UPSC Key—27th November, 2023: Insurgency in Manipur, Cultural Property Agreement and Constitution Day

China, Japan and S Korea agree to boost trilateral ties, ease tensions

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- China, Japan and South Korea agreed on Sunday to restart cooperation and pave the way for a summit in the latest move to ease tensions between the Asian neighbours. Even as China and the United States seek to mend frayed ties, including a summit this month between President’s Xi Jinping and Joe Biden, Beijing is concerned that Washington and its key regional allies are strengthening their three-way partnership.

• China, Japan and South Korea-why in news?

• ‘China, Japan and South Korea agreed to restart cooperation and pave the way for a summit in the to ease tensions’-what sort of tensions?

• What problems exist between these countries?

• Do You Know-Japan effectively colonized the Korean Peninsula between 1910 and 1945, in a regime that imposed Japanese names and language on Koreans and conscripted many into forced labor or forced prostitution in military brothels before and during World War II. Japan paid $800 million in reparations to South Korea’s military-run government in 1965, but this money was never distributed to victims. A semi-government fund offered compensation to former “comfort women” when the government apologized in 1995, but many South Koreans believe that the Japanese government must take more direct responsibility for the occupation.
The two sides also have a longstanding territorial dispute over a group of islands controlled by South Korea and claimed by Japan.
Seoul and Tokyo have attempted to establish better ties before. In 2004, leaders began regular visits, but these ended in 2012 after South Korean President Lee Myung-bak visited the disputed islands. Tensions escalated in the past 10 years as conservative Japanese governments moved to rearm the country while stepping up attempts to whitewash Japan’s wartime atrocities, and in 2018 South Korea’s Supreme Court ordered Japan’s Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to compensate forced labor victims.
In 2019, Japan, in apparent retaliation, placed export controls on chemicals used to make semiconductors and displays used in smartphones and other high-tech devices.
China, South Korea and Japan – which together account for about a quarter of global GDP – agreed to hold annual summits from 2008, but the meetings were derailed by historical and territorial disagreements, and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Japan-South Korea summit: What has kept the two nations apart and why they must overcome it

FRONT PAGE

Talks on, peace deal with valley insurgent group soon, says Biren

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: 

• General Studies III: Linkages between development and spread of extremism and Role of external state and non-state actors in creating challenges to internal security

• General Studies III: Role of external state and non-state actors in creating challenges to internal security.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- THE MANIPUR government is likely to arrive at a peace settlement with an Imphal valley-based insurgent group at the end of this month, according to sources close to Chief Minister N Biren Singh. At a Constitution Day event in Imphal on Sunday, the Chief Minister said that the peace talks were at an advanced stage.

• United National Liberation Front (UNLF)-What you know about this organisation?

• Do You Know-Last week, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had notified an extension of its ban under the UAPA on seven “Meitei Extremist Organizations”, which it said have the professed aim of secession of Manipur from India through armed struggle and “to incite indigenous people of Manipur for such secession”.

• What are the reasons for Insurgency in Manipur?

• What are the steps taken by the Government of India?

• What is the history of conflict in Manipur?

• What are the major ethnic conflicts in Manipur?

• What do you understand by ‘Insurgency’?

• Why is it called ‘Insurgency’?

• What is the difference between militant and insurgent? How militancy is different from insurgency?

• Know these terms-Terrorism, Insurgency, Belligerency and Civil war

• “The insurgent groups are intricately woven into the daily life in Manipur”-Comment

• For some time now, two parallel and provocative narratives in the portrayal of Manipur history were being pushed from certain quarters-What are those two parallel and provocative narratives?

