CURRENT AFFAIRS
27 December 2020
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) Farmers ready for talks on December 29, provided repeal of three farm laws is part of agenda.
Samyukt Kisan Morcha, a joint front of farmer unions, on Saturday accepted the Union government’s offer for talks, putting forth a four-point agenda that included modalities to be adopted for the repeal of the three farm laws and the mechanism for legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price. The front suggested that talks could be held on December 29. Announcing the decision of the farmer unions, Swaraj India national president Yogendra Yadav said the front leaders were ready for talks with the Union government on December 29 at 11 a.m. and had put forth a four-point agenda. Besides the revocation of three farm laws and the legal guarantee for the minimum support price (MSP), the agenda included amendments to be made and notified in the Commission for the Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Ordinance, 2020” to exclude farmers from the penal provisions of the Ordinance, and changes to be made in the draft Electricity Amendment Bill 2020 to protect the interests of farmers. Yadav said the farmers’ organisations were and had always been open to a sincere dialogue. As the government is willing to hold talks with us and asking us for date and our issues, we have proposed to hold dialogue on December 29. Now, the ball is in the court of government when it calls us for talks, farmer leader Rakesh Tikait told PTI. Meanwhile, just like Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) did, the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) also exited the NDA today in protest against the farm bills.
B) 150 soldiers in Delhi for Republic Day parade test positive for Covid-19.
Around 150 Army soldiers who travelled to Delhi to take part in Republic Day and Army Day parades have tested positive for Covid-19, according to an Army source. The soldiers who arrived to participate in various parades were tested before they were put into a safe bubble. Some of them tested positive. Almost all are asymptotic. They are among the few thousand soldiers who have been tested. The soldiers have been quarantined at Delhi Cantonment. Protocols have been put in place for conducting the parade safely, a second source said. Thousands of soldiers travel to the national capital every year to take part in the annual Republic Day as well as Army Day parade. Plans to hold the parade at Rajpath on January 26 this year are on despite the pandemic. India has invited U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson as the chief guest. The Ministry of External Affairs has clarified that the British PM will be visiting despite the scare of the new virus strain in the U.K.
C) Madhya Pradesh Cabinet gives nod to anti-conversion Bill.
The Madhya Pradesh Cabinet on Saturday approved the Religious Freedom Bill 2020, which provides for prison term of up to 10 years and fine of ₹1 lakh for conversion through marriage or by any other fraudulent means, State Home Minister Narottam Mishra said. He claimed that once enforced, this will be the most stringent law in the country against religious conversion carried out by fraudulent means, allurement or threat. After the approval by the Cabinet, the bill will now be presented in the state Assembly. This bill will replace the Religious Freedom Act of 1968 (after the approval by the state Assembly), he said. Any marriage solemnised only for the purpose of converting a person will be considered null and void under the provisions of this proposed legislation, he said. A provision is also being made that those willing to convert need to apply before the district administration two months prior, Mishra said.
D) Congress panel to decide on timeline for internal elections in January.
The Central Election Authority (CEA) of the Congress party, entrusted with the task of holding organisational elections to elect a new party president, is likely to meet in the first week of January, a person familiar with the development said on Saturday. The source quoted above said that though the CEA had firmed up a tentative election schedule, it was asked to put it on hold until the December 19 meeting of party president Sonia Gandhi with key members of the group of 23 dissenters (G-23) as efforts were on to create a consensus on the party’s presidential candidate. If all goes as planned, then the party would complete the process by February and inform the Election Commission (EC), he added. While the party’s focus has been on who will be the next national president, several States are going through the same uncertainty and leadership crisis. For instance, in Telangana, former Rajya Sabha member and party veteran V. Hanumantha Rao on Saturday threatened to quit if the party high command decided to elevate Lok Sabha member Revanth Reddy as the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief. The post of the Telangana PCC chief fell vacant after Uttam Kumar Reddy stepped down from his post owning moral responsibility for the party’s rout in the recent Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections. And in Assam, where elections are barely four months away, there is a deep sense of dissatisfaction over the party’s leadership. The Hindu has learnt that a letter was sent by a few of the party’s top State leaders, including three MPs, to Congress president Sonia Gandhi on August 19, in which they argued that the party had become rudderless under the current leadership and claimed that the incumbent PCC chief did not command respect from party workers. These Congress leaders were also worried about the fallout of a possible alliance with Badruddin Ajmal’s All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF).
E) EU, U.K. unveil vast trade pact set to kick in from January 1.
