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hello and welcome to unacademy IAS English a One-Stop destination for the English medium civil services aspirants a very good morning and welcome to the Daily Hindu news analysis so let's begin today's discussion by first looking at the topics that we are going to discuss from the Delhi edition of the Hindu I have chosen a total of nine articles there are five articles important for both prelims and Mains and few small articles which are relevant only for the prelims exam so let's cover all these topics comprehensively so that you don't have to go back and read the newspaper again if you guys are benefiting from our initiatives do support us with your likes and comments and don't forget to subscribe to our Channel now before we start I have a very important announcement and I want you guys to pay attention we know that for civil services aspirants they would require mentoring and coaching for at least 18 to 24 months or maybe even more than that as many students prepare with a 2year to 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regard to prelims Mains and interview we are here to guide you and help you and today we will be conducting a special session tonight at 8:00 p.m. right here on our YouTube channel we will be conducting a askers anything session where all our educators will come live and you will get an opportunity right here on our YouTube channel from 8:00 pm onwards to ask us all your questions and doubts and we are here to resolve them it could be subject specific doubts or it could be related to strategy and your preparation for the exam so don't forget to to tune in tonight at 8:00 p.m. the live stream is already set up so click on notify me go to the homepage of our YouTube channel and find the live stream over there and click on notify me so that you get a reminder and you don't miss the askers anything session tonight at 8:00 p.m. so with this let's get started by looking at the First Column from page number 12 this column is written by TS tyum morti one of India's former diplomats who has also served as India's permanent representative to the United Nations between 2021 to 22 when India held the non-permanent seat at un Security Council so TS tyum morti has lot of experience in representing India at the United Nations that to a critical time when India held the non-permanent seat at UNC recently in 2021 2022 so the author is focused on the upcoming challenges for India at the UN which might be posed by Pakistan as Pakistan is all set to take its seat as a non-permanent member from 2025 to 2026 so essentially for the next two years starting from the end of December from uh January of next year Pakistan would be taking its seat as a non-permanent member and 24 months Pakistan would be holding the seat and this could create a number of complications for India because the writer is very certain based on his experience in dealing with Pakistan at the UN that Pakistan is going to use this opportunity to Target India to bring up several issues targeting India and this would remain the main focus of Pakistan so here we have a lot of insight arguments being made by the writer and the writer provides uh an assessment of how India can deal with uh the Pakistani challenge at the UN Security Council so let's dive a little deep into this topic and understand what is the UN Security Council the UNC is one of the primary organs of United Nations along with UN General Assembly International court of justice the economic and social Council the UN Secretariat and the trusteeship council the UNC is one of those primary organs of United Nations that was established in 1945 at the end of second world war and the UNC happens to be the most powerful of all the primary organs it has a elite representation of only 15 countries there are five permanent members which includes the US UK and France and Russia and China they constitute the P5 or the five permanent members of UNC who even exercise The veto power the UNC becomes an elite body because of this reason as it provides membership to very few countries to a select group of countries now if you compare this with UN General Assembly it has Universal membership from all 19 193 UN member states so in that regard un G is more democratic it is more fair where every country enjoys one equal vote where every country has the same power to push for Resolutions uh and even on when it comes to voting on key issues at the UN General Assembly all 193 UN member states have the same power they have a equal voting right whereas at un Security Council the P5 they are they become Elite members of the UNC and the organization itself becomes an elite organization because it is limiting the membership the permanent membership to only five countries and they even enjoy the veto through which they can defeat any resolution of the UN and any initiative of the United Nations the V of one country is enough to defeat a resolution which could be supported by 192 other countries so that is why there's a lot of criticism against the very composition and the functioning of UNC it also has 10 non-permanent members who are elected for a 2year term on a rotational basis so on a temporary basis countries can contest these elections based on geographical representation the seats are assigned as per a geographical quota to ensure Equitable representation around the world and the countries which are contesting from each region if they secure the minimum number of votes they get to be elected as a non-permanent member these elections are held every year and the country which is elected will hold the seat for 2 years at a stretch so India has been elected eight times as a non-permanent member the most recent being between 2021 to 2022 when TS tyum morti represented India acted as the uh Indian permanent representative to the United Nations so now Pakistan is filling the seat from 2025 to 26 and this would be Pakistan's eighth time as well so the writer is examining what kind of challenges can Pakistan pose to India how can it use the UN platform to Target India and how should India prepare for the upcoming challenge so it's a very interesting very insightful article so let's take a quick look now to understand this further you should know what does the UNS actually do what are the powers of UNC what's the role of UNC to understand this I need to explain the U Charter I'm going slightly beyond the article to give you some additional information here so what does the UN Charter say about the role the powers of un Security Council the UNC is responsible for maintaining peace and stability in the world the primary goal and purpose of UNC was to prevent another global conflict a possible World War I to maintain that peace and stability in the world so as part of this mandate the UNC has the power to impose economic sanctions on countries which are violating international law countries which are breaking the principles of the UN Charter it plays a critical role in nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear disarmament the UNC has a mandate to ensure that nuclear weapons technology doesn't proliferate or leak or spread to Rogue countries who might misuse them to build weapons of mass destruction the UNC has a goal to push the world towards nuclear disarmament and also to ensure that Wars and conflicts are prevented and if at all a War or conflict breaks out to end them through peaceful negotiations to negotiate ceasefire agreements and to adopt such resolutions which can help in bringing Wars and conflicts to an end it also has a mandate to counter terrorism as terrorism poses a major threat to peace and stability in the world countering terrorism is also part of its mandate so this is essentially the primary role of un Security Council to maintain peace and stability in the world by imposing economic sanctions by focusing on nuclear nonproliferation nuclear disarmament preventing Wars and conflicts and if at all wars break out to bring them to an end to a negotiated settlement and counterterrorism as well other than this the UNC also gets involved in managing the UN peacekeeping forces the UN Security Council runs these peacekeeping missions Around the World in Conflict zones and it has command over the peacekeeping forces of the UN it not only decides their deployment but also maintains control over the authority over UN peacekeeping forces so this is another important responsibility of the UN Security Council so by and large it is also responsible for upholding human rights so one can say that this is largely the Mandate of UNC so you can see that it deals with critical issues of Global Peace and security and Global geopolitics itics if there is a rogue country which is not following these norms and breaking international law and the principles of un Charter and threatening Global peace and stability against those countries the UNC can even authorize the use of force if there is a certain country posing a threat to Global peace and stability if there is a country which has gone Rogue which is threatening the use of weapons of mass destruction or a country which is in direct breach of principles of the UN and the principles of international law then UNC has the authority to authorize the UN and its member states to use Force as well military force to carry out a military intervention and this is technically known as r2p responsibility to protect now this has been a very controversial power of the UNC for example it was used used to authorize the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 following the 9/11 attacks to topple the Taliban government which was Sheltering alqaeda so us and its allies who formed the International Security assistance force a coalition Force led by us and NATO they received approval from the UN and un authorized the use of force to carry out the invasion of Afghanistan post 911 attacks now this power of UNC has been quite controversial in fact UNC has always been accused of politicizing every Global issue and within the UNC geopolitics gets played out because the P5 countries have all the powers with them with their veto P5 countries have often misused their veto and within the P5 you see a clear division between the west and the East US UK France aligned on one side pushing their own geopolitical agenda misusing their veto to protect their allies and Target their Rivals same with Russia and China they misuse their veto quite often to protect their friends whereas to Target their Rivals so this politicization of un and the veto power has led to the questioning of UNC itself that's why countries like India are pushing for reforms of the UNC India with others like Japan Brazil and Germany we are pushing for a permanent see to reflect current geopolitical realities because these five countries alone the P5 alone cannot be held accountable right they alone can't be seen as responsible for looking after peace and stability in the world maybe back in 1945 it made sense in that context during those geopolitical circumstances but those circumstances have changed today there are many new powers middle Powers which have risen including India so India has a rightful claim to be a per permanent member of the UN as well so that's about the composition the role and the criticism against un Security Council now let us discuss about what Pakistan might do during this period from 2025 to 26 how it can undermine India how it might Target India and how India can prepare for it see Pakistan has always misuse the UN platform to unnecessarily Target India this has been Pakistan's obsession right Pakistan has made a hobby out of this so one issue which Pakistan will definitely bring up would be terrorism because India uses the UN platform to always point fingers at Pakistan and even president evidence to show pakistani's State involvement in sponsoring Terror groups like lashar Toba Jes Muhammad and the others which is a established fact so obviously Pakistan would seek revenge it would seek to retaliate against this it would try to project itself as a victim of terrorism right Pakistan has always pushed this narrative that Pakistan itself is a big victim of terrorism while it is the Pakistani State especially the Deep State the Army and isi which have largely funded and nurtured these terrorist organizations which even have links with global Terror groups like Al-Qaeda Islamic State or the dases so Pakistan would even try to change the narrative and after playing the victim card it would definitely try to push the blame on India it would try to blame India for certain Terror attacks in Pakistan in fact Pakistan has been doing this from a long time it will most likely present these dossers right presenting documents and evidence to allege possible Indian involvement to allege that India is involved in carrying out terrorism in Pakistan it would make an attempt to link some of the Balo attacks or syn attacks carried out by the Nationalist Insurgent groups in balistan and syn Province and it would even try to blame the attacks by TTP Pakistan Taliban as Pakistan always alleges that India sponsors groups like The TTP and Bach groups and Cindi groups but India has always denied these allegations and more importantly Pakistan has never really brought up any credible evidence to link Indian intelligence agencies with these extremist groups so this would be another attempt to Corner India to turn the cards on India so that is something India should prepare for we've expected this uh we have seen this in the past and we should be expecting this in the coming uh days as well other than this Pakistan's another obsession is Kashmir and article 370 Pakistan will repeatedly bring up the Kashmir question it'll try to point towards uh India's alleged human right violations um it it would try to raise the issue of kashmir's Independence right it would also try to raise questions against the revocation of special status how India unilaterally revoked U the special status of Kashmir and article 370 and change the status