CURRENT AFFAIRS
07 January 2021
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) Supreme Court to examine validity of laws against marriage-linked religious conversion.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to examine the constitutional validity of a spate of laws enacted by States such as Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand that criminalize religious conversion via marriage and mandate prior official clearance before marrying into another faith. A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde, however, did not stay the implementation of the Prohibition Of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020 and the Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion Act, 2018, despite fervent pleas by petitioners that rampaging mobs are lifting off people in the middle of wedding ceremonies, buoyed by the enactment of the laws. What we have here is multiple States like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh enacting these laws which are absolutely horrifying. They require the prior permission to marry, senior advocate C.U. Singh submitted. Singh argued that the burden of proof was on the people who marry to show they were not doing so to get converted. Those who are found guilty under these laws stare at a 10-year prison sentence. The offences are non-bailable. However, the Bench, which had initially asked the petitioners to go to the respective State High Courts with their challenge, did not stay the implementation of the laws.
B) Three men, including a priest, allegedly rape and murder 50-year-old in U.P’s Budaun.
A 50-year-old woman died after she was gang-raped, allegedly by a priest and his two aides, in a village in Ughaiti area of Budaun, Uttar Pradesh, on January 3 night. However, an FIR was registered only on January 5 after a post-mortem confirmed severe injuries to the private parts of the deceased. The deceased’s son told reporters that she used to go to the village temple every evening. On Sunday, she didn’t return. Around 11.30 p.m., the priest and his two aides brought her home in a car. They said she fell into the dry well on the temple premises. She was bleeding profusely and soon died. Before we could ask anything, the three left, he said. He alleged that priest Satya Narayan and his aides, Jaspal and Vedram, were lying as they didn’t take her to hospital. They approached the police as they felt somebody had raped her. Locals said a video of the priest saying that the she fell into the well was circulating in the local media but the police could not nab him. They said the dry well was in an isolated area and not on the way to the temple that somebody could fall in it. The SHO also believed the theory of the accused till the post-mortem report revealed that she had been brutalised, said social activist Shafi Ahmed. Sankalp Sharma, Senior Superintendent of Police, Budaun, said on Wednesday an FIR had been registered under sections 376D and 302 of the IPC after the medical report confirmed rape. One of the accused has been arrested and the SHO had been suspended for the delay, he said.
C) Pranab was ready to invite Congress-led coalition had 2014 thrown up a hung Parliament.
Former President Pranab Mukherjee was ready to break convention and invite a Congress-led coalition to form a government if the 2014 Lok Sabha polls had thrown up a hung Parliament. The final volume of his autobiography, The Presidential Years, formally released on Tuesday, revealed that he couldn’t be neutral between stability and instability. He had expected a hung Parliament with the BJP emerging as the single largest party with about 195-200 seats. In such a situation, it would have been my constitutional responsibility to ensure stability. Had the Congress emerged with fewer seats but promised a stable government, he would have invited the leader of the party to form the government, keeping in mind their previous track record in managing coalition governments successfully, his autobiography read. In a no-holds-barred description of his years in the Manmohan Singh government, Mukherjee criticised several decisions, including the creation of Telangana, and targeted the party’s leadership for allowing leaders like Mamata Banerjee to walk out of the coalition. He also blamed the Narendra Modi government for the repeated parliamentary disruptions in its first term. He talked about expecting the unexpected from Modi in terms of foreign policy, and pointed out how the Prime Minister had come to him to seek support for the November 2016 demonetisation.
D) Farmers’ protests: Situation has not improved at all, says SC.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday pointed out to the government that there had been no breakthrough in the impasse between the Centre and thousands of farmers standing firm on their demands to repeal three controversial agricultural laws and to provide legal backing for minimum support price (MSP). The situation has no improvement at all, Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde addressed Attorney General K.K. Venugopal and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, the two top law officers of the country, during a virtual court hearing. Venugopal, however, on a positive note, said that there are chances that the parties may come to some understanding. Both he and Mehta said that for this reason the government did not want, for now, to file a counter-affidavit in the Supreme Court to the petitions regarding the farm laws and the farmers’ protest. Our counter is ready. But there are healthy discussions going on. So we have not filed it in the Supreme Court, Mehta submitted. Several rounds of talks between the government and farmer leaders have been inconclusive so far. The CJI posted all the petitions concerning the farmers’ issue for Monday, but said that it could be adjourned if the Attorney General found it necessary for the sake of the ongoing talks.
