Tag: CLAT

NATIONAL NEWS 

Lakhimpur Kheri violence | Who are the accused, have they been arrested, SC asks U.P.

The Supreme Court on Thursday gave the Uttar Pradesh Government 24 hours to file a status report identifying the accused in the First Information Report (FIR) registered on the Lakhimpur Kheri violence and whether they have been arrested or not. Instilling a sense of urgency in the State Government, a Bench led by Chief Justice of India ordered the State to facilitate immediate medical care for the mother of a 19-year-old man who was among the killed in the incident. While hearing this case now we got a message that the mother of one of the people who died is in a state of shock over the loss of her son and needs immediate medical attention… We want you to get her admitted at the nearest hospital, the court addressed Uttar Pradesh Additional Advocate General Garima Prashad, for the State. Prashad said it would be done immediately while describing the Lakhimpur Kheri incident as extreme, unfortunate. We also feel the same way, Chief Justice N.V. Ramana said. But we want to know who are the accused in the FIR and whether they have been arrested or not, Justice Surya Kant, on the Bench, told the Uttar Pradesh Government. Chief Justice Ramana said the status report should contain details of the eight persons killed in the incident. News reports said four of the deceased were farmers mowed down by a vehicle which was part of the convoy of Union Minister of State for Home Affairs and BJP MP Ajay Kumar Mishra. Prashad said the State Government had constituted a Special Investigating Team and a judicial inquiry had begun. An FIR had been registered and the investigation was on. But the grievance here is your investigation is not proper, the CJI said. The Chief Justice was referring to a letter written by two lawyers, advocates Shivkumar Tripathi and C.S. Panda, based on which the court had taken cognisance of the Lakhimpur Kheri case. Prashad said the State would try to file the status report by Thursday itself even as the court listed the case for Friday. The court hearing comes on the same day when news channels have aired videos reportedly of the Lakhimpur Kheri incident. Thursday’s hearing of the case before the CJI’s Bench comes just three days after another Bench of the court had lashed out at farmers’ bodies, connecting their nearly year-long protests against farm laws to the violence that occurred in Lakhimpur Kheri. That Bench led by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar had said that nobody takes responsibility when incidents like in Lakhimpur Kheri occurs When such incidents happen, causing deaths, loss to property and damage, nobody takes responsibility, Justice Khanwilkar had observed on Monday. Earlier in the day, hours before the Supreme Court hearing, the Uttar Pradesh Government had announced that a single-member inquiry commission under retired Allahabad High Court judge Pradeep Kumar Srivastava will probe the Lakhimpur Kheri incident. The commission will complete its probe in two months, said a notification dated October 6 issued by the State Government.

Explain basis of fixing ₹8 lakh limit to determine EWS category for NEET: Supreme Court to Centre 

The Supreme Court on Thursday posed searching questions to the Centre on its decision to fix a limit of ₹8 lakh annual income for determining Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) category for reservation in NEET admissions for medical courses. The top court allowed the impleadment of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and Department of Personnel and Training and asked them to file an affidavit on what was the basis for fixing the limit of ₹8 lakh annual income to determine the EWS category. The Centre said fixing a limit of ₹8 lakh annual income for the EWS category is a matter of policy based on the National Cost of Living Index. A bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud, Vikram Nath, and B.V. Nagarathna asked the Centre to specify what was the basis and parameters for fixing the limit and whether any deliberation has taken place on the issue or simply the figure of ₹8 lakh income was picked up from the limit of determining the creamy layer in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category. The top court was hearing a batch of pleas challenging the Centre and Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) July 29 notice providing 27% reservation for Other Backward Class (OBC) and 10% EWS category in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) admissions for medical courses. We want to know what the basis for ₹8 lakh annual income is. What was the study behind this? Was there any deliberation? Can you say the ₹8 lakh limit is for all over the country? Every state has a different cost of living. Cosmopolitan cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, and Chennai have different costs of living than cities in Uttar Pradesh or any other smaller city. How can the limit of ₹8 lakh be the same for every place in the country, the bench said. It asked whether the government has undertaken the study of the Gross Domestic Product of every household in a State and whether it has ascertained the criteria for economic backwardness and what its methodology was. Even for House Rent Allowance, you have a concept of Class-1 and Class-2 cities. How can you say ₹8 lakh will be applied for everywhere in the country. You cannot just say it is a matter of policy and get away with it, the bench said. The top court asked Additional Solicitor General K.M. Nataraj to reflect on the issue and to file an affidavit with regard to the questions asked by it and clarified that these questions are only its prima facie views. Economic Backwardness is a realistic thing. There is no doubt about it as people don’t have money to purchase books, to even have food. But as far as the EWS is concerned, they are forward class and there is no social or educational backwardness among them. So can you apply the same yardstick of ₹8 lakh limit for the creamy layer to the EWS? Please remember, with regard to the EWS we are not dealing with social and educational backwardness. What was the basis of fixing the limit or have you simply lifted the criteria for the creamy layer and put it for EWS, the bench said. The top court said that it wants to know what exercise was undertaken to arrive at these indicia for EWS as it cannot apply the same indicia which have been applied for Social and Economically Backward Classes (SEBC). The case of a creamy layer is that due to economic advancement they have crossed the threshold and the indicia of backwardness with regard to them have been completely obliterated. But in regard to EWS, there is no concept of obliteration of social backwardness, the bench said. Nataraj said that though he does not have any instruction from DoPT and the Ministry of Social Justice, as they were not the party to the case, these are larger issues that will be deliberated before a five-judge Constitution bench where the validity of the 103rd amendment is pending. The bench in its over three-and-half-hour hearing said that the court at present was not concerned with the validity of the amendment but is dealing with the implementation of the amendment.