quo this is something Pakistan has been obsessed with so Pakistan will most likely use this opportunity to Target India on such issues see Pakistan will even get some support why because among the 10 non-permanent members five of them are also members of o I OIC is another International grouping the organization of Islamic cooperation where Pakistan enjoys considerable support the OIC brings together several countries with a significant Muslim population it's an organization meant to protect the rights and the well-being and the interest of the Muslim Community around the world so Pakistan Remains the influential power within OIC it has often misused this platform to Target India on Kashmir and other internal matters of India so right now among the 10 non-permanent members of UNC five of them are also members of OIC including Pakistan which means Pakistan will easily get more support maybe from countries like uh Somalia Siara Leon right and there are others who will be part of the UNC so Pakistan is likely to get similar support from the OIC members who are also part of the UNC right now and this is something that India should be careful about India will have to counter this argument we'll have to create a counter support group that can stand for India's interest and push India's um Viewpoint at un Security Council so this is something that India should get up for other than this Pakistan will try to repair its damaged relationship with the Afghan Taliban in the last three years Pakistan's ties with the Afghan Taliban has suffered both sides have fallen aart mainly over the question of TTP Pakistan Taliban Pakistan Taliban has been mounting major attacks against Pakistan and Pakistan often blames the Afghan Taliban inem government of backing the TTP previously Afghan Taliban had secured a ceasefire by negotiating with its counterpart the Pakistan Taliban but TTP has broken that ceasefire and in the last one and a half years it has mounted major attacks against Pakistan so Pakistan and Afghan Taliban regime right their ties have been affected even though in the past the Taliban was largely seen as a puppet of Pakistan's isi so Pakistan would try to repair this damage it would try to regain that influence with the Taliban regime by trying to get it recognition through the United Nations now don't think Pakistan is alone in this effort other permanent members like Russia China they've already recognized the Taliban regime China in particular has officially recognized the Taliban regime and has even set up official diplomatic ties with the in government of the Taliban in Afghanistan so Russia China would likely support a Pakistani initiative to get that Global recognition the UN recognition to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan so this is something India should look out for because this could enhance Pakistani influence with the Taliban regime and that could be concerning for India because in the past when Pakistan and Taliban have aligned it has been bad news for India right Pakistan has used that depth in Afghanistan to nurture Terror groups against India by taking the support of the Taliban right now India has its own uh contact with the Taliban we are talking to Taliban on our own so we would like to ensure that Pakistan doesn't um doesn't counter the Indian interests or push for a recognition and gets all the credit for that so India would also try to play a role here if India Taliban relations are worked out maybe India would also play a role in pushing for recognition to the Taliban regime so that we can counter the Pakistani influence so that is what that is one uh interesting issue that would play out at the unse other than this there are issues such as uh the UN peacekeeping forces because both India Pakistan actually have something in common we both are the major troop contributing countries to UN peacekeeping forces countries like desh India Pakistan Nigeria Kenya Philippines it is these developing under developed countries from Global South which are the largest troop contributing countries to UN peacekeeping forces but the problem is these countries have no control over the UN peacekeeping forces with regard to their safety and well-being this is entirely controlled by the UNC by the P5 India has long argued that this is unfair India has contributed close to 2 lakh troops over the last s decades and in fact Indian soldiers have made the biggest sacrifice as well with close to 180 Indian soldiers being marted on these un peacekeeping missions but even though we are contributing those troops risking the lives of our soldiers troop contributing countries have no role to play they have no role absolutely in the decision- making process concerning these un peacekeeping missions the P5 countries which barely contribute to the peacekeeping misss they have full control over the deployment and the safety of the peacekeeping forces this is something India has always opposed so India Pakistan have a common ground here possibly we can use this to work together so don't think we always uh fight and oppose each other there are grounds and platforms where we can possibly work together even issues like climate change sustainable development goals so there are plenty of opportunities if Pakistan shows the willingness right if Pakistan shows that willingness there are opportunities available where India Pakistan can work together for example I still remember back in 2012 there was a similar situation um where Pakistan had become a non-permanent member and very soon India also became a non-permanent member so in that particular year both India Pakistan were at UNC as non-permanent members so it was very interesting to watch back then how India Pakistan actually worked together they coordinated with each other they helped out each other on certain critical issues of mutual concern so since both were non-permanent members back then we did see some kind of cooperation between the two which was quite rare but now Pakistan would be the only non-permanent member India would not be holding that seat so what I'm saying is that even though Pakistan would try to Target India most definitely right it would obsess with issues like terrorism uh Kashmir Etc but there are Avenues available for India Pakistan to work together as well if Pakistan shows the will Ness other than this there are few other issues that Pakistan is trying to focus upon for example it is desperately trying to bring in a religious angle to the question of terrorism see India has always countered all forms of terrorism irrespective of the religion it's coming from irrespective of the place it is coming from right India often doesn't distinguish between so-called good and bad terrorists and India has always pushed for a uniform definition of terrorism in fact India has pushed the comprehensive convention on International terrorism at the UN which has not been adopted unfortunately due to the lack of global support so while India pushes for combating terrorism through the UN what