Contents
- Justice for Rohingya
- Indo-US Relationship: Nationalist Similarities
- Karnataka’s towns from another age
- Cotton research bodies in India, Uganda to develop new seed variety
JUSTICE FOR ROHINGYA
Why in news?
ICJ unanimously ruled mandating Myanmar to take the necessary actions to prevent genocide of Rohingya Muslims.
More about the verdict
The ruling vindicates findings by the UN and human rights groups on the prevalence of hate speech, mass atrocities of rape and extrajudicial killings, and torching of villages in Myanmar’s Rakhine province, leading to the forced migration of thousands to Bangladesh.
Reaction of Mayanmar
- Rejecting the ICJ’s ruling, Myanmar’s Foreign Ministry has accused rights groups of presenting the Court with a distorted picture of the prevailing situation. In a statement, it defended the army’s action as a legitimate response to violations of the law by the insurgent Arakhan Rohingya Salvation Army.
- The Commission acknowledged that war crimes had indeed been committed during the military campaign, when about 900 people were killed.
- But there was nothing to back the assertions of gangrape, or evidence to presume any intent of genocide.
Implications of the verdict
It empowers the UN Security Council to prevail upon Myanmar to take appropriate measures for the rehabilitation and repatriation of displaced communities.
INDO -US RELATIONSHIP: NATIONALIST SIMILARITIES
Why in news?
There is a marked shift in Indo-US tie as the present dispensation in both country has managed to move forward on various issues
US- Pakistan ties
India’s ties with the U.S. are impacted by America’s ties with India’s adversaries and neighbors, China and Pakistan.
Mr. Trump’s bluster against both have lit hope that there would finally be a near complete alignment between India and the U.S. on strategy
Detailed analysis:
- Both countries is working to reframe the national interest, and both have articulated it with clarity and force
- Both dispensations believe that “the people” had been given a raw deal by earlier regimes, controlled by the elites and the experts who were in collusion with their global counterparts
- India under Mr. Modi continues to push for more space for itself in global affairs by seeking a permanent seat in the UN Security Council and membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
- There has also been the cancellation of several bilateral investment treaties, based on the understanding that they were negotiated on a weak footing.
- A robust economy has allowed Mr. Trump the political space to temper his polarizing rhetoric while Mr. Modi has had to double down on his, amid a sluggish economy.
- Partnership with America is critical to Mr. Modi’s plans for India, but the inverse is not true for Mr. Trump. The U.S. President’s India visit scheduled for next month will be part of an ongoing exploration of a new equilibrium in ties.
KARNATAKA’S TOWNS FROM ANOTHER AGE
Context?
At Badami and Aihole, glimpses of an India that lives in several centuries at once
Details and insights into the architecture of Chalukyan empire
- Northern Karnataka have been places of continuous habitation for centuries
- In Badami, the town and its history are not so clearly separated, history there something much more lived in.
- Badami was the centre of the sixth century Chalukyan kingdom.
- Their history is carved into the caves built in the cliffs of Badami—a Trivikrama Vishnu kicking his leg high, a bull and an elephant that share a head, amorous couples under flowering trees, all carved in red sandstone with purple striations
- Jambulinga temple watched over by Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva carved on to the ceiling. An inscription on a pillar dates it to 699.
- Aihole had the appearance of an ancient settlement untouched by time, with houses built up to, and even extending into, historical edifices
- Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has built gardens around its important monuments, like the apsidal Durga temple (actually dedicated to Surya)
- In front of the old cave of Ravanpahadi, with its carvings of a dancing Shiva with his entire family, little children clamber and slide off the Nandi bull.
- The Chikkigudi temple : there’s a ceiling carved with lotuses and Shiva and Vishnu
- Pattadakal gets the sense of a sanitized heritage spliced apart from the town
- The monuments are clustered in a “monument park” alongside the Malaprabha river
- The grand eighth century Chalukyan Shiva temples with their elaborately carved Nagara towers have been cleared of the village houses
- The Virupaksha temple here is astonishing, the panels on its columns telling intricately carved stories from the great epics, Bhishma lying on his bed of arrows, Lakshmana cutting off the nose of Surpanakha, Krishna killing the crow demon
- The little antechamber in a corner of the mandap is a magnificently sinuous eight-armed Durga spearing a startled Mahishasura.
- Sidlaphadi is located nearby which is home to Paleolithic cave paintings.
COTTON RESEARCH BODIES IN INDIA, UGANDA TO DEVELOP NEW SEED VARIETY
Details
- The Cotton Development and Research Association (CDRA) of Southern India Mills’ Association has signed an agreement with Cotton Development Organisation and National Agricultural Research Organisation of Uganda to develop a cotton seed variety that will help increase the income of farmers in both the countries.
- Uganda grows 100% organic cotton and cotton grown by the farmers in Uganda gives higher ginning out turn compared with Indian cotton.
- The yield from the varieties developed by the CDRA are higher compared with the Ugandan cotton seed. Scientists in the three organisations will work together and seed varieties will be tested in both India and Uganda.
- The aim is to develop a long-staple cotton seed variety that will increase the income for cotton farmers in Uganda.