Maneka, Varun, Swamy out; Scindia, Smriti inducted into BJP national executive 

Lok Sabha members Maneka Gandhi and her son, Varun Gandhi, were dropped from the BJP’s national executive, while Union Ministers Smriti Irani and Jyotiraditya Scindia were among those inducted into the 80-member decision-making body that was announced on Thursday. The list was announced hours after Gandhi said via a tweet on Thursday morning that the video of the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, where a group of farmers was on Sunday allegedly mowed down by cars in Union Minister of State Ajay Kumar Mishra’s convoy, was crystal clear. Protestors cannot be silenced through murder. There has to be accountability for the innocent blood of farmers that has been spilled and justice must be delivered before a message of arrogance and cruelty enters the minds of every farmer, Gandhi tweeted.  On Monday, Gandhi had written to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath seeking action in the matter. BJP president Jagat Prasad Nadda appointed the 80 members, which included Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior leaders L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, and former party presidents and current Union Ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari. In a statement, the party said 50 special invitees and 179 permanent invitees, including Chief Ministers, Deputy Chief Ministers, national spokespersons, presidents of national wings and state unit leadership, would also be a part of the national executive committee. Since Nadda took over as party president in January 2020, this was the first appointment of the national executive by him. According to sources, a meeting of the national executive, which was last held in 2019 during Shah’s tenure as party president, could be held on November 7. Among the national executive members dropped by Nadda are former Union Ministers Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Vijay Goel and Dr. C.P. Thakur; current Union Ministers Rao Inderjit Singh, Ashwani Kumar Choubey and Prahlad Singh Patel; and Rajya Sabha member Subramanian Swamy. Some new entrants to the party have been included in the national executive, including Scindia and Dinesh Trivedi, a former Trinamool Congress MP who joined the BJP in the run-up to the West Bengal Assembly elections earlier this year. Prominent BJP campaigners and candidates in the Bengal polls like actor Mithun Chakraborty and MP Swapan Dasgupta have also been included in the national executive. Union Ministers G.Kishan Reddy, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Hardeep Singh Puri, V. Muraleedharan, Bhupender Yadav, Anurag Thakur, Meenakshi Lekhi and S. Jaishankar are among those in the national executive.

Two teachers shot dead inside a Srinagar school 

Two teachers were shot dead inside a government school in Srinagar on Thursday, just two days after three civilians, including a well-known Kashmiri Pandit chemist, were killed in the Valley. A police official said unknown gunmen barged into the Government Boys Higher Secondary School, Iddgah Sangam, in the old city and fired from a point-blank range at two teachers. Both the teachers were declared brought dead at a nearby hospital, officials said. The victims were identified as Satinder Kaur, principal of the school, and Deepak Chand, a teacher, both residents of Allocha Bagh in Srinagar. Locals said Chand, a Kashmiri Pandit, had shifted back from Jammu after his family migrated in the 1990s, when militancy broke out. A teacher told The Hindu that they were sipping tea when they heard gunshots outside the principal’s room around 11:15 a.m. We saw our colleague Chand falling to the ground outside the principal’s room, the teacher said. The Resistance Front (TRF), floated after the Centre ended J&K’s special constitutional position, has purportedly claimed responsibility for the attack on the social media platforms. The Shaheed Gazi Squad carried out the targeted attack on two non-locals who were domicile holders and had harassed the parents of the students to salute the occupier’s flag on August 15, a TRF spokesman said. Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbag Singh, who visited the spot, said, This is an attempt to defame the local Muslims of Kashmir. Killing innocent civilians, including teachers, is a move to attack and damage the age-old tradition of communal harmony and brotherhood in Kashmir. The police have got some clues and leads about the killers in the previous cases. Police will nab the killers very soon, he said. The Union Territory’s political parties have condemned the killings. Disturbing to see the deteriorating situation in Kashmir where a minuscule minority is the latest target. (Government of India) GOI’s claims of building a Naya Kashmir has actually turned it into a hellhole. It’s sole interest is to use Kashmir as a milch cow for its electoral interests, Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti said. A spree of civilian killings, seven in the past 10 days, has come at a time when Union Ministers are on a nine-week outreach programme in Jammu and Kashmir. Three civilians, including famous M.L Bindroo of the Bindroo Medicate, were shot dead on Tuesday. Around 27 civilians have been killed this year so far.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Literature Nobel goes to novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah 

Tanzanian-born novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, whose work focuses on colonialism and the trauma of the refugee experience, won the Nobel Literature Prize on October 7. Gurnah, who grew up on the island of Zanzibar but who arrived in England as a refugee at the end of the 1960s, is the fifth African to win the Nobel Literature Prize. The Swedish Academy said Gurnah was honoured for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents. His novels recoil from stereotypical descriptions and open our gaze to a culturally diversified East Africa unfamiliar to many in other parts of the world, the Nobel Foundation added. Gurnah has published 10 novels and a number of short stories. He is best known for his 1994 breakthrough novel Paradise, set in colonial East Africa during World War I, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction. The theme of the refugee’s disruption runs throughout his work. Born in 1948, Gurnah fled Zanzibar in 1968 following the revolution which led to oppression and the persecution of citizens of Arab origin. He began writing as a 21-year-old in England. Although Swahili was his first language, English became his literary tool. In an article he wrote for The Guardian in 2004, Gurnah said he hadn’t planned to be a writer when he was living in Zanzibar, but once in England he felt overwhelmed by the sense of ‘a life left behind’. If one way of seeing distance as helpful to the writer pictures him or her as a closed world, another argument suggests displacement is necessary, that the writer produces work of value in isolation because he or she is then free from responsibilities and intimacies that mute and dilute the truth, he wrote. Gurnah has until his recent retirement been Professor of English and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent in Canterbury, focusing principally on writers such as Wole Soyinka, Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Salman Rushdie. The Nobel Prize comes with a medal and a prize sum of 10 million Swedish kronor (about $1.1 million). Ahead of the October 7 announcement, Nobel watchers had suggested the Swedish Academy could choose to give the nod to a writer from Asia or Africa, following a pledge to make the prize more diverse. It has crowned mainly Westerners in its 120-year existence. Glaringly, 102 men have won and only 16 women. The Academy has long insisted its laureates were chosen on literary merit alone, and that it did not take nationality into account. But after a #MeToo scandal that rocked the Academy — prompting it to postpone the 2018 prize for a year — the body said it would adjust its criteria towards more geographic and gender diversity. Previously, we had a more Eurocentric perspective of literature, and now we are looking all over the world, the head of the Nobel committee, Anders Olsson, said in 2019. The Nobel season continues on October 8 in Oslo with the Peace Prize, followed next October 11 by the Economics Prize.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Sherman in Pakistan; discusses regional security, economic ties. 