• The Insurgency in Northeast India-Know in detail

• For Your Information-The emergence of insurgency in Manipur dates back to 1964 with the formation of the United National Liberation Front (UNLF), which still remains one of the formidable militant outfits.
The rise of separatist insurgency in Manipur mainly attributed to perceived discontent over alleged “forced” merger of Manipur with the Union of India and the subsequent delay in granting it full-fledged statehood. While the erstwhile Kingdom of Manipur was merged with India on October 15, 1949, it became a state only in 1972.
The later years saw a slew of militant outfits being formed, including the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK), Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP), and Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL), among others. These valley-based outfits have been demanding an independent Manipur.
The Naga movement in neighbouring Nagaland spilled over into Manipur’s hill districts with the NSCN-IM controlling most of it while pressing for “Nagalim” (Greater Nagaland), which is perceived in the valley as a “threat” to Manipur’s “territorial integrity”.
In subsequent years, Manipur had been caught in a spiral of violence as various militant outfits carried out deadly attacks on security forces or engaged in factional clashes.
While the hills account for nine-tenths of Manipur’s geographical area, they are sparsely populated, with most of the state’s population concentrated in the valley. The Meitei community forms a majority in Imphal valley, while the surrounding hill districts are inhabited by Nagas and Kukis.
In 1980, the Centre declared the entire Manipur as a “disturbed area” and imposed the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) to suppress the insurgency movement, which remains in force till date.
In the early 1990s, the ethnic clashes between Nagas and Kukis led to the formation of several Kuki insurgent groups, which have now scaled down their demand from a separate Kuki state to a Territorial Council.
The further continuance of insurgency led to the formation of smaller outfits like the Zeliangrong United Front (ZUF), People’s United Liberation Front (PULF) and other splinter groups.
The NSCN-IM entered a ceasefire agreement with the Government of India (GoI) in 1997, even as peace talks between them have still been continuing.
Similarly, the Kuki outfits under two umbrella groups, the Kuki National Organisation (KNO) and United People’s Front (UPF), also signed the tripartite Suspension of Operation (SoO) pacts with the GoI and Manipur on August 22, 2008. Of the total 25 armed Kuki groups operating in the state, 17 are under the KNO and 8 under the United Peoples’ Front (UPF). However, major valley-based militant outfits (Meitei groups) such as the UNLF, PLA, KYKL etc. are yet to come to the negotiating table. Many of their smaller outfits have however entered the SoO agreement with the state government, which has launched rehabilitation programmes for such groups.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Explained: How big is insurgency threat in Manipur?

India, US work on pact for quick return of stolen antiquities

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: History of India

Mains Examination: 

• General Studies I: Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.

• General Studies II: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- India is close to signing an agreement with the United States under which the process for the return of stolen antiquities will be hugely simplified.

• What is the Cultural Property Agreement (CPA) ?

• For Your Information-Buoyed by the progress made with the US — from where the largest number of antiquities have come back in last few years — India is looking to sign such agreements with several countries where a lot of Indian art objects are believed to have been smuggled.
The agreement imposes import restrictions that stop looted and stolen cultural property from entering the US while encouraging the legal sharing of such objects for scientific, cultural, and educational purposes. The US also prioritises stopping trafficking of art objects to “eliminate key sources of funding for terrorists and transnational organised crime”.
“When objects are seized and forfeited under import restrictions created by the CPAs, there is a simplified process for returning objects to the partner country. The partner country does not have to prove the item is theirs. Rather, the United States automatically offers it to them for return,” the US Embassy spokesperson said.
Presently, once an artefact of Indian origin is located in a foreign country, its provenance has to be established through documents such as FIRs and pictorial evidence. The objects are then verified by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) —the custodian of all antiquities — in the host country before they can be brought back home.
A team of experts from the ASI visits the country and verifies the objects “on the basis of their knowledge, iconography and wear-and-tear marks”, an ASI official said. However, there is no time limit for this process.
Recently, an ASI team was in Singapore to verify several Chola bronzes that were stolen from India, and a team is also expected to go to the US to verify a cache of 1414 objects that the US offered to India after it found them to be of Indian provenance.
Once the agreement comes into effect, this verification stage — which is generally most time-consuming — can also be done away with in many cases. According to the US official, they connect their law enforcement personnel with subject matter experts — archaeologists, curators, and conservators — who help identify cultural property pursuant to official investigations.

• What is an antiquity?

• How the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972 defines antiquity?

• Do You Know-In India, artefacts that have “been in existence for not less than one hundred years” — 75 years for manuscripts — are categorised as antiquities. And guidelines issued globally for museums, following an UNESCO convention in 1970, state: “When acquiring an object, whether by purchase or donation or any other way, museums should exercise due diligence in verifying the object’s history and provenance. If a museum is acquiring an object,
the museum must verify whether the object was lawfully obtained, lawfully exported and/ or imported…”

• What do international conventions say?

• What is “cultural property”?

