The Canadian Parvasi - Issue 103

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The International News Weekly Edit 06 July 19, 2019 | Toronto The w w w . canadianparv asi. c o m Publisher & CEO Associate Editor Editor (India) Online Graphic Designer Official Photographer Contact Editorial Sales Rajinder Saini Meenakshi Saini Gursheesh Kshitiz Dalal Naveen Bashir Nasir editor@canadianparvasi.com sales@canadianparvasi.com Karnataka Faceoff SC has defanged Congress-JD(S) whip to resigned MLAs. Anti-defection law is in uncharted waters Supreme Court’s interim order on the Karnataka imbroglio may have come as a respite for the 15 Congress-JD(S) rebel MLAs and BJP ahead of today’s trust vote. The order reiterates the Speaker’s power to decide on the resignations submitted by the rebels without specifying any time frame. However, SC also ruled that the rebels could not be compelled to participate in the ongoing assembly session. In effect, the scales just tipped against Congress-JD(S), which was pinning their hopes on a whip mandating that the rebels participate in the trust motion and ensuring at least some of them vote for the government. Karnataka Congress chief Dinesh Gundu Rao has complained that the verdict “encroaches upon the rights of the legislature”, defangs the power to issue whips and undermines the anti-defection law. If the 15 rebels don’t vote, Congress-JD(S) will be reduced to a minority. Even if the Speaker chooses to disqualify the rebels for anti-party activity in the event of the government falling, it will not impede BJP’s claims to form a new government. At best, disqualification will prevent the rebels from immediately joining a newly sworn-in BJP ministry and force them to bide their time till they win re-election in bypolls. Congress-JD(S) has proceeded on the premise that the rebels prefer resignation and want to avert disqualification because they have been promised ministerial berths by BJP. But Congress-JD(S) attempts to mollify them by offering ministerial portfolios haven’t helped. The rebel response indicates the alliance is tottering. Even the daunting prospect of bypolls and the uncertainty of how the electorate will respond to turncoats haven’t deterred them. Congress-JD(S) appeasement efforts can be expected to continue right up to the conduct of the trust motion, which explains why not a single rebel MLA is yet to lose house membership, by disqualification or resignation. After a number of failed attempts at dislodging the government, BJP appears to have played its cards better this time. However, even if it manages to oust Kumaraswamy and form a government, the bypolls will become crucial. SC’s attempt to strike a “constitutional balance” will raise the hackles of opposition parties, who are demanding a stronger anti-defection law. The unending Karnataka imbroglio is unfortunate; voters will rue their decision to not give a mandate to a single party. Even the judiciary has limitations in resolving the Machiavellian machinations that hung verdicts give rise to. TNN Such A Long Journey Jingoism may propel politicians to power, it won’t help Chandrayaan-2 lift-off Arun.Ram@timesgroup.com xA leak in the cryogenic engine last Monday grounded Chandrayaan-2, India’s second Moon mission. But have no doubt: Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will take a deep breath, pick itself up, dust itself off and fly to the Moon. And India will be only the fourth country to land a craft on the lunar surface. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will proclaim the greatness of our space odyssey. And social media will host the celebration of pride, patriotism and patting oneself on the back. When the revelry is over, it would be prudent to look back at those wee hours of July 15 after the countdown clock at Sriharikota froze 56 minutes before the scheduled liftoff of GSLV-Mk-III. It is a reminder that India, which has had 46 successful flights of PSLV, hasn’t yet mastered the cryogenic engine technology to make the heavier GSLVMk-III rocket reliable enough for the proposed manned mission in 2022. It is also an occasion to ponder over Isro’s poignant past, precarious present and promising future. As a spacefaring nation we are justifiably proud of our achievements, but a new sense of nationalism is threatening to make us look better than what we are. Jingoism may propel politicians to power, but it doesn’t lift rockets. We have no qualms in calling GSLV-Mk-III a ‘Bahubali’ for its ability to carry 8 tonnes to a low-earth orbit, when SpaceX’s Falcon-9 can carry 23 tonnes to the same orbit. Isro should insulate itself from this zealotry and focus on rocket science. Senior Isro scientists confirmed to TOI that they took a calculated risk after a ground test on June 22 showed a technical glitch. When a leak was detected an hour before the launch – this time on a helium bottle that supplies pressure – they decided to abort the launch. Overlooking the ground test result to go ahead with the launch preparations, Isro appeared to have been in a hurry. There was euphoria when Modi set 2022, the 75th anniversary of independent India, as the ‘deadline’ for India’s first manned mission to space (Gaganyaan). It also raised some eyebrows in the Isro centres across the country. There was no protest as the Isro chairman said we could do it even earlier, by the end of 2021. Teething troubles with the indigenous cryogenic engine should make some murmurs heard, albeit within the confines of the space agency. Isro has so far flown the CE-20 cryogenic engine only twice, Chandrayaan-2 is to be its third full-fledged