NATIONAL NEWS
Union Minister Narayan Rane arrested in Maharashtra for remarks on Udddhav Thackeray.
Narayan Rane, Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, was on Tuesday arrested and taken into custody from Sangameshwar by the Ratnagiri police and the Bombay High Court refused to grant him any relief over his would have slapped Uddhav Thackeray comment. Advocate Aniket Nikam, for Rane, will approach the High Court on Wednesday, seeking to quash the FIRs against the former Chief Minister. On Tuesday, Nikam appeared before a division bench of Justices SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar and sought the quashing of the FIRs . He said the offences under which Rane had been charged were below seven years and no notice was issued to him under section 41A (notice of appearance before police officer) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Rane is charged with section 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot-if rioting be committed-if not committed) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The court told him to follow the procedure and get the petition numbered by the registry first. On Monday, while addressing a ‘Jan Ashirvad Yatra’ of the BJP in Raigad district, Rane said the Maharashtra Chief Minister forgot the year of Independence during his August 15 address to people and had he been present at the spot, he would have slapped Thackeray. Rane said, The State’s economy and all businesses are in turmoil owing to this man’s [Mr. Thackeray] pathetic management of affairs more than 1.5 lakh persons have lost their lives due to the State’s mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a shortage of vaccines, no medical staff, no doctors. The State’s health infrastructure was in a shambolic state… Does he [Mr. Thackeray] even have the right to speak on anything… He ought to keep a secretary as he did not even know it was the 75th anniversary of India’s Independence and was asking someone backstage [on Independence Day]. I would have given him a tight slap had I been there for forgetting the number of years of India’s Independence. Soon, clashes broke out all over the State. Shiv Sena supporters protested in Solapur, where they blackened Rane’s photo, garlanded it with chappals and hit it with footwear. Shiv Sainiks also vandalised the BJP’s office in Nashik. Agitations were believed to have broken out in Baramati, Nagpur and Sangli too. Earlier in the day, a court in Ratnagiri district in the Konkan region rejected his anticipatory bail plea. The FIRs registered against Rane include one in Pune by the Yuva Sena (the Shiv Sena’s youth wing), one in Nashik, and two at Mahad in Raigad district. High drama was seen in Ratnagiri when the Sangameshwar police went to arrest him, triggering heated altercations between his aides and the authorities. Pramod Jathar, BJP leader from the Konkan, said, What crime has Mr. Rane committed. This is a lawless State…we told the Superintendent of Police that we are ready to come down to the jail if the police had a proper warrant. But the police claim they are under tremendous pressure. Is this rule by law or goonda raj. While BJP Leader of the Opposition and former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis admitted that Rane ought to have shown restraint in his statements, State BJP president Chandrakant Patil said it was against protocol for a State government to arrest a Union Minister. All this arrest drama has been contrived by the Maha Vikas Aghadi government to divert the public’s attention from the fact that Rane has been receiving overwhelming support in the Konkan region during his ‘Jan Ashirwad Yatra’, Patil claimed. Himself a former Shiv Sainik and an important face of the Maratha community, Mr. Rane’s ‘Sena baiting’ has grown even more strident since he exited the Congress in 2017. However, his entry into the BJP had not been smooth and was a bone of contention when the BJP and the Sena were in alliance in the erstwhile Devendra Fadnavis government. The Konkan strongman had accused the Sena of deliberately delaying his entry, given the mutual antipathy between himself and Thackeray.
No request to delist Haqqani from Taliban sanctions yet, say diplomats
There are no requests from the UN Security Council Permanent members for the delisting of the Taliban’s top leadership from sanctions thus far, officials said here. They also refuted reports that the next meeting of the UN’s 1988 Sanctions Committee, due next month, would lift restrictions on designated terrorists like Sirajuddin Haqqani and Mullah Baradar. Sources told The Hindu that the next meeting of the Taliban Sanctions Committee, as the resolution 1988 committee is referred to, is due to be held in mid-September, ahead of an important meeting to discuss the renewal of the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), which expires on September 17. India’s Permanent Representative to the UN (UNPR), T.S. Tirumurti is the Chairman of the committee until December 31 this year, and is key to deciding the date of the meetings, and scrutinising requests to delist the Taliban leaders. While diplomats from at least three countries, as well as MEA officials confirmed that there were no requests to de-designate or delist any of the sanctioned 135 individuals and five entities, they said a decision was likely to be taken on whether to extend the special travel exemptions given to 14 Taliban members to participate in the peace and reconciliation efforts. The meeting could also discuss whether to include other Taliban leaders in the exemptions, giving them permission to travel and access some funds, which are frozen at the moment. The reports concerning Sirajuddin Haqqani are significant for India as he and the Haqqani group, founded by his father Jalaluddin Haqqani, are wanted for the Indian Embassy bombings in Kabul in 2008 and 2009. Around 70 people, including the Indian defence attaché Brig. Ravi Datt Mehta and press counsellor V. Venkateswara Rao, were killed in the attacks. Sirajuddin Haqqani, deputy to Taliban chief Haibatullah Akhundzada, is now likely to have considerable influence in the next government in Afghanistan. His brother Anas Haqqani, who was arrested in 2014 for financing the group’s terror attacks, and was released as part of a hostage swap in 2019 from Bagram prison, is now one of the chief negotiators in government formation talks in Kabul.