The European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom made public on Saturday the vast agreement that is likely to govern future trade and cooperation between them from January 1, setting the 27-nation bloc’s relations with its former member country and neighbor on a new but far more distant footing. EU ambassadors and lawmakers on both sides of the English Channel will now pore over the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which contains over 1,240 pages of text. EU envoys are expected to meet on Monday to discuss the document, drawn up over nine intense months of talks. Businesses, so long left in the dark about what is in store for them, will also be trying to understand its implications. Most importantly, the deal as it stands ensures that Britain can continue to trade in goods with the world’s biggest trading bloc without tariffs or quotas after the U.K. breaks fully free of the EU. It ceased to be an official member on Jan. 31 this year and is days away from the end of an exit transition period. But other barriers will be raised, as the U.K. loses the kind of access to a huge market that only membership can guarantee. They range from access to fishing waters to energy markets, and include everyday ties so important to citizens like travel arrangements and education exchanges. EU member countries are expected to endorse the agreement over the course of next week. British legislators could vote on it on Wednesday. But even if they do approve it, the text would only enter force provisionally on New Year’s Day as the European Parliament must also have its say. EU lawmakers said last weekend that there simply wasn’t enough time to properly scrutinise the text before the deadline, and they will debate and vote on the document in January and February, if the approval process runs smoothly. Despite the deal, unanswered questions linger in many areas, including security cooperation with the U.K. set to lose access to real-time information in some EU law enforcement databases and access to the EU market for Britain’s huge financial services sector.
F) Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments.
The number of coronavirus cases reported from India stood at 1,01,76,260 with the death toll at 1,47,499. Another new variant of the novel coronavirus seems to have emerged in Nigeria, the head of Africa’s disease control body has said, cautioning that more investigation was needed. The news comes after Britain and South Africa both reported new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that appear to be more contagious. It’s a separate lineage from the U.K. and the South African lineages, John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told an online newsconference from Addis Ababa. The detection of the new variants in Nigeria and South Africa prompted an emergency meeting of the Africa CDC this week, Nkengasong said.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) Millions in U.S. lose benefits as Trump refuses to sign aid Bill.
Millions of Americans saw their jobless benefits expire on Saturday after U.S. President Donald Trump refused to sign into law a $2.3 trillion pandemic aid and spending package, protesting that it did not do enough to help everyday people. Mr. Trump stunned Republicans and Democrats alike when he said this week he was unhappy with the massive Bill, which provides $892 billion in badly needed coronavirus relief, including extending special unemployment benefits expiring on December 26, and $1.4 trillion for normal government spending. Without Mr. Trump’s signature, about 14 million people could lose those extra benefits. A partial government shutdown will begin on Tuesday unless Congress can agree a stop-gap government funding Bill. After months of wrangling, Republicans and Democrats agreed to the package last weekend, with the support of the White House. Mr. Trump, who hands over power to Democratic president-elect Joe Biden on January 20, did not object to terms of the deal before Congress voted it through on Monday night. But since then he has complained that the Bill gives too much money to special interests, cultural projects and foreign aid, while its onetime $600 stimulus checks to millions of struggling Americans were too small. He has demanded that be raised to $2,000. Many economists agree the Bill’s aid is too low but say the immediate support is still welcome and necessary. A source said Mr. Trump’s objection to the Bill caught many White House officials by surprise. While the outgoing President’s strategy for the Bill remains unclear, he has not vetoed it and could still sign it in coming days.
B) Britain and EU release full text of post-Brexit trade deal.
Britain and the European Union on Saturday published the full text of the post-Brexit trade agreement aimed at governing their relationship when the U.K. definitively leaves the bloc’s single market in just five days’ time. The document, which is more than 1,200 pages long, lays out detail on trade, law enforcement and dispute settlement among other arrangements between Britain and the EU after the U.K. leaves the single market and customs union on December 31. In the foreword to the copy of the text published by the U.K. government, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the agreement had been carefully judged to benefit everyone and preserve free trade for millions of people in the United Kingdom and across Europe. While we made our fair share of compromises during the negotiations, we never wavered from the goal of restoring national sovereignty, he added. Senior U.K. government Minister Michael Gove wrote in The Times newspaper that Thursday’s agreement would allow Britain to bring innovation and investment to parts of the country that have endured economic decline. He added there were still significant changes to be prepared for by businesses in the short term. To ratify the deal, Britain’s Parliament has been recalled to sit on December 30. U.K.’s main opposition Labour Party said its MPs would back it.
