Prelim Bits 17-09-2022 | UPSC Daily Current Affairs

Iran to join SCO

Iran has signed a MoU to become a permanent member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) at India Summit 2023.

• Iran seeks to become the member of SCO to overcome economic isolation imposed by U.S. sanctions.
• In 2021, the SCO decided to start the accession process of Iran to the SCO as a full member, and Egypt, Qatar as well as Saudi Arabia became dialogue partners.

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

• The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is a central Asian security body dominated by Russia and China.
• It is an intergovernmental organization formed in 2001, as a talking shop for Russia, China and ex-Soviet states in Central Asia.
• In 2017, it expanded to include India and Pakistan with a view to playing a bigger role as counterweight to Western influence in the region.
• Since its inception, the SCO has mainly focused on
  1. Regional security issues,
  2. Its fight against regional terrorism,
  3. Ethnic separatism and
  4. Religious extremism.
• To date, the SCO’s priorities also include regional development.
• Members - Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan

Before the inception of SCO, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan were members of the Shanghai Five.

• Observer Countries - Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia
• Dialogue Partners - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey
• Significance - The SCO is the world’s largest regional organisation consisting of 40% of the world’s population and 30% of global gross domestic product (GDP).
• The SCO has been an observer in the UN General Assembly since 2005.

India will take over as chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in 2023.

Reference

1. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-signs-memorandum-joining-shanghai-cooperation-organisation-tass-2022-09-15/
2. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/15/iran-signs-memorandum-join-shanghai-cooperation-organisation
3. https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/india-supports-cooperation-and-mutual-trust-among-sco-members-pm-modi-122091600746_1.html
4. https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/iran-full-member-shanghai-cooperation-organisation-india-as-chair-samarkand-meet-2000577-2022-09-15
5. https://dppa.un.org/en/shanghai-cooperation-organization

Annabhau Sathe

Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister unveiled a statue of Annabhau Sathe at the All-Russia State Library for Foreign Literature in Moscow.

• Tukaram Bhaurao Sathe or Annabhau Sathe was born in a Dalit family in 1920 in Maharashtra’s Wategaon village.
• He is known as the Lok Shahir (means people's balladeer).
• During his days at the Matunga Labour Camp, he got to know R B More, an associate of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar in the ‘Chavdar Lake’ satyagraha at Mahad, and joined the labour study circle.
• Literary Work - Sathe formed Dalit Yuvak Sangh, a cultural group and started writing poems on workers’ protests, agitations.
• The group would translate the Russian work of Maxim Gorky, Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Turgenev into Marathi.
• Sathe used folk music like ‘powada’ (ballad) and the ‘lavani’ folk dance of Maharashtra to further popularise his work.
• In 1939, he wrote his first ballad ‘Spanish Povada’.
• His ‘Bangalchi Hak’ (Bengal’s Call) on the Bengal famine was translated into Bengali and later presented at London’s Royal Theatre.
• He dedicated his famous novel Fakira to Dr Ambedkar.
• Labour struggle - In 1934, he participated in a workers’ strike under the leadership of Lal Bawta Mill Workers Union in Mumbai.
• In 1943, he along with Amar Sheikh and Datta Gavhankar, formed the Lal Bawta Kala Pathak that presented programmes on caste atrocities, class conflict, and workers’ rights across Maharashtra.
• In 1943, he helped forming the Indian Peoples Theatre Association (IPTA). He became its national president in 1949.
• His Russian Connection - Sathe’s work was immensely inspired by the Russian revolution and the Communist ideology (Marxism).
• He was a member of the Communist Party of India (CPI).
• He was featured among the authors from India whose work was translated in Russian.
• Sathe was immensely inspired by Gorky’s ‘The Mother’.
• Marathi poet Baburao Bagul called Sathe the Maxim Gorky of Maharashtra.

Reference

1. https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-culture/who-was-activist-author-annabhau-sathe-8148840/
2. https://www.theweek.in/leisure/society/2022/09/16/who-was-annabhau-sathe-whose-statue-unveiled-fadnavis-moscow.html
3. https://theprint.in/india/maharashtras-gorky-who-was-annabhau-sathe-whys-fadnavis-unveiling-his-statue-in-moscow/1127195/

SC on Separate Domicile for a State

The Supreme Court of India has said that there is no separate domicile for a State.

• This judgment was given when the SC was dealing with an appeal filed by Telangana against a High Court judgment regarding the Andhra Pradesh State Reorganisation Act, 2014.
• The HC upheld an officer's claim to be posted in Telangana and not Andhra Pradesh post the bifurcation of the State under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act in 2014.
• The SC said that the Andhra Pradesh State Reorganisation Act, 2014 or any other guidelines cannot take away from citizens the right to reside and settle in any part of the country.
• It observed that there is only one domicile, that is, the domicile of the country and there is no separate domicile for a State.

Under the Constitution, India is a Union of States. Every part of every State is an integral and inseverable part of India.

• The SC continued that it is true that when a State is divided and the employees and officers of the State government have to be allotted to the two States.
• Such allocation has to be done based of the rules and regulations and by guidelines.
• However, such rules, regulations and guidelines have to be construed harmoniously with the fundamental rights of the Constitution.

Article 1 of Indian Constitution

• India shall be a Union of States.
• The States shall mean the States for the time being specified in Parts I, II and III of the First Schedule.
• The territory of India shall comprise-
  1. The territories of the States;
  2. The territories for the time being specified in Part IV of the First Schedule; and
  3. Such other territories as may be acquired.

Reference

1. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/no-separate-domicile-for-a-state-supreme-court/article65895567.ece
2. https://www.constitutionofindia.net/constitution_of_india/the_union_and_its_territory/articles/Article%201
3. https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/supreme-court-state-reorganization-seperate-domicile-fundamental-right-state-of-telangana-vs-b-subba-rayadu-2022-livelaw-sc-767-209314