NATIONAL NEWS
Supreme Court says farmers have right to protest but can’t block roads
The Supreme Court on Thursday saw the farmers’ side and the government engage in a verbal clash during a physical hearing. Farmers, represented by senior advocate Dushyant Dave and advocate Prashant Bhushan, said roads were deliberately blocked in order to turn public sentiments against them. The protesters should be allowed to enter the Ram Lila Maidan and Jantar Mantar to continue their protests against the agricultural laws. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, for Haryana, reminded the court about the Red Fort violence in January that left several hundreds injured and others killed. A Bench led by Justice S.K. Kaul acknowledged that there is a problem with movement, we are not going to accept there is no problem. It stated that a solution needed to be found for the nearly two-year impasse between farmers and the government. The court noted that it had laid down the law in the Shaheen Bagh protests case that the right to protest should not hamper the right to movement of the public. Justice Kaul observed, The law is laid down. There is no reason for the SC to lay down the law again and again… Ultimately, some solutions have to be found — roads cannot be blocked. Dave contended that the right to protest was a fundamental right. The roads were blocked by police. The government’s view on violence by protesters seemed to be skewed. He asked why farmers were not being allowed at Jantar Mantar when Tuesday saw massive protests organised by the BJP in the area over the attack on Hindus in Bangladesh during Durga pooja. The solution is to allow us to agitate at Jantar Mantar… Mehta submitted, Last time they came, it became a serious issue… something much more than a serious issue. He insinuated that sometimes it is felt the farmers’ agitation is not for the cause but for something else. Dave retorted that farmers felt the same way about the government’s agricultural laws. We also feel that the farm laws are not for the farmers but for something else… If you are going to make allegations against the farmers, we will make allegations against you. He repeated that the only solution to the problem would be to allow farmers’ entry to the Ram Lila Maidan. Mehta said the Ram Lila Maidan has become a permanent residence for many. He referred to how there was material to suggest that the protests were funded by anti-national elements. So far, only four out of 43 farmers’ bodies and leaders have responded to the top court’s notice on a plea by a Noida resident to remove the blockades. Dave told the Bench that a similar case was being heard by another Bench and this case should be transferred there. The court issued notice on new petitions filed by other private citizens seeking the removal of the blockades. The Bench posted the hearing on December 7.
Anil Deshmukh money-laundering case: CBI chief Jaiswal is a ‘potential accused’, Maharashtra government tells HC
CBI director Subodh Jaiswal himself should be considered a potential accused in the central agency’s probe against former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh, the State government told the Bombay High Court on Thursday. Senior counsel Darius Khambata, who appeared for the Maharashtra government, told a bench of Justices Nitin Jamdar and S.V. Kotwal that during 2019 to 2020, when Jaiswal was the State Director General of Police (DGP), he was also part of the Police Establishment Board. The senior IPS officer was thus involved in decisions on transfers and postings of police officers which the CBI is now probing, the lawyer said. The Maharashtra government has challenged before the High Court summons issued by the CBI to State chief secretary Sitaram Kunte and present State DGP Sanjay Pandey to record statements in connection with the agency’s probe against Anil Deshmukh. Recommendations for transfers and postings were approved by Jaiswal in his capacity as DGP during Deshmukh’s tenure, Khambata said. A CBI probe is ongoing into transfers and postings of state police officers made during former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh’s tenure. Then the next in line (to be probed) is the Director General of Police, who is the fulcrum, who is at the heart of the issue of transfers and postings. So having the former DGP head the investigation is like having Anil Deshmukh investigate it himself, the State’s lawyer said. The CBI is probing allegations of corruption made by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh against Deshmukh, an NCP leader. Following an order of the Bombay High Court on April 5, 2021, the CBI conducted a preliminary inquiry into the allegations made by Singh against Deshmukh and later registered an FIR. In September this year, the CBI summoned Maharashtra chief secretary Sitaram Kunte and the present DGP Sanjay Pandey for recording statements in the case. The Maharashtra government has moved the HC challenging the summons. Advocate Khambata also pointed out that the HC’s April 5 order had said that whoever was part of the alleged corruption, even the complainant himself, must be investigated. He showed the court the minutes of meetings where Jaiswal, as part of the police establishment board, had approved transfers of several police officers. Jaiswal was present at every meeting on transfers, Khambata claimed. So shouldn’t the CBI ask Jaiswal why he recommended these transfers? But to do this, a CBI officer will have to summon and question his own director. Even in theory, it is absurd. It is the very antithesis of a fair investigation when the CBI director is a potential accused, the State’s lawyer added. Jaiswal, who was known to be an upright officer, must himself state that the CBI cannot go on with its probe, Khambata said. It will be absurd if a junior CBI officer will have to put these questions to his director. And it boggles my mind that a potential accused is heading the agency, he said. Khambata urged the HC to appoint a retired judge or some other suitable person to head the probe against Deshmukh and monitor it. Solicitor general Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor Generals Aman Lekhi and Anil Singh, who appeared for the CBI, opposed the State’s plea. The State’s stand is disingenuous. It is a misconceived petition to delay and derange the investigation, Lekhi claimed. The court said it could not grant any interim stay to the summons as it would mean making comments on the merits of the case. It granted liberty to the CBI to file a reply and posted the matter for further hearing on October 28.