• What do Indian laws say?

• What is ‘provenance’ of an antiquity?

• How is ownership proved?

• How to check for fake antiquities?

• Can India bring back antiquities?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍486 ASI antiquities missing since 1947: why numbers don’t capture the story

📍Antiquities abroad: What Indian, international laws say

Previous Year Mains Questions Covering the same theme:

📍 Safeguarding the Indian art Heritage is the need of the moment. Discuss (GS-1, 2018)
📍 Indian philosophy and tradition played a significant role in conceiving and shaping the monuments and art in India. Discuss (GS-1, 2020)

THE CITY

Transport sector the biggest contributor to Capital’s bad-air November, study reveals

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change

Main Examination: General Studies III: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-What are the sources that have been keeping Delhi’s air bad all through this month? Vehicles, biomass burning even when farm fires are few, and secondary aerosols or particles that are formed in the atmosphere from gases released by fossil fuel combustion in power plants, industries, and vehicles, going by data from a real-time source apportionment study that is underway for the city.

• Are the sources in November any different from what the city saw in September when the air quality was relatively
better?

• Do You Know-Vehicles and secondary aerosols remained the largest contributors all through September as well, data shows. The average percentage contribution from vehicles was around 35.66% in September, while the contribution of secondary aerosols was 36%. Biomass burning emerged as an addition to these sources in November.
On secondary aerosols, Anumita Roychowdhury, Executive Director, Research and Advocacy, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), said, “Gases contribute to the formation of secondary aerosols – oxides of nitrogen, sulphur dioxide—which are released by vehicles or industries, go through further atmospheric changes and form particles, and then add to a load of particulate pollution. What this says in terms of mitigation is that too much concentration on dust control is not going to help, and we will have to focus on combustion sources since these gases come from vehicles, industries, and power plants.”
Data from the study shows that soil and road dust contributed significantly to PM2.5 levels in the first week of September, when this contribution stood at over 30% from September 1 to 4. This contribution has, however, fallen in November.

• Why Delhi pollution is always in News?

• Know the Supreme Courts Judgments on Delhi Air Pollutions

• Know the National Green Tribunal and Various Decisions given by NGT like modification in National Clean Air Programme

• Air Quality Management in NCR Region-Role and Steps Taken so Far

• What is Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP)?

• What are the Steps taken By Central and Delhi Government to Curb Pollution like Car Rationing (Odd-Even Policy)

• Know the best International Practices to Curb Air Pollution in Urban Areas

• What are the other reasons for Air pollution in Delhi?

• What is National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)?

• What is the target of National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) in 2024?

• Do You Know-India’s National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) was launched in 2019 to achieve a 20-30 per cent reduction in concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 by 2024 (base year, 2017). It encompasses a wide range of specific interventions including reduction of vehicular pollution through regulatory norms, promotion of public transport and improvements in roads and bridges; tackling industrial emissions; notification of eight waste management rules; monitoring of ambient air quality; and prevention and control of paddy stubble burning.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Delhi’s air pollution steadily worsening since 2021: Four key findings of a new air quality study

GOVT & POLITICS

Murmu calls for judicial service to recruit judges

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Indian Constitution—historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-President Draupadi Murmu Sunday called for the creation of an all-India judicial service to recruit judges, saying this will help make the judiciary diverse by increasing representation from marginalised social groups.

• What is Constitution Day?

• Why is November 26 observed as Constitution Day?

• How was the Constitution Framed?

• What are the Key Facts about the Constitution of India?

