Q.1) In the current scenario of rising border tensions between India and China, examine the relevance and implications of including Australia in Malabar exercise.
Why this question?
Indian government will soon take a decision on whether to include Australia in the Malabar exercises with Japan and the U.S. at a Defence Ministry meeting.
Intro:
Mention recent incident at Galwan valley
Body:
- Background of India-China border tensions
- Details of Malabar exercise also mention AUSINDEX
- Relevance of inclusion of Australia in Malabar exercise
- Perspective of ‘Quad countries’
- Implications of the move
- Major shift for India’s Indo-Pacific plans.
- Signal to China(considering deteriorating relations of China and Australia)
- Bilateral cooperation between India-Australia etc
Conclusion:
Mention the vision of ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific’
Q.2) Mahatma Gandhi taught us that to solve a problem, we have to confront the real issue. There is the need to realise the above teachings for decriminalising Indian politics. Examine (15 marks - 250 words)
Why this question? - The Supreme Court in a judgement (February 2020) ordered political parties to publish the entire criminal history of their candidates for Assembly and Lok Sabha elections along with the reasons that stimulate them to field suspected criminals over decent people.
Intro - Criminalisation in Indian politics is increasing - substantiate with ADR data.
Body -
- Attempts by Judiciary, legislature and executive to cleanse politics in India.
- Despite all these reforms, criminalisation in politics is increasing.
Way ahead - The initiative to decriminalise politics should come from political parties themselves. Then only enforcement will be effective.
Conclusion - Summarize your answer based on the above discussion.
Q.3) Buddhism forms a common thread between India and its diplomatic relations with many countries. Discuss (10 marks - 250 words)
Why this question? - The Ministry of Culture has taken up the project of reprinting 108 volumes of Mongolian Kanjur under the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM).
Intro - A brief about Buddhism.
Body -
- Spread of Buddhism from India to different countries.
- How Buddhism is shaping India’s diplomatic relations - cultural diplomacy
Conclusion - Buddhism act as a symbol of cultural symphony between India and other countries and will contribute to furtherance of bilateral and multilateral relations during the coming years.
Q.4) The government’s decision to block Chinese apps has spotlighted the vulnerability of Internet freedom.Examine.
Why in news:
- The government’s decision to block 59 Chinese apps has once again spotlighted the vulnerability of Internet freedom at a time of national security.
Intro:
- Introduce with the significance of internet freedom and rights of people.
Body:
Is internet freedom being sacrificed?
- If it is the rights of Indian individuals who use platforms like TikTok either to run their business or to just become popular.then they can do this on other platforms as well.
- However, Section 69A [of the Information Technology Act], which has been used, is not a new power that the government is commandeering during a time of national security emergency.
- Wide definition: Section 69A has a limited set of defined grounds under which the government can take action. Those are often wide grounds, including security of the state.
- The necessity of blocking the app must be very clearly made out by the government.
- Constitutional democracy: India is not only a constitutional democracy, but also one that is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
- There is a certain basic understanding that regulation of the Internet or Internet-based services by governments has to respect basic human rights standards.
- Three past test: For a government to block service or to block any access to content or take other coercive steps that may intrude upon people’s fundamental rights and freedoms, it has to follow what in international law is called the three-part test.
- Less intrusive
- Proportionality test
- Standard of necessity
Conclusion:
- The government should immediately stop asserting that privilege, so that the public indeed knows what is being blocked and for what reason.
