NATIONAL NEWS
A) Farooq Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti to attend talks with PM on June 24
Top leaders of the Gupkar alliance, including the National Conference’s Farooq Abdullah and Peoples Democratic Party’s Mehbooba Mufti, will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 24 in New Delhi. We have received an invitation from the PM and we are going to attend it. We will place our stand before the PM and Union Home Minister and apprise the people about the response [from the PM] later, Gupkar alliance president Dr. Abdullah said. Earlier, there was speculation that Mufti would nominate Dr. Abdullah as the leader of the alliance to attend the meeting. However, sources said she decided to attend the meeting after the Gupkar alliance leaders convinced her. Their government is talking to the Taliban in Doha. There should be a dialogue with the people of J&K and also with Pakistan for a resolution, Mufti said. The Gupkar alliance’s meeting was attended by all its five constituents, including the NC, PDP, CPI(M), Awami National Conference and J&K Peoples Movement. The meeting started at 11 a.m. at the residence of Dr. Abdullah in Srinagar. On the return of statehood, Mufti said it would be like offering a shoe after cutting the feet. Statehood is not a favour, she told a Delhi-based news channel.
B) Oxygen may have saved lives, PM’s tears didn’t, says Rahul Gandhi.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday claimed at a press meet that 90% of the deaths during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic were needless as lives could have been saved if oxygen and medicines were available. Releasing a white paper on the Union government’s handling of the pandemic, he said it should now prepare for a third wave by ramping up health infrastructure and vaccinating citizens on a war footing so that the virus did not get a ‘chance’ to mutate. The white paper suggests the creation of a Covid-19 compensation fund and a commission to find out what went wrong in the fight against the previous waves. Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for getting emotional in one of his virtual addresses, Gandhi said, The Prime Minister’s tears cannot wipe the tears of those who lost their loved ones. The Prime Minister’s tears did not save their lives but oxygen may have saved them. The Prime Minister didn’t take this seriously. He was busy fighting elections in Bengal and his focus was in another direction. The purpose of the white paper was not to point fingers at the government, but to help it deal with the third wave by preparing a blueprint to react, he stressed. In a subsequent tweet, he said the government of India must work on our constructive inputs in the interest of the country. The white paper, he observed, was the result of extensive discussions held with experts and within the Congress structure and had four main pillars. The first pillar talked about what went wrong and the Congress’s suggestions, including one to have a commission to probe the shortcomings; the second one focussed on developing the critical infrastructure such as oxygen supply and hospital beds; the third one highlighted financial assistance to the poorest families and the final one was about creation of a Covid-19 fund to compensate the families that have lost the breadwinner. The corona virus was not just a biological phenomena but also an economic and social phenomena and that’s why economic support must be given to the poorest people as well as small and medium businesses, Gandhi asserted. The Centre is making ₹ 4 lakh crore from taxes on diesel and petrol every year. It is taking money out of the pockets of people who have lost family members. So, I don’t understand, why it can’t put some money back into their pocket, he noted.
C) Arnab Goswami booked in TRP manipulation case
The Mumbai Police have named Arnab Goswami, the editor-in-chief of Republic TV and owner of ARG Outlier Media, as an accused in the Television Ratings Points manipulation case. Goswami has been named along with Shivendu Mulekar, chief operating officer Priya Mukherjee and chief financial officer Shiva Sundaram in the 1,800-page chargesheet. On October 8, 2020, Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh had said that a TRP racket had been busted which involved Republic TV, Box Cinema, and Fakt Marathi. He had said that the channels were manipulating TRPs and were involved in distorting the system used by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) to rate television channels. On March 17, 2021, the Bombay High Court had asked why the Mumbai Police hasn’t named Goswami as an accused in the FIR in the case. The other accused include Partho Dasgupta, former chief executive office of BARC, and 14 others. They have been charged under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust), 465 (punishment for forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender), 204 (destruction of document or electronic record to prevent its production as evidence), and 212 (harbouring offender) of the Indian Penal Code.
D) Rashtra Manch meeting at Sharad Pawar’s residence sees lukewarm response.
