{"id":3896,"date":"2026-08-12T21:01:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T15:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/?p=3896"},"modified":"2026-08-12T22:53:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T17:23:54","slug":"download-psir-gs2-daily-brief-12-august-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/download-psir-gs2-daily-brief-12-august-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Two wars becoming one, the hands-off rule in election disputes, and the price of digital participation \u2014 PSIR &#038; GS2 Brief, 12 August 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"bf\">\n<div class=\"bf-shell\">\n<header class=\"bf-head\">\n<p class=\"bf-stand\">Today&#8217;s brief reads three articles: two wars that are joining into one, the rule that keeps courts out of an election while it is being held, and what happens to political life when every act of it leaves a record.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bf-meta\"><b>PSIR &amp; GS2 Daily Brief \u00b7 Issue 122<\/b><span class=\"d\">\u00b7<\/span>12 August 2026<span class=\"d\">\u00b7<\/span>Paper I-A, Paper I-B, Paper II-A<span class=\"d\">\u00b7<\/span>Amit Pratap Singh<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"bf-get\"><b>Issue 122 as a PDF<\/b><span>The full brief, ready to print for your folder.<\/span><a href=\"\/psir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Daily-brief-Issue-122.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Download PDF<\/a><\/div>\n<section class=\"bf-item\">\n<div class=\"bf-eyebrow\">Paper II-A \u00b7 International Relations<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"bf-h2\">Two regional wars are becoming one war. Air power alone is not settling either of them.<\/h2>\n<div class=\"bf-src\"><b>Vivekananda International Foundation<\/b><span class=\"d\">\u00b7<\/span>Lt Gen Rakesh Sharma<span class=\"d\">\u00b7<\/span>10 August 2026<span class=\"d\">\u00b7<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vifindia.org\/article\/2026\/august\/10\/Spiral-of-War-Escalation-Across-Geographies-and-the-Interlocking-Geopolitics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Read the article<\/a><\/div>\n<p>Rakesh Sharma writes that the war in Ukraine and the war between the United States and Iran can no longer be read as two separate quarrels. Supply chains, military assistance and partnerships now run between them. What began as two regional wars is turning into one conflict that crosses regions.<\/p>\n<h4>The facts that matter<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>The ceasefire of June 2026 broke on 6 July, when the <span class=\"bf-term\">Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps<\/span> struck ships in the <span class=\"bf-term\">Strait of Hormuz<\/span>. The United States answered with air strikes on Iranian military sites. Iran then struck American facilities in eight countries of West Asia. Saudi Arabia joined the American operations.<\/li>\n<li>The war spread by geography. An Egyptian port was struck for the first time. The Houthis closed the entrance of the <span class=\"bf-term\">Bab el-Mandeb Strait<\/span>.<\/li>\n<li>Ukraine struck more than two hundred Russian ships and tankers in the Black Sea and the Azov Sea, and damaged a third of Russia&#8217;s refining capacity. It struck Iranian ships in the Caspian Sea for the first time.<\/li>\n<li>The <span class=\"bf-term\">Centre for Strategic and International Studies<\/span> estimates that American Patriot interceptor stocks have fallen from about <span class=\"bf-term\">2,300<\/span> before the war with Iran to fewer than <span class=\"bf-term\">827<\/span>.<\/li>\n<li>Trade between China and Russia reached <span class=\"bf-term\">134.2 billion dollars<\/span> in the first half of 2026, a rise of 25.6 percent over the year before.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Why it matters for PSIR<\/h4>\n<p>The article is useful because it shows a limit. The strongest air forces in the world have been bombing for months, and neither war has ended. A stock of interceptors runs out. Ammunition runs short. Resistance goes on. Power that cannot be kept up is not the same as power.<\/p>\n<p>It is also the material for the answer on <span class=\"bf-term\">multi-alignment<\/span>. India buys from Russia, works with the United States, and trades with China, and these three are now on different sides of the same conflict. The advice is to widen the list of partners, build defence production at home, and keep the freedom to choose. That is <span class=\"bf-term\">strategic autonomy<\/span> stated as a capacity, not as a position.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bf-quote\">\n<p>&#8220;The two most dangerous regional wars in the world can fuse into one very large, very dangerous conflict.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><cite>Lt Gen Rakesh Sharma<\/cite><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"bf-item\">\n<div class=\"bf-eyebrow\">Paper I-B \u00b7 Indian Government and Politics<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"bf-h2\">Courts stay out of an election while it is being held. The article asks what is lost by staying out.