Pakistan has done is that it has tried to turn the narrative by giving a religious angle to this whenever countries like India bring up the question of terrorism Pakistan tries to turn this into an argument about islamophobia in fact Pakistan with few other countries have even pushed un to adopt a resolution related to islamophobia and the writer points out that there has been attempts by Pakistan to designate a Hindu terrorist or a Hindu sounding name an individual with a Hindu name as a terrorist to pin the blame on India as well and to give that a religious color so Pakistan has often played such divisive geopolitics on religious lines right it tries to exploit that and gain sentiment and gain support right gain some sympathy right by turning this about islamophobia about how other religions have often targeted Islam while that is not India's concern or India's push right and TS torti points out those instances as well uh repeatedly whenever India has tried to use platforms like 1267 sanctions committee the 267 sanctions committee under UNC is available to list Global terrorists from Al-Qaeda Taliban and Isis or dases so these Global terrorists are designated and ingly sanctions are imposed on them and India has ensured that several wanted terrorists are sanctioned and listed by the 1267 sanctions committee so whenever India makes such an attempt Pakistan tries to turn the narrative that countries are targeting Islam that Islamic faith is under threat while that is never India's push India doesn't look at terrorism as a religious problem it's more of a state sponsored problem right but Pakistan has made attempts to ensure that someone with a Hindu sounding name is designated as a global terrorist as well and Pakistan has pushed for that so that it can just pin the blame on India so it is this exploitation of the platform which concerns India which bothers India now recent for example we have used the sanctions committee to get Hai s masud AAR and other top terrorists zaku rman laki all from lashkar toyba Jes Muhammad and such top terrorists have been designated by the sanctions committee but what is shocking is that Pakistan is yet to act against them so this is something India keeps highlighting and pushing now recently India pushed for the designation of a Pakistani based terrorist Abdul Rahman Maki the deputy leader of lashkar and for the first time India itself was proposing the name previously when you look at masud AAR h s and others those terrorist names were proposed by other UNC members like France or us but this time India and us together were co-sponsoring the name in 2021-22 and for the first time a India proposed name was accepted by the 1267 sanctions committee and Abdul Rahman Mak was uh listed as a UNC sanctioned uh terrorist so it shows that India has used the platform effectively to counter terrorism to pin to pin down Pakistan and its state sponsorship of terrorism so this is something that Pakistan would keep in mind right Pakistan holds that Grudge uh to seek retribution against India it would try to use the term the two-year term to pin down India on all these points so as I said there are areas available for cooperation and India should be prepared to counter the Pakistani narrative India will have to form its own alliances build up its own support base from other non-permanent members and permanent members so that we can counter the Pakistani propaganda So based on this you can anticipate a possible question upsc might ask you what challenges should India anticipate for the next two years given that Pakistan is now going to hold the nonpermanent seat at UNC so if you can bring out this argument and list out these pointers that should be more than sufficient now let's move on and look at the next article from page number 12 this column focuses on Urban local bodies or ulbs are City corporations Municipal corporations the critical role they play in local Urban governance and the importance of holding periodic elections as envisaged under the 74th Constitution Amendment act that is the focus of this article so let's take a quick look the 74th Constitution Amendment Act was a revolutionary step the 73rd and of course the 74th Constitution Amendment act they provided constitutional status to local governance in the country for pris or payti Raj institutions under the 73rd Constitution Amendment act and for municipal bodies under the 74th Constitution Amendment act so Urban local bodies were empowered through this constitution Amendment and this basically streamlined Urban governance Urban local bodies they play a pivotal role they deliver the last mile service in our urban areas from Paving the roads to city planning to ensuring the basic Public Services right which keeps our cities running managing property um managing in the traffic right planning the infrastructure development of the city uh delivering basic services like Waste Management sewage management Etc so these local bodies play a critical role and today for India Urban management Urban governance is becoming all the more important why because as of now more than 40% of our population resides in cities and Studies have clearly established that by 2050 by the middle of the century more than 50% of India's population will be residing in cities by the middle of the century more than half of the country's population that is uh close to 7.8 billion people will be residing living in Indian cities and towns this makes Urban management Urban governance all the more important that's where the role the responsibility of urban local bodies becomes critical right so Studies have shown that India's Urban population will contribute nearly 60% of the country's GDP our cities and towns will be the growth centers of the country largely the country's growth would be delivered through our cities and and towns where all the manufacturing Industries service based Industries would be concentrated so we are expecting around 60% of GDP to come from here with more than 50% population living in these cities and towns so don't you think they deserve better governance better services at the urban level and this cannot happen without periodic elections local governance will not be responsive it will not be participative unless and until periodic elections timely elections are held unless and until true decentralization is provided as far as the urban local bodies are concerned so that is the the core point that the writer here is examining now see in India we have seen many reports many committees uh that have looked at the issue of simultaneous elections right now there's a lot of talk about one nation one election in fact we even have another article in today's newspaper related to it because just yesterday the union cabinet has approved two bills to be introduced in the winter session to make one nation one election a reality so we will discuss that as well we'll come to that point so there has been a lot of debate about one nation one election but this debate has been largely restricted