The Rashtra Manch meeting hosted by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar at his home in New Delhi turned out to be a damp squib with the majority of the opposition parties giving it a miss and many of them sending in their second line leaders. The Rashtra Manch is an action group founded by Yashwant Sinha in January 2018 when he was not in any political party. He is currently with the Trinamool Congress (TMC). The NCP was at pains to explain that Pawar was only playing the host and did not organise the meeting. It also explained that there was no deliberate exclusion of the Congress. Other than the Congress, DMK, RJD and BSP too did not send in any representatives. Speaking to the media after the two-and-aahalf hour long meeting, NCP leader Majeed Memon said, It has been reported in the media that this meeting of Rashtra Manch was held by Sharad Pawar to unite anti-BJP political parties. This is totally incorrect. I want to clarify that this meeting took place at Pawar’s residence but he didn’t call this meeting. He also stressed that the meeting should not be misconstrued as a big political step taken by Pawar excluding the Congress. Congress leaders Vivek Tankha, Manish Tewari, Kapil Sibal, Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Shatrughan Sinha were invited. Some of them expressed genuine difficulties. The perception that there is going to be a big Opposition group excluding the Congress is wrong, Memon said. Among those who attended the meeting were National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Jayant Chaudhary, Aam Aadmi Party’s Susheel Gupta, poet Javed Akhtar, former Chief Election Commissioner SY Qureshi, former diplomat KC Singh and Justice AP Shah, among others. Left leaders, CPI General Secretary D Raja and CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury too gave it a miss. Instead CPI was represented by Rajya Sabha MP Binoy Viswom and CPI (M) by Polit Bureau member Nilotpal Basu. The Rashtra Manch coordinator and Samajwadi Party Spokesperson Ghanshyam Tiwari said that Yashwant Sinha, who is the convenor of this platform, will set up a team that will put forth its vision on important issues affecting citizens. Summary of today’s meeting is that there is a need for preparation of an alternate vision in the country, that is able to properly address the issues related to the common man, Tiwari said.
E) Insistence on physical exams for Class 12 is ‘irrational’, says Supreme Court.
The Union of India’s question who is to blame if a student dies saw the Supreme Court toss out insistent pleas by some parents claiming that the Covid-19 graph is in free fall and the internal assessment schemes for Class 12 CBSE and ICSE students should be chucked in favour of physical exams. A Bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari on Tuesday stood by the Union’s principle that every student’s life is precious. Attorney General K.K. Venugopal, for the Union, said, Suppose a number of students who attend written exams get the infection, suppose a student dies… Who is to blame? It is neither safe nor prudent to have written exams. The court asked Andhra Pradesh, which intends to conduct the State Board exams but has deferred a final decision to July, to make its position clear in an affidavit by Wednesday. If there is even a single fatality, we will make the State responsible, it warned. Kerala had filed an affidavit opting for exams for Class 11. The court said it would pass orders on the State’s choice. The court found the insistence on physical exams irrational. Justice Maheshwari said students cannot be left in uncertainty about their health and future.
E) NCLT approves Jet Airways revamp plan.
The Mumbai Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Tuesday approved the resolution plan of Kalrock Capital and entrepreneur Murari Lal Jalan for the revival of Jet Airways. The bankruptcy court has granted 90 days to the consortium to apply for airport slots. Though the government in its affidavit had earlier maintained that Jet Airways can’t claim a right on slots held by it earlier, the court has urged that the issue be addressed by the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. The bid by the consortium of Kalrock Capital and Murari Lal Jalan was approved by the Committee of Creditors in October last year. As per the resolution plan, the successful bidder has proposed a total cash flow of ₹1,375 crore for the revival of the company. The revival plan envisages starting operations with 30 aircraft within six months from the approval of the plan by NCLT. In October 2020, the airline’s Committee of Creditors (CoC) approved the resolution plan submitted by the consortium of the UK’s Kalrock Capital and the UAE-based entrepreneur Murari Lal Jalan. Jet Airways has been undergoing a resolution process under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) for two years, and its affairs are being managed by resolution professional Ashish Chhawchharia.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) U.S. shares plan to allocate 55mn vaccine doses globally.