flight. Calling off the Monday launch, scientists said they exercised “abundant caution” with the Rs 978 crore project. Losing such a rocket and spacecraft would be costly. Gaganyaan, which proposes to take three human beings to space, will be priceless. The failure analysis committee studying the aborted launch may suggest some tweaks in the cryogenic upper stage for future launches including the Sun mission (2020) and the Venus mission (2023), but the manned mission may need more than tinkering to ensure that our men and women who go to space return safely. It is indeed doable, only Isro will need to employ a nocompromise rigour to fly GSLV-Mk-III multiple times on other missions before Gaganyaan. Forget the deadline, keep the dream alive. A peep into our past shows that’s how we arrived at the present. India’s space mission started in the 1960s under the guidance of Homi J Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai in a sleepy fishing village called Thumba in Trivandrum. Photographs of APJ Abdul Kalam cycling with a nose cone and a rocket being carried on a bullock cart are as nostalgic as they are illustrative of India’s baby steps in space science. And it has been a long, arduous journey of trial and error. After firing small American and French rockets to up to 60km into the sky before they fell in the Arabian Sea, India graduated to SLV (Satellite Launch Vehicle) and ASLV (Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle). The initial days were so disappointing that Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre scientists in selfdeprecating jokes called SLV the ‘sea-loving vehicle’ and ASLV the ‘always sea-loving vehicle’. After three attempts since 1987, ASLV finally put a satellite in orbit in 1994. That year marked the turning point in India’s spacefaring history, with PSLV registering its first successful launch (after a failure the previous year). Ever since, PSLV has been a consistent success and sought after by many countries including the US for commercial satellite launches. At the core of PSLV’s success is the Vikas liquid engine, developed by a team of 50-odd Isro scientists in collaboration with their French counterparts in Vernon, France, during 1975-1980. We haven’t been as successful with the cryogenic technology that powers the upper stage of GSLV rockets. India’s early attempts to acquire cryogenic technology from the USSR in 1991 were scuttled by US sanctions on Isro and Glavkosmos, the Russian space agency. The infamous Isro spy case of 1994 dealt a further blow to India’s cryogenic dreams, and delayed the project by at least a decade. As Isro tries to master the technology and build heavier rockets, collaborations such as the one with the French in the mid-1970s to develop the first liquid propulsion engine may be considered. Russia is a pale shadow of its parent USSR, but in rocket and defence science, it still shares an old umbilical cord with India. It’s worth going back in time to get ahead in space. Source Credit: This article was first published in The Times of India. Parvasi weekly & people associated with it are not responsible for any claims made by the advertisement & do not endorse any product or service advertised in Canadian Parvasi. Please consult your lawyer before buying/hiring/contracting through the advertisement Publised in this newspaper. The Canadian Parvasi is in the business of selling space and the clains made by the advertisement are not tested/confirmed by an independent source.
The International News Weekly world July 18, 2019 | Toronto 07 ‘Pak under obligation to review conviction’ How India won the legal battle New Delhi: After a Pakistani military court awarded death sentence to Kulbhushan Jadhav, India was left with no other option but to approach the ICJ for relief in 2017. India maintained all along that Jadhav was a civilian who was kidnapped and moved to Pakistan by armed groups and that Islamabad was using him to blame India for its problems in Balochistan. According to India, Jadhav was denied the right to be defended by a legal counsel of his choice. His conviction and death sentence was based on “confessions” taken in captivity, India maintained. India’s case was all along built around the fact that Pakistan was in breach of Article 36(1) (b) of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR) which obliged Pakistan to inform India of the arrest of an Indian national “without delay”. Jadhav was purportedly “arrested” on March 3, 2016, and it was only on March 25, 2016, that the Pakistani foreign secretary informed the Indian high commissioner in Islamabad of this “arrest”. According to Indian authorities, Pakistan never offered any explanation as to why it took over three weeks to inform the Indian high commissioner of Jadhav’s arrest. Pakistan violated the Vienna Convention also by not informing Jadhav of his rights and by denying Indian officials access to him. The entire trial and sentence by a military court, which was based on “confession taken under custody”, without adequate legal representation was farcical, according to Indian authorities. It was said to be in brazen defiance of the rights and protections provided under the Vienna Convention and the international law, including ICCPR (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights). The jurisprudence on ‘human rights’, including under the ICCPR, recognises ‘due process’ rubric. Perhaps the most important aspect was the way India countered Pakistan’s claim that the 2008 bilateral agreement overrode the Vienna Convention. According to India’s argument, the Vienna Convention recognises