CURRENT AFFAIRS
12 March 2021
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) 44% of MLAs who switched parties joined BJP: ADR report.
An analysis of MLAs who switched parties and recontested elections from 2016 to 2020 has found that the BJP was the biggest gainer, while the Congress accounted for the most MLAs who quit a party to join another, revealed a report released today by democracy watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). The ADR report analysed the election affidavits of 443 MLAs and MPs who switched parties and recontested polls in the past five years. Out of the 405 MLAs across the States who quit and switched parties, 42% were from the Congress, the report found, while the BJP came a distant second with 4.4%. On the other hand, the BJP was the party of choice for 44.9% of the recontesting MLAs, followed by the Congress with 9.4%. The report noted that the defection of MLAs was the cause of governments falling in the recent past in Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh and Karnataka. Out of the 12 Lok Sabha members who switched parties, five were from the BJP. In the Rajya Sabha, out of 17 who quit, seven were from the Congress, the report said. The average assets of the recontesting MLAs and MPs had grown by 39%. The ADR report stated that the most plausible cause of defections was the nexus of money and muscle, absence of laws on the functioning of parties, and the lack of honest leaders, among others.
B) PM’s photo removed from vaccine certificates in poll-bound States.
The Health Ministry on Tuesday informed the Election Commission (EC) that the necessary filters were added to the Co-WIN software in the four poll-bound states and one union territory, removing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s photo from the Covid-19 vaccine certificates given to recipients in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala. The EC had written to the Ministry on March 5 reiterating its standing instructions on the use of photos of political leaders in government advertisements during elections. The EC had taken up the issue after the Trinamool Congress complained that the Prime Minister’s photo on the certificates while the Model Code of Conduct was in place for the ongoing elections was a violation of the EC’s rules.
C) Mamata hopes to return to ‘her field in next two or three days’
A day after she was hospitalised owing to injuries she sustained in Nandigram, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday released a video from the hospital urging her supporters to exercise restraint. She expressed the hope that she would return to her field in next two or three days and the developments would not affect her political meetings. The Trinamool Congress chairperson said that It is true that she suffered serious injuries. There are injuries in her leg bone and ligament. She also felt pain in the head and chest. She appeal to everyone to maintain restraint. In the next two-three days, she will be able to return to her field. Maybe, she will have to use a wheelchair for the next few days, but she will manage. Banerjee said she was greeting people when her foot was squeezed by the car door. The Trinamool Congress had to cancel the release of its manifesto and the leadership was not sure what will happen to her scheduled events in districts. Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress alleged in a letter to the Election Commission (EC) that the removal of the State DGP at the behest of BJP had put the Chief Minister under threat. The attack on Banrejee, the party said, was a deep-rooted conspiracy. On Tuesday, the EC had ordered the removal of the West Bengal Director General of Police Virendra following an adverse report from its special observers posted in the poll-bound State.
D) Plea seeks SC intervention for release of over 150 Rohingya refugees ‘detained’ in Jammu.
An application was filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday seeking urgent intervention to release and protect over 150 Rohingya refugees reportedly ‘detained’ in Jammu. The application was filed by a member of the Rohingya community, Mohammad Salimullah, represented by advocates Prashant Bhushan and Cheryl d’Souza. Salimullah is already a petitioner in the Supreme Court against the deportment of refugees who had fled from religious persecution and violence in their native Myanmar. He said that his application was based on reports in The Hindu and other media outlets that Rohingya members had been detained in a sub-jail in Jammu. This follows the Union Minister Jitendra Singh’s statements two months ago that the Rohingya (identified as Muslim refugees by the government) would not be able to secure citizenship. These refugees have been illegally detained and jailed in the Jammu sub-jail, which has been converted into a holding centre with the IGP (Jammu) Mukesh Singh stating that they face deportation back to Myanmar following verification by their embassy, the application said. It urged the court to release the detained Rohingya refugees immediately and direct the Union Territory government and the Ministry of Home Affairs to expeditiously grant refugee identification cards through the FRRO [Foreigners Regional Registration Office] for the Rohingyas in the informal camps. The application said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees should be asked to intervene and determine the protection needs of the Rohingya refugees not just in the Jammu but also in camps across the country and complete the process of granting them refugee cards.
E) Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments.
The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 1,13,05,425 with the death toll at 1,59,731. India’s indigenous Covid-19 vaccine, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, has been taken off the clinical trial mode and is now authorised for emergency use at par with Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield, developed by the Serum Institute of India, said V.K. Paul, member (Health) NITI Aayog on Thursday at a Health Ministry press conference. Meanwhile, health authorities in Denmark and Norway said on Thursday they had suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine shots after reports of the formation of blood clots in some who have been vaccinated, Reuters reported. The move comes after Austria stopped using a batch of AstraZeneca shots while investigating a death from coagulation disorders and an illness from a pulmonary embolism. Danish health authorities said the country’s decision to suspend the shots for two weeks came after a 60-year old woman in Denmark, who was given an AstraZeneca shot from the same batch that was used in Austria, formed a blood clot and died.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) China’s new Five-Year Plan outlines push for key strategic projects.
China on Thursday formally approved the outline of its 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025)approved the outline of its 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), which highlights a number of key strategic projects to be pursued as a priority, including the first dam in Tibet on the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo or Brahmaputra, a Sichuan-Tibet railway line near the India border, and a push for self-sufficiency in emerging industries such as Artificial Intelligence (AI). The draft outline of the Five-Year Plan (FYP) and objectives through the year 2035 were passed by the National People’s Congress, the ceremonial legislature, as it closed its six-day annual session. Among the key projects is the building of a hydropower base on the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo, which refers to the sections of the river in Tibet just before it enters India in Arunachal Pradesh. While four dams have been approved on the upper and middle reaches, this is the first project in the lower reaches of the river. India has in the past expressed concerns over the four previously announced dams on the upper and middle reaches, the first of which, in Zangmu, was operationalised in 2015.
B) ‘We’re not racist’, Prince William says after Meghan and Harry interview.
Prince William said on Thursday that Britain’s royals were not racist after Meghan, wife of his younger brother Harry, said one unnamed member of the family had asked how dark their son Archie’s skin might be. The revelation emerged during an explosive tell-all interview that Harry, 36, and Meghan, 39, gave to Oprah Winfrey which was aired on Sunday, plunging the British monarchy into its biggest crisis since the 1997 death of Princess Diana, William and Harry’s mother. During a visit to a school in east London, William said he had not talked to Harry since the interview was broadcast just over three days ago. He haven’t spoken to him yet but he will do, Prince William, 38, said. Asked by a reporter if the royal family was racist, Prince William said, they are very much not a racist family. In the two-hour show, Meghan also said the royals had ignored her pleas for help when she felt suicidal, while Harry said his father, heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, had let him down and that he had felt trapped. On Tuesday, Buckingham Palace issued a statement on behalf of Queen Elizabeth, the princes’ grandmother, in which she said the family was saddened by how challenging the couple had found the last few years. The statement added that the issues of race were concerning and would be treated very seriously, but pointedly stated that some recollections may vary.
