Kashmir Issue

Kashmir has been an apple of discord between India and Pakistan for the very long time.Every now and then, we hear news of firing at LoC (Line of Control). Due to Kashmir, which is also called Switzerland of India, many wars have been fought between the two Asian giants. Although we have won all the three major wars yet we need to know that these wins didn't solve the Kashmir Issue. Moreover
1) We lost many of our soldiers in the war
2) Wars brought Economic instability
3) Purpose of wars, that is Kashmir issue,    was not solved.

Let's see geography of J&K to better understand territory issues of India with its neighbours.

Geography of J&K

Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) is a disputed area between India and Pakistan.
Pakistan calls it Azad Kashmir (green part in the map above).
This Azad Kashmir is very important for us for the following reasons

1) Connectivity to Afghanistan by land is blocked as only Azad Kashmir shares its border with it. As already mentioned, this part is in control of Pakistan. So we can't trade with Afghanistan via POK,which further means it blocks our reach to the Middle East and Europe.

To overcome this problem, we are developing a port, named Chabahar, in Iran, by which we can trade with Afghanistan via sea route.

Have a look at this sea route in the map below to understand the whole picture clearly.

So from this Chabahar port we can connect to Afghanistan and from there to other Middle East countries.

This alternative is good but if Azad Kashmir were our part, we could have achieved the same in easy way. Moreover developing a port in another country is very costly.

2)Security- China is making a economic corridor in Pakistan named CPEC(China Pakistan Economic Corridor) to boost the trade with Pakistan and to get connectivity to Middle East under its ambitious project OBOR(One Road One Belt) initiative.
This corridor will connect Xinjiang city of China to Gwadar port (developed by China) in Pakistan.

But as you can see, this Gwadar-Xinjiang corridor is passing through Azad Kashmir. If it were part of India, we could never have allowed China to build it, because we already know China's aggression towards our north-eastern states. So if Chinese troops start making their presence in Azad Kashmir​ region also it will be a major security threat for us.

3) Tourism  is being affected very badly in J&K. Every now and then, it remains in news for terror activities.
If Kashmir issue were solved peacefully, we could boost our tourism sector.

4) Normal life  of common masses is also affected there. Due to terrorist activities, no development is coming in J&K.
There you will not find good schools, universities and good medical facilities.

Aksai Chin is a disputed area with our eastern neighbour China.
Due to this region, we had a war with China in 1965 in which they won and from then, Aksai Chin is in control of China.

These issues must be resolved as soon as possible to address all the issues described above.


Why Kashmir issue is in news again?

Modi led Government has just taken a step to bring a dialogue amongst all the parties involved in the issue.
India has appointed former IB chief Dineshwar Sharma as an interlocutor to resolve the issue peacefully. Dineshwar Sharma has openly stated that he is ready to have talks with any one who is interested in dialogue.

Most probably three parties will be involved in this

1)Tehreek e hurriyat (separatist group) who wants Kashmir to be independent of both India and Pakistan.
2) Pakistan, and
3)India.

So let's see, whether this issue will remain a bone of contention between two neighbours or be solved in near future.

Some facts 

LoC is Line of Control between India and Pakistan. At LoC Border Security Forces (BSF) keeps patrolling.
LaC is Line of Actual Control between India and China, where ITBP(Indo-Tibetan Border Police) keeps patrolling.
J&K is given special status under article 370 of Indian constitution.

Words of the day

Interlocutor a person who takes part in important discussions.
Dialogue discussion.

Commonly used phrases

Apple of discord cause of quarrel.
Bone of Contention cause of quarrel.

Brexit Referendum Issue

Britain newly elected prime minister Theresa May has asked EU(European Union) to foster trade between EU and Britain till they are the part of Union.They will be the part of European Union(EU) for the next two years(till 2019) then it will get separated from the EU due to Brexit Referendum which was held on 23rd of june 2016.
Let's have a look at what is Brexit?Why was it interested in leaving the EU.
Before we move on to answers to these questions​,let's first understand geographical location of Britain and understand what is EU and where is its location?

