Editorial
Battle for Bihar: On Assembly polls
The Assembly election in Bihar will be taking place in unprecedented circumstances over three phases, in the last week of October and the first week of November. This will be the first Assembly election since COVID-19 disrupted normal life, and the performance of the governments on the health and economic fronts will become an issue in the election campaign. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s record of 15 years is mixed. After initial improvements in governance after he took over in 2005, there was an evident downslide, culminating in the bungled handling of the pandemic. He deserted the BJP in 2013 and won the 2015 Assembly election in alliance with the RJD, only to return to the BJP’s embrace soon. His popularity is waning, while the BJP is on the defensive on questions of border security, economic stagnation, and farmer backlash. The State and the Centre, jointly and separately, mismanaged the return of migrant workers from other States to Bihar during the lockdown. They have held
Editorial
Salutary lesson: On the Vodafone case
Vodafone Group Plc has won yet another round in its 13-year-long battle with India’s tax authorities. On Friday, an international arbitration tribunal ruled that the Indian government’s efforts to claim more than ₹20,000 crore in tax (including related interest and penalties) from Vodafone using retrospective legislation was in clear breach of the ‘fair and equitable treatment’ protections afforded under Article 4(1) of the Bilateral Investment Treaty between India and the Netherlands. The ruling upholding the British multinational’s stand ought to end India’s protracted and often perverse pursuit of what at the very outset was a highly contentious claim. The dispute began in September 2007 when tax authorities served a demand on Vodafone International Holdings BV for tax that it said Vodafone’s Dutch unit ought to have withheld while acquiring the controlling stake in the erstwhile Hutchison Essar Ltd. from Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. Since the stake purchase
Editorial
Code debate: On new labour Bills
Some laws are far too important and have far too much impact on the people to be passed in haste or without sufficient deliberation. The three codes aimed at consolidating diverse labour laws and ushering in reforms fall in this category. The codes were passed in both Houses after a limited debate and in the absence of the Opposition. The Industrial Relations Code, the Social Security Code and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, are an updated version of the respective Codes of 2019, which were scrutinised by a Standing Committee. Therefore, there is considerable merit in the argument that the fresh drafts, introduced a few days before their passage, ought to have been sent back to the panel for an assessment. It is significant that the most contentious feature — the increase in the threshold for an establishment to seek government permission before closure, lay-off or retrenchment from units that employ 100 workers to 300 — was not found in the 2019
Cess pool: On CAG report on GST
The Centre must keep the faith of Parliament, States and the people, and stop misusing cess
Terms of disengagement: On India-China standoff
Military-level talks help avoid confrontation, but the China border remains a challenge
The foreign hand: On FCRA amendments
NGOs fill in for the state; regulations should not stifle their functioning
A new world order: On UN reforms
The permanent members of the UNSC must support the reform process of the UN
Precarious houses: On building collapses
To prevent building collapses, governments should offer incentives for repairs
A point of order: On farm bills
Parliament must not abridge right of MPs to take a stand in debates and votes