• For Your Information-The Constituent Assembly, the body meant to draft the Constitution of India, held its first session on December 9, 1946, attended by 207 members, including nine women. Initially, the assembly had 389 members, but after independence and the partition of India, the strength was reduced to 299. The assembly took over three years to draft the constitution, spending over 114 days considering the content of the draft alone.
On December 13, 1946, Nehru moved the “Objectives Resolution” that was later adopted as the Preamble on January 22, 1947.
The Drafting Committee chaired by Ambedkar was one among the over 17 committees of the Constituent Assembly. Their task was to prepare a Draft Constitution for India. Out of some 7,600 amendments tabled, this committee got rid of about 2,400 amendments while debating and deliberating the constitution.
The last session of the Constituent Assembly ended on November 26, 1949, when the Constitution was adopted, and two months later on January 26, 1950 it came into effect after 284 members signed it. January 26 was chosen since the Congress’ Poorna Swaraj resolution was declared on this day in the year 1930.
In May 2015, the Union Cabinet announced that November 26 will be observed as Constitution Day to promote “constitutional values amongst citizens”. This was the year that marked the 125th birth anniversary of BR Ambedkar, the Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution. Other members included Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and Shayama Prasad Mukherjee, among others.
The central government’s decision was seen as a move to claim Ambedkar’s legacy, in a bid to reach out to the Dalit community. Following the Cabinet meeting in 2015, then Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Thawar Chand Gehlot said, “Rahul Gandhi and his party never honoured Ambedkar. Neither did he get the Bharat Ratna nor was his oil painting installed in Parliament premises as long Congress was in power.”
At the time, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment decided to undertake several activities to promote Ambedkar’s ideas and philosophy, which included the setting up of the Ambedkar International Centre at 15, Janpath at a cost of over Rs 197 crore.
On November 19, 2015, the government formally notified November 26 as Constitution Day. Before this, the day was observed as National Law Day. Ambedkar was also the first Law Minister of India.
“This year, the country is celebrating 125th birth Anniversary of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. The ‘Constitution Day’ will be a part of these year-long nationwide celebrations. This will be a tribute to Dr. Ambedkar, who played a seminal role in the framing of the Indian Constitution as the Chairman of the Drafting Committee of Constituent Assembly,” a press release issued by the Press Information Bureau said in 2015.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍The warnings of Babasaheb

EXPLAINED

Terror attack that led to change

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Role of external state and non-state actors in creating challenges to internal security.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-India had witnessed many terror attacks over the years but the one that rocked Mumbai in 2008 was a turning point, fundamentally transforming India’s strategy, and relationships in the world.

• What are the three ways in which the strategic game has played out from India’s point of view over the last 15 years.

• How was Pakistan involved in 26/11 attack?

• Do You Know-While 9/11 had, for the first time, given the world the prism to view terrorism, for India, 26/11 was a major ‘I-told-you-so moment’. For more than two decades since the 1980s, India had suffered from scourge of terrorism — the Sikh militancy and the LTTE had claimed the lives of two Indian Prime Ministers as well as many other citizens, and the militancy in Jammu and Kashmir lifted the curtain on the harsh reality of Pakistan-sponsored cross-border terrorism.
While Delhi’s concerns were always drowned out by Islamabad’s counter propaganda, 26/11 brought home to the world the threat of terrorism from the turbulent South Asian region. The fact that victims of those who were killed were from 16 nationalities, apart from India, and another seven countries’ whose citizens were injured, made 26/11 — the first truly global attack on Indian soil.

• US and the West on India’s side-Know in detail

• In the immediate aftermath of the 26/11 attack, a familiar debate took place that had taken place after the attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001 recurred-what kind of action should be taken?

• How Mumbai terror attacks changed India’s security infrastructure?