Britain ,also called as UK(United Kingdoms), is an island in North Western Europe.
UK is made up of Scotland,England, Wales and Northern part of​ Ireland that's why it is called United Kingdom.

European Union

There are 28 countries of Europe in EU.

European Union was made in order to

1) Increase trade among its member countries and to make free movement of people and goods without any restriction

2)To avoid wars in Europe.

This was successful Union as can be understood by the fact that in 2004 they launched Euro as new currency.

Moreover,over the time the economy of these countries have flourished.

But if a country is a member of EU then

1)It will not be a sovereign state. Because if EU and any of its member country has got conflicting rules​ for the same thing  say trading,then EU rules will be enforced.

2)Each member country will have to pay a membership fees to EU.

What is Brexit?

Britain wanted to exit from EU from the very long time. Therefore, In Britain a party named as UKIP(United Kingdom Independent Party) started campaigning for getting a exit from Britain.Media named this as Brexit(in which Br means Britain and Exit means to leave).

Why UK decided to leave EU?

1)Their membership fees was around 13 billion euro and they were getting only 6 billion euro.

All member countries have different membership​ fees depending upon their economies.

So due to this small economies were getting profited​ where as large economies were suffering.

2) Their trade especially fishing was being affected as fisherman from other areas of Europe were coming to do fishing.

3)UK wanted to cut the number of immigrants from its country from 3,30,000 to 1,00,000 but EU rules did not permit UK to do that.

So immigration was one of the biggest issue for UK to go for Brexit.

Basics of Brexit referendum

The referendum was held to take vote from the citizens of UK to know whether they want to stay in or want to leave EU.

So there were two campaigns launched Stay Campaign and Leave Campaign.The referendum was held on 23rd June 2016 and its results were declared on the next day of voting.

In which 52% people supported Exit campaigning and wanted to exit from EU and 48% wanted to be part of EU.

Is UK still a part of EU?

Yet Majority that is 52% people supported for exit yet it is still part of the EU, because in order to get separated from EU,member country need to tell EU two years before it leaves according to Lisbon treaty of 2009 of European Union.

UK informed EU on 29 March 2017 about its exit. So legally it is bound to get separated after two years(that is on 29 March 2019).

Aftereffects of Brexit Referendum

1)As you can see in the map above that northern Ireland and Scotland(in blue color) voted to stay in EU.But majority that is 52% voted to exit which is against Scotland wish that's why Scotland has threatened UK to get separated from it. 

2) After Brexit value of UK pound came down.

All over the world referendums are going,

Some of these referendums which currently happened are:

1) Catalonia Referendum

2) Scotland Referendum 

3) Kurdistan Referendum

Some facts about UK

1)Capital - London which is called economic hub of the world.

2)Current PM-Theresa May

3) Previous PM- David Cameron

Who is voting?Is it You or EVM?

The festival of election is round the corner in Nanded-Waghala Municipal Corporation (NWMC) of Gujarat. Elections are scheduled on 11th of October and results will be declared on 12th of October.

The Election Commission of India(ECI) has decided to use VVPAT(Voter Varifiable Paper Audit Trail) instead of EVMs.The use of VVPAT has made headlines and a topic of debate amongst all.Let's have a look at various aspects of VVPAT.

What is VVPAT?

Voter Varifiable Paper Audit Trail will assure the voters that their vote is casted to the correct candidate by generating a slip which shows the name of the party and it's symbol.

For example if a voter chooses to cast his vote for Congress then VVPAT will generate a slip which will mention the name of the party as Congress and it's symbol.

The slip generated is only for assurance of voter and will not be given to voter for security reasons.It will be displayed for some seconds and then will go to a storage box connected to the VVPAT.

VVPAT is nothing but enhanced EVM as you can see in the image above.VVPAT is connected to EVM for its working.