Pakistan and the U.S. have discussed regional security issues, including the situation in Afghanistan, and bilateral economic cooperation as America’s Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman held talks with the country’s NSA Moeed Yusuf here, the official media reported on October 8. The two countries expressed a desire to promote their bilateral relations during a meeting between Advisor to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on National Security Yusuf and the visiting U.S. diplomat on October 7. No statement was issued after the meeting but according to Radio Pakistan, both sides discussed economic cooperation and the regional security situation. In his talks with Ms. Sherman, NSA Yusuf said that the world must maintain contacts with the interim government in Afghanistan, which is now under Taliban rule since August 15 when the Afghan militant group ousted the elected government of President Ashraf Ghani, forcing him to flee the country and take refuge in the U.A.E. The U.S. Deputy Secretary of State arrived here from New Delhi on October 7 on a two-day visit to discuss various aspects of bilateral ties and the regional situation in the wake of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. According to the Foreign Office (FO), Ms. Sherman’s visit follows a recent meeting between Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in New York on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly. During Ms. Sherman’s visit, views will be exchanged on all issues of mutual interest, including the bilateral relationship as well as the regional situation. We look forward to reinforcing a balanced Pakistan-U.S. relationship that is anchored in mutually beneficial cooperation in all areas including security, trade, investment, energy and regional connectivity, the FO added. The Taliban swept across Afghanistan last month, seizing control of almost all key towns and cities in the backdrop of withdrawal of the U.S. forces that began on May 1. On August 15, the capital city of Kabul fell to the insurgents. The Afghan militant group claimed victory over opposition forces in the last holdout province of Panjshir on September 6, completing their takeover of Afghanistan three weeks after capturing Kabul. The Taliban have put in place a hardline interim 33-member Cabinet that has no women and includes UN-designated terrorists. The Taliban last ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

 

NATIONAL NEWS

Family of farmer killed in Lakhimpur violence says second autopsy also doesn’t mention bullet injury

The second autopsy report of farmer Gurvinder Singh, one of the eight killed in Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday, also did not mention any bullet injuries, his family said on Wednesday a day after they had rejected the first autopsy. The body was, meanwhile, cremated in his village in Bahraich district, his family said. Gurvinder’s brother-in-law Raman Singh told The Hindu the second autopsy report also did not reflect any bullet injury. Gurvinder was one of the four farmers killed in the violent incident involving the convoy of Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra in Tikonia. His family had demanded a fresh autopsy after they refused to accept the findings of the post-mortem report. The family said that the first autopsy report showed Gurvinder had died of internal injuries but it alleged that he was shot dead by Ashish Mishra, the Minister’s son, while trying to escape into the fields following the incident. A fresh panel was formed to conduct the second autopsy. The second report has also given a similar conclusion that Gurvinder died of internal injuries and bleeding after being hit by the car, said his family, though The Hindu is yet to see a copy of the second autopsy. The family said it has received the autopsy report. It has nothing about the bullet. He has been cremated, Raman Singh said. District Magistrate Dinesh Chandra Singh said the family members of Gurvinder Singh had raised objections on the post-mortem examination done earlier. With the permission of the state government, it was done again and videographed as well, he added. Locals claiming to be eyewitnesses in Tikonia said on Sunday they saw Ashish Mishra sitting in the SUV that mowed down the farmers and alleged that after his car lost balance he ran towards the sugarcane fields and while doing so fired at Gurvinder who had tried to nab him. In the FIR lodged against Ashish Mishra in Lakhimpur Kheri in the wee hours on October 4 on the complaint of Hari Singh of Bahraich, it is mentioned that the Minister’s son ran towards the sugarcane fields after his car lost balance and that he was firing shots while trying to hide. Hari Singh, the complainant, accused Ashish Mishra of shooting dead Gurvinder. The FIR was lodged under IPC 302, 304a and under criminal conspiracy among other charges. Ashish Mishra was sitting on the left front seat of his Thar jeep, the FIR alleged. Ashish Mishra has, however, claimed that all allegations against him were false and that he was present in his ancestral village Banveerpur, a couple of kms away, to attend the annual wrestling event organised in the memory of his grandfather. I have all videos and evidence, he told a television channel claiming innocence. Apart from the four farmers, a local scribe, two BJP workers and a driver were killed in the incident. Ajay Mishra had alleged they were lynched by the protesters. The autopsy results of the others were not known. Their bodies have been cremated. The family of the scribe, Raman Kashyap, has said he was killed after being run over the car and they believe that the farmers did not lynch him even though an autopsy report is still awaited.

Dictatorship in India; new kind of politics in Uttar Pradesh: Rahul Gandhi 

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday claimed that the government has been attacking farmers and that there was dictatorship in the country now. At a press conference, Gandhi said he along with the two Congress Chief Ministers – Bhupesh Baghel (Chhattisgarh) and Charanjit Singh Channi (Punjab) – will visit Lakhimpur Kheri to meet the families hit by the violence. He said, The first attack was for trying to reverse the Land Acquisition Bill. Then, the Farm Laws were brought and that’s why the farmers are protesting outside Delhi. The Prime Minister was in Lucknow yesterday but couldn’t go to Lakhimpur Kheri. The post-mortem report was not proper. Today, we are trying to go to Lucknow and Lakhimpur Kheri with two Chief Ministers. Let’s see. The Congress leader asked, Why are they stopping us when others have been allowed. What’s our fault? Later in the day, the State government gave permission to Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and three others to visit Lakhimpur Kheri. Also mentioning about Hathras rape case and that an MLA had been accused of rape, he said, There is a new kind of politics in Uttar Pradesh. Those who commit crimes are outside and those who are victims are inside jails. In India, there is dictatorship now. Since yesterday, we have not been able go to Uttar Pradesh. Why dictatorship? Because, there is a lot of theft that is happening and wealth is being taken away from common people, Gandhi said. He claimed that all the institutions in the country are being captured by the BJP and the RSS. There is a narrative that is being built by capturing the democratic institutions. Or else, there will be an explosion that you cannot imagine.

