The Hindu Editorial Analysis : 16th February 2023

16/02/2023

Table of Contents

The Hindu Editorial Analysis

The Importance of Reading The Hindu Editorial: Reading The Hindu newspaper has several benefits, including improving reading skills, facilitating comprehension, staying informed of current events, enhancing essay writing, and more. For individuals aiming for a career in banking, reading editorials is crucial for vocabulary building. In this article, we will examine today’s editorials, provide practice questions, and highlight important vocabulary words.

Beyond limits.

The gulf between legality and political legitimacy can be quite substantial.
The Supreme Court verdict upholding the constitution of a Delimitation Commission for Jammu and Kashmir and the subsequent delimitation exercise is indeed in line with the law, especially the constitutional provisions that empower Parliament to form new States, alter existing ones, and change their status and boundaries, as well as the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.

However, it will be wrong to see it as granting judicial imprimatur to the political import of the redrawing of constituencies in the Union Territory.

Most political parties in J&K, which was downgraded to Union Territory status in August 2019, have opposed the Commission’s report that added six seats in Jammu division and one in Kashmir division to take the total number of seats to 90.

The parties see in the exercise an attempt to weaken the Muslim majority regions political and electoral significance and boost the prospects of parties with a base in Jammu.
They consider this as an extension of the project to strip J&K of its status and privileges and repurpose its politics to the advantage of the ruling party.
This question of legitimacy can be answered by the outcome of an election, if and when one is held, to the territorial legislature.

The petition that challenged the formation of the Delimitation Commission was a belated one, as it was filed after the panel published its draft order.

The Court brushed aside its key contention that the delimitation has been frozen throughout the country until after the first Census held after 2026, noting that Article 170, which deals with this, applies only to States, and not Union Territories.

It has also noted that J&K will be governed by its own reorganization law, which allows the 2011 Census to be the basis for its delimitation, unlike the rest of the country, where the 2001 census was the basis for the last redrawing of constituency boundaries.
It also rejected arguments rooted in the idea that some provisions of the Reorganisation Act were not consistent with the Constitution, noting that these provisions had not been specifically challenged.

Practice Questions:

How the gulf between political legitimacy and legality could be quite substantial?
How could the question of legitimacy be answered?

Important Vocabs:

Contention- arguing or disagreement
Legitimacy- something that is legal because it meets the specific requirements of the law.
Downgrade- to reduce something to a lower level or position of importance
Prospect- the possibility that something will happen
Imprimatur- an official licence issued by the Roman Catholic Church