Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE
Topics Covered
- Myanmar Coup
- East container Terminal
- Chauri Chaura
- Facts for Prelims
1 . Myanmar Coup
Context : Military has once more taken over Myanmar, declaring a year-long state of emergency and placing elected leaders like Aung San Suu Kyi under detention.
Historical Background
- British imperialists annexedMyanmar during the 19th century and they called it Burma after the dominant Burman (Bamar) ethnic group, and administered it as a province of colonial India.
- This arrangement continued until 1937, when Burma was separated from British India and made a separate colony.
- Even after the country became independent in 1948, it retained the same name, becoming the ‘Union of Burma’.
- In 1962, the military took over from a civilian government for the first time, and amended the official name in 1974 to the ‘Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma’.
- Then in 1988, Myanmar’s armed forces again took power in the country, after suppressing a popular uprising that led to the deaths of thousands, and reversed the official name to ‘Union of Burma’. But a year later, the junta adopted a law that replaced Burma with Myanmar, making the country the ‘Union of Myanmar’.
- A number of other places in the country also saw their names changed, including the then-capital city, which went from Rangoon to Yangon (since 2005, the capital is Naypyidaw, 370 km away to the north).
Transition towards Democracy
- In the 2010s, the military regime decided to transition the country towards democracy. Although the armed forces remained powerful, political opponents were freed and elections were allowed to be held.
- It was the military that drafted the 2008 Constitution, and put it to a questionable referendum in April that year.
- The Constitution was the military’s “roadmap to democracy”, which it had been forced to adopt under increasing pressure from the west, and its own realisation that opening up Myanmar to the outside world was now no longer an option but a dire economic necessity. But the military made sure to safeguard in the Constitution its own role and supremacy in national affairs.
- Under its provisions, the military reserves for itself 25 per cent of seats in both Houses of Parliament, to which it appoints serving military officials. Also, a political party which is a proxy for the military contests elections. Its share of seats fell further this time because of the NLD’s sweep.
- In 2015, currently detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won a majority of seats in the national parliament, a feat it repeated in 2020.
What triggered the coup
- The military has alleged that the general elections held in November 2020 were full of “irregularities” and that therefore, the results — a sweep for NLD — are not valid. It has questioned the veracity of some 9 million votes cast in the election.
- The military had demanded that the United Elections Commission (UEC) of Myanmar which oversees elections, or the government, or outgoing parliamentarians prove at a special session before the new parliament convenes on February 1, that the elections were free and fair. The demand had been rejected
- The UEC has said it had found no evidence of any voting malpractice or fraud. It has said that each vote was “counted transparently and witnessed by election candidates, election staff, the media, observers and other civil society organizations”.
Importance of Myanmar for India
- Myanmar is geopolitically significant to India as it stands at the center of the India-Southeast Asia geography.
- Myanmar is the only Southeast Asian country that shares a land border with northeastern India, stretching some 1,624 kilometers. The neighbors also share a 725-km maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal.
- Being the only country that sits at the intersection of India’s “Neighborhood First” policy and its “Act East” policy, Myanmar is an essential element in India’s practice of regional diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific, and serves as a land bridge to connect South Asia and Southeast Asia.
- It is therefore in India’s geostrategic interest to see Myanmar prevail as a stable and autonomous country, thereby making possible greater bilateral engagement in India-Myanmar relations.
- Failed Myanmar state at India’s doorstep and a weakened Myanmar falling into the clutches of China as a satellite state, thereby being pressured to do Beijing’s bidding in regional affairs. Without colliding head-on with China, Delhi scours for ways to outsmart Beijing so that the balance of power in mainland Southeast Asia is tilted in favor of India. This makes Myanmar an inadvertent “kingmaker” in Sino-Indian relations.
- It is little surprise then that Myanmar is the only Southeast Asian country that has a separate bureaucratic division (shared with Bangladesh) in India’s External Affairs Ministry, testifying to the continued importance of Myanmar to India’s foreign policy under Modi’s government.
- Myanmar is an important member of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), a minilateral subregional organization that is committed to fostering bilateral or regional cooperation among Bay of Bengal countries.
2 . East Container Terminal
Context : After strong opposition from trade unions across the country, Sri Lanka has unilaterally pulled out of a 2019 agreement with India and Japan for developing the strategic East Container Terminal (ECT) at the Colombo Port.
About the Project
- In 2019, India and Sri Lanka signed a memorandum of understanding for “co-operation on economic projects”.
- The development and operation of the container terminal was one of the projects in the MoU: “A Container Terminal in Colombo Port as a Joint Venture, which includes Indian investments considering that majority of transshipment in Colombo Port is related to India. GOSL will announce the award of the contract…by end May 2017”
- The MoU did not mention the Eastern Container Terminal, but India and Sri Lanka had already been in discussion for its development and operation.
- As per a Memorandum of Co-operation signed by the previous Maithripala Sirisena-Ranil Wickremesinghe administration, the Sri Lanka Ports Authority would have 100 per cent ownership of the ECT. The Terminal Operations Company (TOC) conducting all East Container Terminal operations was to be jointly owned, with Sri Lanka retaining a 51% stake, and the joint venture partners 49%, according to a statement by the Ports and Shipping Ministry at the time. A 40-year loan at an interest rate of 0.1% from Japan was expected to fund the development of the ECT.
- “The envisaged Japanese loan carries one of the best loan terms Sri Lanka has obtained. The 51% stake is also one of the best in SLPA joint ownership endeavours
Why protest against India’s involvement
- Although India and Sri Lanka have seemingly friendly ties and much cultural affinity and people-to-people contact, the relationship is complex — and the majority Sinhala-Buddhist public opinion is layered with the memory of Indian intervention in the ethnic conflict.
