CURRENT AFFAIRS
16 December 2020
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) No legal guarantee for MSP, says govt; Farmers harden stance.
Protesting farmer leaders have threatened to close the Delhi-Noida border crossing at Chilla on Wednesday if three contentious agricultural reform laws are not repealed. On the 20th day of protest, both the protestors and the Centre reiterated their positions and dialed up the rhetoric, but made no concrete efforts to resume negotiations. At a press conference on the Singhu border on the 20th day of the protest, farmer leaders said they were determined to win no matter what. The government is saying they will not repeal these laws, but we say that we will make them do it, said Jagjeet Singh Dallewal of the Bharatiya Kisan Union-Ekta, a Punjab farmers group. The Delhi-Noida border crossing at Chilla will be closed at 11 am on Wednesday, if the Centre continues to close the door for farmers, he said. BKU-Tikait group general secretary Yudhvir Singh had harsh words for Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. Responding to the PM’s allegation that the protests were being funded by foreign money, Singh asked how the hard-earned money sent by the children of farmers who are abroad could be counted as foreign money. The Prime Minister himself came to power using Gujarati NRI money, he said. Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar met again with pro-reforms farmers of the BKU (Kisan) faction, and claimed that most of the agricultural community recognised the benefits of the laws. He said the Government is willing to continue dialogue with genuine farm unions and is willing to find a solution with an open mind. Dashing the hopes of those demanding a legal guarantee for minimum support prices, he added that MSP is an administrative decision and will continue as it is.
B) No winter session of Parliament.
The government has said the winter session of Parliament will not be held this year in view of the Covid-19 pandemic and that it will be appropriate to convene the budget session in January next year. In a letter to leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said that Winter months are very crucial for managing the pandemic because of recent spurt in cases during this period, particularly in Delhi. At present, we are in the middle of December and a covid vaccine is expected very soon. The minister said he had informally contacted floor leaders of various political parties and they have expressed their concerns about the ongoing pandemic and opined of doing away with winter session. Government is willing to have the next session of Parliament at the earliest; it would be appropriate to have the Budget Session, 2021 in January, 2021 keeping in mind the unprecedented circumstances created by Covid-19 pandemic, Joshi wrote. The winter session of Parliament normally starts from the last week of November or first week of December. The Constitution broadly stipulates one major rule that there should not be a gap of more than six months between two sessions of Parliament. However, it has been a convention to hold three sessions of Parliament budget, monsoon and winter in a year.
C) EC’s proposal for extending postal ballots to NRIs pending with Law Ministry.
The option of postal ballots would be available to those above 80 years of age. The option of postal ballots would be available to those above 80 years of age. The government is yet to take a decision on allowing the use of postal ballots for eligible overseas Indians to cast their votes, sources said on Tuesday. They also said the Election Commission’s (EC) proposal to amend election rules to allow the use of postal ballot by overseas Indians whose names figure in electoral rolls in India is still at a bureaucratic level, and is yet to be discussed with the political executive. The Indian Express had reported yesterday that non-Gulf NRIs those based in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Australia, Germany, France and South Africa may get postal voting rights first, triggering allegations, in some quarters, of discrimination. The a huge chunk of India’s NRI population is based in the Gulf countries. The EC had on November 27 written to the Ministry proposing to extend the voting facility to non-resident Indians, starting with the upcoming Assembly elections in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. The EC letter stated that the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 would need to be amended in order to send postal ballots to NRIs electronically and then have them sent back via post. The EC letter said the amendments should be made at the earliest in order to facilitate the right of overseas electors and boost the image of the country internationally. The Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS), which is used to send ballots to service electors, would be extended to overseas Indians if the proposal is adopted. An EC official, however, said the Law Ministry was yet to respond to the proposal. The official added that the EC had discussed the system with the Ministry of External Affairs officials at a recent meeting.
D) Pranab’s son objects to publication of final volume of memoir.