Sidhu calls Amarinder Singh ‘architect’ of Centre’s farm laws
Punjab Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu on Thursday called former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh the architect of the Centre’s three farm laws against which farmers have been protesting at the Delhi borders. Sidhu’s remark came two days after Amarinder Singh said he would launch his own political party and that he was hopeful of a seat arrangement with the BJP, provided the ongoing farmers’ stir against farm laws was resolved in the agriculturists’ interest. Amarinder Singh, who faced an unceremonious exit from the State government last month, had also said that he was looking at an alliance with like-minded parties such as breakaway Akali groups. The architect of three black laws… Who brought Ambani to Punjab’s kisani… Who destroyed Punjab’s farmers, small traders and labour for benefiting one-two big corporates, Sidhu tweeted in an apparent reference to farmers’ allegations that big corporates will dictate terms to agriculturists with the passage of these laws. Amarinder Singh had resigned as the Punjab Chief Minister last month amid a bitter power tussle with Sidhu. Charanjit Singh Channi replaced him as the Chief Minister. Hundreds of farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at the Delhi borders since November 26 last year, demanding the repeal of the three farm laws.
Actor Ananya Panday appears before NCB to record statement
Actor Ananya Panday appeared before the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Thursday after the central agency allegedly came across WhatsApp chats during its investigation against Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, in a drugs case, sources said. Ananya’s father Chunky Panday accompanied her to the NCB office located at Ballard Estate in south Mumbai, where they reached around 4 pm. The NCB’s Mumbai zonal unit, which is probing the cruise drugs seizure case, in which Aryan Khan has been arrested, visited Ananya Panday’s residence in Bandra this morning and summoned her to record her statement later in the day, the sources said. Ananya’s name cropped up in the case after certain WhatsApp chats between her and Aryan Khan were allegedly found in the latter’s mobile phone, the sources said, adding that earlier in the day, the NCB officials had seized her mobile and laptop. Ananya was asked to appear before the NCB in the afternoon. Accordingly, she along with her father Chunky Panday appeared before the NCB officials, the sources said. The NCB officials, however, are yet to clarify about her role, if any, in the case. There was heavy deployment of police outside the NCB office and a large number of media persons were also present there. Aryan Khan was arrested with a few others on October 3 after the NCB raided a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast and claimed to have seized drugs, including charas. An NCB team visited Shah Rukh Khan’s residence ‘Mannat’ in suburban Bandra this afternoon for seeking from him certain material related to the investigation into the case, an official said. On Thursday morning, Shah Rukh Khan met his son Aryan Khan at the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai where the latter has been lodged following his arrest in the case.
Adityanath government plans to take action against policewomen who clicked photo with me: Priyanka Vadra
Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday claimed that the Yogi Adityanath government is planning to take action against some Uttar Pradesh policewomen who had posed for a photograph with her. The news is coming that Yogi ji got so upset with this picture that he wants to take action against these policewomen, Priyanka Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi along with the picture which is said to have been clicked on Wednesday while she was on her way to Agra to meet the family of a Dalit sanitation worker who had died in police custody. If it is a crime to take pictures with me, then I should also be punished as it does not suit the government to spoil the career of these hardworking and loyal policewomen, Priyanka added. The Congress leader was stopped on the Lucknow-Agra Expressway while she was on her way to meet the family members of Arun, who was accused of stealing ₹25 lakh from Jagdishpura Police Station in Agra and died in police custody after his health deteriorated during interrogation. According to a senior Lucknow Police official, an inquiry has been ordered into the matter of the women police personnel posing with the Congress general secretary to see if there is any violation of service rules.
