Notes for April Current Affairs 2021

ARTICLE 244 (A) of the Indian Constitution

I. It was inserted into the Constitution of India in 1969 by virtue of the then Congress
Government through the Twenty-second Constitution Amendment Act
II. A demand for a separate hill state arose around certain sections of the tribal population
of undivided Assam in the 1950s.
III. In 1960, various political parties of the hill areas merged to form the All Party Hill
Leaders Conference, demanding a separate state.
IV. After prolonged agitations, Meghalaya gained statehood in 1972.
V. The leaders of the Karbi Anglong and North Cachar Hills were also part of this
movement. They were given the option to stay in Assam or join Meghalaya.
VI. They stayed back as the then Congress government promised more powers, including
Article 244 (A).
VII. In the 1980s, the demand for more power/autonomy took the form of a movement with
a number of Karbi groups resorting to violence. It soon became an armed separatist
insurgency demanding full statehood.
VIII. While in February 2021, 1,040 militants of five militant groups of Karbi Anglong district
ceremonially laid down arms at an event in Guwahati in the presence of Chief Minister
Sarbananda Sonowal, the entire political discourse here still revolves around the
demand for grant of ‘autonomous state’ status to the region.
IX. Article 244(A) allows for creation of an ‘autonomous state’ within Assam in certain tribal
areas.
X. It also envisages creation of a local legislature or Council of Ministers or both to carry
out local administration.
XI. The Sixth Schedule of the Constitution — Articles 244(2) and 275(1) — is a special
provision that allows for greater political autonomy and decentralised governance in
certain tribal areas of the Northeast through autonomous councils that are
administered by elected representatives. In Assam, the hill districts of Dima Hasao,
Karbi Anglong and West Karbi and the Bodo Territorial Region are under this provision.
XII. In January, a group of BJP legislators from Assam, plus BJP MP Horen Sing Bey who
represents the Autonomous Hills district constituency, submitted a memorandum to the
Centre seeking the implementation of Article 244 (A).
XIII. Later in February, two days after the surrender, Karbi groups approached Home
Minister Amit Shah reiterating the demand.
XIV. However, Shah, till now, has only promised a special developmental package for the
areas.
XV. The Governor is empowered to increase or decrease the areas or change the names of
the autonomous districts. While executive powers of the Union extend in Scheduled
areas with respect to their administration in fifth schedule, the sixth schedule areas
remain within executive authority of the state.
XVI. The Fifth Schedule of the Constitution deals with the administration and control of
scheduled areas and scheduled tribes in any state except the four states of Assam,
Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. The whole of the normal administrative machinery
operating in a state do not extend to the scheduled areas.
XVII. At present, 10 States namely Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh,
Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana have Fifth
Schedule Area. Tribal habitations in the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West
Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir have not been brought under the Fifth or
Sixth Schedule.

EU Parliament approves post-Brexit trade treaty

I. European lawmakers have approved the final ratification of the post-Brexit trade
deal between the European Union and the United Kingdom, nearly five years
after Britain decided to leave the bloc.
II. The deal, which was finalized on Christmas Eve, had already been ratified by the
U.K. Parliament and conditionally came into force pending the European
Parliament's approval, which marks the final legal hurdle.
III. Lawmakers at the European Parliament endorsed the free trade agreement by
660 votes in favor, 5 against, and 32 abstentions.
IV. The U.K. had joined the bloc in 1973.

Raul Castro resigns as the leader of Cuba

I. Raul Castro announced recently that he is resigning as head of Cuba's Communist Party,
ending an era of formal leadership by himself and his brother Fidel Castro that began
with the 1959 revolution.
 II. The Communist Party is made up of 700,000 activists and is tasked in Cuba's constitution
with directing the affairs of the nation and society.
III. Castro announced at the Eighth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, which began
on 16 April 2021, that he was retiring.
IV. His successor, Miguel Díaz-Canel, was voted in on 19 April.

NATO to exit Afghanistan along with US

I. Foreign troops under NATO command will withdraw from Afghanistan in coordination
with a US pull-out by Sept. 11, NATO allies agreed on Wednesday, pledging to mirror
American plans to start removing troops on May 1 after two decades of war.
II. The announcement by President Joe Biden that the US will withdraw all its troops from
Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, has sent
tremors through the region’s fault-lines.
III. There are about 2,500-3,500 US troops in Afghanistan at present, plus a NATO force of
under 8,000. A co-ordinated withdrawal is expected to begin soon.
IV. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, speaking alongside US Secretary of State
Antony Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, said the decision was tough.
V. An integral part of NATO's current mission, Resolute Support, is to train and equip
Afghan security forces fighting the Islamist Taliban, which was ousted from power by a
US invasion in 2001 and has since waged an insurgency.
VI. With non-US troop numbers reaching as high as 40,000 in 2008, Europe, Canada and
Australia have moved in tandem with the US, also providing long-term funding to
rebuild Afghanistan despite the resurgence of Taliban-led violence and endemic official
corruption in the country.
VII. Germany and Bulgaria were two of the 36 countries involved in Resolute Support to
immediate announce withdrawal plans. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Biden
discussed in a phone call the NATO military presence in Afghanistan and agreed to
closely coordinate future steps, a German government spokesman said.
VIII. After withdrawing, the United States and NATO aim to rely on Afghan military and police
forces, which they have developed with billions of dollars in funding, to maintain
security though peace talks are struggling and the insurgency is resilient.

Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh

 I. The 2021 Sukma-Bijapur attack was an ambush carried out by the Naxalite-Maoist
insurgents from the Communist Party of India (Maoist) against Indian security forces on
3 April 2021 at Sukma-Bijapur border near Jonaguda village which falls under
Jagargunda police station area in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh, leading to the killing of
22 security personnel and 9 Naxalites. The death toll was the worst for Indian security
forces fighting the Naxalites since 2017.
II. On 23 March 2021, five District Reserve Guard (DRG) personnel were killed and 13
others injured when Maoists blew up a bus carrying the security personnel with an
improvised explosive device in Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh.
III. The Maoists' group was aided by insurgents associated with the Maoist platoons of
Pamed, Konta, Jagargunda, and Basaguda area committees with them nearly 250 in
strength.