The Biden administration, on Monday announced how it would allocate 55 million of the 80 million doses from its vaccine supply to other countries. It is unclear how many doses India will receive in this second allocation. The administration already outlined its plans to share the first 25 million doses of its stockpile both bilaterally and via COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access, abbreviated as COVAX – an international coalition to distribute vaccines globally. Three quarters of the 80 million are being shared via COVAX and one quarter directly. Of the 80 million, 60 million are AstraZeneca vaccines, not yet approved for use in the U.S. Of the 55 million doses, 41 million will be shared via COVAX. Of this, approximately 14 million will go to Asian countries, including India, some 10 million for Africa (coordinated by the African Union) and approximately 16 million for Latin American countries. Another 14 million doses will be shared with regional priorities and other recipients, the White House statement said. This includes African, Asian, Eastern European and South American countries as well as three South Asian countries – Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The specific number of vaccines will be determined and shared as the administration works through logistical and regulatory specifics for each region, the White House said. At the G7 in the U.K. last week, President Joe Biden announced that the U.S. would purchase and donate 500 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to low and middle-income countries. The G7 also committed to provide a total of 1 billion vaccine doses from this summer onwards. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has estimated that the world needs 11 billion vaccines to respond to end the pandemic.
B) Taliban capture Afghanistan’s main Tajikistan border crossing.
The Taliban captured Afghanistan’s main border crossing with Tajikistan, officials said on Tuesday, with security forces abandoning their posts and some fleeing across the frontier. The seizure of Shir Khan Bandar, in the far north of Afghanistan, about 50 km from Kunduz city, is the most significant gain for the Taliban since the United States began the final stage of its troop withdrawal in May. Unfortunately this morning and after an hour of fighting, the Taliban captured Shir Khan port and the town and all the border check posts with Tajikistan, said Kunduz provincial council member Khaliddin Hakmi. Separately, an Army officer said: We were forced to leave all check posts … and some of our soldiers crossed the border into Tajikistan. By morning, Taliban fighters were everywhere, hundreds of them, he added, on condition of anonymity. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed the insurgents had seized the crossing, across the Pyanj River. Our Mujahideen are in full control of Shir Khan Bandar and all the border crossings with Tajikistan in Kunduz, he said. Insurgents and Afghan forces were engaged in fierce battles on Monday on the outskirts of Kunduz city itself.
C) UNESCO to downgrade status of Great Barrier Reef; Australia blames political interference.
The Great Barrier Reef should be added to a list of in danger World Heritage Sites, a UN committee recommended on Tuesday, prompting an angry response from Australia, which said it had been blindsided by the move and blamed political interference. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation committee, which sits under UNESCO, said the world’s biggest coral reef system should be added to the list due to the impact of climate change. Australia has for years been battling to keep the Great Barrier Reef, a major tourist attraction that supports thousands of jobs, off the in danger list. In 2015, UNESCO noted the outlook for the reef was poor but kept the site’s status unchanged. Since then, scientists say it has suffered three major coral bleaching events due to severe marine heat waves. Australia’s Minister for the Environment Sussan Ley said Canberra had been assured there would be no recommendation on the reef by the UN before July. Ley said she and Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne spoke overnight with the Director General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay. This decision was flawed. Clearly there was politics behind it, she said. Ley did not elaborate, but a government source said Canberra believes China was responsible amid a souring of relations between the two countries. Chinese officials enjoy strong sway on three committees, while a Chinese lawmaker is chairman of the World Heritage Committee, the source said. We will appeal but China is in control, the meeting is in China, we don’t have much hope, the source said, declining to be named as he is not authorised to talk to the media. Environmental groups, however, rejected Australia’s assertion that the recommendation was political. The recommendation from UNESCO is clear and unequivocal that the Australian Government is not doing enough to protect our greatest natural asset, especially on climate change, said Richard Leck, Head of Oceans for the World Wide Fund for Nature-Australia, in an emailed statement.
