CURRENT AFFAIRS
18 May 2021
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) Trinamool Ministers arrested by CBI in Narada case, get bail.
Four political heavyweights, including two ministers of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) government and a party MLA, were on Monday arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation ( CBI) in the Narada sting operation case and were granted interim bail in the evening. Senior Ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, TMC MLA Madan Mitra and former Minister and former Kolkata Municipal Corporation mayor who recently quit the BJP, Sovan Chatterjee, were all picked up from their residences in the early hours of the day and brought to the CBI headquarters at Nizam Palace in south Kolkata. The four of them were produced before a virtual city court, where the counsels representing the CBI sought a 14-day judicial custody. The lawyers representing the arrested members said there was no need for custody of any of the accused since the chargesheet has been filed. The defence counsels also said such custodial interrogation is not required in the time of a pandemic. The central investigating agency may also appeal before the higher courts opposing the bail. The Narada tapes, which were allegedly shot sometime in 2014, were made public in 2016, months before the State went to Assembly Polls. The purported videos showed about a dozen TMC leaders, MPs and Ministers accepting cash on camera from an operator of a fictitious company. In March 2017, the Calcutta High Court directed CBI to probe the tapes and the agency filed an FIR against 13 persons in April, 2017, including the four persons arrested today. The main allegation in the case was that the said accused as public servants demanded and accepted illegal gratification to show favour to a private person who was posing as a representative of a fictitious company at the time of transaction and discreetly recording the same, a press statement issued by the CBI said. The CBI also added that all the four arrested were ministers in the State government and sanction was received from competent authorities to prosecute them on May 7, 2021. The arrests triggered dramatic developments and protests across the city, with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee rushing to the CBI office at Nizam Palace. Banerjee was at the CBI office for almost six hours. Some of the lawyers representing those arrested said Banerjee dared the CBI authorities to take her into custody. The TMC described the arrests as political vendetta and questioned why BJP leaders Suvendu Adhikari and Mukul Roy, who were both named in the FIR, had not yet been arrested. Mathew Samuel, who carried out the sting on behalf of the portal Narada News, also asked why Adhikari, now a BJP MLA and leader of the Opposition, had not been quizzed. Meanwhile, hundreds of Trinamool Congress supporters gathered outside the CBI office. Violence erupted, with the TMC supporters throwing stones and bottles at the central forces, who resorted to baton charge. The TMC supporters remained at Nizam Palace till late in the evening and left only after the news of the TMC leaders being granted bail reached them.
B) 1,621 teachers died of Covid-19 during U.P. panchayat polls, says union.
The number of teachers and staff who died of Covid-19 after being assigned duty in the panchayat polls and in Covid-19 control rooms has gone up to 1,621, a union for the primary teachers in Uttar Pradesh claimed on Sunday. The union also alleged that despite assurances by the state chief secretary on May 1, a day before counting, that unwell teachers and staff would not be asked to be on polling duty, those who were absent due to illness on counting and voting days had faced suspension and salary cuts. Uttar Pradesh Prathmik Shikshak Sangh president Dinesh Chandra Sharma said the number of primary education department teachers and staff to die on polling duty during the pandemic had gone up to to 1,621. The union released a list of the 1,621 people. Moreover, he added, many teachers and staff with heart diseases died due to tension and heart attack. As reported on May 2, Covid-19 safety protocols were not followed at the counting centres of the panchayat polls by the district administration, said Sharma. What’s worrying is that even after the so much of loss of life, administrative officials in districts are harassing primary teachers, he said. Basic education department teachers and staff are allowed to work from home but in several districts like Unnao, Rae Bareli, Lucknow, Basti, Banda and Hardoi, they have been assigned duty at Covid-19 control rooms at the cost of their safety, he said. The union demanded that a compensation of Rs.1 crore be provided to the kin of the staff and teachers who died during polling duty. The union also demanded that the government withdraw all punitive action against the teachers and staff absent on polling duty and declare all teachers, including the deceased, as corona warriors. The Allahabad High Court on May 11 had said that the compensation provided to kin of polling officers who died on duty during the panchayat polls due to the deliberate act on the part of the State and the State Election Commission to force them to perform duties in the absence of RTPCR support should be at least Rs.1 crore. The State government had recently told the court that it would provide a compensation of Rs.30 lakh to the family members of the deceased polling officers, including teachers and sikhsa mitras.
C) Petition in SC to stop action against those questioning Centre’s vaccine policy.
A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court to direct the Delhi Police Commissioner to stop the registration of FIRs against persons who have voiced their dissent against the Centre’s vaccination policy and Covid-19 management by pasting posters and brochures in public places. Advocate Pradeep Kumar Yadav said free speech and expression is guaranteed under the Constitution. The Supreme Court in the Shreya Singhal judgment has held that sharing of information on social media is not a criminal offence under the Information Technology Act. The petitioner referred to the fact that the Supreme Court, while hearing the suo motu case on Covid-19 management, had specifically told State authorities to not take penal action against people who seek medical help or vent their grievances about Covid-19 management on social media. Contrary to this, authorities are registering FIRs against the innocent persons over their hate speech against the Hon’ble PM with regard to his official functions over the second wave of COVID-19 crisis and government vaccine policies, the petition said. The petition mentioned the arrest of over 20 people in Delhi in connection with posters against the Prime Minister regarding the vaccination policy.
D) Miniscule risk of developing blood clots after Covishield jab, says Health Ministry.
