critical sectors such as real estate, electricity, petroleum and alcohol, GST in its current form is far from the ‘One Nation, One Tax’ it purports to be.

Schedule of GST rates for services as approved by GST Council

Not surprisingly, fresh demands for differential tax treatment have begun already, including for bidis. States and sections of industry want a review of rates finalised earlier for products ranging from biogas, fertilizers and tractors to agarbathis, human hair and cashew. Actor Kamal Haasan has threatened to quit cinema as it has been included in the 28% ‘sin’ category, and States have backed the demand that regional cinema be treated differently. The Council is slated to meet again on June 11 to discuss these demands while taking a call on a few pending items such as lotteries, and finalise rules pertaining to accounting and e-way bills (to be generated to transport goods). An assurance of input credit on existing stocks with dealers and simpler rules for filing returns should help industry gear up for the transition. But in the absence of final accounting rules or clarity on the anti-profiteering framework, there is concern whether all the loose ends can be tied up this month. The government is sticking to the July 1 deadline despite reservations about the readiness of the administration and the GST Network that would have to manage billions of invoices. The Council must take a realistic and honest stock of ground realities at its next meeting. A sub-optimal GST design can be corrected over time, but a hasty beginning could prove costly.

The Saudi-led bid to isolate Qatar could have far-reaching economic-political consequences. . .

The dramatic decision by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt and Yemen to suspend diplomatic ties with Qatar could have far-reaching economic and geopolitical consequences. Tensions were brewing within the Gulf Cooperation Council for the past six years ever since Qatar started actively supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, a political Islamist movement that the Saudis and their close allies see as a threat to stability in West Asia. In 2014, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain had temporarily withdrawn their ambassadors from Qatar over this. But a suspension of diplomatic ties as well as air and sea travel to and from Qatar is unprecedented. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain on Monday asked Qatari diplomats to leave their countries within 48 hours and Qatari citizens within 14 days. Saudi Arabia blames Qatar for “harbouring a multitude of terrorist and sectarian groups that aim to create instability in the region”. But such allegations can be raised against most Gulf countries. It is an open secret that both Saudi Arabia and Qatar back their proxy militant groups throughout West Asia. Take the case of Syria, where the Saudis back Salafi groups such as Ahrar al-Sham, while the Qataris bankroll the armed wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. Both share the same goal: to overthrow the regime of Bashar al-Assad. In Yemen, Qatar is part of the Saudi-led coalition that has been bombing the country for over two years.

It is not immediately clear what drove Riyadh to take this extreme step. Emboldened by President Donald Trump’s open embrace and anti-Iran agenda, the kingdom could be making a renewed attempt to rally Sunni countries under its leadership against Tehran. Qatar has historically played off both sides of the Saudi-Iran rivalry. Even as it joined the occasional GCC outbursts against Tehran, it maintained sound economic and diplomatic ties. Qatar’s ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who had a phone conversation with Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani last week, is reportedly critical of the Saudi-led efforts to drive up an anti-Iran agenda. It is to be seen whether Saudi Arabia has overplayed its hand. If Qatar continues to resist the GCC line, it could trigger a wider crisis in the region. Qatar is an economic powerhouse in the Gulf and hosts the headquarters of the U.S. military’s Central Command. The air war command for the U.S.-led fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is also in Qatar. So any prolonged attempt to isolate the country would not only have economic consequences — oil prices fluctuated soon after the decision was announced — but also complicate the fight against the IS yet more. What West Asia requires is a united front against terror and lowering of Saudi-Iran tensions. Opening new fronts in the rivalry will only destabilise the region further.

I Thanks my parents for providing me enough time to think.

I

The Prime Minister may have erred in turning the election into a presidential-style contest

Uder the looming shadow of exit negotiations with the European Union, British Prime Minister Theresa May had good reason to call a snap general election on June 8. By putting her faith in the hands of the voters, she sought a strong, unequivocal mandate to take the fight to Brussels. In April, opinion polls suggested that she might even match the majorities of former Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, of 144 in 1983 and 179 in 1997, respectively, in the 650-seat House of Commons. Yet that dream appears to be crumbling as the race has gradually tightened, with multiple terror incidents, including theManchester bombing and the London Bridge attack, further muddying her prospects. The initial 20-plus points lead held by the Tories when the election was announced in April has withered into a mere five points, according to an Ipsos MORI poll. A YouGov poll, an outlier, projected the Tories losing 20 seats — Ms. May’s outgoing government enjoyed a 17-seat working majority. Other models, however, show her winning a sizeable majority, in some cases by as much as 142 seats. These variations in poll projections must, however, be considered alongside the recent setbacks endured by the U.K. polling industry, which in some measure failed to read the tea leaves correctly for the 2015 general election and the 2016 Brexit referendum.

