CURRENT AFFAIRS
30 November 2020
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) Farmers reject Amit Shah’s early talks offer.
Farmers’ groups have rejected the Home Minister’s conditional invitation for talks, saying they will not shift to the designated protest grounds in Burari for now. Tens of thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, remain parked at the borders of Delhi, demanding the repeal of the Centre’s three agricultural reform laws and withdrawal of an electricity Bill. In a letter dated November 28, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla wrote to 31 farmers’ unions from Punjab, reiterating Home Minister Amiot Shah’s late night appeal to farmers to move to the grounds in northeastern Delhi, following which they would be called for a meeting by the Centre. The Punjab and Haryana unions held an internal consultation on Sunday morning, and decided they would stay put at the Singhu and Tikri border crossing points. Some demanded that the Centre allow them to protest at the high-profile Jantar Mantar site near Parliament rather than shunting them off to the Burari grounds on the outskirts of the city. Instead of responding to the main demands of repealing of three black laws and the withdrawal of the Electricity Bill 2020, the government is doing its best to move the debate to where the farmers should camp, said a statement from the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, one of the alliances leading the protest, which includes ten of the Punjab unions.
B) New farm laws have begun mitigating farmers problems: PM.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Mann ki Baat radio address on Sunday said the demands raised by farmers over the years had been met in the form of the recent agriculture reforms that have given them new opportunities. Mr. Modi said all political parties had been making promises to the farmers but now these promises had been fulfilled. The Prime Minister’s address came at the end of a week marked by protests by farmers in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi. against the four farm Bills passed by Parliament in September. The agricultural reforms in the past few days have also now opened new doors of possibilities for our farmers…These reforms have not only served to unshackle our farmers but also given them new rights and opportunities, Mr. Modi said.
C) U.P. files first case under new religious conversion law.
The Uttar Pradesh Police have lodged the first case under the new ordinance against unlawful conversion a day after it was promulgated. An FIR was lodged by the police in Bareilly under Sections 3 and 5 of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020, which was cleared by the State Cabinet earlier this week and promulgated on November 27 by Governor Anandiben Patel. Bareilly police said the FIR was lodged against a person in Deorania police station on charges of allegedly trying to coerce a 20-year-old girl to convert her to his religion and marry him. Sections 504 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code were also invoked. The FIR was lodged on the complaint of Tikaram Rathore, a resident of Sharifnagar village, late on Friday. Mr. Tikaram alleged that the accused person had developed a friendship with his daughter during their education and wanted to coerce, coax and allure her into converting.
D) DCGI investigates ‘Covishield’ volunteer claim over adverse effects, Serum institute rejects charge. The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) and the institutional ethics committee at the implementation site are investigating if the adverse event as claimed to have been suffered by a COVID-19 vaccine trial participant in Chennai are related to the shot administered to him. A 40-year-old Chennai-based business consultant, who was a volunteer for the third phase of the vaccine trial conducted by Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), has sought ₹5 crore compensation for allegedly suffering serious neurological and psychological symptoms after taking the dose. He was administered the shot at Chennai’s Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research (SRIHER), one of the trial sites on October 1. A law firm on his behalf has now sent a legal notice to Director General, ICMR, Drugs Controller General of India, Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, CEO, Astra Zeneca U.K., Professor Andrew Pollard, Chief Investigator, Oxford Vaccine Trial and Vice Chancellor of Sri Ramachandra Higher Education and Research. The Serum Institute of India rejected the charges and threatened to seek heavy damages for “malicious” allegations. “The allegations in the notice are malicious and misconceived. While the Serum Institute of India is sympathetic with the volunteer’s medical condition, there is absolutely no correlation with the vaccine trial and the medical condition of the volunteer,” Serum Institute of India said in a statement.
E) We will form the next government in Telangana: Amit Shah.
The BJP continues to go all in on the upcoming Hyderabad municipal elections, sending a full slate of heavyweights to campaign. On Sunday, Home Minister Amit Shah, addressing a press conference in the city, asserted that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) “is certainly going to form the next government in Telangana as it has already become the main opposition to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS)”. They also have the support of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao in the way in which he is running the government, he said, tongue firmly in the cheek, at a press conference. He said his party was well poised to make Hyderabad free of Nawab and Nizam culture to a modern mini-India where there is no appeasement or injustice to any community. They will bring about a transformation from dynasty to democracy from the likes or TRS and Owaisis without the rampant corruption being witnessed now. They have been receiving tremendous support from the people so it is no longer about increasing our strength, he claimed.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) Iran will give a calculated response to scientist killing.
