CURRENT AFFAIRS
07 February 2021
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) Farmers’ ‘chakka jam’ goes off peacefully.
The three-hour chakka jam or road blockade protest called by farm unions went off smoothly today, despite some people being detained at a solidarity protest site within Delhi, as well as reports of detentions in Madhya Pradesh, Bangalore and Hyderabad. With the fears of chaos and violence looming in the background, security forces had stepped up deployment, and farm unions called off protests in U.P. and Uttarakhand. Members of different farmer outfits in parts of Punjab and Haryana on Saturday blocked several national and State highways and squatted on roads between 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. The protests, which saw the participation of the elderly, women and youth, were peaceful and no untoward incident was reported. Slogans were raised against the Centre, demanding the repeal of the laws. Sukhdev Singh, general secretary of Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan), one of the largest farmers’ outfit in Punjab, said that its members blocked roads in 13 districts. Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC) general secretary Sarvan Singh Pandher said its members blocked roads at 57 places in Amritsar and Tarn Taran among other districts. In Rajasthan, farmers at many places including Ganganagar, Hanumangarh, Dholpur and Jhalawar in the State blocked the highways and main roads and held demonstrations, police said. The Ministry of Home Affairs ordered the suspension of Internet services at Singhu, Ghazipur and Tikri borders of Delhi till Saturday night, officials said. Apart from the three sites, Internet services will remain suspended in their adjoining areas too till 11:59 p.m. on February 6. The protests were held on a call from the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, a joint front of farmer unions, which had been agitating against the farm laws.
B) SC judge hails PM as ‘popular, vibrant and visionary leader’
Supreme Court justice M R Shah on Saturday described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as our most popular, loved, vibrant and visionary leader, PTI reported. The praise for the prime minister by Justice Shah came during a function to celebrate the diamond jubilee of the Gujarat High Court. He is proud and privileged to participate in the function to celebrate the diamond jubilee of the Gujarat High Court and that too in the presence of their most popular, loved, vibrant and visionary leader, prime minister Narendra Modi, Shah said in his address. One of the essential features of the democratic republic established under the Indian Constitution is division of powers between Parliament, executive, and the judiciary,” the judge went on to say. He felt proud that the Gujarat High Court has never crossed the Lakshman Rekha (boundaries of power/code of conduct) and always delivered justice, he said. Last year, Justice Arun Mishra’s fulsome praise for Prime Minister Modi at an event had raised eyebrows. Justice Mishra, now a retired SC judge, had described Modi as internationally acclaimed visionary. In his address on Saturday, Justice Shah also said the Gujarat high court was his karmbhoomi where he practiced as a lawyer for 22 years and served as a judge for 14 years. Modi released a commemorative stamp at the function. He also hailed the country’s judiciary, saying it has performed its duty well in safeguarding people’s rights and upholding personal liberty.
C) Consensual sex between minors a legal grey area says Bombay HC, granting bail to teen convicted of rape.
The Bombay High Court recently granted bail to a 19-year-old youth and suspended his 10-year sentence for raping his minor cousin. In its order, the court said that Incidents of consensual sex between minors has been a grey area under the law as minor’s consent is not valid in the eyes of law under Protection of Children from Sexual Offence Act (POCSO). In September 2017, the minor was living in her paternal uncle’s house. She is reported to have told a friend that her cousin had touched her inappropriately and that her stomach hurts. The friend told their class teacher who inquired about the same from the victim, and she told the teacher about being sexually harassed by the male cousin and subjected to penetrative assault. The ordeal was then described to the school principal after which a FIR was registered against the boy under section 376 (2) (n) and 354 of the Indian Penal Code, along with sections 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the POCSO. After the trial he was sentenced to suffer 10 years rigorous imprisonment. However, Justice S.S. Shinde noted that in the case at hand, facts are distinctive in the sense, victim is first cousin sister of the appellant. At the relevant time, she was a 15-year-old and appellant was 19. Both were students and living in one house. A fact cannot be overlooked that the victim had resiled [retracted] from her statement under Section 164 recording of confessions and statements of the Code of the Criminal Procedure. Even her mother was unfriendly to prosecution. Opinions of doctor that victim was subjected to sexual assault was subject to Forensic Science Laboratory report was not obtained till the conclusion of the trial. The court suspended his sentence and recorded, Victim said, her statement to the police and narrative in statement under Section 164 was at the instance of the class teacher. Therefore, in the proceedings, wherein suspension of sentence is sought, this Court cannot ignore the ‘evidence of victim’ and ‘her mother’. While granting bail to the youth, the Bench held that he is conscious of the fact that the passing of POCSO has been significant and a progressive step in securing children’s rights and furthering the cause of protecting children against sexual abuse. The letter and spirit of the law, which defines a child as anyone less than 18 years of age, is to protect children from sexual abuse. He is also conscious of the fact that consensual sex between minors has been in a legal grey area because the consent given by minor is not considered to be a valid consent in eyes of law.
D) Today’s times can’t be exaggerated as Emergency: N. Ram.
The present times should not be compared to the Emergency as there were still spaces where one could air strong opinions and fight repression, N. Ram, Director, The Hindu Publishing Group, said on Saturday. He was speaking in a webinar organised by Live Law on Criminalising Journalism and Cinema. Ram said uneven implementation of law, and the higher judiciary, on more than one occasion, has failed to protect press freedom. The recent arrests and filing of criminal cases against several journalists and also other creative persons, has exposed and widened the fault lines in our Constitution. We used to think we have pretty good protection, but actually we don’t. There are many escape clauses in law which is aggravated by executive overreach and failure of the judiciary to adequately protect. India, he stated, had regressed in terms of freedom of press. There was a time when, in terms of freedom of press, India was in an enviable position among the developing nations. But that was 40 years ago, we had just come out of the dark chapter of Emergency. Political scientist Robin Jeffrey, in a book dealing with the Indian language press, called it India’s newspaper revolution. Today if he has to claim that they are in an enviable position, then he will be accused of spreading fake news, he observed. He wouldn’t say that this is like an emergency, he said. That would be a mistake. He have lived under Emergency, when there was total censorship, detention of journalists. Let’s not rush out to conclusions. There are still spaces where you can express vigorous opinion, strong condemnation of the acts of the executive, criticise the judiciary and so on, he noted.
E) After oils, FSSAI caps transfats in foods.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has amended its rules to put a cap on trans fatty acids (TFAs) in food products, just weeks after it tightened the norms for oils and fats. Food products in which edible oils and fats are used as an ingredient shall not contain industrial trans fatty acids more than 2% by mass of the total oils/fats present in the product, on and from 01st January, 2022, as per the revised regulations notified recently and made public on Friday. In December, it capped TFAs in oils and fats to 3% by 2021, and 2% by 2022 from the current levels of 5%. The two percent cap is considered to be elimination of trans fatty acids, which we will achieve by 2022. We are happy to say that we will be reaching this goal a year sooner than the WHO deadline. We have held eight meetings with industry stakeholders and they are onboard to implement the rules, FSSAI CEO Arun Singhal told The Hindu. Trans fatty acids are present in baked, fried and processed foods as well as adulterated ghee, which becomes solid at room temperature. They are the most harmful form of fats as they clog arteries and cause hypertension, heart attacks, and other cardiovascular diseases.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) Myanmar shuts down Internet as thousands hit the streets.
Myanmar’s junta shut down Internet in the country on Saturday as thousands of.people took to the streets of Yangon to denounce this week’s coup and demand the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi. In the first such demonstration since the Generals seized power on Monday, activists chanted. Military dictator. fail, fail; Democracy. win. win and held banners reading against military dictatorship. Bystanders offered them food and water. Many in the crowd wore red, the colour of Ms. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), which won November 8 elections in a landslide, a result the Generals have refused to recognise claiming fraud. As the protest swelled and activists issued calls on social media for people to join the march, the country’s Internet crashed. Monitoring group Net Blocks Internet Observatory reported a national-scale Internet blackout. saying on Twitter that connectivity had fallen to 54% of ordinary levels. The junta has tried to silence dissent by temporarily blocking Facebook and extended a social media crackdown to Twitter and Instagram on Saturday. Norwegian mobile phone Company Telenor Asa said authorities had ordered lnternet providers to deny access to Twitter and Instagram until further notice. Many had sidestepped the ban on sites such as Facebook by using virtual private networks to conceal their Icy cations, but the more general disruption to mobile data services would severely limit access to independent news. The lawyer for Ms. Suu Kyi and ousted President win Myint said he was unable to meet them because they were still being questioned. Ms. Suu Kyi faces charges of importing six walkie-talkies illegally while Mr. Win Myint is accused of flouting coronavirus restrictions.
B) U.S. moves to end terror designation of Houthis.
The U.S. has moved to delist Yemen’s Houthi rebels as a terrorist organization, removing a block that humanitarian groups said jeopardized crucial aid as the country’s warring sides cautiously welcomed a push for peace by President Joe Biden. The grinding six-year war in Yemen has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions, triggering what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian disaster. Nearly 80% of Yemen’s population need some form of aid for survival, says UN. A State Department spokesperson said on Friday they had formally notified Congress of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s intent to revoke the terrorist designations. The move comes a day after Mr. Biden announced an end to U.S. support for the Saudi-led offensive operations in Yemen. This decision has nothing to do with our view of the Houthis and their reprehensible conduct, including attacks against civilians and the kidnapping of American citizens, the spokesperson said. Their action is due entirely to the humanitarian consequences of this last-minute designation from the prior administration, they said, adding the U.S. remained committed to helping Saudi Arabia defend its territory against attacks by the rebels. Mr. Blinken’s predecessor Mike Pompeo announced the designation days before leaving office last month, pointing to the Houthis’ links to Iran and a deadly attack on the airport in Yemen’s second city of Aden in December.