Chhattisgarh, Punjab govts to give ₹50 lakh to families of farmers, journalist killed in Lakhimpur violence 

Both Chhattisgarh and Punjab governments on October 6 announced a financial assistance of ₹50 lakh each to families of four farmers and a journalist killed in the violence that broke out in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri. The Chief Ministers of the two Congress-ruled States, along with party leader Rahul Gandhi, have arrived in Lucknow, from where they intend to go to Lakhimpur Kheri to meet the families of the victims. Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi said the Lakhimpur violence reminded him of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919. He said the U.P. government has made a mockery of democracy.  Our government will provide ₹50 lakh each to families of farmers and the journalist killed in the Lakhimpur violence, he told reporters in Lucknow. Echoing the same sentiments, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said his government will also give ₹50 lakh to the families of the farmers and the journalist. Four of the eight people who died in Sunday’s violence in Lakhimpur Kheri were farmers, allegedly knocked down by vehicles driven by BJP workers travelling to welcome U.P. Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya to an event in the area. The four others included two BJP workers, a driver of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra, and Raman Kashyap, a journalist working for a private TV channel. While the first three were allegedly lynched by agitating farmers, the scribe, according to his father, died after being hit by a vehicle when he was covering news of farmers’ protest against Maurya’s visit to Ajay Mishra’s native place. The U.P. Police has lodged a case against Ajay Mishra’s son, but no arrest has been made so far.

Maharashtra Minister alleges BJP link in cruise drug bust involving SRK’s son 

In a new twist to the cruise drug bust case in Mumbai, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Maharashtra Minister for Minority Development Nawab Malik on Wednesday claimed that two private individuals — a private detective facing a cheating case and a BJP leader, had brought Aryan Khan and Arbaz Merchant to the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) office and allegedly participated in the NCP raid. K.P. Gosavi claims to be a private detective while Manish Bhanushali is a BJP leader who has been seen in photographs with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda, Both were part of the NCB raid. Visuals of bringing Merchant and Khan to the NCB office show that these two individuals brought them to the office. Who are they? Are private individuals allowed to be a part of drug bust raid? The NCB must explain this, said Malik. The NCP leader claimed that the entire case of alleged seizure of drugs and panchanama is manipulated and smells foul. Ever since the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, the NCB started planting stories about Bollywood and drug connection. The only motive is to defame Bollywood and subsequently Mumbai and Maharashtra to which the BJP is also a party, he said. He said no drugs were seized at the cruise and the manipulated panchnama was made at the NCB office. The NCB in its press release accepted that both Gosavi and Bhanushali acted as independent witnesses but termed the allegations as baseless. Some allegations levelled against the organisation are baseless and seem to be with malice and probable prejudice that may have been harboured in retaliation against earlier legal actions carried out by the NCB, said the statement issued by Gyaneshwar Singh, Deputy Director General, NCB. The NCB, however, did not answer questions on how Gosavi and Bhanushali were allowed to handle the accused and whether they were part of the raid as well. The Congress has demanded a high-level inquiry from the State Government. How can an accused in a cheating case and a BJP leader participate in the raid? Has the NCB given its work to the BJP? Was the motive behind this to divert attention from the Mundra port drug seizure? The allegations against the NCB are extremely serious and need to be probed, he said.

Nearly a month after tenures expire, no word on new parliamentary panels 

Nearly a month after the tenure of the parliamentary standing committees ended on September 12, there is no word on reconstitution of these panels, with sources pointing to bureaucratic delays. Opposition leaders stated that the delay was yet another way to subvert an important parliamentary instrument. The government has a tardy record in the constitution of the panels. In 2019, the committees were constituted in October, nearly five months late. In 2014, the panels were notified on September 1, less than three months after the process was started. In 2009, during the UPA term, it was notified on August 31. And in 2004, it was constituted by August 5. Even though the composition of the committees largely remain the same, yet every year, more than a month is spent in renominating the panels. Sources said political parties took a long while in submitting their list of nominees and the BJP was the last to submit the list. Rajya Sabha floor leader of Trinamool Congress (TMC) Derek O’ Brien pointed out that the number of legislations scrutinised by the parliamentary panels had declined under the present regime. In the 14th and 15th Lok Sabha during the UPA years, 60% and 71% of legislations were vetted by the standing committees. In comparison to this, the figures for the 16th Lok Sabha was 25% and the current one a dismal 11%. With these figures do you think Modi-Shah’s BJP cares two hoots about the standing committees? he said. RJD MP Manoj K Jha observed that the delay was a textbook example of the government’s approach towards Parliament and the instruments attached to it. Congress Lok Sabha member and senior leader Manish Tewari alleged that the government had broken several conventions, including the one on leaving the committees on External Affairs and Finance for the Opposition to lead. This convention has been in place keeping in view the parliamentary practice of providing checks and balances to everyday functioning of the government through legislative oversight. The practice of circulating verbatim minutes of the meeting of the standing committees had also been dispensed with, he noted. Accepting that the delay imposed unnecessary pause on the functioning of the parliamentary panels, BJD MP Bhartruhari Mahtab questioned the limited and indifferent participation in the panel meetings. How many members actually take part in these deliberations? The panel chairpersons are supposed to inform the presiding officer of the House if a member remains absent for three consecutive meetings, but I believe that even the floor leaders of the respective parties should be alerted about such errant MPs, he remarked. A recent analysis of 361 meetings held over the last one year by the Rajya Sabha secretariat has put up grim numbers. The average attendance of MPs in these meetings was 46%.  A party-wise analysis showed that the average attendance of 92 BJP members in the Rajya Sabha was 57%, while the same for 38 Congress members was 42%. The average attendance of the TMC MPs was just 24.4%.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Two scientists share Chemistry Nobel for developing tool for building molecules 

