In this section, we are presenting our readers/aspirants compilation of selected editorials of national daily viz. The Hindu, The live mint,The Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Economic Times, PIB etc. This section caters the requirement of Civil Services Mains (GS + Essay) , PCS, HAS Mains (GS + Essay) & others essay writing competition.

1.Powerless MPs, MLAs: Lawmakers don’t question laws in part because anti-defection rules snuff out all dissent

Parliament and legislative assemblies should but won’t pay any heed to CJI NV Ramana’s observation that rush-job legislations end up becoming a millstone around the judiciary’s neck. Bills are passed frequently without Houses in functioning order or without allowing legislators to speak on details of the proposed law or without threadbare scrutiny by House committees. Laws badly drafted by bureaucrats escape lawmakers’ scrutiny and the lack of clarity spawns copious and long-drawn litigation.

Proper scrutiny means investment of time. The first Lok Sabha averaged 135 sittings a year; the 16th Lok Sabha – the one before the current House – averaged 66 sittings. The rot is even deeper in state legislative assemblies. According to PRS Legislative Research, UP, Bengal and Kerala, respectively, annually averaged 24, 40 and 53 assembly sittings and 100, 122 and 306 functional hours between 2017 and 2019. Given that UP and Bengal assemblies elect 403 and 294 members, respectively, such paltry working hours mean individual legislators, even when inclined to do so, don’t have adequate time to hone their law-making skills or to participate in legislative debates. The worrying thing is state assemblies pass hugely consequential laws, for example, on inter-faith marriage, that are subject to no legislative interrogation.

The problem is part of a broader process that’s devaluing legislative debate, and the root of it is the 1985 anti-defection law that demands MPs and MLAs obey party whips. What was intended to stop shopping of legislators has ended up silencing them. Governing party MPs and MLAs cannot, even if they seriously want to, question bills drafted by the executive, nor can opposition MPs and MLAs make common cause with treasury benches if that means defying opposition leadership. The irrelevance of non-ministers and backbenchers other than for their votes sharply contrasts to legislative functioning in the UK and US. In both these democracies, individual legislators frequently dissent over bills and even policies of their party leadership, and sometimes force changes. If a party is in office because it has a majority of legislators, those legislators should have meaningful roles – in India, they have been reduced to ‘ayes’ or ‘nos’.

Of course, there’s dissent in Indian politics – but over access to power and its perks, not over principles of laws. BS Yediyurappa is no longer BJP’s Karnataka CM and Punjab’s Congress CM Amarinder Singh has Navjot Singh Sidhu to contend with because dissenters convinced party leaderships that they can sabotage electoral chances. Thoughtful rebellion has little chance in Indian politics.

2.Next milestone in language politics: Mandating local language learning in degree courses

Karnataka’s move to mandate Kannada for four semesters in three-year undergraduate degree programmes would have come as a bolt out of the blue for colleges and students. A large number of students who are not domiciled in Karnataka or are not native Kannada speakers enroll in the state’s educational institutions for higher education programmes.

The goal of higher education is to prepare students for professional, academic and other lofty pursuits in adult life. Being “forced” to learn a new language is quite a distraction from their goals and frittering away of energies. For a student of mathematics or physics or economics, such impositions are bewildering. Given that an entire economy has been built around private higher education institutions in the state, Karnataka must review the decision.

So far, language politics in education has been restricted to schools with many states mandating the learning of their primary spoken language. But to adopt the same principle for higher education is ill-conceived. Rather, Karnataka is well placed to attempt to take its higher education ecosystem to the next level in terms of quality and quantity. If students shy away fearing restrictive language courses, it would be the state’s loss.

3.The fall of Afghanistan

The United States has lost. The US exit was understandable. But the way it was managed is unpardonable. The Inter-Services Intelligence has won. And India stares at a crisis

Twenty years after the United States (US) militarily invaded Afghanistan and ousted the Taliban from power, the Taliban is back in Kabul as the US fled in scenes reminiscent of its exit from Vietnam. Notwithstanding the spin from Washington, this is a strategic defeat. The US exit was understandable. But the way it was managed is unpardonable. The US misread the Taliban’s intentions and capabilities, didn’t act against Pakistan enough to deter support for the Taliban, and carried out a farcical peace process where the Taliban walked away with international legitimacy without giving up on its ideological agenda and coercive machinery. Taliban is much stronger than it was in the 1990s, and the US has left democratic Afghans, women, and minorities at peril.

This is also Pakistan’s win. Notwithstanding the differences that exist between Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Taliban, ISI’s strategy of waiting for the US exit while supporting the Taliban has paid off for now. Pakistan’s aim of securing “strategic depth” is close to being met. Its objective of eroding Indian presence in Afghanistan is in motion. And it will be the centre of a new arrangement where China, Russia, and others will use Islamabad’s good offices to deal with Afghanistan. At some point, Pakistan will have to deal with resurgent Afghan nationalism — but that’s in the future.