to simultaneous elections for the Parliament and the legislatures now for example if you look at the Parliamentary uh standing committee on Law and Justice which had studied the issue of simultaneous elections and gave a report back in 2015 it did not support simultaneous elections for urban local bodies or local bodies in chle then we had Niti AOG which also looked at this issue in 2017 the Niti AOG even the Niti AOG did not support simultaneous elections for urban local bodies clear then we had the law Commission of India the draft report of the law Commission of India in 2018 which also did not support simultaneous elections for urban local bodies because the main focus of simultaneous elections has largely been synchronizing the elections of the parliament the general elections at the national level and the state level assembly elections so all these previous committees which have looked at this issue they have not really considered simultaneous elections for urban local bodies beate the Parliamentary standing committee on Law and Justice the Niti AOG or the law Comm of India but however the high powered committee that was recently appointed by the Modi government under the chairmanship of Ramat kovind the former Indian president to study and provide recommendations on simultaneous elections it included Urban local bodies under its mandate if you look at the recommendations of the high powered committee the coin committee it has recommended the roll out of simultaneous elections not just for uh general elections to the Parliament and assembly elections at the state level but it it has recommended that within 100 days within 100 days of one nation one election being rolled out at the center and state level it should be extended to local bodies as well so thus the Ramat kovind committee has brought Urban local body these pchi Raj institutions under its purview and recommended that simultaneous election should be conducted even for local bodies but however the government is not inclined to provide for this implementation why the Modi government is very eager to roll out simultaneous elections for the center and the state for Parliament and assemblies because this won't require a it won't require the approval of more than 50% of the states right under the Constitution Amendment which would be necessary to make these changes the center need not wait for the approval of 50% of the states if the push is only for simultaneous elections with regard to Parliament and state assemblies because that would still be under the purview of the center but if local bodies are also included let's say if the government has to implement the recommendation of Ramat kovind committee on simultaneous elections for local bodies then this would require 50 % of the states to approve the Constitution Amendment which might be difficult to achieve and hence the government is not inclined on including this proposal in fact if you look at the bills that were approved yesterday it does not include simultaneous elections for local bodies it only covers general elections to the Parliament and assembly elections to the legislatures is this clear so writer here expresses a concern because previous Studies have shown for example a CAG audit showed that 60% of the urban local bodies they do not hold timely elections now this is a matter of concern without proper elections and periodic elections how will accountability be fixed who will exercise those responsibilities as far as Urban governance is concerned so CAG audit has shown that we have close to 4, 700 4,800 Urban local IES right imagine 60% of them don't hold timely elections and in fact even if they hold elections there is a inordinate delay in the election of the mayor the appointment of the chairperson or the standing committees which actually play an important role in urban governance these key positions are not filled for several months even after elections so this essentially defeats the purpose of urban local bodies right that that is not what was envisioned in the 74th Constitution Amendment act so this is where the role of state election commissions become critical the state election commissions right under 73rd 74th Constitution Amendment act they need to be empowered some states have empowered the state election commission to even conduct delimitation but many states right they largely still retain control over these local bodies and the elections to local bodies so this defeats the very purpose of decentralization if the states are still controlling Urban local bodies so this is where the writers believe that there should be a push for simultaneous elections to local bodies as well especially Urban local bodies and uh the writers are supporting a stronger State Election Commission a more empowered State Election Commission so it can conduct periodic elections ensure that at the end of the term regular periodic elections are held the required uh vacancies are filled and this is what can bring responsive accountable effective governance uh especially at the third tier of administration so please take up this question Urban local bodies play a critical role in local governance and hence periodic elections are pivotal to their effectiveness discuss so let's see if you guys can write an answer to this question next on the front page on the front page we have a few important articles so let's take a quick look the Supreme Court has freezed any further suits being filed at local courts and civil courts and also it has freezed any orders or decisions that can be passed by local courts on questions related to places of worship act we have recently studied analyzed the places of worship act in detail this 1991 law it froze the religious character of a place of worship as it existed on 15th August 1947 to maintain communal Harmony in the country to ensure that there are no unnecessary challenges legal challenges regarding the religious character of a place of worship this law was introduced during the heightened communal tensions around the babri Masjid Ram janoi aod title dispute issue so it was pushed through under the then Nimar ra government and it gave an exception to the aodha title dispute because the matter was already sub judice so this law excludes the ram janabi aodha title dispute but other than that every other place of worship they will maintain and retain the religious character as it existed on 15th August 195 47 that is on the day when India became independent so on this day if there was a Hindu temple it will remain a Hindu temple if there is a mosque on 15th August 1947 it should remain a mosque but however off late number of suits are being filed at local courts especially trial courts and local courts alleging that mosques have been built on Old Hindu temples which were allegedly destroyed by Muslim uh rulers mugal U Islamic invaders for example Etc so by citing these historical references the petition will often push for a survey they will off often get orders issued by local courts to open up the matter