The Nobel Prize for chemistry has been awarded to German scientist Benjamin List of the Max Planck Institute and Scotland-born scientist David WC MacMillan of Princeton University. They were cited for their work in developing a new way for building molecules known as asymmetric organocatalysis. The winners were announced Wednesday by Goran Hansson, secretary-general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The Nobel panel said List and MacMillan in 2000 independently developed a new way of catalysis. It’s already benefiting humankind greatly, Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede, a member of the Nobel panel, said. Speaking after the announcement, List said the award was a huge surprise. I absolutely didn’t expect this, he said, adding that he was on vacation in Amsterdam with his family when the call from Sweden came in. List said he did not initially know that MacMillan was working on the same subject and figured his hunch might just be a stupid idea until it worked. I did feel that this could be something big, he said. It is common for several scientists who work in related fields to share the prize. Last year, the chemistry prize went to Emmanuelle Charpentier of France and Jennifer A. Doudna of the United States for developing a gene-editing tool that has revolutionised science by providing a way to alter DNA. The prestigious award comes with a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (over $1.14 million). The prize money comes from a bequest left by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1895. Over the coming days prizes will also be awarded for outstanding work in the fields of literature, peace and economics.

Biden, Xi to hold virtual meet this year

The decision came out of a meeting between U.S. NSA Jake Sullivan and Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi. U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed in principle to have a virtual meeting before the end of the year, according to senior U.S. administration officials. The decision came out of a six-hour meeting in Zurich late on Wednesday between U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Chinese Politburo member and top diplomat Yang Jiechi. The meeting had a different tone from Anchorage, reports quoted the officials as saying, referring to a stormy March meeting between Mr. Sullivan and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and their Chinese counterparts, Mr. Yang and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, which was marked by public rancour. Today really involved a genuine back and forth, which was quite welcome — a different tone than Anchorage, a different kind of feel in the ability to go back and forth than in Anchorage, an official said, according to the Financial Times, which reported on the possibility of a Biden-Xi meeting. A virtual meeting means Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi will not meet in person at the G20 summit in Rome to be held at the end of this month. Mr. Xi is unlikely to travel to Rome, and the Chinese leader has not left China for more than 600 days, since the pandemic began. His last overseas visit was to Myanmar in mid-January 2020. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be travelling to Rome for the summit. Asked to confirm if Mr. Biden would be meeting Mr. Xi virtually, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said there was agreement to continue the dialogue at a very high level and the details of what that meant were still being worked out. We’re still working through what that would look like, when, and, of course, the final details. So we don’t quite have them yet, she said. A White House readout of the meeting did not announce the virtual meet. Instead, it spoke of the importance of managing the competition between the two countries responsibly and of maintaining open lines of communication, following the September 9 call between Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi. The Chinese Foreign Ministry’s readout also did not mention a leaders’ meeting, but offered a more positive take on the state of relations in comparison to the March meeting in Anchorage, Alaska. It said both sides agreed to maintain regular dialogue and communication on important issues. Beijing said the meeting was constructive, and conducive to enhancing mutual understanding and both sides agreed to strengthen strategic communication, properly manage differences, avoid conflict and confrontation, seek mutual benefits and win-win results, and work together to bring China-U.S. relations back on the right track of sound and steady development.

 

NATIONAL NEWS 

Lakhimpur Kheri: Police file case against Priyanka Vadra; Sharad Pawar likens incident to Jallianwala Bagh massacre

The Uttar Pradesh Police has booked Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and ten other people under sections related to preventive custody due to apprehension of breach of peace, officials said on Tuesday, as party leaders questioned her detention beyond 24 hours without an FIR. The case under Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) sections 144,151, 107, 116 (all related to preventive detention due to apprehension of breach of peace) has also been registered against Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu and party leader Deependra Hooda, the officials said. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who has been detained in Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur while speaks to the media virtually. These are preventive sections. Once we get assurance that there would not be a violation of peace by them, these sections will be removed, Sitapur Sub-divisional Magistrate Pyare Lal Maurya said. They all are kept in detention in the guest house of the 2nd battalion of Provincial Armed Constabulary, he said. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other party leaders were detained on Monday when they were going to meet the victims of the violence that erupted during a farmers’ protest in Lakhimpur Kheri a day earlier. Eight people were killed as violence erupted during a farmers’ protest, claiming the lives of both farmers and BJP workers ahead of a visit to Lakhimpur by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya. Meanwhile, Vadra on Tuesday, in a video message to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, played out a 25-second viral video of Sunday’s incident at Lakhimpuri Kheri and asked why the government had not acted against those responsible. This video shows the son of a minister in your government crushing the farmers under his car. Watch this video and tell the country why this minister has not been sacked and his son has still not been arrested? asked Vadra in the video that she posted on her Twitter handle. You have arrested Opposition leaders like me without any order or warrant. I want to know why this man is still free? she added, referring to Ashish Mishra, son of Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni. Vadra said that while the Prime Minister presided over a Azad ki Amrit Mahotsav function in Lucknow, he should remember that the farmers got freedom for the country and even now, their sons defended the nation’s borders. For several months now, the farmers are trying to raise their voice and you are negating it. I request you to come to Lakhimpur. Listen to the pain of those who got us our freedom, our annadatas [food providers], the soul of the nation. It is your duty to protect them, the Constitutional duty and your responsibility towards the Constitution, she added. Several Congress leaders, including P. Chidambaram, questioned Vadra’s detention, describing it as totally illegal and unconstitutional. In a statement, Chidambaram said on Tuesday the facts and circumstances concerning Vadra’s detention in Sitapur conclusively establish that there is no rule of law in U.P.

