CURRENT AFFAIRS
18 January 2021
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) Agriculture Minister urges farmers to give up ‘stubborn stand’
Ahead of the tenth round of talks scheduled on January 19, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Sunday again urged the protesting farm leaders to give up their stubborn stand on the new farm laws and come for a clause by clause discussion. Now that the Supreme Court has stayed the implementation of these laws, then there is no question of being stubborn, Mr. Tomar told reporters before leaving for his home constituency of Morena in Madhya Pradesh. The government wants farmer leaders to come for clause by clause discussion at the next meeting on January 19. Except for the demand of repealing the laws, the government is ready to consider seriously and with an open heart other alternatives, he said. Mr. Tomar, who left for his constituency by Hazur Sahib Nanded-Amritsar Superfast Express, was seen sharing langar from co-passengers of Sikh community a gesture which comes amid the ongoing protests by farmers from Punjab against the agri laws. The Supreme Court on January 11 had stayed the implementation of the three laws till further orders and appointed a four-member panel to resolve the impasse. Mr. Tomar said the government offered certain concessions, but the farmer leaders have not shown flexibility and were constantly demanding a repeal of the laws. He reiterated that the government makes laws for the entire country. Many farmers, experts and other stakeholders have supported the laws. So far, the nine rounds of formal talks between the Centre and 41 farmer unions have failed to yield any concrete results to end the long-running protest at Delhi’s borders as the latter have stuck to their main demand of a complete repeal of the three Acts.
B) Farmers’ groups to go ahead tractor parade on January 26.
A day before the hearing in the Supreme Court on a plea by the Union government to injunct protesters from holding tractor marches to disrupt Republic Day celebrations, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, a joint front of farmer unions, on Sunday announced to hold a parallel tractor parade on Delhi’s Outer Ring Road on January 26. Making the announcement, Swaraj India national president Yogendra Yadav, at a press conference, said the parade on the 50-km-long road would be peaceful with the tractors carrying national flags and the flags of farmer unions, and no disruption would be caused to the official Republic Day ceremony. He added that weapons, provocative speeches and violence would not be allowed during the parade and there would be no attempts to attack or lay siege to places and buildings of national importance. Saying that the further details would be revealed soon, Mr. Yadav said he did not see any reason for the Supreme Court to prevent the unions from holding the parade. Mr. Yadav said that similar parades would be held at district headquarters and the Capital cities of the states across the country. All-India Kisan Sabha general-secretary Hannan Mollah said the aim of the tractor parade was to highlight the plight of the farmers and seek the support of the common man for their cause. Bharatiya Kisan Union general-secretary Yudhveer Singh said the farmers were determined to go ahead with their plan of tractor parade to mark the Republic Day and added that the responsibility for any untoward incident would lie with the administration and the government if they were stopped.
C) Supreme Court appointed committee on farm laws to hold first meeting on January 19.
The Supreme Court-appointed committee on the three new farm laws is scheduled to hold its first meeting on January 19 at Pusa campus here, one of its members Anil Ghanwat told the Press Trust of India on Sunday. The Supreme Court had on January 11 stayed the implementation of the three laws, against which farmers are protesting at Delhi borders for over 50 days now, till further orders and appointed a four-member panel to resolve the impasse. Bhartiya Kisan Union president Bhupinder Singh Mann, however, recused from the committee last week. Apart from Mr. Ghanwat, agri-economists Ashok Gulati and Pramod Kumar Joshi are the two other panel members. If the apex court does not appoint a new member, the existing members will continue, Mr Ghanwat added.
D) Covid watch: Numbers and Developments.
The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stands at 1,05,68,348 with the death toll at 1,52,441. Over 17,000 people were vaccinated across six states on Day 2 of the nationwide coronavirus drive, the Health Ministry said Sunday evening, adding that this takes the total number of people vaccinated so far to around 2.24 lakh. On Saturday (Day 1) 1.91 lakh people were administered the shots with over 3,000 sites active across India. The Health Ministry said the drop in the number of states carrying out vaccination today was part of a usual strategy to avoid clashes with immunisation schedules for other illnesses.
E) Opposition demands inquiry into Arnab Whatsapp chats.