Nonetheless, the state of national politics may offer the Conservative leadership fewer reasons to feel sanguine. Prime Minister May miscalculated in framing the race as a presidential-style contest against Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. This not only opened the window of opportunity to him to stage a comeback, but also brought a host of domestic policy issues on to the table for voters to dissect and criticise. Indeed, according to some polls Mr. Corbyn is only a few points shy of Ms. May’s net favourability rating, and has gained even more traction by critiquing her government’s cut of 20,000 police officers at a time when the U.K. has been vulnerable to the sort of terror attacks witnessed in recent weeks. Similarly, Ms. May’s campaign has taken a beating from the awkward backtrack on what has been dubbed the “dementia tax”, a proposal whereby care for an elderly person would be paid for by the sale of his or her house after death, depriving the heirs. Other austerity policies proposed by Conservatives, including a controversial plan to end universal free school lunches for children, have sent the jitters among some sections of voters. The lesson from this pre-election turbulence in support for the Tories is that even if they succeed in retaining or increasing their parliamentary majority, it would be unwise to take their opposition for granted, or be overly optimistic in assuming that the European Union would soften its negotiating stance owing to the internal politics of the U.K.

Thanking You so much for the precious time and energy to go through my blog..

In a new orbit: On the launch of GSLV Mark-III, India’s heaviest rocket.

ISRO lifts India into the elite group capable of putting heavier satellites into a precise orbit.

The Indian Space Research Organisation has crossed a significant milestone with the successful developmental flight of the country’s heaviest Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, the GSLV Mark-III. This is the first time a satellite weighing over 3.1 tonnes has been launched from India to reach the geostationary orbit about 36,000 km from Earth. The Mk-III can launch satellites weighing up to four tonnes, which almost doubles India’s current launch capacity. With communication satellites becoming heavier (up to six tonnes), the capability for larger payloads is vital. This can be done by switching over to electric propulsion for orbit rising and to keep the satellite in the right position and orientation in the orbit through its lifetime (that is, station keeping). The switch-over would reduce the weight of the vehicle as it can do away with nearly two tonnes of propellants and carry heavier satellites. Towards this end, ISRO has started testing electric propulsion in a small way; the South Asia Satellite (GSAT-9) that was launched last month used electric propulsion for station keeping. On Monday, an indigenously developed lithium-ion battery was used for the first time to power the satellite. Another key achievement is the use of an indigenously developed cryogenic stage, which uses liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen; the 2010 GSLV launch using an indigenous cryogenic stage ended in failure. It can now be said without hesitation that India belongs to the elite club of countries that have mastered cryogenic technology. In the December 2014 experimental flight of the GSLV Mk-III, a passive cryogenic stage was used. Though the cryogenic stage was not meant to be ignited, the launch provided invaluable data on aerodynamic behaviour of the vehicle.

The Mark-III will be operational with the success of one more developmental flight, which is set to take place within a year. This will make India self-reliant in launching heavier satellites, bringing down costs substantially. Till now, heavier communication satellites have been launched on Europe’s Ariane rockets; in fact, ISRO will soon be using Ariane rockets to launch two of its heavier satellites. But as has been the case with lighter satellites, it is likely that other countries will soon turn to ISRO for the launch of heavier satellites at a lower cost. With fewer propulsion stages and, therefore, control systems, the Mk-III is far more reliable than the GSLV and the PSLV. Combined with its ability to carry eight to 10 tonnes into a low Earth orbit, the Mk-III can be considered for human-rating certification (to transport humans) once some design changes are made. Compared with the two-member crew capacity of the GSLV, the Mk-III can carry three astronauts and have more space to carry out experiments. The next developmental flight, therefore, will be crucial.

Namaskar,.,.,.