Iran will give a calculated and decisive response to the killing of its top nuclear scientist, said a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, while a hardline newspaper suggested Tehran’s revenge should include striking the Israeli city of Haifa. Undoubtedly, Iran will give a calculated and decisive answer to the criminals who took Martyr Mohsen Fakhrizadeh from the Iranian nation, Kamal Kharrazi, who is also head of Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, said in a statement. Fakhrizadeh, long suspected by Western and Israeli government of masterminding a secret nuclear weapons program, was gunned down on a highway near Tehran on Friday. Iran’s clerical and military rulers have blamed the Islamic Republic’s longtime enemy, Israel, for the killing. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has declined to comment on the killing. An Israeli Cabinet Minister, Tzachi Hanegbi, said on Saturday he did not know who carried it out. Iranian hardline media called on Sunday for a tough revenge. The hardline Kayhan daily, whose editor-in-chief is appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called for an attack on the Israeli port city of Haifa, if an Israeli role in Fakhrizadeh’s killing is proven. The attack should be carried out in such a way that in addition to destroying the facilities, it should also cause heavy human casualties, wrote Saadollah Zarei in an opinion piece. However, Iran’s rulers are aware of daunting military and political difficulties of attacking Israel. Such an attack would also complicate any effort by U.S. President-elect Joe Biden to revive detente with Tehran after he takes office on January 20.
B) Chinese Defence Minister meets Nepal’s top leadership.
China’s Defence Minister General Wei Fenghe on Sunday met Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli and held talks with Nepal Army chief Generl Purna Chandra Thapa on various issues of bilateral interest, aimed at bolstering bilateral military cooperation and taking the existing friendly ties to a new height. Gen. Wei, who is also a State Councillor, held bilateral talks with Army chief Gen. Thapa at the army headquarters here during his day long working visit to Nepal, said a Statement issued by the Nepal Army. The two held a cordial discussion on various issues of bilateral interest, it said. Bilateral discussions were then held at the delegation-level mainly on issues pertaining to resumption of training and student exchange program and follow up on defence assistance that have been impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the statement said. The Chinese Defence Minister is leading a 21-member delegation. It said the Chinese Minister viewed both the proposals positively and affirmed that the bilateral cooperation should resume as soon as possible, including exchange of high level visits. The Nepali Army expressed confidence that the visit will help in further strengthening and expanding the cordial military-to military relations between the two countries. Gen. Wei also took part in various programmes organised at the Army Headquarters. After the bilateral meeting, General Wei and his delegation were given a short presentation On the history and roles of the Nepali Army, the army Statement said. He was also presented with a Guard of Honour. Gen. Wei’s visit also comes amidst an ongoing political rift in the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) that resurfaced following a meeting between Prime Minister Oli and his rival Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ China’s political profile in Nepal has been on the rise in recent years with billions of dollars of investments under Beijing’s multi-billion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), including the building of the Trans-Himalayan Multi-Dimensional Connectivity Network. In August, President Xi said that he attached great importance to the development of China-Nepal ties.
C) 31 Afghan soldiers killed in attack base.
At least 34 people were killed on Sunday in two separate suicide bombings in Afghan, istan that targeted a military base and a provincial chief. There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks, which took place as Afghan government representatives and the Taliban hold talks in Qatar for the first time to end the country’s decades long war. In eastern Ghazni province, 31 soldiers were killed and 24 others wounded when the attacker drove a military humvee full of explosives onto an Army commando base before detonating the car bomb. according to an official in Afghanistan’s National Security Council, who spoke anonymously. Ghazni provincial health department chief, Zahir Shah Nikmal also confirmed the death toll and casualty gures from the attack. Afghanistan’s Defence Ministry released a statement claiming 10 soldiers were killed and nine wounded. The Ministry also offered a different account or what happened than the official at the National Security Council, saying the vehicle exploded near the army base after security forces opened fire on the car. It was not clear why there was a discrepancy. Interior Ministry man Tariq Arian said a suicide bombing took place. though he did not provide further details. The soldiers stationed at the base were responsible for conducting night raids, providing support to the army.
D) Trump loses another election challenge.
The U.S. state of Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court dismissed another legal challenge to the election by supporters of President Donald Trump on Saturday. further reducing his odds of overturning the results. A Republican lawsuit had sought to invalidate mail-in ballots in the battleground state that President elect Biden won by about 81.000 votes or to throw out all votes and allow the State legislature to decide the winner. The court dismissed both claims in a unanimous decision calling the second one an extraordinary proposition that the court disenfranchise all 6.9 million Pennsylvanians who voted in the general election. The lawsuit argued that a Pennsylvania law from 2019 allowing universal mail-in voting was unconstitutional. The judges said that their 21 challenge to the law was filed too late, coming more than a year after it was enacted and with the election results becoming seemingly apparent. Pennsylvania officially certified Mr. Biden’s victory there on November 24. The lawsuit had also sought to stop certification. Saturday’s decision follows a long line of similar ones. including a ruling the day before in which a federal appeals court flatly dismissed Trump’s claim that the election was unfair and refused to freeze Mr. Biden’s Win in Pennsylvanian.
Mr. Trump has refused to give up on his claims of fraud in the November 3 election despite his repeated court defeats. tweeting bizarre conspiracy theories.
On Thursday. he said for the first time that he would leave the White House if Mr.
