NATIONAL NEWS
A) Rahul Gandhi, CPI(M) renew calls for JPC probe into Rafale deal
A day after the Congress demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Rafale deal, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on July 4 put out an online survey asking why the Modi government was not ready for it. Among the choices given by Gandhi to the question were guilty conscience, saving friends, JPC does not want a Rajya Sabha seat, and all the above. Why is the Modi government not ready for a JPC probe? – guilt conscience (sic), saving the friends, JPC does not want a Rajya Sabha seat and all of these are right, he said in Hindi on Twitter, while putting out the survey. Gandhi has been alleging corruption in the Rafale fighter jet deal for long now and had made this as a major poll plank in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which the Congress lost badly. A French judge has been appointed to lead a highly sensitive judicial probe into suspected corruption and favouritism in the ₹ 59,000 crore Rafale fighter jet deal with India, French investigative website Mediapart has reported. The Congress has demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Rafale deal, alleging corruption in the purchase of the fighter jets, and said such an investigation is the only way forward to find the truth. The main opposition party had further said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should order the investigation and come clean on the deal. The CPI (M), too, reiterated the demand for a JPC probe. The CPI(M)’s highest body discussed the issue at its meeting on Saturday. The Polit Bureau reiterates its demand raised in September 2018 for the constitution of a Joint Parliamentary Committee to investigate the role of the Prime Minister and the government in this whole episode and establish the truth of the deal, said a statement issued on Sunday. It noted that France’s public prosecution services had ordered an investigation by a French judge into the 2016 deal following a decision by its financial branch. Judicial investigation was formally opened into the Inter-Governmental Agreement on June 14. The statement pointed to a French investigative website’s expose of official papers which allegedly show that Rafale manufacturer Dassault Aviation entered into an agreement with Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group on March 26, 2015, which was 15 days before PM Modi’s announcement of the new deal, which excluded state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. This reconfirms the apprehensions raised by the CPI(M) that PM Modi’s turnaround from the earlier purchase agreement,is mired in deep corruption and money-laundering, said the Polit Bureau’s statement. It also condemned the Essential Defence Services Ordinance, 2021, claiming that it aimed to prohibit legitimate protests in ordnance factories against the naked loot of national assets.
B) After Rajouri, drones and unmanned vehicles now banned in Srinagar.
The Jammu and Kashmir administration on July 4 banned the use and possession of drones and other unmanned aerial vehicles in the capital Srinagar, a week after two Indian Air Force personnel were injured in twin drone-driven blasts on the technical airport in Jammu. To secure the aerial space near the vital installations and highly populated areas, it is imperative to discontinue the use of drones in all social and cultural gatherings to eliminate any risk of injury to the life and damage to property, Srinagar District Magistrate Mohammad Aijaz said in an order. Issued under Section 144 of the Cr.PC, it says that the decentralised airspace access has to be regulated in view of recent episodes of misuse of drones posing a threat to security infrastructure as reported by the media and other reliable sources. Keeping in view the security situation apart from concerns of breach of privacy, nuisance and trespass, it is extremely dangerous to let unmanned aerial vehicles to wander around in the skies within the territorial jurisdiction of Srinagar, the order reads. Persons already having drone cameras in their possession were directed to report to the local police station. Moreover, the government departments using drones for mapping, surveys and surveillance in agricultural, environment conservation and disaster mitigation sector shall inform the local police station before undertaking any such activity in public interest, it said. Srinagar has become a second district in Jammu and Kashmir to ban the use and possession of drones. Earlier, the Rajouri administration banned it in the wake of the Jammu attack.
C) Will protest every day outside Parliament during monsoon session: Samyukt Kisan Morcha
A group of around 200 farmers will protest against the Centre’s three farm laws in front of Parliament every day during the monsoon session, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) announced on Sunday. The umbrella body of over 40 farmer unions said at a press conference that two days before the session begins, a ‘chetavani patra’ (warning letter) will be given to all the opposition MPs to protest the laws inside the House. We will also ask the opposition MPs on July 17 to raise the issue every day inside the House while we will sit outside in protest. We will tell them to not to benefit the Centre by walking out of a session. Don’t let the session run till the government addresses the issue, farmer leader Gurnam Singh Charuni said. Parliament’s monsoon session is set to begin on July 19. We will be continuously protesting outside Parliament till they hear our demands, Charuni said. He added that five people from each farmer union would be taken to join the protest. The SKM also called for a nationwide protest on July 8 against the rising prices of petrol, diesel and LPG cylinders. It asked people to come out and park their vehicles at state and national highways from 10 a.m. till 12 p.m.. Whatever vehicle you have, tractor, trolley, car, scooter, just bring it to the nearest state or national highway and park it there. But don’t create a traffic jam, he said. He also asked for LPG cylinders to be brought to the protest.
D) Pushkar Singh Dhami sworn in as new Uttarakhand CM
Pushkar Singh Dhami was sworn in as the 11th Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, along with a 11-member cabinet, in Dehradun on Sunday. The oath of office was administered on Dhami and his ministers by Governor Baby Rani Maurya at a simple function held on the lawns of the Raj Bhawan in the presence of a host of MPs and MLAs of the ruling BJP and senior government officials. Pushkar Singh Dhami, on July 4, 2021, was sworn-in as the 11th Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. No new face has been inducted into Dhami’s cabinet, which remains as it was under his predecessor Tirath Singh Rawat. The only difference is that this time, all the ministers are of cabinet rank. The Ministers sworn in on Sunday are Satpal Maharaj, Harak Singh Rawat, Bansidhar Bhagat, Yashpal Arya, Bishan Singh Chufal, Subodh Uniyal, Arvind Pandey, Ganesh Joshi, Dhan Singh Rawat, Rekha Arya and Yatishwaranand. Rekha Arya, Dhan Singh Rawat and Yatishwaranand, who were ministers of state in Tirath Rawat’s cabinet, have been elevated to cabinet rank. Earlier in the day, Dhami met Satpal Maharaj at his residence with a bouquet of flowers amid reports that the senior leader and a few other MLAs of the saffron party were sulking since Saturday as they were not happy with his election as the new leader of the BJP legislature party in Uttarakhand. Dhami later said there was no resentment anywhere. All those said to have been unhappy with the party high command over its choice of the new Chief Minister were present at the swearing-in ceremony and were sworn in as ministers. At 45, Dhami takes over as the youngest Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. A two-time MLA from Khatima in Udham Singh Nagar district, Dhami replaces Tirath Singh Rawat, who resigned on Friday. Dhami is considered to be close to Maharashtra Governor and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Bhagat Singh Koshyari, who is his political mentor. Dhami takes over the reins of power at a time when Uttarakhand has a few months to go for the Assembly polls, which are due early next year. Dhami is a promising young Thakur leader from the Kumaon region who began his political career with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), in 1990. He was the officer on special duty (OSD) to his political mentor Koshyari when the latter was the chief minister of Uttarakhand. He also served as the president of the BJP’s Uttarakhand Yuva Morcha from 2002 to 2008. An attempt by the saffron party to strike the right caste and regional balance ahead of next year’s Assembly polls is evident in its choice of Dhami as the new chief minister. As State BJP chief Madan Kaushik is a Brahmin from the Garhwal region, having a Thakur leader from Kumaon as the Chief Minister is a clever move aimed at wooing two major sections of the electorate in the two regions of the hill State.
D) RLD chief calls Saina Nehwal a ‘sarkari shuttler’ after she congratulates Adityanath on BJP performance in UP local polls
When badminton star Saina Nehwal has congratulated Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on the BJP’s thumping victory in elections to the posts of the district panchayat chief, it prompted a sharp comment from RLD president Jayant Chaudhary, who called her a sarkaari shuttler. In a tweet on Saturday night, Nehwal had said, Hearty congratulations for thumping victory in Zila Panchayat Chairperson election in UP @myogiadityanath sir. Nehwal had joined the BJP ahead of the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections. Reacting to Nehwal’s tweet almost one-and-half-hours later, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) president Chaudhary tweeted, Sarkaari shuttler recognises BJP skill in smashing peoples’ verdict! I think voters need to play a subtle drop shot on celebs trying to influence their decisions! The BJP on Saturday claimed to have swept the elections to the posts of the district panchayat chief even as the SP alleged that the ruling party kidnapped voters and used force to stop them from voting. Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav accused the BJP of making a mockery of the elections, saying it is strange that while most results in the polls for the district panchayat members were in favour of his party, the BJP gained in the contest for the district panchayat chief. Though the panchayat polls in UP are not held on the party symbol and the state Election Commission did not announce the party affiliation of the winning candidates, the BJP claimed that the candidate backed by it won on 67 of 75 posts. The elections for these were held on Saturday.
E) Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments
The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 3,05,70,217 with the death toll at 4,02,343. The ongoing second COVID wave presented itself with a lowered mean age of patients, higher percentage of hospitalisations despite lesser comorbidities, and had patients with breathlessness in greater frequency, said a new government study, ‘Clinical profile of hospitalised COVID-19 patients in first and second wave of the pandemic: Insights from an Indian registry-based observational study’. Recently published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research, the study was jointly conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), and the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), using data collected under the National Clinical Registry for Covid-19 (NCRC). Doctors and researchers across the country have expressed concern about the fact that the study found a greater percentage of younger patients being more affected during the second wave and worse, mortality increased for all age groups except in the less-than-20 age group. As per the study, mortality among hospitalised patients increased by 3.1% in the second wave. Also, a higher proportion of patients complained of shortness of breath, developed Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), and required oxygen support and ventilators in the second wave. Sanjeev Dutta, HOD and senior consultant Pediatrics, QRG Health City, Faridabad, speaking about the study which analyses the characteristics of the first wave (April 2020 to Jan 2021) and the second wave (which started around Feb-Mar 2021), said: In both the waves, people above 60 years were mostly affected, but the second wave also affected a significantly younger population under 40 years and many had no comorbid conditions like diabetes, hypertension and diminished immunity status.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) Chinese astronauts complete first spacewalk at new station.
Chinese astronauts successfully performed the country’s first tandem spacewalk on Sunday, working for seven hours outside the new Tiangong station in orbit around the Earth. Tiangong’s construction is a major step in China’s ambitious space programme, which has seen the nation land a rover on Mars and send probes to the moon. Three astronauts blasted off last month to become the station’s first crew, where they are to remain for three months in China’s longest crewed mission to date. On Sunday morning, two of them exited the station for around seven hours of work in the first spacewalk at Tiangong, the China Manned Space Agency said. The safe return of astronauts Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo to the Tianhe core module marks the complete success of the first spacewalk in our country’s space station construction, the space agency said. Their tasks involved elevating a panoramic camera outside the Tianhe core module, as well as testing the station’s robotic arm which will be used to transfer future modules around the station, state media said. The astronauts installed foot stops on the robotic arm and, with its support, carried out other assembly work, added the space agency. In a video clip of Mr. Liu leaving the cabin, he exclaimed: Wow, it’s too beautiful out here. Television footage showed the astronauts preparing for the spacewalk by donning gear and conducting health checks while exercising.
B) Thousands in Brazil join anti-Bolsonaro protests.
Thousands of Brazilians took to the streets on Saturday to protest against President Jair Bolsonaro, who faces an investigation over an allegedly corrupt COVID-19 vaccine deal. It was the third day of demonstrations against the government, which is also confronting mounting pressure from a parliamentary inquiry into its handling of the pandemic that has claimed over lives in the country. Lima Mendes, a 47-yearold physician taking part in a Rio de Janeiro protest, squarely blamed the government for the high death toll. This government has killed more than people she said. In its first two months of hearings, the parliamentary panel of inquiry focused on the government’s delays in ordering vaccine supplies. The inquiry took a sudden turn, however, after a Health Ministry official, Luis Ricardo Miranda, said he had faced atypical, excessive pressure to approve the purchase of three million doses of the Indianmade Covaxin vaccine at a cost far higher than for other vaccines.