Varun Gandhi shares video of SUV mowing down farmers, becomes first BJP MP to demand arrest of culprits

BJP MP Varun Gandhi on Tuesday shared a video clip purportedly showing an SUV mowing down farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri, and demanded that police immediately identify and arrest those involved in the incident, PTI reported. This video of vehicles deliberately crushing farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri will shake anyone’s soul. Police should take cognisance of the video, identify the owners of these vehicles and their occupants, identify others involved in the incident and immediately arrest them, Gandhi said. While the BJP has officially maintained a guarded silence over the matter, with the Uttar Pradesh government assuring a thorough probe, Varun Gandhi has been vocal in empathising with the farmers.

Sharad Pawar likens Lakhimpur Kheri incident to Jallianwala Bagh massacre

Chastising the BJP-led Centre for its blatant misuse of power over the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday likened the episode to the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre. The manner in which the farmers were attacked revealed the true face of the Central Government. I strongly condemn this incident…The farmers have every right to protest, and they were agitating peacefully in Lakhimpur Kheri. Do not abuse power in this manner just because you [BJP] hold it in your hands at this moment, Pawar warned the BJP Governments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh. Speaking in New Delhi, the NCP chief demanded that a probe be conducted by a sitting Supreme Court judge for the truth to come out. He lashed out at both the Centre and the U.P. Government for their sheer insensitivity in handling the incident. The Uttar Pradesh Government has created a situation similar to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and it will have to pay its price one day…this Government cannot succeed by strangling voices of the farmers. You [BJP Governments in U.P. and the Centre] will get a fitting response not only from the farmers in Uttar Pradesh but from all over the country, said the former Union Agriculture Minister. The NCP chief said he had heard the U.P. Government was ready to get the incident probed by a retired judge but want the probe to be conducted by a sitting Supreme Court judge which would bring out the truth of the matter. Remarking that the protesting farmers were not alone and that the entire country stood behind them, Pawar slammed the U.P. Government for thwarting the Opposition leaders in their attempts to visit the families of the deceased and offer them condolences. Opposition parties across the political spectrum on slammed the BJP and demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident.

Delegation of five TMC MPs eludes police, meets families of Lakhimpur Kheri victims

A five-member delegation of the Trinamool Congress managed to sneak into Lakhimpur Kheri on Tuesday and meet the families of farmers killed when vehicles in Union Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra’s convoy allegedly ran amok. Rajya Sabha MP Dola Sen, who was part of the delegation, said it was shameful that in the 75th year of India’s Independence, the MPs and MLAs, who are meant to uphold the law, were brazenly committing murders and getting away with it. A delegation from the Trinamool Congress met the family members of the victims of the Lakhimpur violence in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday. Sen, along with her Rajya Sabha colleagues Abir Ranjan Biswas and Sushmita Dev and Lok Sabha MPs Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Protima Mandal spent 14-hours on the road from Delhi to reach Lakhimpur Kheri on Monday night. At various checkposts en route where they were stopped, they escaped police scrutiny by posing as tourists. They stayed the night at Lakhimpur Kheri avoiding detection. Early on Tuesday, they managed to visit the homes of 20-year-old Lovpreet Singh and 60-year-old Nachattar Singh. Justice is all that the families are demanding. Their mouths can’t be shut down by compensations. They want immediate arrest of MOS Home Ajay Mishra Teni and his son Ashish Mishra, whose culpability in the incident has been proven beyond doubt, Sen told The Hindu. It was only when the TMC delegation was leaving Nachattar Singh’s home, that the police discovered them. Sen said the police misbehaved with them and tried to obstruct their way as they left the village. It is shameful, she said, that elected representatives of the country are barred without any valid reasons from visiting parts of Uttar Pradesh. The BJP MPs and MLAs are getting away with brazen murders under the Narendra Modi regime. What can be more shameful and shocking than this? And let us not forget that this is happening when the country is celebrating 75th year of Independence, Sen said.

Medical education has become a business, notes SC, pulls up govt for last minute changes to NEET-SS pattern

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said the tragedy of medical education in the country was that it had become a business. The observation from a Bench led by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud came while the court pulled up the government and the National Board of Examinations (NBE) for making last-minute changes to the pattern of the National Eligibility-cum- Entrance Test- Super Specialty (NEET-SS) 2021. The court wondered whether the 11th hour changes were a move to facilitate the filling of the seats in private medical colleges. Justice Chandrachud remarked, The impression we get is medical education has become a business, and medical regulation has also become a business. That is the tragedy of medical education in this country. The court noted that questions under the revised pattern were wholly from General Medicine, which was a feeder category. The earlier pattern had 60% of the questions coming from the student’s chosen field of speciality and the rest from the feeder category. The court reasoned that this sudden change was meant to favour General Medicine, in which the largest pool of students were found, to fill the seats. For 12 super specialities, 100% questions are from General Medicine. The entire examination is going to be only be on General Medicine. The logic seems to be, General Medicine is the largest pool, and tap them to fill the seats. That seems to be the idea, the Bench noted. In an earlier hearing, the court lashed out at the government, saying that young doctors cannot be left to the mercy of insensitive bureaucrats and cannot be treated like football. The court surmised that private institutions benefited with the change in exam pattern. It remarked that since seats in government colleges never lay vacant, it must be for their private counterparts that the pattern was altered. The interest of students is far higher than that of the institutions, it said. Arguments will continue on Wednesday.