E) Congress distances itself from Tharoor’s tweet on cancelling Republic Day festivities.
The Congress on Wednesday distanced itself from party Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor’s tweet that the government should cancel the Republic Day celebrations on January 26 in view of the pandemic. On Tuesday, after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had called up Prime Minister Narendra Modi to express his inability to come as the Chief Guest for the R-Day parade, Tharoor had called for cancellation of the festivities. Now that @BorisJohnson’s visit to India this month has been cancelled due to the #COVIDSecondWave, & we don’t have a Chief Guest on #RepublicDay, why not go one step farther & cancel the festivities altogether? Getting crowds to cheer the parade as usual would be irresponsible, Tharoor tweeted. Without directly commenting on the tweet, the Congress at its party’s official meeting said it fully backed the idea of celebrating the democratic and constitutional festivals. At a time when you are witnessing the Constitution and constitutional institutions being constantly attacked and weakened, the Congress feels that such festivities should be celebrated with enthusiasm, spokesperson Alka Lamba said. They have to take an oath that they will not allow their Constitution and institutions to be weakened at all. And he think, they can strengthen their commitment, faith and belief through our democratic festivals, she said.
F) Addressing Tamil concerns, implementing 13th Amendment in Sri Lanka’s interest: Jaishankar.
It is in Sri Lanka’s own interest that the Tamil people’s expectations for equality, justice, peace and dignity within a united Sri Lanka are fulfilled, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said in Colombo on Wednesday. That applies equally to commitments made by the Sri Lankan government on meaningful devolution, including the 13th Amendment, he said, addressing a joint press conference with Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena. Jaishankar made the remarks hours after he called on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and also held bilateral discussions with his counterpart, as part of his three-day visit that began on Tuesday. Consistent with New Delhi’s messaging on the Tamil question since the Rajapaksas came to power, the remarks coincide with a campaign among sections in Sri Lanka to abolish the provincial council system and the 13th Amendment, which followed the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987. Gunawardena, in his statement, said the President had firmly stated his commitment to the well-being, progress and opportunity to all our citizens Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim and all, he said.
G) Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments.
The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 1,03,91,584 with the death toll at 1,50,355. The Union Home Ministry has objected to the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to allow 100% seating in movie theatres. In a letter to Chief Secretary K. Shanmugam written on January 5, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said the State government should revise its January 4 order allowing 100% seating in cinema theatres and multiplexes and bring it in line with the Centre’s guidelines, which allow only 50%. State/UT governments shall not dilute these guidelines in any manner and shall strictly enforce the same, the letter stated.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange denied bail in U.K.
A British judge on January 6 denied bail to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been jailed in Britain since 2019 as he fights extradition to the United States. District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ordered Assange to remain in prison while the courts consider an appeal by U.S. authorities against a decision not to extradite him. On January 4, the judge rejected an American request to send Assange to the U.S. to face espionage charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret military documents a decade ago. She had denied extradition on health grounds, saying the 49-year-old Australian was likely to kill himself if held under harsh U.S. prison conditions. The judge said on January 6 that Assange has an incentive to abscond and there is a good chance he would fail to return to court if freed.
B) Democrats heading to win Senate as Georgia results come in.
Democrats inched closer to taking control of the U.S. Senate on Wednesday as African American pastor Raphael Warnock defeated incumbent Republican candidate Kelly Loeffler, a former businesswoman in one of two run-off elections in Georgia. Warnock became the first black Senator elected from the southern state. The other run-off race was too close to call with incumbent David Perdue, a Republican, trailing his challenger, 33 year-old Jon Ossoff, a documentary filmmaker, by over 16,000 votes with 98% reporting on Wednesday morning (U.S. time). Both of the run-offs were necessary because no candidate had won more then 50% of the vote in the November elections. If Ossoff wins his race, Democrats would take control of the Senate (they already control the House of Representatives). The high stakes races in Georgia consequently broke fundraising records and compelled Trump and Biden to campaign for the candidates earlier this week.