 Why not EVMs?
 EVM (Electronic Voting Machine) was questioned by some political parties over its reliablity.Mamta Banerjee,Arvind Kejriwal were among the some prominent leaders who questioned reliability after state assembly elections of West Bengal. General Election of 2014 were also questioned over its results by Congress and others.
Election Commission of India(ECI) denied these allegations levelled by political parties.ECI organized a hackathon to challenge all the political parties who were saying that during recent elections EVMs were tampered​ .Though no party went for hackathon challenge but still to improve the voting process Election Commission has decided to go for VVPAT.

What is Hackathon?
Hackathon was organized by Election Commission.It challenged all the political parties for proving that EVMs can be tampered.
But EC put some restrictions on the event which was held on 3rd of june.
1)From each party only upto three people can come to hack EVM.
2)Time given was only 4 hours to each party.
3)Foreign Experts are barred from election
4)Motherboard circuit can not be altered.

Is VVPAT completely safe and efficient ?
Election Commission argued that EVMs can't be tampered.To support this statement they said that it is not connected to outer world that is internet or any other device.
But any machine closed or open to a network can be tempered with.

What is the guarantee that once VVPAT machine installed it will work correctly?

What do other developed countries do?

USA ,which is far advanced in technology when compared to India and other countries, still uses the age old paper ballot system. As can be observed by the recent presidential elections between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Germany also prefers ballot system to EVMs.
Japan make EVMs for us but they don't use for their own voting.They still use paper ballot system.
The reason that these developed countries use this voting system is its reliability.

Ballot system vs EVMs.

1)A lot of paper is used for voting due to which many trees are cut down.
But paper can be recycled​ unlike e-waste of EVMs and VVPATs.
2)It takes a lot of time to count votes thus delay in voting results.
But unlike EVMs and VVPATs,here trained workers are not needed to count the votes.
In order to operate those machines, first training is given.
3) VVPATs and EVMs are costly to install, VVPAT is more costly than EVM.On the other hand paper ballot system are cost effective.

What should be done​?

EVMs has two parts - one is Ballot Unit(BU) and other is Control Unit(CU).In BU votes are polled where as in CU votes are stored.
So before upgrading to more costly VVPAT system of voting,first we should match the results of CU and VVPAT if it matches than we should avoid use of VVPATs else we should go for VVPATs after further testing it under all possible scenarios.
Although ECI is thinking to use VVPATs in upcoming general election of 2019 but only
after the use of VVPAT in NWMC of Gujarat its pros and cons can be further understood.

Rohingyas Issue

                             

United Nations addresses the Rohingyas as the most persecuted minority of the world.

They are the people who from their birth are rejected by their country and are not given citizenship.These unfortunate people from their birth are denied basic rights that we all enjoy today such as freedom of movement,freedom of speech,power to vote and equal treatment.They, in their own country,are called outsiders and are discriminated by the Buddhist majority.Moreover, when these people started to leave their country and fled to the neighbouring countries,they were not welcomed there also.Let's have a look at their geographical location to understand 

Who they are?

Rohingyas are the people of southwestern Rakhine state of Myanmar where about 1 million of them are living.This year on 25th of August a group named ARSA(Arakan Rohingyas Salavation Army)  attacked military camp and police posts demanding a separate state for Rohingyas.This group is targeting military camps since 2016.In retaliation, Myanmar government declared this group as a terror outfit.Myanmar's army carried a massive attack in Rakhine state to kill rohingyas which was termed as ethnic cleansing of Rohingyas by the world.After this brutality and mass genocide they started finding shelters in other countries such as Bangladesh,Thailand and India.

Why are the Rohingyas denied citizenship?

The reason is that their government considers them as the people of Bangladesh who fled to Myanmar during colonial rule when conflicts were going on there​ in Bangladesh.

Where are the Rohingyas now?

They have made a mass exodus(87k in Bangladesh alone)​ from Rakhine state to Cox's Bazar of Bangladesh and have come to India's northeastern states.

Why is India thinking to deport them?

Till now, 40k Rohingyas have come to India.They were given shelter and food under the operation Insaniyat. 

Even though​, we are not legally bound to provide them shelter​,yet we gave them for dignifying  humanity.

