Title: Not by diktat alone
(Supreme Court does right to make playing of the national anthem before a film optional)
• With the Centre saying this directive could be placed on hold, and that it would set up an inter-ministerial committee to recommend regulations for the presentation of the national anthem, the court has said it is not mandatory to play it in cinema halls.
• Justice D.Y. Chandrachud:- remarking that there was no need for an Indian to “wear his patriotism on his sleeve”
• The audience began looking for signs of ‘disrespect’ and there were reports of vigilantism, with people beaten up or harangued for not standing up.
• Such mandatory measures cannot explain why cinema houses should be singled out or why such rules shouldn’t apply to other halls or enclosures where meetings and performances take place.
It is for Parliament to prescribe them by law. As subscribers to common democratic ideals, citizens should be presumed to have a natural respect for symbols of national honour, and should not have to be made unwilling participants in a coercive project.
Title:- Prescription for the future
• The National Medical Commission Bill, aimed at reforming Indian medical education and practice, is in trouble.
This is because the questions it seeks to address are knotty, with no straightforward answers.
• First, how can India produce enough competent doctors to meet its evolving health-care challenges?
• Second, how can it minimise opportunities for rent-seeking in medical education and practice?
• It was mired in allegations of bribery and going soft on unethical doctors.
• India neither has enough basic doctors, nor specialists.
• National Medical Commission (NMC), intended by policymakers to be a dynamic regulator responsive to India’s needs, unlike the opaque MCI.
• The authors of the NMC bill, a committee headed by ex-vice chairman of Niti Aayog, Arvind Panagariya, argued that the electoral process through which MCI members were picked was fundamentally flawed, because conscientious doctors tended to avoid such elections.
• Another option to keep the NMC free from political influence is for an independent body like the Union Public Service Commission.
Shortage of doctors
• The NMC Bill also misses an opportunity to plan for India’s rural health- care needs in the coming decades.
• India must think of quicker fixes to the doctor shortage instead of waiting for MBBS doctors to fill the gap.
Training non-doctors
Several sub-Saharan countries have successfully addressed this problem by training non-doctors in basic medicine and even surgery.
Conclusion
The NMC Bill could do the same for the next few decades. If policymakers do not address the many questions that health-care experts have raised over the Bill, they will miss their chance at truly game-changing reform.
Vocabulary words:
Coercive = Using force or threats (बलपूर्वक)
Diktat = an order or decree imposed by someone (फरमान)
Laying down = Bestow (नीचे रख देना)
Statutory = Legal (वैधानिक)
Patrons = Promoter, protector (संरक्षक)
Apparel = Clothing (परिधान, वस्त्र)
Vigilantism = Law enforcement undertaken without legal authority (अतिसतर्कता)
Vocabulary words:
Harangued = Lecture (someone) at length in an aggressive and critical manner
(भाषण देना)
Unethical = Not morally correct (अनैतिक)
Conscientious = Honest, sincere (ईमानदार)
Provinces = Territory, region (प्रांतों)
Quacks = A person who dishonestly claims to have special knowledge and skill in some field, typically medicine (नीम हकीम)
What we got for English Section
• Such mandatory measures cannot explain why cinema houses should be singled out or why such rules shouldn’t apply to other halls or enclosures where meetings and performances take place.
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