Challenges to the efficacy of RTI Act

Amidst renewed concern over its functioning across states, the Right to Information Act (RTI) is set to complete 17 years this October.

Issues facing RTI

Backlog of appeals: Issues include a huge backlog of second appeals, lengthy wait time for hearings, hesitancy in posting penalties and increasing opacity in the working of the commissions.

 As on June 30, 2021, 2.56 lakh appeals were pending with 26 information commissions in the country.

CICs downgraded rank: Any serious RTI query or one which concerns more than one government department requires intervention by higher officials, but it is the PIOs from junior ranks who attend hearings and are often clueless.

Often, it requires a notice to higher authorities, in some cases, the secretary of the department, to elicit the right answer.

 With CICs downgraded in rank, there will be fewer and fewer notices served to the heads of departments and senior officers to appear and answer queries.

Vacancies: The commissions have been plagued with vacancies, poor choice of commissioners, untrained staff and a non-cooperative set of public information officers (PIOs).

Threat to some RTI activists: Apart from the PIOs’ general inexperience and unprofessionalism, comes the threat to some RTI activists who seek information to expose corruption.

According to the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), across India, 99 RTI activists have lost their lives, 180 assaulted and 187 were threatened since 2006.

Political proclivity: The attitude of a few commissioners going public with their political proclivities is another cause for concern.

Way forward

Training of officials: The Indian information law, rated as one of the strongest in the world, needs to be bolstered by raising awareness amongst the people and organising rigorous training of government officials.

Code of conduct: A code of conduct must be evolved for the central and state information commissioners.

It is imperative for the commissioners to keep a strict distance from government heads and officialdom.

 A strong political system is a must for the RTI regime to flourish.

It is imperative to ensure freedom of the press and democratic institutions, punish errant officials and maintain complete autonomy of the information commissions, in the interest of the people and the nation at large.

China’s problem with top US senator visiting Taiwan

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, landed in Taiwan, ignoring Chinese threats and a warning by President Xi Jinping to “not play with fire”.

Why in news?

Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan is the highest-level visit by an American official to the island in a quarter century.

The senior US politician has been critical of China on multiple fronts over the decades.

US defiance of One China Policy

The US has maintained a ‘One China’ policy since the 1970s, under which it recognises Taiwan as a part of China.

But it has unofficial ties with Taiwan as well — a strategy that is known as strategic or deliberate ambiguity.

Beijing considers Taiwan a part of China, threatens it frequently, and has not ruled out taking the island by military force at any time.

Why does China have a problem with Pelosi visiting Taiwan?

For China, the presence of a senior American figure in Taiwan would indicate some kind of US support for Taiwan’s independence.

This move severely undermined China’s perception of sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Brief history of China-Taiwan Tensions

Taiwan is an island about 160 km off the coast of southeastern China, opposite the Chinese cities of Fuzhou, Quanzhou, and Xiamen.

It was administered by the imperial Qing dynasty, but its control passed to the Japanese in 1895.

After the defeat of Japan in World War II, the island passed back into Chinese hands.

After the communists led by Mao Zedong won the civil war in mainland China, Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the nationalist Kuomintang party, fled to Taiwan in 1949.

Chiang Kai-shek set up the government of the Republic of China on the island, and remained President until 1975.

Beijing has never recognised the existence of Taiwan as an independent political entity, arguing that it was always a Chinese province.

Taiwanese stance

Taiwan says that the modern Chinese state was only formed after the revolution of 1911.

It was not a part of that state or of the People’s Republic of China that was established after the communist revolution.

While the political tensions have continued, China and Taiwan have had economic ties.

Many migrants from Taiwan work in China, and China has investments in Taiwan.

No doubt, cultural ties are indispensable.

In recent years, Taiwan’s government has said only the island’s 23 million people have the right to decide their future and that it will defend itself when attacked.

Since 2016, Taiwan has elected a party that leans towards independence.

How does the world, and US, view Taiwan?

The UN does NOT recognise Taiwan as a separate country; in fact, only 13 countries around the world — mainly in South America, the Caribbean, Oceania, and the Vatican — do.