4. Fall of Kabul: On Afghanistan crisis

With Afghanistan under the total control of the Taliban, the future looks bleak

History came full circle on August 15 when the Taliban captured Kabul, almost 20 years after the U.S. launched its global war on terror. The city of roughly 5 million people fell to the Islamist insurgents without even a fight while Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, and the Americans abandoned their Embassy and rushed to Kabul airport. It was a surreal moment for the U.S., which had pledged to defeat the Taliban in every corner of Afghanistan, and a tragedy for the Afghans, who were left at the mercy of a murderous militia. The soldiers did not fight. Police abandoned their stations. Former Northern Alliance warlords left the country. And the government crumbled like the proverbial house of cards. There is already worrying news coming from the provinces that the Taliban are enforcing a strict religious code on the public and violence against anyone who resists. The last time the Taliban were in power, women were not allowed to work. They had to cover their faces and be accompanied by a male relative outside their homes. Girls were not allowed to go to school. The Taliban had also banned TV, music, painting and photography, handed out brutal forms of punishment to those violating their Islamic code, and persecuted minorities. The chaotic scenes from Kabul airport, where people are desperately trying to cling on to airplanes hoping to leave the country, bear testimony to their fear of the Taliban.

This is a historic development that will have lasting implications for global geopolitics. Unlike 1996, this is not only about the Taliban taking power. This is also about an Islamist group with a medieval mindset and modern weapons defeating the world’s most powerful country. The U.S. can say in its defence that its mission was to fight al-Qaeda and that it met its strategic objectives. But in reality, after spending 20 years in Afghanistan to fight terrorism and rebuild the Afghan state, the U.S. ran away from the battlefield, embarrassing itself and leaving its allies helpless. The images from Arg, the presidential palace in Kabul, and the airport will continue to haunt President Joe Biden and the U.S. for a long time. In 1996, when the Taliban took Kabul, the government did not flee the country. Ahmad Shah Massoud and Burhanuddin Rabbani retreated to the Panjshir valley from where they regrouped the Northern Alliance and continued resistance against the Taliban. This time, there is no Northern Alliance. There is no government. The whole country, except some pockets, is now firmly under the Taliban’s control. The Taliban are also more receptive to regional players such as China and Russia, while Pakistan is openly celebrating their triumph. It remains to be seen what kind of a regime a stronger Taliban will install in Kabul. If the 1990s are anything to go by, darker days are ahead in Afghanistan.

5.Beating plastic pollution: On Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules

Serious implementation of new plastic waste rules can address the problem of waste

The Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules notified by the Centre on August 12 acknowledge the gravity of pollution caused by plastic articles of everyday use, particularly those that have no utility beyond a few minutes or hours. Under the new rules, the manufacture, sale and use of some single-use goods made with plastic, polystyrene, and expanded polystyrene, such as earbuds, plates, cups, glasses, cutlery, wrapping and packing films, are prohibited from July 1 next year, while others such as carry bags must be at least 75 microns thick from September 30, 2021, and 120 microns from December 31 next year, compared to 50 microns at present. The decisions follow recommendations made by an expert group constituted by the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals two years ago. In 2018, India won praise globally for asserting on World Environment Day that it would eliminate all single-use plastic by 2022, a theme that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stressed more than once. Yet, policy coherence to achieve the goal has been lacking. The Central Pollution Control Board has reported that 22 States have, in the past, announced a ban on single-use plastic, but this has had little impact on the crisis of waste choking wetlands and waterways and being transported to the oceans to turn into microplastic.

At about 34 lakh tonnes generated in 2019-20, India has a staggering annual volume of plastic waste, of which only about 60% is recycled. What is more, a recent study of the top 100 global producers of polymers that culminate in plastic waste found six of them based in India. It is unsurprising, therefore, that in spite of the staggering problem, policymakers have been treading on eggshells. The international view is changing, however, and support for a UN Plastic Treaty is growing; the majority of G7 countries too are supportive of cleaning up the oceans through a charter in the interests of human wellbeing and environmental integrity. India’s policies on environmental regulation are discordant, lofty on intent but feeble on outcomes, and plastic waste is no different. State governments have felt no compulsion to replace municipal contracts, where companies are paid for haulage of mixed waste, with terms that require segregation and accounting of materials. Considerable amounts of plastic waste cannot be recycled because of lack of segregation, leading to incineration, while mixing newer types of compostable plastic will confound the problem. Patchy regulation has led to prohibited plastic moving across State borders. Now that the Centre has adopted a broad ban, further pollution must end. Microplastic is already found in the food chain, and governments must act responsibly to stop the scourge.