Abhijit Mukherjee, former Lok Sabha member and son of the former President of India Pranab Mukherjee, on Tuesday objected to the publication of the final volume of his father’s memoir, The Presidential Years, and has demanded to see the manuscript before its release. The book is scheduled to be released in January. On December 11, the publishers, Rupa, released an excerpt of the final volume, which has a portion in which he describes Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s functioning in his first term as autocratic. The late President also talks about the Congress losing focus after his elevation as the President, and how Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were busy saving the government. Interestingly, Pranab Mukherjee’s daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee had tweeted excerpts of the final volume. According to the excerpts, he had said that many in the Congress believed that the 2014 Lok Sabha elections may have been different if he was the Prime Minister. Some members of the Congress have theorised that, had he become the PM in 2004, the party might have averted the 2014 Lok Sabha drubbing. Though he don’t subscribe to this view, he do believe that the party’s leadership lost political focus after his elevation as president. While Sonia Gandhi was unable to handle the affairs of the party, Dr. Singh’s prolonged absence from the House put an end to any personal contact with other MPs, read one excerpt.
E) AIIMS nurses continue indefinite strike; Delhi HC rules against it.
The 5,000-strong nursing staff at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, have been on an indefinite strike from Monday over the administration’s refusal to meet their demands, including one on rectifying an anomaly in the earlier pay commission which resulted in the paramedical staff getting lesser pay. There was an anomaly in the Sixth Pay Commission which denied nursing cadres across the country two increments. In 2019, the Centre agreed to correct this. However, nothing was done to rectify this. In fact, the administration told us that it is impossible to implement this, forcing us to take this extreme step, said CK Fameer, General Secretary of the union. Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court today ruled that the strike cannot continue, and issued a notice asking the nurses to respond to the management’s appeal to end the strike in view of the pandemic. AIIMS had contended that the strike was illegal and violated the Industrial Disputes Act.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) US court terminates $100-million lawsuit against PM Modi, Amit Shah.
A U.S. court has dismissed a $100-million lawsuit filed against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah after the litigants a separatist Kashmir Khalistan outfit and two associates failed to appear before it at two scheduled hearings. The suit was filed on September 19, 2019, days before Modi’s historic ‘Howdy Modi!’ event in Houston, Texas. It challenged the Indian Parliament’s decision on Jammu and Kashmir that abrogated the special privileges of the State and carved out two Union Territories and sought a compensation of $100 million from Modi, Shah and Lt. Gen. Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon. Gen. Dhillon is currently serving as the Director-General Defence Intelligence Agency and Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff under the Chief of Defence Staff. Other than that attempted service, Kashmir Khalistan Referendum Front have done nothing to prosecute this case, and have now failed to appear at two duly set Scheduling Conferences, US District Court Southern District of Texas Judge Frances H. Stacy said in his order dated October 6 and recommended that the case be dismissed. The case was terminated by Judge Andrew S. Hanen of the US District Court in Texas on October 22.
B) U.S. imposes CAATSA sanctions on Turkey over S-400 purchase.
The U.S. has imposed sanctions on NATO-ally Turkey for its purchase of Russia’s S-400 missile defence system, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Monday. The issue of sanctions under Section 231 of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) for purchase of Russian arms is of particular interest to New Delhi, which is also in the process of buying the S-400 from Moscow. Today’s action sends a clear signal that the United States will fully implement CAATSA Section 231 and will not tolerate significant transactions with Russia’s defense and intelligence sectors, Mr. Pompeo said on Monday. Sanctions were imposed on Turkey’s main defence procurement agency, the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB) for knowingly engaging in a significant transaction with Rosoboronexport (ROE), Russia’s main arms export entity the office of the U.S. State, Department spokesperson said in a statement. These SSB sanctions comprise a ban on granting specific U.S. export licences and authorizations for any goods or technology, a ban on loans or credits by U.S. financial institutions totalling more than $10 million in any 12-month period, a ban on U.S. Export-Import Bank assistance for exports and mandated U.S. opposition to loans by international financial organisations to SSB. Additionally, sanctions will include full blocking sanctions and visa restrictions on SSB President.