Four Ministers, over two dozen MLAs speak against Capt. Amarinder’s leadership
The Congress high command’s efforts to resolve issues in the party’s Punjab unit have failed to yield the desired results as the crisis only deepened further on Tuesday, after factions supporting Chief Minister Captain (Retd.) Amarinder Singh and Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief Navjot Singh Sidhu spoke out against each other. On the one hand, four Ministers and over two dozen MLAs openly came out against Capt. Amarinder’s leadership. On the other, taking exception to the anti-national and pro-Pakistan comments of two of Sidhu’s aides, Malwinder Mali and Payre Lal Garg, a group of Punjab Congress Ministers and MLAs called for strong legal action against them. Raising the baton against Capt. Amarinder in a meeting held here, four Ministers, including Sukhjinder Randhawa, Tript Rajinder Bajwa, Sukhbinder Sarkaria and Charanjit Channi, apart from close to two dozen MLAs, expressed lack of faith in the leadership of the Chief Minister in fulfilling the party’s 2017 Assembly election promises. We have lost faith in his [the CM’s] leadership. There are certain issues for which we have been fighting for a while now. It’s all about those issues, which are not settled, be it the Bargari sacrilege, curbing the drugs and transport mafias, etc. All these issues relate to the previous Akali Dal government, which have not yet been addressed. We earlier appraised the Central leadership about these issues, after which an 18-point programme was released to resolve them. But the Chief Minister is only attempting to kill time and doing nothing on the ground. Each passing day is critical as we are inching towards the Assembly elections, Channi told. the meeting it was decided that a five-member delegation would meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi and appraise her about the situation and their demands. A consensus among us emerged and we decided that if the Chief Minister doesn’t want to work, he should step down. To raise this demand and convey our sentiments, we have sought time from the high command. We are going to meet AICC (All India Congress Committee) in-charge of Punjab affairs Harish Rawat tomorrow in Dehradun and then decide further, he said. After the meeting, Sidhu tweeted: Got a call from Tripat Bajwa ji asking for an emergency meeting. Met him along with other colleagues at the PPCC office. Will appraise the high command of the situation. Amid a power tussle between Capt. Amarinder and Sidhu, the AICC had on July 18 appointed Sidhu as president of the PPCC in an apparent attempt to resolve the crisis. Capt. Amarinder and Sidhu have been at at loggerheads since the 2019 Lok Sabha poll. Meanwhile, hitting out at Sidhu’s aides, Mali and Garg, State Ministers Brahm Mohindra, Vijay Inder Singla, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Balbir Singh Sidhu and Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, along with MLA Raj Kumar Verka, said, Statements by both these newly appointed advisors of Punjab Congress president Navjot Sidhu are clearly against India’s interests and detrimental to national security. Besides stringent legal action against Mali and Garg, these leaders also urged the Congress national leadership to direct Sidhu to immediately rein in his aides in the interest of the party as well as the country. The Congress has made many sacrifices for the protection of the nation’s security and peace, as have our soldiers at the borders. Nobody can or should be allowed to undermine these sacrifices and jeopardise the safety of our country and its people, they emphasised, citing, in particular, the grave implications such statements could have for the border State of Punjab. Congress leaders also questioned Sidhu’s failure to put his foot down on the diatribe by his close aides, despite the justified uproar it has triggered across party lines. Sidhu’s omission in this regard had given ammunition to Opposition parties, which were quick to recall the PPCC’s chief’s personal bonhomie with the Pakistan Prime Minister and Army chief, they pointed out, warning against the massive damage this could cause to the Congress in the run-up to the 2022 Punjab Assembly polls, which are due in less than six months.
