CURRENT AFFAIRS
19 December 2020
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) Farm laws not brought overnight, says PM Modi, accuses Opposition of spreading canards.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday quoted the raised MSPs and increased procurement through the existing mandis in his strongest defence of the new farm laws. The PM urged the agitating farmers to discuss all their doubts while hitting out at the Opposition for rumour-mongering and lies for political ends. Addressing the farmers in Raisen, Madhya Pradesh, the PM lashed out at the Opposition, primarily the Congress although he did not name the party, for the biggest lie and misinformation ever about the farm laws. He said he will address the issue once again on December 25. Those who are still suspicious, still have doubts he urge them to reconsider. The MSPs have not been abolished and will not be abolished. The mandis were around, are still there and continue to be there. That which has not happened, will not happen. But please beware of those who are spreading rumours, lies and canards. They have always cheated the farmer, said the PM. He said that the farm laws have not come overnight. They have been discussed for over 20-22 years by State and Central Governments as well as by various stakeholders, agriculture scientists and economists and progressive farmers.
B) PM ‘attacked’ farmers, lied about MSP, allege farmers’ groups.
Protesting farmers groups accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of attacking them in his speech on Friday, adding that his claims on minimum support prices were lies. With regard to the ongoing Supreme Court case, farm leaders have not yet decided on whether to implead themselves as proposed by the court. The Prime Minister has launched an open attack on the farmers of India by claiming that they are linked to opposition parties, said a statement from the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, responding to Modi’s address to Madhya Pradesh farmers. In place of addressing the issue of repeal of the three Farm Acts which erode farmers’ hold on land and farming and establish the MNCs and big business to grow in agriculture, he has reduced himself to a party leader, undermining his role as a responsible executive head of the country, expected to solve problems. The Bharatiya Kisan Union-Tikait dismissed the Centre’s claims of helping farmers by increasing minimum support prices. It pointed out that the MSPs of major crops had an average yearly increase of 8-12% in the UPA era, in comparison to only 1-5% under the NDA. These are Modi ji’s lies about MSP, said the group’s leader Rakesh Tikait, adding that most pulses were not being bought at MSP prices. Even with regards to paddy, a farmer in Bihar is still forced to sell his crop at half the rate of MSP because government procurement has not reached him.
C) Hathras victim was gang-raped, murdered: CBI.
The CBI on Friday filed a charge sheet against four accused persons for the gang rape and murder of a Dalit woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras in September. The 19-year-old was allegedly raped and assaulted by Sandeep, Luvkush, Ravi and Ramu on September 14 in Hathras. She was admitted to a hospital in Aligarh, from where she was shifted to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi. She died on September 29. The CBI has invoked sections 302 (punishment for murder), 376 (punishment for rape), 376A (punishment for inflicting injury while committing rape, resulting in the death of the woman) and 376D (gang rape) of the Indian Penal Code, besides the relevant provisions of the SC/ST Act. The four accused, who were arrested by the local police, are currently in judicial custody. On October 1, Uttar Pradesh’s Additional Director General of Police (Law & Order) Prashant Kumar had said that the forensic report from the government laboratory in Agra confirmed that the victim was not raped. He also cited the autopsy report to corroborate his point. The lab report clearly says that no sperm was found in the sample. However, he added that the victim first mentioned about rape on September 22 and that the samples were sent to the laboratory on September 25.
D) SC initiates contempt proceedings against Kamra, Taneja.
The Supreme Court on Friday initiated contempt proceedings against stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra and cartoonist Rachita Taneja for scandalising the court and the highest judiciary with their tweets. A three-judge Bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R. Subhash Reddy and M.R. Shah issued notice asking Kamra and Taneja to show cause why they should not be punished for contempt of court. Both Taneja and Kamra have been exempted from personal appearance in court. Usually, persons facing contempt action have to be present during the hearing. The notice to them is returnable in six weeks. On Thursday, the Bench had heard petitioners seeking contempt action against the duo and decided to pass its orders after a day. The petitioners, mostly law students and lawyers, had moved the Supreme Court after getting the statutory consent for contempt action from Attorney General (AG) K.K. Venugopal. In the case against Kamra, law student Shrirang Katneshwarkar’s counsel Nishant Katneshwarkar had submitted that the tweets by the comic were scandalous. Kamra had refused to apologise or retract the tweets. Instead, he had tweeted that he wished to volunteer the time that may be allotted for hearing his contempt case to others who have not been as lucky and privileged as he is to jump the queue. The AG had also found Taneja’s cartoons, which she had tweeted, to be scandalous and with an intent to undermine the judiciary. The cartoons concern the top court’s grant of bail to Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami.
E) Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments.
The number of coronavirus cases reported from India stood at 99,95,968 with the death toll at 1,45,066. Getting vaccinated for Covid-19 will be voluntary, the Union Health Ministry has said, while underlining that the vaccine introduced in India will be as effective as any vaccine developed by other countries. The ministry further stated that it was advisable to receive a complete schedule of the anti-coronavirus vaccine irrespective of past history of infection with Covid-19 as this will help in developing a strong immune response against the disease. Vaccination for Covid-19 is voluntary. However, it is advisable to receive the complete schedule of the vaccine for protecting oneself against this disease and also to limit the spread of this disease to close contacts, including family members, friends, relatives and co-workers, the ministry said in response to a question on whether it is mandatory to take the shot.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) India, China agree to hold next round of military talks on LAC.
India and China on Friday agreed to hold another round of talks between senior military commanders to take forward the slow-moving process of disengagement on the Line of Actual Control (LAC). This was agreed to at the 20th meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) held via video link on Friday. The WMCC is ordinarily convened twice a year since the mechanism was launched in 2012 with the aim of ensuring peace on the borders, but has now met six times since June this year, following the unprecedented crisis in Ladakh erupted in early May. This followed multiple transgressions by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and a clash in Galwan Valley mid-June that claimed the lives of 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese soldiers.
B) In historic pick, Biden taps Native American Deb Haaland as interior secretary.
President-elect Joe Biden selected New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland as his nominee for interior secretary on Thursday, a historic pick that would make her the first Native American to lead the powerful federal agency that has wielded influence over the nation’s tribes for generations. Tribal leaders and activists around the country, along with many Democratic figures, cheered Haaland’s selection after urging Biden for weeks to choose her to lead the Department of Interior. They stood behind her candidacy even when concerns that Democrats might risk their majority in the House if Haaland yielded her seat in Congress appeared to threaten her nomination. With Haaland’s nomination, Indigenous people will for the first time in their lifetimes see a Native American at the table where the highest decisions are made, and so will everyone else, said OJ Semans, a Rosebud Sioux vote activist who was in Georgia on Thursday helping get out the Native vote for two Senate runoffs. It’s made people aware that Indians still exist, he said.