<\/h2>\n<div class=\"bf-src\"><b>Bar and Bench<\/b><span class=\"d\">\u00b7<\/span>Dipan Desai<span class=\"d\">\u00b7<\/span>11 August 2026<span class=\"d\">\u00b7<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.barandbench.com\/columns\/the-hands-off-doctrine-in-election-disputes-a-case-for-reconsideration\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Read the article<\/a><\/div>\n<p>Dipan Desai writes about the practice by which a court refuses to hear a complaint about an election until the election is over. The practice has a name. It is called the <span class=\"bf-term\">hands-off doctrine<\/span>, and the article argues that it is now being applied more widely than it should be.<\/p>\n<h4>The facts that matter<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><span class=\"bf-law\">Article 329(b)<\/span> says that an election to Parliament or to a State legislature may be questioned only by an election petition, and only in the manner the law provides. <span class=\"bf-law\">Articles 243-O and 243-ZG<\/span> say the same for panchayat and municipal elections.<\/li>\n<li>The doctrine begins with <span class=\"bf-case\">N.P. Ponnuswami v. Returning Officer<\/span>. It was reaffirmed in <span class=\"bf-case\">State of Goa v. Fouziya Imtiaz Shaikh<\/span>.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"bf-case\">Election Commission of India v. Ashok Kumar<\/span> is the exception. A court may come in where the act complained of is without jurisdiction, is beyond the power given, or breaks natural justice.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"bf-case\">Kihoto Hollohan v. Zachillhu<\/span> holds that democracy and free and fair elections are part of the <span class=\"bf-term\">basic structure<\/span>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Why it matters for PSIR<\/h4>\n<p>The argument turns on time. An election has to be held on a date and the result has to be declared. A court that stops the process defeats that. But a body elected for five years may finish its term before the petition is decided, and then the remedy means nothing. The article asks for a middle course: leave the ordinary complaint to the election petition, and come in early only where the act was without jurisdiction, or against natural justice, or where the electoral roll itself was unlawful.<\/p>\n<p>Use it wherever the Election Commission is asked about, and in the answer on judicial review, because this is one of the few places where the Constitution itself keeps the court out.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bf-quote\">\n<p>&#8220;A constitutional court that is reluctant to arrest an illegality at its inception, particularly in a domain as central to democracy as elections, does the democratic project no service.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><cite>Dipan Desai<\/cite><\/div>\n<div class=\"bf-quote\">\n<p>&#8220;The country&#8217;s democratic architecture is kept, in the end, not by the parchment of its guarantees but by the institutions alert enough to enforce them in time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><cite>Dipan Desai<\/cite><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"bf-item\">\n<div class=\"bf-eyebrow\">Paper I-A \u00b7 Political Theory<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"bf-h2\">The network that lets a citizen join a movement also records that he joined it.<\/h2>\n<div class=\"bf-src\"><b>South Asia Monitor<\/b><span class=\"d\">\u00b7<\/span><em>the article is named on the brief; it could not be traced online, so no link is given<\/em><\/div>\n<p>The article begins with a change everybody has seen. A movement no longer needs an office, a leader or a printing press. It needs a group on a telephone. The article then makes the harder point. The same network that carries the call also keeps the record of who answered it.<\/p>\n<h4>The facts that matter<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>The article puts India&#8217;s internet subscribers above <span class=\"bf-term\">970 million<\/span> and active users of social media above <span class=\"bf-term\">460 million<\/span>.<\/li>\n<li>It takes the NEET protests as its example. There was no single leader and no single office, and the protest still spread through Instagram, WhatsApp and Telegram.<\/li>\n<li>It reads the position through two writers. <span class=\"bf-sch\">Michel Foucault<\/span> held that being watched changes behaviour by itself, without any punishment. <span class=\"bf-sch\">Shoshana Zuboff<\/span> holds that behaviour has become a thing that is collected and sold.<\/li>\n<li>It asks for five safeguards: a clear legal authority, protection against misuse, a limit on how long data is kept, oversight from outside the government, and a remedy in court.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Why it matters for PSIR<\/h4>\n<p>This is the old question about liberty in a new form. A right is not taken away here. Nobody is stopped from speaking. But a citizen who knows he is being watched speaks less, and the loss cannot be measured because it never becomes an event.