CURRENT AFFAIRS
25 March 2021
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) CJI Bobde recommends Justice Ramana as successor.
Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde has recommended Justice N.V. Ramana, the senior most judge of the Supreme Court, as the next top judge. The CJI’s recommendation to the government was followed by the publication of a short statement on Wednesday informing that a complaint sent by Andhra Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy against Justice Ramana to the CJI on October 6 last year was dismissed under an in-house procedure after due consideration. Reddy had complained that Justice Ramana was influencing the Andhra High Court judiciary to destabilise his government. The complaint was sent shortly after a Bench led by Justice Ramana started hearing and fast-tracking hundreds of criminal cases against Ministers, legislators and politicians pending in trial courts across the country. In an affidavit filed with election nomination papers in 2019, Reddy had declared there were 31 criminal cases pending against him with the CBI, the Directorate of Enforcement, and different police stations in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
B) Justice Ramana is now set to take over as the 48th Chief Justice of India from April 24.
Chief Justice Bobde handed over a copy of his letter of recommendation to Justice Ramana on Wednesday after sending it to the government. The Centre had recently asked Chief Justice Bobde, who is retiring on April 23, to initiate the transition process to the top judicial office. Justice Ramana would be the CJI till August 26, 2022. He was elevated to the Supreme Court on February 17, 2014 when he was the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court.
C) Mutating coronavirus: Health Ministry flags two new ‘variants of concern’
Two new ‘variants of concern’ (VOC) and a new ‘double mutant’ Covid-variant have been found in India, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday. Variants of concern are mutated types of coronavirus associated with either an increase in transmission, a reduction in neutralising antibodies, or severe disease. However, the government said that none of the recent spikes in Maharashtra and Punjab were attributable to the VOC. Genomic sequencing and epidemiological studies are continuing to further analyse the situation, the Ministry statement added. An analysis of samples from Maharashtra has revealed that compared to December 2020, there has been an increase in the fraction of samples with the E484Q and L452R mutations. Such mutations confer immune escape (evade neutralising antibodies) and increased inactivity, it added. Worryingly, the Ministry has also noted that these mutations have been found in about 15-20% of samples and do not match any previously catalogued VOCs. These have been categorised as VOCs but require the same epidemiological and public health response of increased testing, comprehensive tracking of close contacts, prompt isolation of positive cases and contacts as well as treatment as per National Treatment Protocol by the States/UTs, said the Ministry.
D) Lok Sabha passes The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Bill, 2021.
Lok Sabha on Wednesday gave its nod to a bill which seeks to strengthen the provisions relating to protection and adoption of children. The amendment bill would address various issues flagged by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, which had looked into the working of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani said while moving it for consideration and passage. She said the proposed law seeks to make the district magistrate a synergising officer for issues related to protection of children. The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Bill, 2021, which seeks to amend the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, proposes to increase the role of district magistrates and additional district magistrates on issues concerning child care and adoption, she said. The minister said the panel had found various shortcomings in the implementation of the Act and the object of the proposed changes in the law is to ensure that action is taken without waiting for a child to become a victim.
E) Attorney General denies consent for initiation of contempt proceedings against Rahul Gandhi.
Attorney General of India K.K. Venugopal has denied consent for the initiation of contempt proceedings against Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on the basis of a plea that he had scandalised the judiciary in the course of an interview. Venugopal said Gandhi’s statements were too vague to be said to have lowered the authority of the institution in the eyes of the public. Raising an interesting point, the Attorney General said Gandhi’s statements had referred generally to the judiciary and no specific mentions were made about the Supreme Court or its judges. Venugopal said his prior consent as the Attorney General for initiating contempt was necessary only if the contempt had been made against the Supreme Court. Then the question of my granting consent would not arise, he said. Venugopal was responding to a petition filed by advocate Vineet Jindal, who alleged that Gandhi had scandalised the judiciary by commenting that the ruling party in the Centre has inserted its people into judiciary.
F) Eight parties condemn police action against Opposition MLAs in Bihar assembly.
Eight opposition parties issued a joint statement condemning the events of Patna assembly on Tuesday, where Opposition members were brutally beaten up and dragged out of the state assembly by the police following chaotic scenes over the Bihar Special Armed Police Bill, 2021. RJD MP Manoj K Jha tried to raise this issue in the Rajya Sabha but Chairman Venkaiah Naidu did not allow him to speak. Security personnel remove a Grand Alliance legislator during the budget session of the Bihar Assembly in Patna on March 23, 2021. In a joint statement signed by the RJD, Congress, Samajwadi Party, DMK, TRS, TMC and Shiv Sena, the Opposition said that the Bihar Armed Police Bill is an insidious conspiracy to enforce a police raj in Bihar. This law, the parties said, confers unbridled powers upon the Bihar Military police to conduct raids and arrests without warrants. This is an unconstitutional bill that effectively transforms the police force into an armed militia to harass, suppress and crackdown on academics, activists, journalists, the political opposition, and all those who dare to speak truth to power, the joint statement said. The events in the Patna assembly, the joint statement said, also indicated what the BJP wants to do in the rest of the country, employing the sheer tyranny of power.