Minor porn addicts kill 6-year-old girl in Assam
The police in central Assam’s Nagaon district arrested two minor porn addicts who stoned a six-year-old girl to death for resisting sexual abuse. An eight-year-old boy was also arrested for abetting the crime, along with the parents of one of the two boys — both 11 — for trying to suppress the incident and tamper with evidence. The girl was killed on October 18 at a village under the Uluoni police station. Found lying unconscious inside the toilet of a stone-crushing mill, she was declared dead on arrival at a local hospital. Sub Divisional Police Officer Mrinmoy Das said the victim was a next-door neighbour of the three accused, who are related. The two 11-year-olds were porn addicts, seemed mature beyond their age and capable of execution of a gruesome crime. One of the minors, who studies at an English medium school, wanted to have a physical relationship with the victim but she resisted, he said. He attacked her with a stone after she said she would tell her parents about his misbehaviour. The other 11-year-old boy also hit her with a stone and she died, Das said, adding that the eight-year-old helped the other two dispose of the body. The parents of the first 11-year-old were arrested for trying to hush up the crime and tamper with evidence, the police officer said. The boy was using his father’s smartphone. We found pornographic materials in the phone’s browsing history. He used the phone for his online classes but got addicted to watching porn and would show the X-rated contents to the other two, his cousins, Das said. The boys were sent to a juvenile home on Thursday while the arrested parents are likely to be remanded to judicial custody, the police said. Nagaon SP Anand Mishra said the incident underlined the need for family or social intervention and institutional guidance to children exposed to the ills of pornographic or violent content available online. Jayanta Das, a Guwahati-based psychiatrist, blamed the incident on abuse and overuse of technology and lack of parental guidance, with modern-day parents tending to let even infants be entertained with mobile phones instead of telling them stories or spending quality time with them. The pandemic, too, has created a situation where the parents are compelled to hand the mobile phone over to their children for online classes, he told The Hindu. He advised parents and adults to use mobile phones responsibly as children tend to imitate their actions. Access to porn has become very easy. This has hugely affected our children. The roles of parents and teachers have become very important, the psychiatrist said.
Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments
The cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country surpassed the 100-crore milestone on October 21. According to official sources, around 75% of India’s all eligible adult population has been administered at least the first dose and around 31% has received both the doses of the vaccine. India took 85 days to touch the 10-crore vaccination mark, 45 more days to cross the 20-crore mark, and 29 more days to reach the 30-crore mark, according to the Union Health Ministry data. The country took 24 days to reach the 40-crore mark from 30-crore doses and then 20 more days to surpass the 50-crore vaccination mark on August 6. It then took 76 days to go past the 100-crore mark. The top five States which have administered the highest number of doses are Uttar Pradesh, followed by Maharashtra, West Bengal, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 3,41,29,124 with the death toll at 4,52,871.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Martin Scorsese, Istvan Szabo to be conferred with Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award
Anurag Thakur, the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, has announced that the renowned film directors Martin Scorsese and Istvan Szabo will be honoured with Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award at the 52nd International Film Festival of India (IFFI) to be held in Goa. The 52nd edition of the International Film Festival of India will take place in Goa from November 20 to 28, 2021. This will also be for the first time that IFFI has invited major OTT platforms to participate in the international film festival. As per the Union Minister, India is a land of storytellers, and its tales have captured the imagination of the world. India’s wide variety of stories right makes us the content subcontinent. The 52nd International Film Festival of India will pay homage to actors Sumitra Bhave, Dilip Kumar, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Surekha Sikri, Sanchari Vijay, Bertrand Tavenier, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean-Claude Carriere, and Christopher Plummer.
Sandra Mason elected as the first-ever president of Barbados
Sandra Mason was elected as the first-ever President of Barbados on October 20, 2021, with a two-thirds vote during a joint session of the country’s House of Assembly and Senate. The 72-year-old Mason will replace Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II as head of state of Barbados, in a decisive step towards abolishing the monarchy and bringing the nation out of its colonial past. This is a major milestone on its road to republic, the government said in a statement. Mason will be formally sworn in as President on November 30, 2021, on the occasion of the nation’s 55th anniversary of independence from Britain. Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley called the election a seminal moment in the country’s journey. Mottley said, We have just elected from among us a woman who is uniquely and passionately Barbadian, does not pretend to be anything else (and) reflects the values of who we are.