to hear these cases which could have a a detrimental impact on the society because one were to open up historical wounds and if the local courts were to entertain such petitions just because there are claims that um possibly a mosque was built by raising down a Hindu temple hundreds of years ago if such Trends are generally encouraged right this could lead to communal tensions it could harm the communal Harmony in the country now off late several such Cas cases have come up uh be it U the cases in Varanasi uh with regard to ajir DGA then if you look at the suul controversy recently right ganap controversy uh and many others so around the country there are 18 such suits which have been filed over 10 religious places and the numbers are increasing regularly if one dispute in 91 could lead to large scale communal divisions polarization and riots right imagine how if these issues are misused by radical extremist groups or political organizations this could unnecessarily harm the social fabric of the country so Supreme Court has intervened because Supreme Court is already hearing several petitions which are challenging the constitutionality of this law itself there are petitioners who are arguing that places of worship Act is unconstitutional so Supreme Court is already looking at that so meanwhile trial courts at the lower level are already accepting such suits and even passing inem orders and uh ordering for surveys to be conducted or the place of worship to be closed for some time asking for a a proper U excavation as well through archaological Survey of India so when such ERS are issued at the local level and this could further instigate communal sentiments and it could harm the social fabric of the nation so Supreme Court of India has taken a call a bench headed by the Chief Justice of India has clearly stayed any such suits from being accepted going forward so local trial courts cannot accept such cases under places of worship act and supreme court has said we are already examining the constitutionality of the law itself so let's look at this first let the Supreme Court decide trial courts can't be in competition with Supreme Court here so Supreme Court has put a stop to any such inem orders or surveys which are ordered by local courts it has even basically prohibited these local courts from taking up such cases and Suits because Supreme Court is already hearing several similar cases related to places of worship Act Right the gapi controversy the case has already reached the Supreme Court so Supreme Court is already looking at some of these cases plus it's examining the constitutionality of the law itself so that's why the Supreme Court has decided that there should be a freeze on these suits and local Court should be prohibited for now from taking up such cases and even passing any inem orders on such sensitive cases so that is an important development next the union cabinet has approved two important bills for introducing simultaneous elections in the country as we were discussing based on recommendations of the Ramat cind high powered committee which recommended the introduction of simultaneous elections the Modi government has drafted two bills which require constitutional amendment in order to make one nation one election a reality again so the government has drafted two bills which were approved by the union cabinet yesterday and very soon they are expected to be tabled in the ongoing winter session so one of the bill will seek to amend the Constitution to amend the necessary constitutional Provisions to introduce simultaneous elections right which includes article 324 while the other seeks to amend the laws related to the term of the legislative Assemblies of certain union territories like Delhi puducheri right and now Jammu and Kashmir as well these are Utes with a legislature with the elected legislature so their terms either will have to be extended or curtailed so that their terms will Al with the terms of the other state assemblies similarly the term of the state assemblies will have to be extended or curtailed that's where a constitutional amendment becomes necessary right so that simultaneous polls can be held so by the time the next general election happens right if hopefully everything goes as per the plan the terms of certain assemblies will be curbed or curtailed the terms of certain assemblies will be extended to synchronize uh all the all the legislatures so that simultaneous polls can be held now this again is a highly controversial divisive topic it is argued that simultaneous elections are very good beneficial for the country the government which has been a proponent various committees which have supported it including Election Commission of India has always backed simultaneous polls because at one point uh in 1960s we did have from 1950s to 60s we did have simultaneous polls this cycle was broken uh with the premature ending of certain State Assembly starting with Kerala right with the imposition of president's rule uh and hung assemblies coming up in' 70s and defection becoming a norm in the 70s and 8s several State assemblies prematurely ended their term leading to Fresh elections and thus a mismatch occurred between the Parliamentary elections and legislative elections now the attempt is to synchronize them which means the term has to be altered of certain assemblies to bring them on par with the parliament now the government and the proponents argue that this will save cost right which is a very good AR argument Election Commission incurs significant expenditure on the conduct of Elections and now every year there are elections happening in the country in some State or the other right every 5 years there's a general election and every year there are few State elections happening so this becomes a huge burden on the government Machinery itself the bureaucracy right which is the backbone of the conduct and holding of Elections they're always in election mode which distracts them from Administration from governance and don't forget our politicians and political parties they're always in campaign mode because of this they're always seeking votes in some part of the country or the other right the model code of conduct which comes into effect could also curb governance and Welfare initiatives because every year for a few months there might be model code of conduct due to elections in some part of the country so there are several advantages to introduce One Nation one election it'll reduce the cost it'll free up the government machinery right it will ensure that the majority uh ruling party which is in power right will focus on governance and administration instead of seeking votes and winning elections by coming out with popular schemes uh it will ensure that the model code of conduct is not disruptive for welfare programs so there are numerous benefits that arise out of it but at the same time the critics they have a strong opposition they have a very strong argument against simultaneous elections they believe that this