Days after the conversations between Republic TV promoter Arnab Goswami and the former CEO of the viewership ratings agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) Partho Dasgupta leaked into the public domain, Opposition leaders on Sunday said it merited a thorough inquiry since many of the issues raised in their conversations pertained to national security. The Whatsapp chats that have come out in the chargesheet of the Mumbai Police raise serious questions of national security. How financial frauds happened, involvement of officials in high positions, and some conversations even talked about ‘buying’ judges and deciding portfolios for Ministers this is akin to playing with national security and shows the hollowness of those in power, Congress’ chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told reporters at a press conference. Since the chargesheet is over 1,000 pages, we are examining the document in detail and in the next 24 to 48 hours, our seniormost leadership will come before you and share our views as to why it requires a thorough investigation, he added. Former Union minister P. Chidambaram, who also held the Home portfolio apart from Finance under the United Progressive Alliance regime, asked if Mr. Goswami had prior knowledge of the february 2019 balakot strikes. Mr. Goswami’s WhatsApp chats with Mr. Dasgupta, who has been arrested by the Mumbai Police in the TRP (television rating point) scam, suggests that the Republic TV promoter had some prior information on a retaliatory strike by India after the Pulwama terror attack.
F) Aero India 2021 to showcase range of indigenously developed helicopters.
With emphasis on promoting defence exports, the India Pavilion at Aero India 2021 next month will showcase a range of indigenously developed helicopters while Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is scheduled to hold a conclave of Defence Ministers from the Indian Ocean Littoral (IOR) states, according to a senior defence official. Built to fly over high altitude areas, the LUH has a maximum permitted height limit of 6.5 km. A Light Utility Helicopter (LUH), a weaponised Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) and a Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) will be on display inside the pavilion, the official said. A civilian version of the ALH will be on display outside. All these helicopters have been designed and manufactured by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). In addition to the Defence Ministers’ conclave, plans are also on to hold an Air Chiefs’ conclave. Also, about six to seven official delegations are expected to be there at Aero India in addition to various companies. With less than a month left for the biennial air show, construction of the halls and facilities is at advanced stages of completion.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) Gunmen kill 2 women judges of Afghanistan’s top court.
Gunmen shot dead two Afghan women judges working for the Supreme Court in an ambush in the country’s capital on Sunday, officials said, an attack the top U.S. envoy in Kabul blamed on the Taliban. Violence has surged across Afghanistan in recent months despite ongoing peace talks between the Taliban and government especially in Kabul, where a new trend of targeted killings aimed at high-profile figures has sown fear in the restive city. The latest attack, which U.S. Charge D’Affaires Ross Wilson blamed on the Taliban, comes just two days after the Pentagon announced it had cut troop levels in Afghanistan to 2,500, the fewest in nearly two decades. The attack on the judges happened as they were driving to their office in a court vehicle, said Ahmad Fahim Qaweem, a spokesman for the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, they have lost two women judges in today’s attack. Their driver is wounded, Mr. Qaweem said. There are more than 200 female judges working for the country’s top court, the spokesman added. Kabul police confirmed the attack, which no group has claimed so far. Afghanistan’s Supreme Court was a target in February 2017 when a suicide bomb ripped through a crowd of court employees, killing at least 20. The latest attack drew widespread condemnation, with Mr. Wilson blaming the Taliban directly as he called for an investigation. The Taliban should understand that such actions for which it bears responsibility outrage the world and must cease if peace is to come to Afghanistan, wrote Mr. Wilson on Twitter. The shooting came just hours after a high-level meeting between the Taliban negotiation team and U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, along with the head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, General Scott Miller, according to tweets by a Taliban spokesman. During the sit-down, spokesman Mohammad Naeem said the insurgents called again for the release of the group’s remaining jailed fighters, along with the removal of the Taliban from the UN blacklist.
B) U.K. urges China to grant UN access to Xinjiang.
Britain’s government on Sunday pressed China to allow UN rights inspectors to visit Xinjiang after raising anew allegations of appalling human rights abuses against the Uighur minority people. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab last week introduced import controls on firms that may have sourced goods from the region in northwest China using forced labour from the mainly Muslim Uighur community. Speaking on the BBC, he decried reports of slave labour effectively, forced sterilisation, appalling human rights abuses. Whether or not it amounts to genocide has to be determined by a court. The bar has been set incredibly high, Mr. Raab said. And frankly we shouldn’t be engaged in free-trade negotiations with countries abusing human rights well below the limit of genocide, he added, implicitly attacking the European Union for securing an investment pact with China last month. Mr. Raab’s government opposes efforts underway in Parliament to give U.K. courts the power to declare a genocide in Xinjiang, which would bar the government from proceeding with any free-trade agreement with China.