<\/p>\n<p>The answer to write is not that technology should be refused. It is that the power to watch has to be placed under law, like every other power of the state. Use it on rights, on civil liberties, and on the theory of the state, where the question is what a state may do to a citizen who has done nothing wrong.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bf-quote\">\n<p>&#8220;Democracy has entered an era where every act of political participation is simultaneously an act of data generation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><cite>South Asia Monitor<\/cite><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"bf-syl\">\n<h3>Where this sits in your syllabus<\/h3>\n<p class=\"s\">Open the note and read the full topic.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bf-chips\"><a class=\"bf-chip\" href=\"\/psir\/notes\/balance-of-power-and-deterrence\/\">Balance of power and deterrence<\/a><a class=\"bf-chip\" href=\"\/psir\/notes\/national-interest-security-and-power\/\">National interest, security and power<\/a><a class=\"bf-chip\" href=\"\/psir\/notes\/realist-approach\/\">Realist approach<\/a><a class=\"bf-chip\" href=\"\/psir\/notes\/continuity-and-change-in-indian-foreign-policy\/\">Continuity and change in Indian foreign policy<\/a><a class=\"bf-chip\" href=\"\/psir\/notes\/india-and-nam-current-role\/\">India and NAM: current role<\/a><a class=\"bf-chip\" href=\"\/psir\/notes\/afghanistan-iraq-and-west-asia\/\">Afghanistan, Iraq and West Asia<\/a><a class=\"bf-chip\" href=\"\/psir\/notes\/india-and-russia\/\">India and Russia<\/a><a class=\"bf-chip\" href=\"\/psir\/notes\/election-commission\/\">Election Commission<\/a><a class=\"bf-chip\" href=\"\/psir\/notes\/supreme-court\/\">Supreme Court<\/a><a class=\"bf-chip\" href=\"\/psir\/notes\/judicial-review-and-basic-structure-doctrine\/\">Judicial review and basic structure doctrine<\/a><a class=\"bf-chip\" href=\"\/psir\/notes\/representative-democracy\/\">Representative democracy<\/a><a class=\"bf-chip\" href=\"\/psir\/notes\/civil-liberties-and-human-rights-movements\/\">Civil liberties and human rights movements<\/a><a class=\"bf-chip\" href=\"\/psir\/notes\/concept-of-human-rights\/\">Concept of human rights<\/a><a class=\"bf-chip\" href=\"\/psir\/notes\/different-kinds-of-rights\/\">Different kinds of rights<\/a><a class=\"bf-chip\" href=\"\/psir\/notes\/concept-of-power\/\">Concept of power<\/a><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"bf-q\">\n<h3>The questions this feeds<\/h3>\n<p class=\"s\">Questions from earlier years that today&#8217;s reading speaks to. Where the answer is written, the red link opens it. The full set is in the <a href=\"\/psir\/pyq-vault\/\">PYQ Vault<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><b>GS Paper II \u00b7 2025 \u00b7 15m<\/b>\u201cEnergy security constitutes the dominant kingpin of India\u2019s foreign policy, and is linked with India\u2019s overarching influence in Middle Eastern countries.\u201d How would you integrate energy security with India\u2019s foreign policy trajectories in the coming years?<\/li>\n<li><b>PSIR Paper II \u00b7 2023 \u00b7 15m<\/b>What are the challenges and limitations in India\u2013Iran relations?<a class=\"ans\" href=\"\/psir\/psir-pyq\/what-are-the-challenges-and-limitations-in-india---iran-relations-upsc-psir-2023-5005\/\">Answer<\/a><\/li>\n<li><b>PSIR Paper II \u00b7 2024 \u00b7 15m<\/b>Do you agree with the view that the USA uses NATO as a traditional tool of strategy to perpetuate its hegemony in the world?<a class=\"ans\" href=\"\/psir\/psir-pyq\/do-you-agree-with-the-view-that-the-usa-uses-nato-as-a-upsc-psir-2024-3312\/\">Answer<\/a><\/li>\n<li><b>PSIR Paper II \u00b7 2025 \u00b7 10m<\/b>Would you agree with the contention that India\u2019s inclination to lean on a \u2018more aggressive hyper-realist posture\u2019 has gained a new momentum in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terrorist strike?<a class=\"ans\" href=\"\/psir\/psir-pyq\/would-you-agree-with-the-contention-that-indias-inclination-to-upsc-psir-2025-4908\/\">Answer<\/a><\/li>\n<li><b>PSIR Paper I \u00b7 2025 \u00b7 15m<\/b>There is a debate on the procedure for appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners to the Election Commission of India. Analyse its various aspects.<\/li>\n<li><b>GS Paper II \u00b7 2025 \u00b7 10m<\/b>Discuss the \u2018corrupt practices\u2019 for the purpose of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/section>\n<div class=\"bf-foot\">A new brief on every working day. Facts and quotes are taken from the articles linked above.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three articles read for the PSIR and GS Paper II syllabus on 12 August 2026: how the wars in Ukraine and West Asia are turning into one conflict, why the rule that keeps courts out of a running election is being questioned, and what digital political participation costs the citizen who takes part in it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"fx_brief_v2":"1","fx_brief_issue":"122","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-psir-gs-2-daily-brief"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3896"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5029,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3896\/revisions\/5029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}