Adverse Event Following Immunisation (AEFI) data in India showed that there was a minuscule but definitive risk of thromboembolic events after the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine (known as Covishield in India). A statement issued by the Health Ministry on Monday noted that the reporting rate of these events in India is around 0.61/million doses, which is much lower than the four cases/million reported by UK’s regulator Medical and Health Regulatory Authority (MHRA). Germany has reported 10 events per million doses. There were no potential thromboembolic events reported following administration of Covaxin vaccine. Bleeding and clotting cases following Covid-19 vaccination in India are minuscule and in line with the expected number of diagnoses of these conditions in the country, a report submitted by the National AEFI committee to the Health Ministry noted. Since the vaccination drive was initiated, more than 23,000 adverse events were reported through the Co-WIN platform from 684 of the 753 districts of the country. Of these, only 700 cases (9.3 cases/million doses administered) were reported to be serious and severe in nature. The AEFI Committee has completed an in-depth case review of 498 serious and severe events, of which 26 cases have been reported to be potential thromboembolic (formation of a clot in a blood vessel that might also break loose and be carried by the blood stream to plug another vessel) events, following the administration of Covishield vaccine, with a reporting rate of 0.61 cases/ million doses, said the release.
E) TN skips virtual meeting with Union Education Minister.
Representatives from the Tamil Nadu School Education Department chose not to participate in the virtual meeting organised for State Education Secretaries on Monday. Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal had announced that he would be attending the meeting virtually and had outlined the objectives as reviewing the Covid-19 situation, online education and work around the National Education Policy (NEP). The meeting had called for the participation of the Education secretary alone, and not State Ministers of Education. In a letter to the Union Minister sent on Sunday, School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi had said that it would be appropriate only if the Education Department Minister participates along with officials from the Department for such a high-level meeting. He had further said that he was ready to participate and share their views on the implementation of NEP. Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had said that I should take part in it as the Minister of the department and we subsequently wrote to the Centre as well about my participation in the meeting. But there hasn’t been any response, and we chose not to participate, said Anbil Mahesh, speaking at Tiruchi on Monday afternoon. We are not looking to fight with them, but want to be able to participate and put forth our views on the NEP and other issues discussed, he added. The DMK was strongly opposed to the National Education Policy when it came out in 2020 and had demanded it to be withdrawn. Many of our suggestions which we had put forth when the draft NEP was released were not taken into consideration. There are many aspects that need further discussion including the three-language policy, and the NEP also does not say much about how it is going to help underprivileged students or about reservations, Anbil Mahesh said.
F) Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments.
The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 2,51,11,469 with the death toll at 2,76,186. The first batch of the adjunct COVID therapy drug, 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) — developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) along with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL), Hyderabad — was today released for emergency use. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh formally handed over the drug to Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan. Bihar has lost the highest number of doctors to the second wave of Covid-19 — 69 — followed by Uttar Pradesh (34) and Delhi (27). According to the Indian Medical Association (IMA) registry, 244 deaths have been recorded in the second wave, with the youngest physician who died being Dr. Anas Mijahid, 25, from Delhi. While last year we lost nearly 730 doctors across India, this year in a short period of time we have lost 244 doctors, said IMA president J.A. Jayalal.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) Gaza’s rockets part of resistance, says collective led by Arundhati Roy, Nayantara Sahgal.
Rockets fired by Palestinians against Israel are part of a resistance which is supported by international law, a group of writers and artistes led by Arundhati Roy and Nayantara Sahgal has declared. In a statement, the collective accused Israeli government of killing Palestinian children and blamed Israeli settlers for illegally trying to snatch Palestinian land. Palestinians in Gaza fired rockets at Israel. The rockets did not start or define the brutality that followed. The rockets came as part of a resistance backed by international law of an illegal occupation, declared the statement from the collective. It said Israeli retaliation with extreme force killed civilians, including children. The collective urged the Egyptian air force to provide a ‘no-fly zone’ above Gaza strip and pointed to the lack of political will in the Arab world to protect the Palestinians. The group, consisting of some of the leading artistes, authors and actors, drew attention to the U.N. General Assembly resolution 1514 of 1960 that supported a decolonisation process.
B) At UN, India supports Palestine, but without getting into specifics.
At the United Nations Security Council on Sunday, India, a non-permanent member, reaffirmed its support for Palestine, but stopped short of making any direct reference to the status of Jerusalem or the future Israel-Palestine borders. Wrapping up his over-4-minute-long speech at the Security Council, T.S. Tirumurti, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN said, In conclusion, India reiterates its strong support for the just Palestinian cause and its unwavering commitment to the two-state solution. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday tweeted the national flags of 25 countries, from the United States to Albania, that he said were resolutely standing with Israel and supporting our right to self defence. India’s flag was not among them. Ambassador Tirumurti’s statement made two things clear. One, he said the violence began in East Jerusalem a week back, referring to the clashes in the Al-Aqsa compound and East Jerusalem’s neighbourhood. This means, India doesn’t see Hamas’s rocket firing on May 10, which followed Israeli forces storming Al-Aqsa Mosque in the morning, as the trigger of the conflict. India has also urged both sides to refrain from attempts to unilaterally change the existing status quo, including in East Jerusalem and its neighbourhood. Here, it is Israel which is trying to unilaterally change the status quo by moving to evict the Palestinian families, and deploying troops to the Al-Aqsa compound. India said the historic status quo at the holy places of Jerusalem, including Haram esh-Sharif/Temple Mount must be respected. So, without naming any country, India has, in effect, called for the eviction process to be stopped and status quo ante to be restored at the Al Aqsa compound.