Don’t construe graveyard’s silence in J&K as normalcy: Gupkar alliance
The People’s Alliance for the Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) on Tuesday reiterated its demand for the restoration of the pre-August 5, 2019 special constitutional position of Jammu and Kashmir and warned the Central government against misconstruing the current graveyard’s silence in J&K as normalcy. It demanded an end to humiliating people that, otherwise, has dangerous consequences. To India’s civil society and political parties, we want to convey that we too want to live a life of dignity. However, the current government takes pride in inflicting humiliation on us. It’s unacceptable to the people of Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh, Gupkar alliance spokesman M.Y. Tarigami said. He made these remarks after a meeting of the Gupkar alliance held at the residence of National Conference president Dr. Farooq Abdullah. Former Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti participated in it. The unjustified and frequent raids of agencies such as the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the leaders seemed to be aimed at projecting all the leaders as thieves and criminals in J&K, he observed. We will rest our case before the people of India and the political parties. We appeal to all that the current trend of humiliating people should end. Besides, the voices are being muzzled. It has dangerous consequences for the entire nation, he stated. The government got unnerved even by the press conferences of leaders, he alleged. He accused the LG (Lieutenant Governor) administration of depriving local officers of top positions in the government. Most of the posts are held by the outside officers. He questioned the Centre’s claims on development, investment and employment. They stand exposed. Even people in Jammu have started feeling lack of governance and development now, he noted. The Gupkar alliance also criticised the move not to issue security clearance to people involved in pelting of stones for passports and jobs. Nobody can be deprived of their rights until proved guilty by the court, Tarigami asserted. Referring to their demand made during the all-party meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 24, he said, We want to ask the government how many people have been released. There are cases where people have been released by courts after a decade saying they were innocent. A resolution passed by the Gupkar alliance said the unconstitutional decisions of August 5, 2019 had created a big political void and deep uncertainty in the erstwhile State. The successive executive orders post August 2019 like domicile laws, curbs on media, intimidation of government employees, discriminatory rules on employment are some of the authoritarian diktats that have been imposed on the people of Jammu and Kashmir, it stated. On the June 24 meeting with the Prime Minister, it noted that nothing substantial had emerged after Mr. Modi’s ‘Dilli ki Doori and Dil ki Doori’ slogan during the meeting. No confidence-building-measures have been taken to provide some relief to distressed people of the region, it stressed. It demanded that statehood, as it existed prior to August 5, 2019, must be restored. All political prisoners must be released immediately. Indiscriminate use of draconian laws must be put to an end, it added.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Hong Kong to check old films for security breaches.
Hong Kong will scrutinise past films for national security breaches under a tough new censorship law announced on Tuesday in the latest blow to the financial hub’s political and artistic freedoms. Authorities have embarked on a sweeping crackdown to root out Beijing’s critics after democracy protests convulsed the city two years ago. A new China-imposed security law and an official campaign dubbed Patriots rule Hong Kong has since criminalised much dissent and strangled the democracy movement. Authorities in June said the city’s censorship board would check any future films for content that breached the security law. But on Tuesday they unveiled a new censorship law which would also cover any titles that had previously been given a green light. Any film for public exhibition, past, present and future, will need to get approval, Commerce Secretary Edward Yau told reporters. The maximum sentence for showing illegal films will be increased to up to three years jail and a HK$1 million ($130,000) fine.
Kamala Harris accuses China of ‘intimidation’ in disputed seas.
Vice-President Kamala Harris accused China on Tuesday of intimidation in disputed Asian waters, seeking to rally regional allies as the United States’ superpower status takes a hit over Afghanistan. Her comments in Singapore came as Washington seeks to reset relations in Asia after the turbulent Donald Trump era and build a bulwark against the rising might of Beijing. But her trip to the region, which also includes a stop in Vietnam, comes as Washington faces fresh questions over its dependability amid the U.S. pull-out from Afghanistan. In a speech laying out her administration’s foreign policy goals, Ms. Harris reiterated that Washington had enduring commitments in Asia – and took aim at China. Beijing continues to coerce, to intimidate and to make claims to the vast majority of the South China Sea, she said. Beijing’s actions continue to undermine the rules-based order and threaten the sovereignty of nations. Beijing hits back But Beijing hit back, holding up the Afghan debacle as an example of Washington’s selfish foreign policy, and accusing Washington of bullying, hegemonic behaviour. The current events in Afghanistan clearly tell us what the rules and order the U.S. speaks of are, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said. China claims almost all of the resource-rich South China Sea, through which trillions of dollars in shipping trade passes annually, with competing claims from four Southeast Asian states as well as Taiwan. Ms. Harris also sought to allay fears that growing U.S. China tensions could force countries that have strong ties with both of the world’s top economies to choose sides. Our engagement in Southeast Asia and the IndoPacific is not against any one country, nor is it designed to make anyone choose between countries, she said. In Tuesday’s speech, she defended Biden’s decision to push ahead with the U.S. pull-out from Afghanistan as courageous and right and reiterated that the U.S. officials were laser-focused on the chaotic evacuation from Kabul airport.
