CURRENT AFFAIRS
10 March 2021
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat resigns.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat resigned from his post today. The crisis over his continuance arose after the national leadership of the party dispatched two central observers to the State following repeated complaints on Rawat’s style of functioning within the party and reported popularity in the State. The central observers former Chattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh and Rajya Sabha MP Dushyant Gautam underlined serious shortcomings in Rawat’s handling of the party and government. Rawat was then summoned to Delhi on March 8 and given his marching orders. Singh and Gautam will reach Dehradun this evening and a meeting of the BJP legislature party is scheduled for March 10. The frontrunners for the post include State Education Minister Dhan Singh Rawat, MP Ajay Bhatt and Satpal Maharaj. Rawat is being replaced a year before the polls next year, amid concerns that his reported non-performance could cost the party.
B) Over 72% rise in number of UAPA cases registered in 2019, most arrests in U.P.
There has been over 72% increase in the number of persons arrested under the anti-terror law UAPA (Unlawful Activities [Prevention] Act) in 2019 compared to 2015, data provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in the Lok Sabha shows. As many as 1,948 persons were arrested under the UAPA in 2019, in 1,226 cases registered across the country. Such cases registered in the years 2015-2018 stood at 897, 922, 901 and 1,182, and the number of those arrested was 1,128, 999, 1,554 and 1,421 respectively. In 2019, the highest number of such cases were registered in Manipur (306), while the highest number of arrests under the UAPA were made in Uttar Pradesh (498). Under the UAPA, getting bail is rare and the investigating agency has up to 180 days to file a charge sheet. Earlier, a reply by the government in the Lok Sabha showed that only 2.2 % of the cases registered under the UAPA during 2016-2019 had ended in convictions.
C) Delhi HC issues notice on petition against new IT Rules to regulate online news portals.
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought a response from the Centre on a petition challenging the new IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, claiming it seeks to regulate online news portals by imposing government oversight and a vaguely worded ‘Code of Ethics’. A Bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh issued notices to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) and Ministry Of Information & Broadcasting on the plea filed by Foundation for Independent Journalism, a trust that owns digital news portal The Wire. The petition argued that the new IT Rules issued on February 25, 2021, were palpably illegal in seeking to control and regulate digital news media when the parent statute nowhere provided for such a remit. It said the new IT Rules had profound and serious harms for digital news media and was destructive of their rights. Other petitioners in the case include M.K. Venu, Director and Founding Editor, The Wire, and Dhanya Rajendran, founder & Editor-In-Chief, The News Minute. The plea stated that the IT Rules, 2021, introduced two distinct sets of regulations one, due diligence norms to be followed by ‘intermediaries’ and two, ‘Code of Ethics’ ought to be adhered to by ‘publishers’, along with a three-tier compliance mechanism. While ‘intermediaries’ were recognised and regulated by the IT Act, the plea said that the new IT Rules laid down a separate ‘Code of Ethics’ for the two kinds of publishers publishers of news and current affairs content, and publishers of online curated content.
D) Parliament proceedings: Both Houses stalled again over fuel price hikes.
For the second consecutive day today, both Houses of Parliament failed to function, with relentless protests from Opposition members after their demand for a debate on the frequent hike in fuel prices was rejected. Rajya Sabha saw two adjournments before the House was adjourned for the day at 2.10 p.m. Tuesday was the first sitting of both Houses of Parliament as per the pre-Covid-19 timings and seating arrangements, with members sitting in their respective chambers instead of being spread out in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha chambers.
E) Covaxin Phase-2 trials show its safe and induces immune response, says Lancet study.
Covaxin, India’s first indigenous vaccine against Covid-19, is safe and generates immune response without any serious side effects, according to the interim results of the Phase-2 trials published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal. The authors of the study noted that the Phase-2 results did not asses the efficacy of the vaccine codenamed BBV152. Developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, the vaccine has been granted emergency use authorisation in clinical trial mode by the Indian government. The latest study comes a week after Bharat Biotech announced that the vaccine has shown 81% efficacy in the third phase of clinical trials, the results of which are yet to be published. The Phase-2 trial to evaluate the immunogenicity and safety of BBV152 vaccine was conducted in healthy adults and adolescents aged 12-65 years at nine hospitals across nine states in India.
F) GoM report points to draconian attitude of government, says Editors Guild.
The Editors Guild of India (EGI) on Tuesday said the recent revelations about a Group of Ministers (GoM) report on the government’s media strategy was an example of its increasingly draconian attitude towards any criticism. The EGI said in a statement it was shocked at the manner in which the GoM prepared its report with an embedded toolkit to control the narrative about the government in the media. It said the GoM, whose members include five Cabinet Ministers and four Ministers of State, was set up in mid-2020, without provocation and at a time when press freedom and democracy indices were on a decline. The report, which was prepared at the end of 2020 and has recently emerged in media, further illustrates the government’s increasingly draconian attitude against any critique and inquiry by the press. The suggestions from the GoM report hint at increased surveillance and targeting of writers and journalists who depart from the government’s narrative, the Guild said. Among the more disturbing suggestions was one by a Minister to develop a strategy to neutralise the people who are writing against the government without facts and set false narratives/spread fake news, it said, citing the report. The EGI said such a suggestion revealed an intention to muzzle any criticism of the government, in the absence of clarity on what constitutes fake news. The preparation of the GoM report and its debilitating import on media freedom and journalists is a major concern for EGI, which demands that the government, which is supposed to safeguard constitutional values of freedom of expression, should make it clear that it is committed to the plurality of views in the media, the statement said.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) No foreign spectators at Tokyo Olympics due to Covid-19 concerns.
Japan has decided to stage this summer’s Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics without overseas spectators due to concern among the Japanese public about Covid-19, Kyodo news agency said on Tuesday, citing officials with knowledge of the matter. Kyodo said the government had concluded that welcoming fans from abroad would not be possible given public concern about the coronavirus and the detection of more contagious variants in many countries. The opening ceremony will also be held without spectators, Kyodo said. The organising committee has decided it is essential to hold the ceremony in the northeastern prefecture of Fukushima behind closed doors, only permitting participants and invitees to take part in the event, to avoid large crowds forming amid the pandemic, Kyodo said, quoting the officials. The Games are set for July 23 to August 8. Most Japanese people do not want international visitors to attend the Games amid fears that a large influx of visitors could spark a resurgence of infections, a Yomiuri newspaper poll showed. The survey showed 77% of respondents were against allowing foreign fans to attend, versus 18% in favour.
B) PM Modi inaugurates ‘Maitri Setu’ between India and Bangladesh.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday virtually inaugurated the India-Bangladesh Friendship Bridge (Maitri Setu) over the Feni river at Sabroom in south Tripura. He also inaugurated and laid the foundation stone for eight other infrastructure projects together worth ₹ 3,518 crore. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in a video message, said that the inauguration of the 1.9-km- long ‘Maitri Setu’ would herald a new chapter in relations between the two neighbours. The bridge, which was first mooted a decade ago, would immensely benefit Northeast India in trade matters as the same would connect the Chittagong sea port just 100 km from Agartala. Modi, in his speech congratulated the BJP-led coalition government in Tripura for completing three years in office on Tuesday. You have created history three years ago by ending the rule of a repressive regime of corruption and commission, he said, indirectly hitting out at the erstwhile CPI(M)-led Left front government.