that states may have bilateral arrangements that “amplify or supplement” the principles engrafted in the multilateral convention/treaty. However, it said Article 73(2) of the Law of Treaties did not recognise dilution of the provisions of the multilateral convention by bilateral treaties. India successfully convinced ICJ that Pakistan’s attempt to claim an exception to the rights under Article 36 of Vienna Convention suggesting that such rights are not to be made available to an individual against whom there is a prima facie case of “espionage” was not tenable. India also found the use of military courts for the trial of civilians violative of due process standards. “The trial of foreign national civilians by military courts is per se violative of the ICCPR, and also of the minimum standards recognised as ‘principles of international law’,” said an official. The International Court of Justice indicated its unhappiness with the judicial process in Pakistan regarding Kulbhushan Jadhav, and said, “The court considers it imperative to re-emphasise that the review and reconsideration of the conviction and sentence of Jadhav must be effective.” This amounts to an indictment of Jadhav’s trial in secret military “black” courts where the evidence against him and his legal defence remains unknown. The decision means that Jadhav will continue to be protected from the death sentence as Pakistan may find it difficult to risk international criticism by ignoring the ruling. Though Pakistani commentators sought to play down the setback, arguing that the ICJ did not order Jadhav’s release, the court clearly said Pakistan was “under obligation” to review the conviction. The ICJ rejected Pakistan’s contention that it had no jurisdiction and that India’s complaint was not admissible. It also held that the 2008 India-Pakistan bilateral agreement in no way trumped Islamabad’s obligations under the Vienna Convention. TOI had reported on Wednesday that the ICJ was likely to find that Pakistan had violated Article 36 of the Vienna Convention in denying consular access to Jadhav. The MEA too welcomed the ruling, saying justice had been delivered. “We note that Pakistan is under obligation to inform Jadhav without further delay of his rights and to provide India consular access to him in accordance with the Vienna Convention. We expect Pakistan to implement the directive immediately. We will continue to work vigorously for Jadhav’s early release and return to India,” MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. The ICJ ruling could mean that Pakistan will need to try Jadhav in a more transparent manner. Even if the prospects of the Indian national getting a fair trial in any form are dim, it will mean a scrapping of the military court verdict. It remains to be seen whether Pakistan adheres to the ruling or drags its feet over any effective review as ordered by the ICJ. The judgment was also in line with its earlier rulings in the Avena and LaGrand cases, both related to alleged violation of the Vienna Convention, where it had held the US guilty. While the court unanimously found that it had jurisdiction to entertain India’s plea, its other rulings were delivered 15 to 1. The dissenting judge was a Pakistani national, Tassaduq Hussain Jilani, an ad hoc judge brought in to give representation to Pakistan. The ICJ held that the appropriate reparation in this case meant “that full weight is given to the effect of the violation of the rights set forth in Article 36 of the Vienna Convention”. While the court left the choice of an “effective” review to Pakistan, it also held the obligation to provide effective review and reconsideration was “an obligation of result” which “must be performed unconditionally”. Consequently, the court said, Pakistan shall take all measures to provide for effective review and reconsideration, including, if necessary, by enacting appropriate legislation. Pakistan says it has scored a victory Islamabad: Pakistan on Wednesday called ICJ verdict on Kulbhushan Jadhav “a victory for the country”. “Commander Jadhav shall remain in Pakistan. He shall be treated in accordance with the laws of Pakistan. This is a victory for Pakistan,” Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said in tweet.While ICJ directed Pakistan to allow Jadhav consular access to ensure “effective review and reconsideration of his conviction and sentence”, it has rejected other remedies sought by India, including annulment of the military court’s decision and his return to India.The Foreign Office (FO) said Pakistan, as a responsible member of the international community, “upheld its commitment from the very beginning of the case by appearing before the court for the provisional measures hearing despite a very short notice”. Having heard the judgment, Pakistan will now proceed as per law, the FO said. It said ICJ had reiterated that Jadhav had entered Pakistan without a visa on an authentic Indian passport with an alias, Hussain Mubarak Patel.“Commander Kulbhushan Jadhav is responsible for acts of sabotage, espionage and multiple terrorist incidents in which scores of innocent Pakistani citizens were killed resulting in umpteen women being widowed and numerous children becoming orphans. Commander Jadhav has confessed to all these acts during his trial in a Pakistani court in front of a judicial magistrate. This is a clear case of Indian state terrorism,” it said. Jadhav, according to Pakistan, was arrested on March 3, 2016, from Balochistan’s Mashkhel area. New Delhi, however, said he was abducted from Iran.
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