Gujarat riots: Supreme Court to hear plea of Zakia Jafri against SIT’s clean chit to Modi on October 26

The Supreme Court today said it would hear on October 26 a plea filed by Zakia Jafri, the wife of slain Congress leader Ehsan Jafri, challenging the Special Investigation Team (SIT) clean chit to Narendra Modi, who was the Gujarat Chief Minister during the 2002 riots in the state. A Bench headed by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar made it clear that no request for further adjournment at the instance of the petitioner (Zakia Jafri) will be entertained on future dates. At the request of the petitioner, hearing is deferred till October 26, said the Bench, also comprising justices Dinesh Maheshwari and C.T. Ravikumar. It is made clear that no request for further adjournment at the instance of the petitioner on any count will be entertained on future dates, said the Bench, which granted liberty to the petitioner to file additional compilation in the matter. At the outset, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Zakia Jafri, said this matter has suddenly come up and there are about 23,000 pages of record and they would circulate a convenience compilation. The Bench said the matter was notified well in advance. No my lords, it was suddenly notified on Friday, Sibal said, adding, it was adjourned in April this year and because of the pandemic, it did not come up. He requested the Bench to list the matter on a fixed date. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the request on the ground of convenience compilation is being raised for the last one-and-a-half year. There is no notice issued, there is no stay, my friend cannot possibly object, Sibal said. However, the Bench observed, Mr. Sibal, we think that Mr. Solicitor General was very considerate in saying only one-and-a-half year. The matter is pending from 2018. In April this year, the apex court had said that the matter would be listed after two weeks as the petitioner had circulated a letter seeking adjournment in the case. Zakia Jafri’s counsel had earlier told the top court that notice needs to be issued in the plea as it relates to an alleged larger conspiracy from February 27, 2002, to May 2002. Ehsan Jafri, the former MP, was among the 68 people killed at Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002, a day after the S-6 Coach of the Sabarmati Express was burnt at Godhra killing 59 people and triggering riots in Gujarat. On February 8, 2012, the SIT had filed a closure report giving a clean chit to Modi, now the Prime Minister, and 63 others, including senior government officials, saying there was no prosecutable evidence against them. Zakia Jafri had filed a petition in the apex court in 2018 challenging the Gujarat High Court’s October 5, 2017 order rejecting her plea against the decision of the SIT. The plea also maintained that after the SIT gave a clean chit in its closure report before a trial judge, Zakia Jafri filed a protest petition which was dismissed by the magistrate without considering substantiated merits.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

Nobel physics prize goes to three for climate discoveries

The Nobel Prize for physics has been awarded to scientists from Japan, Germany and Italy. Syukuro Manabe (90) and Klaus Hasselmann (89) were cited for their work in the physical modeling of Earth’s climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming. The second half of the prize was awarded to Giorgio Parisi (73) for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales. The panel said Manabe and Hasselmann laid the foundation of our knowledge of the Earth’s climate and how humanity influences it. Starting in the 1960s, Manabe demonstrated how increases in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would increase global temperatures, laying the foundations for current climate models. About a decade later, Hasselmann created a model that linked weather and climate, helping explain why climate models can be reliable despite the seemingly chaotic nature of the weather. He also developed ways to look for specific signs of human influence on the climate. Parisi built a deep physical and mathematical model that made it possible to understand complex systems in fields as different as mathematics, biology, neuroscience and machine learning. After the announcement, Parisi said that it’s very urgent that we take very strong decisions and move at a very strong pace in tackling climate change. It’s clear for future generations that we have to act now, he added. The winners were announced on October 5 by Goran Hansson, secretary-general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Last year, the prize went to American Andrea Ghez, Roger Penrose of Britain and Reinhard Genzel of Germany for their research into black holes. Over the coming days prizes will also be awarded for outstanding work in the fields of chemistry, literature, peace and economics.

Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa asks anti-graft commission to probe people named in.

Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa said revelations made in the Pandora Papers must be investigated and the government members should not prevent such an impartial inquiry from being conducted. Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday gave a one-month deadline to the country’s anti-graft commission to investigate the people accused of maintaining offshore accounts in the unprecedented leak of financial documents known as the Pandora Papers. Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa told Parliament that revelations made in the Pandora Papers must be investigated and the government members should not prevent such an impartial inquiry from being conducted. The President this morning asked the Bribery and Corruption Commission to investigate all Sri Lankans mentioned in the Pandora Papers and their transactions and report to him within a month, President Rajapaksa’s spokesman Kingsly Rathnayake said. The move came a day after the Opposition raised the issue in Parliament following Rajapaksa’s niece Nirupama Rajapaksa and her husband Thirukumar Nadesan’s mention in the Pandora Papers. The government disowned them and claimed that the couple had no political links with the current SLPP coalition and all transactions mentioned in the Pandora Papers were those done before the SLPP’s assuming government office. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) this month claimed it obtained the trove of more than 11.9 million confidential files to find secret financial dealings of many super-rich. More than 600 reporters from around the world, belonging to 150 media organisations spanning 117 countries, participated in the research for two years for the Pandora Papers, which contain 11.9 million files containing 2.94 terabytes worth of confidential information. The leak uncovers the financial secrets of more leaders and public officials than the Panama Papers did and reportedly provides more than twice as much information about the ownership of offshore companies. The Pandora Papers investigation is bigger in size and revelations about politicians and public officials are also far more than what has previously come to public attention.

 

NATIONAL NEWS 

Lakhimpur Kheri incident: SKM writes to President seeking action, Congress seeks dismissal of MoS Ajay Mishra, arrest of his son

