CURRENT AFFAIRS
29 September 2020
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) Sonia asks CMs to consider bringing laws that override the Centre’s farm Bills.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi has directed Chief Ministers of 4 Congress-ruled states Punjab, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Puducherry to explore the possibility of enacting legislation that overrides the 3 agricultural laws passed by the Parliament in its monsoon session. Party general secretary (organization) KC Venugopal said that all 4 states have been told to pass laws under Article 254 (2) of the Constitution, which allows state legislatures to pass a law that overrides a central law. The legislation thus passed will then have to get the President’s assent in order to become law. Article 254 (2) of the Constitution essentially enables a state government to pass a law, on any subject in the Concurrent List, that may contradict a Central law, provided it gets the President’s assent. In late 2014, the BJP government in Rajasthan took this very route to make changes to the central labor laws – the Factories Act, the Industrial Disputes Act, and the Contract Labour Act – which subsequently got the President’s assent.
B) Punjab, Chhattisgarh already looking for alternatives.
The Punjab government led by Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has already started work on these lines. It had been contemplating amending the existing Agriculture Produce Market Committee Act and declare the entire state as a principal mandi yard. This would circumvent provisions in The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, which was passed in Parliament. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, too, had recently said that his government will take steps to ensure that private players do not get an entry into the agriculture sector. At least 40% of the paddy production in Chattisgarh is procured by the Food Corporation of India for the central pool.
C) Anti-farm Bill protesters set tractor on fire at Indian Gate.
On 28 August, a tractor was set on fire at Delhi’s India Gate by a group of men protesting against the Farm Bills. Eish Singhal, who is the DCP of New Delhi has said that around 15 to 20 persons gathered at Rajpath and they also tried to set a tractor on fire. The fire was doused and the tractor removed. Mr. Singhal said that they have detained 5 persons in the matter till now. The persons held are native of Punjab. They are verifying their identities. According to police, eyewitnesses said that the protesters brought the tractor on a truck, and after reaching Rajpath, pushed it on to the road and set it on fire. The protesters were holding pictures of Bhagat Singh and raised slogans against the Farm Bills passed recently by Parliament.
D) Novel Coronavirus is likely to keep the accused of Babri from the Court on the day of the verdict.
A Special CBI court in Lucknow will pronounce judgment in the Babri Masjid demolition case on 30 September, almost 28 years after karsevaks demolished the Mughal-era monument in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. Senior BJP leader and former deputy prime minister L.K Advani, his colleagues Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, and Kalyan Singh are among the accused. However, it is doubtful if all of them would be able to make it in person during the pandemic as some of them are either aged or unwell. While Advani is 92, Joshi is 86, Singh is 88, and Mahant Nritya Gopal Das is 82. Five accused persons are unwell, said K.K. Mishra, one of the defense lawyers. While Bharti is Covid-19 positive, Singh has been admitted to a hospital. Mahant Das is receiving treatment in his ashram and another accused, Satish Pradhan, is wheel-chair bound after suffering from gangrene. “Nothing is official as of now, but looking at the circumstances we can estimate that it won’t be possible [for the unwell accused persons] to come,” said Mishra. While 351 prosecution witnesses were examined by the court, Mishra told The Hindu that they did not produce any witness in court as it was difficult to find one from among the group [that had gathered in Ayodhya]. Senior lawyers pointed out that it was common for the defense side to not produce many witnesses in criminal cases. The CBI judge has directed all 32 accused persons in the criminal conspiracy case to be present in court in person on Wednesday.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) Trump’s tax returns show chronic losses.
The President of the United States Donald Trump has 1 paid $750 in federal income taxes in the year in which he had won the presidency. In the first year in the White House, he has paid another $750. He had paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years largely because he had reported losing much more money than he made. The tax returns that Donald Trump has long fought to keep private tell a story fundamentally different from the one he has sold to the American public. His reports to the IRS have portrayed a businessman who takes in hundreds of millions of dollars a year yet it racks up a chronic loss that he has aggressively employed to avoid paying taxes. Now, with his financial challenges mounting the records show that he depends more and more on making money from the businesses that put him in potential and often direct conflict of interest with his job as a President.
B) Tik-Tok gets reprieve in U. S. as Judge halts download ban.
On 27 September, a federal judge of the United States has halted a politically charged ban ordered by the President of United States Mr. Donald Trump administration on downloads of the popular video app TikTok, hours before it was set to take effect. District Judge Carl Nichols has issued a temporary injunction on the request of TikTok, which the White House has called a national security threat by alleging that their Chinese parent firm is tied to the government of Beijing. The opinion was sealed, so for the decision, no reason was released in a single page order by the court in Washington. The administration of United States President Donald Trump has sought to ban new downloads of the app from midnight but would allow the use of TikTok until November 12. The Judge had denied the request of TikTok to suspend the ban of November 12. Judge Nichols has heard the arguments on the free-speech and national security implications of the ban on the Chinese-owned app. The lawyer of TikTok, John Hall has said that a ban would be punitive and close off a public forum used by tens of millions of Americans.