In June, President Biden said that the US would defend Taiwan if it was invaded, but it was clarified soon afterward but America does not support Taiwan’s independence.

While the US has no formal ties with Taipei, it remains Taiwan’s most important international backer and arms supplier.

What is the New START treaty?

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) pact limits the number of deployed nuclear warheads, missiles and bombers and is due to expire in 2021 unless renewed.

The treaty limits the US and Russia to a maximum of 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers, well below Cold War caps.

It was signed in 2010 by former US President Barack Obama and then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

It is one of the key controls on the superpower deployment of nuclear weapons.

Background of US-Russia Nuclear Relations

The US formally QUIT the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF)

The agreement obliged the two countries to eliminate all ground-based missiles of ranges between 500 and 5,500 km.

When did nuclear disarmament begin?

In 1985, the two countries entered into arms control negotiations on three tracks.

The first dealt with strategic weapons with ranges of over 5,500 km, leading to the START agreement in 1991.

It limited both sides to 1,600 strategic delivery vehicles and 6,000 warheads.

A second track dealt with intermediate-range missiles and this led to the INF Treaty in 1987.

A third track, Nuclear, and Space Talks was intended to address Soviet concerns regarding the U.S.’s Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) but this did not yield any outcome.

Success of INF

The INF Treaty was hailed as a great disarmament pact even though no nuclear warheads were dismantled.

As it is a bilateral agreement, it did not restrict other countries.

By 1991, the INF was implemented. USSR destroyed 1,846 and the US destroyed 846 Pershing and cruise missiles.

Associated production facilities were also closed down.

INF Treaty was the first pact to include intensive verification measures, including on-site inspections.

How has the nuclear behavior been?

With the end of the Cold War and the break-up of the USSR in end-1991, former Soviet allies were joining NATO and becoming EU members.

The U.S. was investing in missile defense and conventional global precision strike capabilities to expand its technological lead.

In 2001, the U.S. announced its unilateral withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM Treaty).

The US also blamed Russia for not complying with the ‘zero-yield’ standard imposed by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). This may indicate the beginning of a new nuclear arms race.

Implications of the New Start

The 2011 New START lapsed in 2021. It may meet the fate of the INF Treaty.

The 2018 NPR envisaged the development of new nuclear weapons, including low-yield weapons.

China is preparing to operate its test site year-round with its goals for its nuclear force.

CTBT requires ratification by U.S., China, and Iran, Israel and Egypt and adherence by India, Pakistan and North Korea. It is unlikely to ever enter into force.

Hellfire R9X missile: The mystery weapon

The US military used its ‘secret weapon’ — the Hellfire R9X missile – to kill Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri on the balcony of a safehouse in Kabul.

What is the Hellfire R9X missile?

Better known in military circles as the AGM-114 R9X, the Hellfire R9X is a US-origin missile known to cause minimum collateral damage while engaging individual targets.

Also known as the ‘Ninja Missile’, this weapon does not carry a warhead and instead deploys razor-sharp blades at the terminal stage of its attack trajectory.

This helps it to break through even thick steel sheets and cut down the target using the kinetic energy of its propulsion without causing any damage to the persons in the general vicinity or to the structure of the building.

The blades pop out of the missile and cut down the intended target without causing the massive damage to the surroundings which would be the case with a missile carrying an explosive warhead.

When did the Hellfire missile enter active service?

The Hellfire 9RX missile is known to have been in active service since 2017.

However, its existence became public knowledge two years later in 2019.

It is a variant of the original Hellfire missile family which is used in conventional form with warheads and is traditionally used from helicopters, ground-based vehicles, and sometimes small ships and fast moving vessels.

For several years now, the Hellfire family of missiles, including the ‘Ninja Missile’, are armed on Combat Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or drones.

What is known about the other Hellfire missile variants?

Hellfire is actually an acronym for Heliborne, Laser, Fire and Forget Missile and it was developed in the US initially to target tanks from the Apache AH-64 attack helicopters.

Later, the usage of these missiles spread to several other variants of helicopters and also ground and sea-based systems and drones.

Developed by Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, the Hellfire missile has other variants such as ‘Longbow’ and ‘Romeo’ apart from the ‘Ninja’.