could destroy federalism and regionalism they argue that Regional parties small parties stand no chance against the larger National parties and National issues might become more important in fighting and winning elections as compared to regional and local issues because National level parties can always bring up foreign policy National Security issues and try to fight elections on the basis of that whereas local issues might get cornered so Regional parties and smaller parties of the local level may not be able to compete with the national level parties so this might give an unfair advantage to the bigger parties right which have um more support in general so this could undermine federalism regionalism it could even go against the basic structure of the Constitution ing to the critics right so there is strong opposition against it uh in fact after the union cabinet approved these bills there has been opposition coming in from certain States like West Bengal Tamil Nadu which are ruled by opposition parties so as I said the government has decided to exclude one important recommendation of Ramat cind committee which is to provide simultaneous elections for local bodies because if that provision had been included in these bills then the Constitution Amendment would would have to be approved by more than 50% of the states so to ensure a smooth sailing of these amendments right to ensure that State's approval is not necessary the government has excluded this provision right and it is pushing only for simultaneous polls for now for Parliament and state legislatures and leaving out the local bodies so let's see what happens once it is introduced in the parliament there will be a lot of Articles related to this and we can discuss and examine this again now coming to another important development the government has pushed a bill to amend the disaster management Act of 2005 the DM act has been pivotal in transforming India's disaster management it streamlined disaster Management in the country it brought disaster management into mainstream governance so the disaster management act had created a number of Institutions it created a three- tiered architecture for disaster management by establishing National disaster Management Authority state level disaster Management Authority and District level disaster Management Authority it provided for the funds the national Disaster Response fund State Disaster Response fund a national disaster mitigation fund to finance disaster Management in the country it provided for a professional Disaster Response force ndrf it focused on implementing the three stages of uh disaster Management in the disaster management cycle it provided for pre- disaster planning and preparedness it provided for more effective response and relief during disaster and it provided for post disaster reconstruction and Recovery thus implementing the global standards including the targets laid down under Sendai framework for action with regard to disaster risk reduction so India became fully compliant as as far as the Sendai framework targets were concerned with regard to disaster risk reduction we have Incorporated these un targets into our disaster management policy and plan so this act has been transformational for India as far as disaster management has been concerned now the government is SE seeking to amend this the government has pushed certain amendments along with creation of some new institutions it's looking to replace certain words and terminologies that have been used in the previous version of the law because one shortcoming of the previous law is that it often prioritizes the role of the center the concerns of the center with regard to when compared to the concerns of the state states have often complained that disaster management is too centralized uh disaster management doesn't help the states much the center doesn't really provide the required support sometimes it has often led to Center State uh tensions and and clashes as well between the center and the state so the Center says that the amendment is necessary to iron out these issues the center is pushing for some new institutions it is uh proposing that the word compensation which was provided under the law for victims of a disaster is now being replaced by the term relief because see compensation explicitly meant monetary compensation which was necessary to Pro protect the victims from Financial ruin but now there is criticism coming in from the opposition that government is to replace the word composition with the word relief relief could even mean just search and rescue relief could even mean providing food medicines Etc but it may not explicitly include compensation monetary compensation which might be necessary to protect the victims and give them Financial Security during a disaster so there are certain um debatable Provisions which the government has been pushing uh for example uh the amendment doesn't even mention climate change even once see this was one short coming in the previous version of the law when the disaster management Act was enacted in 2005 right it never accounted for climate change separately today as you know climate change is driving extreme weather events it's driving more and more disasters extreme weather events are becoming more frequent more intense and yet our law doesn't even mention climate change it doesn't account for the impact of climate change on disasters on extreme weather events now the amendment as well ignores climate change entirely so such concerns have been flagged but once we get further details on the bill what the government is exactly pushing for what's the opposition in the parliament right then we can have a more detailed debate on this so let's look out for this topic and I will definitely have another discussion on this uh given the big changes that are being pushed by the government so let's go through the bill again and once the details are clearly known we will have one more discussion on this topic so in the meanwhile let me know what you think is there a need to amend the disaster management act hasn't the DM act done well for India or is there a need to bring in new changes let me know in the comments now coming to the last part of today's discussion let's take a quick look at the prelim section on page 13 the Hindu carries a very small piece uh where it pays tribute to events that occurred 100 years ago and 50 years ago now many of you often don't look at the section of the Hindu but sometimes there are interesting topics that come up here so today there is an article related to wcom satyagraha currently we are marking the 100 Years of the legendary vom satyagraha so most likely this could be a prelims topic upsc loves to ask anniversary questions right especially 100th anniversary is a is a good milestone for such important historical topics so what is wcom satyagraha won satyagraha was a legendary revolutionary step in India's fight against the evils of the cast system that dominated the Hindu cast hierarchy in Kerala that