But they may be a grave security concerns for us.As these people can join any terror groups​ in order to earn easy money.Besides, we have unemployment problem,food problem and currently our economy is also suffering.

What is the solution?

All the major countries and international organizations(such as UN) should come together and must build pressure on Myanmar to accept these people as their own.

They should be granted basic rights there and should not be discriminated on the basis of their ethnicity.

You can also tell all the possible measures which must be taken to tackle the situation by giving your suggestions in comment box.

Some facts about Myanmar

1)Capital- Naipyidow

2) Leader- Aung San Suu Kyi

3) Language-Burmese

Words of the day

Exodus-when many people depart together.

Ethnic cleansing-when people of same ethnicity are killed in very large number.

China's conflicts with India

 

From last many days, doklam issue is in news,so let's understand it,first see its geographical location,in the map above it is the trijunction  area among three countries which are india,China and Bhutan. India's Sikkim state shares its border with Nepal and the doklam plateau.

Doklam plateau is a disputed land between China and Bhutan,and when China started constructing a road in this disputed land,India ordered​ its troops to stop the construction due to this the armies of two Asian Giants were at daggers drawn with each other. 

So,what was the reason that India ordered its troops to interfere in the boundary dispute of others namely between Bhutan and China,because India's interests were at stake specially its security,as there are already lots of ongoing conflicts between India and China Such as border disputes​ for  Aksai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh which even led to India China  war in 1962,besides this there are always conflicts due to dominance over Indian ocean, as can be seen by China aggression in developing many ports in Indian ocean region,such as hambantota port and many more. The another issue is , When China annexed Tibet in late 1959 ,Tibetan​ leader Dalai Lama fled to India and started living here in India and carried a protest against China and ran a government in exile from India which China hates alot.

So,if China constructs a road there in doklam plateau there will be serious security concerns for India,as China will get the control of India chicken's neck and then at the time of war(because of the conflicts b/w two), if any happens,due to continuous aggression of China towards India,China can easily break our connectivity with our seven sisters that is with our eastern states,and can annex them,So for security concerns India went for a stand off with China to meet its security goals.

Before BRICS summit which was to be held in China from 3rd to 5th of September,just few days before it, China and India negotiated to pull back their armies at the doklam plateau for peacefully resolving the issue and to maintain the smooth proceedings  at summit which happens once in a year,but after the summit again China's PLA(People's Liberation Army) has started strengthening their army at doklam,now see what happens next.​  

Phrase of the day-

1)To be at daggers drawn:to be in the state of open hostility.

Catalonia Issue

Catalonia is a Northeastern​ state in Spain(europe), recently Catalonia  hold a referendum on 1st of October to get separated​  from Spain.This referendum was hold illegal by Spain government as Spain doesn't want Catalonia to get separated.And on the day of voting, to carve out a separate country out of Spain,cruelty was shown by the Spain's police in order to cancel the referendum but at some places people could cast their votes successfully.
Out of the total voters who casted their votes 40% said yes to make Catalonia a separate state.Now see what happens next whether it will become a separate state or not?

why does Catalonia want to be separated?
 Catalonian think that major portion of Spain's economy comes from Catalonia but that much development is not coming in Catalonia.
It is being distributed among other states of Spain.
Spain government at center claims that if Catalonia becomes a separate country then it will no more be the part of European Union. And therefore,​ its economy will also suffer.Spain leader further said that its economy is only because of the fact that it is the part of Spain which in turn is part of European Union.
Some facts about Catalonia
1)Bercelona is the city in Catalonia and is the second largest city after Madrid(Spain's capital)
2)Barcelona is also called economic hub of European Union.
3)The economy of Catalonia is more than  that of Portugal.
4)It's population is 7.2 million.
5)It shares it's maritime boundary with Atlantic ocean.

Word of the day

Referendum: to take the opinion​ of people for a general question by voting.

fact of the day

European Union is group of 28 European countries out of which 19 use euro as their currency and others use their own currency,this Union was made to provide easy movement of goods and people among its member Nations.