G) Congress demands probe into audio clip on corruption in West Bengal.
Demanding an inquiry, the Congress on Wednesday played an audio clip at a press conference in which serious allegations of corruption were levelled against BJP leaders in West Bengal. The party said it could not verify the authenticity of the clip that was 1 minute and 28 seconds long. It asked the BJP to investigate the issue. The purported clip relates to a conversation between two persons discussing getting a BJP ticket in Bengal in exchange for money. The clip also talks of misconduct by BJP’s Bengal chief Dilip Ghosh and the party in-charge for Bengal, Kailash Vijayvargiya. The voices on the audio clip, however, were not that of Ghosh or Vijayvargiya. The Congress claimed that it received the clip from an independent journalist and the identities of the persons taking part in the conversation could not be ascertained. At the press conference, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate questioned the silence of top BJP leaders on the audio clip that was circulating on social media platforms. Stating that the matter was in the public domain now, Rajya Sabha member Amee Yagnik asked why the Election Commission had not taken note of the matter so far.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) Massive cargo ship turns sideways, blocks Egypt’s Suez Canal.
A massive cargo ship has turned sideways in Egypt’s Suez Canal, blocking traffic in a crucial East-West waterway for global shipping, according to satellite data accessed Wednesday. Traffic on the narrow waterway dividing continental Africa from the Sinai Peninsula stopped Tuesday after the MV Ever Given, a Panama-flagged container ship with an owner listed in Japan, got stuck. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the Ever Given to turn sideways in the canal. GAC, a global shipping and logistics company, described the Ever Given as suffering a blackout while transiting in a northerly direction, without elaborating. The Ever Given’s bow was touching the canal’s eastern wall, while its stern looked lodged against its western wall, according to satellite data from MarineTraffic.com. Several tug boats surrounded the ship, likely attempting to push it the right way, the data showed. Cargo ships and oil tankers appeared to be lining up at the southern end of the Suez Canal, waiting to be able to pass through the waterway to the Mediterranean Sea, according to Marine Traffic data. A United Nations database listed the Ever Gren as being owned by Shoei Kisen KK, a ship-leasing firm based in Imabari, Japan. The ship had listed its destination as Rotterdam in the Netherlands prior to getting stuck in the canal. Opened in 1869, the Suez Canal provides a crucial link for oil, natural gas and cargo being shipped from East to West. Around 10 % of the world’s trade flows through the waterway and it remains one of Egypt’s top foreign currency earners.
B) Uncertainty hangs over Israel election outcome.
Israelis awoke on Wednesday to find that after their fourth general election in less than two years, there was still no clear indication of who would form the next government. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party won the most votes, boosting his chances of building a coalition with a majority in the 120 seat Knesset. But a rival Anyone but Netanyahu camp of parties was running neck-and-neck, spelling more uncertainty ahead as the official vote count continued. Mr. Netanyahu, 71, Israel’s longest-serving premier after 12 years in power, had hoped that Tuesday’s election would finally allow him to unite a stable right-wing coalition behind him, after three inconclusive elections since 2019. Analysis by state broadcaster Kan showed that with close to 90% of ballots counted, the combined strength of the declared pro-Netanyahu parties was 52 seats while the rival front commanded 56. This leaves both camps short of the 61 seats required to build a government. The kingmaker, down the road, could be the hard-right Yamina party led by Mr. Netanyahu’s estranged former protege Naftali Bennett, which, by Kan’s projection, won seven seats. Mr. Bennett, a former entrepreneur, has so far not declared which way he will jump.
C) Taliban slam Afghan President’s proposal for new election.
The Taliban on Wednesday rejected a proposal by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to hold elections later this year, after months of peace talks between the two sides have made little progress. Although he hasn’t made details public, Mr. Ghani will announce the election plan at a stakeholder conference in Turkey next month, according to two government officials. The move is likely an attempt to undercut a U.S. proposal, supported by Russia, for the formation of an interim government involving the Taliban to rule the country once the last U.S. troops withdraw. The government will go to Turkey with a plan for an early election, which is a fair plan for the future of Afghanistan, said an official. The Taliban immediately rejected the proposal. Such processes [elections] have pushed the country to the verge of crisis in the past, said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. They are now talking about a process that has always been scandaIous, he said, adding that any decision on the country’s future must be hammered out in ongoing talks between the two sides. The U.S. is due to withdraw the last of its troops by May 1 under a deal finalised last year, although President Joe Biden said earlier this month the deadline would be tough to meet.
