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THE GIST of Editorial for UPSC Exams : 04 May 2020 (Pandemics without borders, South Asia’s evolution (The Hindu))

Pandemics without borders, South Asia’s evolution (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: International
Prelims level: COVID-19 pandemic
Mains level: Impact of COVID-19 pandemic spares in South Asia

Context:

Even if the COVID-19 pandemic spares South Asia the worst impact it has reserved thus far for the northern latitudes.
It is certain that this region of nearly a fourth of the global population will be wounded gravely economically, and as the process unfolds, socio-politically.
Holding the largest volume and density of poverty in the world, the countries of South Asia are looking into an abyss of distress and discontent.

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Dire sign:

As the region from the Indian Ocean to the Himalaya is hit by recession, more than half a century’s effort against poverty could be wasted.
The coddling of the middle class and neglect of the majority underclass, so starkly seen during the pandemic response, points to all that has gone wrong in our electoral democracies; no country of South Asia is presently a formal dictatorship.
South Asians should take the pandemic as a wake-up call beyond public health,
on ills ranging from plastic pollution to global warming, extinction of species, hijacking of the commons,
dirty water,
toxic air,
a weakening of the welfare state,
infrastructural exceptionalism and
the rapid conversion of our demographic diversity into the worldwide sameness of a suburban mall.
As a dire telegram sent by Earth to Humanity, COVID-19 has laid bare the demagoguery that marks the democracies of South Asia.
The response of the regimes has been to entrench themselves further, and they are shifting blame on mal-governance to the pandemic even as they tighten state control through surveillance, repressive laws and radical populism backed by ultra-nationalism.

Soft power:

The reason to talk at length about India within South Asia is that the country comprises much of the region by population and geography.
Further, the actions and the omissions of India impact each neighbour.
While all the other capitals have adversarial positions vis-à-vis New Delhi, however, it is also true that modern India has been aspirational for neighbouring societies — till now, that is.
The trajectory of India, with its galloping centralisation, removes governance from the people’s reach.
In both India and Pakistan, the two large countries of South Asia, ending insensitivity and inefficiency in governance require power and agency to pass to the provinces/States.
Self-correction is only possible in smaller, devolved polities.
As has been seen during the ongoing crisis, the States of India have risen to the occasion and are seen to be more caring, for the simple reason that they are closer to the ground and more accountable.

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Demand a permanent seat in UNSC:

If India were an internationally confident nation-state, as in decades past, it would have used its clout to lobby and build demand for a sitting of the UN Security Council to discuss the global security threat represented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
India is also weakened internally by the New Delhi intelligentsia’s China fixation, which must be overcome.
New Delhi seeks to copy-paste Beijing’s centralism as well as its xenophobia, both of which are bound to backfire in a country whose historicity and circumstances are quite different.

A reformatting:

The unflinching lack of caring for the citizenry by governments in South Asia can only be reversed through a formula that incorporates the internal and external to the nation-states, a reformatting of relationships.
Internally, power must devolve from the capital to the provincial units of the two larger countries (Pakistan and India), as well as empowerment of local governments all over (as done in Nepal under the 2015 Constitution, but not yet fully implemented).
Externally, the countries of South Asia must bring down the hyper-nationalist mind barriers to allow porous borders, thereby reviving historical synergies in economy, ecology and culture.
This is essential for both social justice and economic growth, and cannot happen without a palpable reduction in military expenditures that will come with abandonment of the national security state.

Regionalism:

South Asian regionalism requires resuming the evolution of the subcontinental polity that was terminated in 1947 with Partition.
Regionalism would lead to collaborative battles against pestilence, and for wealth creation through trade, comparative advantage, and economies of scale.
Regionalism would help fight plastic pollution in our rivers, battle the air pollution that wafts across our frontiers, promote cooperation in natural and human-made disasters, and boost the economies of the geographical “periphery” of each country.
The push for South Asia-wide thinking and planning need not be seen as a malevolent attempt to subvert India.

Way forward:

Instead, it is the path for India’s own socio-economic advance, and the way to garner international recognition of its soft power.
Internal devolution and cross-border bonding has always been a necessity but impossible for some to contemplate.

Conclusion:

The opinion-makers of India economists, political scientists, philosophers, sociologists, diplomats and others have tended to be New Delhi-centric, and, as a result, downright reluctant to address issues of both federalism within and regionalism without. They have thus far been unable to see the jungle for the trees.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the West Texas intermediate (WTI), consider the following statements:
1. It is a grade of crude oil used as a benchmark in oil pricing.
2. This grade is described as light crude oil because of its relatively low density, and sweet because of its low sulfur content.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2