is in the then Kingdom of trenor at the wcom temple in the Kingdom of trenor there was large scale cast based discrimination by the upper cast against the lower cast of the dalits in fact Kingdom of traven Cor in that regard was Notorious for cost-based discrimination where the so-called apas would U EX include prohibit and ban lower cast and dalits from even entering public spaces including temples forget entering a temple even the roads around the temple for an entire block lower class and dalits would be prohibited from even walking on those streets this was the kind of atrocity that was seen in the cast Hindu Society in uh the kingdom of travan cor so this is where legendary leaders of the then Congress TK madavan kapen quesa Menan with the support of Eevee ramaswami perer and Geor Joseph they organized a nonviolent satyagraha from 1924 to 1925 eventually this uh led to the involvement of Mahatma Gandhi as well right and eventually a solution was worked out even though the solution was not ideal right gradually um some of the restrictions were lifted and lowas and dalits were allowed to walk on certain roads but still the temp premises and the road around it was still not given access to the lower cast and dths this is where Gandhi faces criticism as well that Gandhi agreed for such an unfair deal which did not remove untouchability which did not go against uh the cast oppression eventually it was the temple entry Pro Proclamation right and in fact wcom satyagraha played a a big role in uh pushing for a temple entry uh Proclamation that lifted such abusive practices in the cast Hindu society that eventually paved the way for equal access for other casts as well right so this is a pivotal moment in India's Freedom struggle right and with regard to our social reforms so please make a note next from the World of Sports yesterday we got some fantastic news from Singapore where the fiday World Chess Championship was held between uh the current Champion the Chinese grandmas ding Len and the new Superstar from India D gukesh in this legendary match D gukesh from India has has scripted history by breaking all records by becoming the world's youngest chess champion he has beaten the record of the legendary Gary casprov from Russia Gary casprov held this record for four decades right he was the youngest World chess champion when he won won the World Chess Championship for 40 years ago so this record has been broken by a 18-year-old Indian chess champ from Chennai D gukesh this marks the rise and Rise of Indian chess especially the young uh youth from India we have the likes of uh Arjun arasi then we have prananda right and now d kukesh who have done the country proud uh as of now vishwanathan Anand right was the only one from India to have won the World Chess Championship and now D gkes has taken that place and as that as the youngest in the world ever right so now he takes on the very Legend of uh current Grand Masters like Magnus Carlson right and this is a golden period for Indian chess and there's a editorial as well on this today and it correctly points out that the glory in chess is returning back to India and rightly so because India is the birth place of Chess right India is where chess originated and uh it is it is to the credit of the Indian youth the training acmy right for example the mentors of D gukesh prananda which includes vishwanathan Anand and the private sponsor they've done phenomenally well in creating the right support system for India's uh chess players right so this is honestly the golden period of Indian chess so one should be aware of these basic details next PM Modi has laid the foundation for the controversial Ken bwa River interlinking Project Ken bwa interlinking project is part of the national River interlinking Project right so under this proposal the idea is to link the Ken River in madhya Pradesh and to transfer the Surplus from the Ken to bethwa in up because the bethwa region falls under the bundan region which is one of the most added backward regions in the country and from the Ken belt the Ken drainage area in the madhya Pradesh uh region the idea is to transfer the Surplus Water by building a series of canels and embankments that can transfer the Surplus to the deficit bwa region to solve the problems of bundel region it's a very ambitious project but it has been facing stiff opposition from environmental activists social activist Etc because because the project will pass through P tiger Reserve there's a possibility of um the Backwater submerging large tracks of the Pana tiger Reserve which is seen as an environmental threat and also um the large scale transfer of surplus water from the Ken Basin to the betwa Basin could even lead to ecological consequences so there has been lot of opposition against it but the government has finally gone ahead and the PM um would be laying the foundation for the Ken bewa River interlinking Project coming to the last article for today on page 20 we have a organization which is mentioned reporters Without Borders are WB see upsc has often asked such questions related to Global organizations uh in previous exams we have got questions on organizations like msf Medicine Science Frontiers or Doctors Without Borders we have got questions related to Amnesty International right so such groups could be very important rwb reporters Without Borders it essentially highlights the challenges faced by reporters journalists it stands for right to freedom of expression freedom of press and it's a nonprofit non-governmental organization headquartered in Paris clear so it has brought out a report regarding uh the threats faced by journalists around the world by reporters especially in war zones and it points out how Israel is respons responsible for the killing of more than 18 journalists in Gaza in the ongoing Gaza War so that's why the topic is in news so just know that reporters Without Borders is a global NGO nonprofit organization protecting the rights of journalists the rights of the media the freedom of speech and expression the freedom of press and it has consultative status at Global organizations like un UNESCO Council of Europe and others so these are some basic pointers that you need to remember clear so this completes my detailed analysis of today's the Hindu so if you want the PDF of the session please join my telegram channel scan the QR code and also join our official telegram channel the link is in the description below because after the session we provide a daily quiz which will help you practice mcqs based on these uh topics that we have discussed so that is it for today thanks for watching we'll see you tomorrow take care and don't forget to tune in again at 8:00 p.m. because all our Educators from unacademy IAS English will be meeting you live and you can ask us anything any question on subject related doubts your strategy or Preparation related doubts anything so let's meet again at 8:00 p.m. don't forget to tune in live on our YouTube channel so till then see you take care