• For Your Information-Post 26/11, the Indian navy was given overall charge of maritime security, and the Indian Coast Guard was given the responsibility for territorial waters and to coordinate with hundreds of new marine police stations that came up along India’s coastline. The government also made it mandatory for all vessels longer than 20 metres to have an Automatic Identification System (AIS) that transmits its identification and other information — in addition to the international regulation under which AIS is compulsory for any vessel heavier than 300 gross tonnage.
A decision was taken to strengthen the Intelligence Bureau’s (IB’s) Multi Agency Centre (MAC), whose primary job is to coordinate exchange of intelligence between central agencies, the armed forces, and the state police. Subsidiary MACs that had gone defunct were re-invigorated. Regular meetings were made mandatory for real-time exchange of information and analysis.
“These meetings have now been made a daily exercise. Its charter too has been expanded to include radicalization and terror ecosystems. The meetings also now discuss specific topics and are not limited to just exchange of information,” a senior intelligence official said.
The Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) was amended to expand the definition of terrorism, and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act was passed by Parliament to create the first truly federal investigation agency in the country.
“Had the 26/11 attacks not happened, such an Act that gives powers to a central agency to take over any terrorism case in any state suo motu would never get the support of all parties, since it clearly violated the existing federal structure of policing. But the pressure of public opinion was such at that time that everyone came on board,” a Home Ministry official said.
Another such project, the National Counter Terrorism Centre, floated by the then UPA government could never take off for precisely this reason.
Given the spectacular failure of local police despite the exemplary bravery shown by some police officers and men, the Centre trained its focus on modernisation of state police forces. More funds were allocated by the MHA to state governments to make their police stations state-of-the-art, equip them with modern technology, train their policemen to deal with challenges of modern day policing that included terrorism, and to give them better weapons.
Apart from this, emphasis was given on the creation of crack commando teams among all police forces. And the National Security Guard (NSG) established four regional hubs across the country.
The biggest impact of the 26/11 attacks, however, was the willingness of the West to cooperate with India on matters of security.
“When the US declared global war on terror post 9/11 attacks, we thought now the West will listen to us and put pressure on Pakistan to end cross-border terrorism. But we soon realised it was only interested in targeting groups with ‘global outreach’, and thus our pleas again fell on deaf ears. The US got engaged in Afghanistan, where it needed Pakistan’s assistance. It was only after the 26/11 attacks, during which American citizens got killed, that the US started seriously engaging with Indian agencies,” a senior intelligence official said.
According to sources in the Mumbai Police, which investigated the 26/11 attacks, and in India’s intelligence set-up, the US not only provided real time information during the attacks, but also a lot of prosecutable evidence through the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that helped India nail Pakistan’s culpability and embarrass it internationally.
It was the US that arrested David Coleman Headley, the man who conducted the reconnaissance for the 26/11 attacks, and provided crucial information on the way the conspiracy was hatched in Pakistan with active involvement of the ISI.
“The real success was in organising the international community, in isolating Pakistan, and in making counterterrorism cooperation against the LeT effective. India began to get unprecedented cooperation from Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf countries, and China, too, began to respond to requests for information on these groups,” India’s foreign secretary during the 26/11 attacks, Shivshankar Menon, wrote in his book ‘Choices: Inside the Making of India’s Foreign Policy’.
It was also this spirit of cooperation and global understanding on the need to deal with Pak-sponsored terrorism that helped put Pakistan in the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF’s) grey list in 2018, forcing the country to take action against the terror infrastructure of the LeT and Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM).

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍26/11 Mumbai terror attacks: A brief timeline

Centre asks states to review preparedness: what we know about the pneumonia outbreak in China

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-At a time when China is seeing a spike in respiratory illnesses as it enters its first full winter season after lifting Covid-19 restrictions last December, the Centre has initiated a review of the preparedness measures to combat such illnesses, saying that it is closely monitoring the situation and there was no need for alarm.

• So, what exactly is happening?

• Where is this spike occurring?

• Who have been most affected by the outbreak?

• Is this the outbreak of a new disease, like Covid-19 a few years back?•

• Why this outbreak now?

• How are authorities dealing with the outbreak?

• How is the Chinese public dealing with the situation?

• But are things likely to get better any time soon?

• So, should you be worried about this outbreak in India?

• For Your Information-WHO said groups including the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases reported clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children in northern China. WHO said it is unclear if these are associated with the overall increase in respiratory infections previously reported by Chinese authorities, or separate events.
The global health agency said Chinese authorities attributed the increase to the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions and the circulation of known pathogens such as influenza, mycoplasma pneumoniae (a common bacterial infection which typically affects younger children), respiratory syncytial virus, and the virus that causes COVID-19.
Chinese authorities stressed the need for enhanced disease surveillance in healthcare facilities and community settings, as well as strengthening the capacity of the health system to manage patients. Both China and the WHO have faced questions about the transparency of reporting on the earliest COVID-19 cases which emerged in the city of Wuhan in late 2019 and early 2020.
Since mid-October, WHO said northern China has reported an increase in influenza-like illness compared to the same period in the previous three years. It said the country has systems in place to capture information on trends in illness incidence and to report that data to platforms such as the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System.
WHO said that while it seeks additional information, it recommends that people in China follow measures to reduce the risk of respiratory illness, including vaccination; keeping distance from people who are ill; staying home when ill; getting tested and medical care as needed; wearing masks as appropriate; ensuring good ventilation; and regular hand-washing.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Spike in illness and pneumonia cases in China, WHO seeks more information

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