- Unlike Chinese projects, big projects by India have always faced opposition in Sri Lanka.
Japanese involvement
- India had roped Japan into at least two of the projects listed in the MoU – the ECT, and an LNG Terminal/Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) in Kerawalapitiya/Colombo with a piped gas distribution system along with retail outlets for CNG etc — believing this would ensure the project comes through. Japan was the biggest donor to Sri Lanka through the years of conflict.
- The Geoffrey Bawa-built Sri Lankan parliament, which came up at the height of the conflict, was funded by Japan. It continues to give Sri Lanka substantial financial support even now.
- However, the old relationship between Sri Lanka and Japan has undergone changes as China’s footprint over Colombo has grown. Late last year, the Rajapaksa government unilaterally cancelled a Japanese project for a commuter rail in Colombo.
Sri Lanka’s consolation offer
- After Prime Minister Rajapaksa announced the Sri Lankan government decision that the ECT would be developed and operated as a “wholly owned container terminal of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA)”, a cabinet meeting approved a proposal to develop the West Terminal at the Colombo Port as a Public Private Partnership with India and Japan, seen as a bid to compensate for taking away the ECT. India has not commented on this offer.
- The Sri Lankan side believes it can persuade India and Japan that the West terminal is strategically no different from the East, and commercially even better.
- Developers could hold as much as 85 per cent stake in the West terminal as opposed to just 49 per cent in ECT. Unions are said to be on board the proposal to invite India and Japan to participate in the development and operation of the west terminal.
India – Japan reactions
- India’s response was that Colombo should not be taking a unilateral decision on an existing Tripartite agreement.
- Japan has called the decision “regrettable”.
Importance for India
- For India, the ECT deal was important as between 60 and 70 per cent of transhipment that takes place through it is India-linked.
- The ECT is also considered more strategic than any other in Colombo Port.
- It is located next to the Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT) project, a joint venture between China Merchants Port Holdings Company Ltd. and SLPA. India had been offered the Western Container Terminal earlier, but had refused. The ECT is already operational, while the WCT has to be built from scratch.
3 . Chauri Chaura
Context : Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Chauri Chaura Centenary Celebrations and will release a postage stamp to mark the centenary of the event.
About Chauri Chaura
- Chauri Chaura — whose name derives from that of two villages — is a town in Gorakhpur district, about halfway between Gorakhpur and Deoria.
- The town was the scene of a violent incident with far-reaching consequences during the freedom struggle a century ago.
About the incident
- On August 1, 1920, Gandhi had launched the Non-Cooperation (Asahayog) Movement against the government, which involved a boycott of foreign goods, especially machine-made cloth, and legal, educational and administrative institutions, “refusing to assist a ruler who misrules”. As the movement gathered momentum over the next year and a half, large numbers of volunteers became active across the country.
- In the winter of 1921-22, volunteers of the Congress and the Khilafat movement were organised into a national volunteer corps.
- In mid-January 1922, after a meeting addressed by a functionary of the Gorakhpur Congress and Khilafat Committees, peasant “officers” were appointed to fill out pledges of non-cooperation, collect subscriptions, and lead the picketing of shops selling foreign items.
- A few days before the February 4 incident, police cracked down on volunteers who were trying to stop trade in foreign cloth, and enforce a just price for meat and fish, and severely beat up one Bhagwan Ahir, a demobilised soldier from the British Indian Army.
- On February 4, volunteers congregated in the town, and after a meeting, proceeded in a procession to the local police station, and to picket the nearby Mundera bazaar.
- The police fired into the crowd, killing three people and injuring many others. A volcano of anger then erupted, there was heavy brickbatting, and the policemen were forced to flee inside the thana. The crowd proceeded to douse the building with kerosene and to set it on fire.
- Some of the policemen who tried to escape were caught and battered to death, some others managed to escape by throwing away their conspicuous red turbans, which the angry crowd tore to shreds. A lot of police property, including weapons, was destroyed. The volunteers saw the “abolition of the thana” as a sign of the arrival of “Gandhi raj”.
Impact
- The severely rattled establishment of the Raj prosecuted the accused aggressively. Raids and repression followed immediately, lists of volunteers were compiled, and large numbers of suspects were rounded up. A sessions court quickly sentenced as many as 172 of the 225 accused to death. Ultimately, 19 of those convicted were sent to the gallows.
- Gandhi, who was deeply disturbed by the incident, condemned the “crime” of the policemen’s killing. The volunteer groups in the nearby villages were disbanded, and a Chauri Chaura Support Fund was set up to demonstrate “genuine sympathy” and seek prayashchit (atonement).
- Gandhi decided to stop the Non-Cooperation Movement, which he saw as having been tainted by unforgivable violence. He bent the Congress Working Committee to his will, and on February 12, 1922, the satyagraha was formally suspended.
- The disillusionment resulting from the suspension of the Non-Cooperation Movement nudged many of the younger Indian nationalists towards the conclusion that India would not be able to throw off the colonial yoke through non-violence. It was from the ranks of these impatient patriots that some of India’s most beloved revolutionaries were to arise in the years to come — Jogesh Chatterjee, Ramprasad Bismil, Sachin Sanyal, Ashfaqulla Khan, Jatin Das, Bhagat Singh, Bhagwati Charan Vohra, Masterda Surya Sen, and many others.
4 . Facts for Prelims
Aero India
- Aero India exhibition is organized every alternate year.
- It is one of the major exhibition for aerospace and defence industries with a public air show.
- It enables industry professional to gain market insights, announce new developments and gain media coverage.
- Aero India offers a unique platform to international aviation sector to bolster business.
- The logo for Aero India is inspired by the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA).