CURRENT AFFAIRS
05 November 2020
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) Arnab Goswami arrested in abetment of suicide case.
On 4 November, Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami was on arrested by the Local Crime Branch (LCB) of the Raigad Police in an abetment to suicide case. Two other accused, Feroz Shaikh and Nitesh Sarda, have also been arrested. Interior designer Anvay Naik, who was found dead in his farmhouse at Kavir Village in Alibaug on May 5, 2018, had left a alleged suicide note accusing Goswami, Shaikh of icastX/Skimedia, and Sarda of Smartworks of not paying dues amounting to ₹5.40 crore for his interior design work, as a result of which his firm, Concorde Designs Private Limited, suffered severe losses. Naik’s mother was also found dead in the farmhouse. While Goswami was arrested from Worli, Shaikh was arrested from Kandivali, and Sarda from Jogeshwari. Post-mortem reports revealed that Naik himself ended his life. His mother, Kumud, had been strangulated, and a murder case too was registered by the police in the case. The case was earlier given a closure report but was reopened after Naik’s daughter met the DIG and produced more evidence. After reopening the case, it was transferred to the LCB. We then investigated and found more evidence. Goswami had attempted to transfer money into Naik’s account after his death, but the bank rejected it as the account holder was not alive. This showed that he actually owed the money, Inspector Jamil Shaikh of the LCB said.
B) Several Union Ministers come out in support of Arnab Goswami.
Several Union Ministers immediately came out in support of Goswami, with some comparing his arrest to the 19-month Emergency imposed by the Indira Gandhi government in 1975. In a tweet, Home Minister Amit Shah said that Congress and its allies have shamed democracy once again. Blatant misuse of state power against Republic TV and Arnab Goswami is an attack on individual freedom and the fourth pillar of democracy. It reminds us of the Emergency. This attack on free press must be and WILL BE OPPOSED. (sic). Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar and several others in quick succession put out tweets comparing his arrest to the 19-month long emergency imposed by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Sitharaman, in a series of tweets, questioned both Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi. She said, Does the President @INCIndia #SoniaGandhi approve of this? Is she happy to carry the #Emergency baggage? Does the President-in-line @RahulGandhi think this is the new governance model he supports? Having armed policemen harassing the children of those they have a problem with? The Congress hit back at the BJP for what it called selective outrage by the union ministers. The party said that the law will take its own course and no innocent person will be punished.
C) It’s in public interest for courts to try criminal politicians: Supreme Court.
Justice N.V. Ramana, leading a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court, on 4 November has said the court has only public interest and faith in the judiciary in mind while pushing for the setting up of special courts to expeditiously try sitting and former MPs and MLAs accused of various crimes. The purpose of this adjudication is in public interest and to maintain public faith in the judiciary by making sure that long-pending cases against sitting and former MPs and MLAs are decided without delay. It is for the public we have taken up this case, Justice Ramana explained. The Bench was considering a report filed by a committee of the Madras High Court that raised reservations over the setting up of special courts to exclusively try legislators for various offences. The committee had said that special courts cannot be offender-centric. The committee report, dated October 13, drew special attention from the Bench as it comes in the face of a 2017 Supreme Court order authorizing the Centre to set up 12 Special Courts to exclusively try criminal politicians.
D) Proposals in works to hike retirement age in armed forces, cut down pension.
In a significant reform of the armed forces, the Department of Military Affairs (DMA), headed by Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen. Bipin Rawat, has initiated proposals to increase the retirement age of officers and also cut down the pension of officers opting for Pre-Mature Retirement (PMR). The DMA proposes increasing the age of retirement of Colonels from the existing 54 to 57, for Brigadiers from 56 to 58, and for Major Generals from 58 to 59. The same is applicable to equivalent ranks in other Services. It is proposed that a draft Government sanction Letter (GSL) may be kindly processed for perusal by Secretary DMA by November 10, said a letter issued by the Office of Secretary DMA dated October 29. The age of retirement of Junior Commissioned Officers (JCO) and Other Ranks in Logistics, Technical and Medical branches is also proposed to be increased to 57 years. The DMA noted that a large number of personnel were boarded out due to lesser vacancies and some service restrictions. It said that at the same time, there were several specialists and super specialists who were trained for highly skilled jobs in the services but quit to work in other sectors. Such loss of high-skilled manpower results in void in the Services skill matrix and is counter-productive to the armed forces, the letter said, adding that in view of this, it had been decided to review the pension entitlements.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) U.S. Elections: Trump claims victory, but three battleground states hold the key.
The 2020 U.S. presidential election saw a record voter turnout with 160 million votes cast, according to media reports. President Donald Trump has won key swing States such as Florida, Texas and Ohio, forcing his Democratic rival Joe Biden to rely on the Midwestern States of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan to see him through to the White House. As the results stated coming in 4 November, it quickly became clear that due to the unprecedented numbers of early and mail-in voting, many states could not be called, leaving the final result still in limbo. It could all boil down to how things pan out in the three battleground States of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. But Trump did not hesitate to prematurely declare victory in a late night address. Claiming that he was leading by high margins in these three states, Trump declared that the Democrats had no chance of catching up. As the day progressed, however, that claim proved to be untrue. Trump, in his address, also said that he would go to the Supreme Court to stop more of postal ballots being counted. It is unclear at this point what the timeline for such a move might be and which states could realistically be affected by such an intervention. Pennsylvania, the state which has the most votes still to be counted, is likely to be a target. The Biden campaign responded by saying that their legal teams are also on standby.
B) Big win for ‘samosa caucus’.
In an impressive show, all the four Indian-American Democratic lawmakers — Dr Ami Bera, Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna and Raja Krishnamoorthi — have been re-elected to the US House of Representatives. Both the Democrat and the Republican campaigns had initiated several measures to woo the approximately 1.8 million members of the community, which has emerged as a critical voting bloc in the battleground states of Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The so-called ‘samosa caucus’, a termed sometimes used for an informal grouping of Indian-American lawmakers, might expand with at least one more addition as physician Dr Hiral Tipirneni was leading against Republican incumbent David Schweikert from the sixth Congressional district of Arizona when last reports came in. The ‘Samosa caucus’ currently comprises five Indian-American lawmakers, including four members of the House of Representatives and Senator and Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, 56. Meanwhile, Indian-American former diplomat and Democrat nominee Srinivas Rao Preston Kulkarni lost the congressional race to Republican Troy Nehls in Texas’s 22nd.