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) has written to President Ram Nath Kovind demanding action against the killing of farmers at Lakhmipur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday afternoon, allegedly by being run over by vehicles in a Union Minister’s convoy. Farm unions protesting in front of district collectors’ offices in various parts of the country on Monday, between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., were expected to submit copies of this letter to the President via district officials. The SKM’s demands were outlined in the letter, calling for Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Kumar Mishra to be immediately dismissed from his post and a case filed against him for inciting violence and spreading communal hatred. It urged that Mishra’s son and others associated with the attack be booked under Section 302 (murder) and arrested immediately, and that the investigation be carried out by a Special Investigation Team under the supervision of the Supreme Court. The letter alleged that the involvement of Mishra’s son and his associates in the murderous attack showed a deep conspiracy of Uttar Pradesh and Central governments. It pointed to earlier inflammatory and derogatory speeches against farmers by Mishra, as well as statements by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar inciting party workers to take up lathis against farmers, and claimed that this was the context in which the Lakhimpur Kheri incident took place. The SKM has also called for Khattar to be sacked. It is clear from these incidents that these persons sitting in constitutional posts are using their positions for planned violence against ‘annadatas’ doing peaceful agitation. This is a crime as per the laws of the country, against the Constitution and the country, said the letter. In a related development, the Uttar Pradesh government on Monday announced that a retired High Court judge will probe the Lakhimpur Kheri violence and that it will give ₹45 lakh compensation to the families of the four farmers killed in the incident. The government will also give ₹10 lakh to those injured in the violence, said Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Awanish Awasthi. An agreement has been reached with the farmers. The government will give ₹45 lakh to the family members of the four farmers who were killed in the violence on Sunday. Besides, one member from their families will be given a government job at the local level, he said. The government will give ₹10 lakh to the injured and get the incident probed by a retired High Court judge, he said. Meanwhile, the Congress on Monday demanded the immediate dismissal of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra and the arrest of his son, who has been named in an FIR by the Uttar Pradesh Police. The party also demanded enhanced compensation of ₹1 crore for each of the farmers killed and sought immediate release of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who the leaders alleged has been illegally detained by the Uttar Pradesh Police. The Congress said it would hold protests outside the offices of all district magistrates across the country on Tuesday to protest against the incident. The Congress leaders protested outside UP Bhawan in the national capital and staged agitations elsewhere in the nation.

 

SC to decide whether the right to protest is an ‘absolute right’

The Supreme Court on Monday lashed out at farmers’ organisations for continuing with the protests against the Centre’s agricultural laws, saying that when the agitation snowballed into violence as in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri, where eight people were killed, nobody takes rresponsibility When such incidents happen, causing deaths, loss to property and damage, nobody takes responsibility, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar observed. Attorney General K.K. Venugopal described the Lakhimpur Kheri violence on Sunday an unfortunate incident. The top law officer for the government said the court should make it very clear that protests should not continue when the challenge against the farm laws were in the highest court of the country. No more unfortunate incidents like this should take place… The protests must stop, Venugopal, supported by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, submitted. But how can there be protests when the matter is sub judice here? Why are there protests when the laws have been kept in abeyance? It is intriguing, there is no Act in place at the moment. The Act is stayed. The government has assured it will not give effect to it… So what is this protest for, Justice Khanwilkar, flanked by Justice C.T. Ravikumar on the Bench, asked Kisan Mahapanchayat, a farmers’ organisation. The farmers’ body wanted to sit on a ‘satyagraha’ at the Jantar Mantar in protest. Justice Khanwilkar said the farm laws were passed by the Parliament. The government is also bound by the laws passed by the Parliament… We are on principle here, once you go to court, how can the same party say that matter is before court, nevertheless I will still protest, the judge observed. The court, in its order, decided to frame legal questions in the issue. The Bench said it would first decide whether the right to protest was an absolute right. The court said it would decide whether farmers’ bodies could resort to protests on a subject — the legality of three farm laws — which was already sub judice. First we will decide these legal questions and then we will examine your question [whether permission can be granted to sit on ‘satyagraha’ at the Jantar Mantar], Justice Khanwilkar addressed Kisan Mahapanchayat. The Supreme Court fixed the case for final hearing on the two legal questions on October 21. It ordered the transfer of a case filed by Kisan Mahapanchayat in Rajasthan High Court on the same issue to itself. The Bench asked the Centre to file a consolidated counter-affidavit.

 

Government promises probe into ‘Pandora Papers’ leak

The government has promised an investigation into the revelations in the ‘Pandora Papers’ and assured appropriate action in such cases as per law, the Finance Ministry said in a statement on Monday evening. Stating that only ‘a few Indians’ have been named in the papers so far, the Ministry said investigations in cases of Pandora Papers leaks appearing in the media will be monitored through a multi-agency group. Anil Ambani, Vinod Adani, Jackie Shroff, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Niira Radia, Sachin Tendulkar and Satish Sharma, are among the 300 Indians mentioned in the list so far. The government will also proactively engage with foreign jurisdictions for obtaining information in respect of relevant taxpayers and entities, the Ministry said, adding that India is part of an Inter-Governmental Group that ensures ‘collaboration and experience sharing to effectively address tax risks associated with such leaks’. The multi-agency group headed by the Central Board of Direct Taxes chairman, with representatives from the Enforcement Directorate, the Financial Intelligence Unit and the Reserve Bank of India, will keep a tab of the phased disclosures from the Pandora Papers indicated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) website, the Ministry said. The website of ICIJ suggests that information will be released in phases and structured data connected to the Pandora Papers investigation will be released only in the days to come on its Offshore Leaks Database. It may be noted that following earlier similar such leaks in the form of ICIJ, HSBC, Panama Papers and Paradise Papers, the Government has already enacted the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015 with an aim to curb black money, or undisclosed foreign assets and income by imposing suitable tax and penalty on such income, the Ministry said. Undisclosed credits of approximately ₹20,352 crore have been detected in the investigations carried out in the Panama and Paradise Papers by September 15. Rights group Oxfam India has called for immediate action by authorities and abolishing tax havens following the expose of the Pandora Papers. Tax havens cost governments around the world $427 billion each year. Developing countries are being hardest hit, proportionately. Corporations and the wealthiest individuals that use tax havens are out-competing those who don’t. Tax havens also help crime and corruption to flourish, Oxfam India CEO Amitabh Behar said. Abolishing tax havens can go a long way towards ensuring that governments actually have the access to tax revenue they need to fund quality public expenditure, he added. Many of the people whose names figure on the list have rejected financial misdoings. Among others, Biocon chief Mazumdar-Shaw on Monday said her hubsand’s offshore trust was bonafide and legitimate.

 

Stalin writes to 12 CMs to join hands against NEET, restore primacy of state govts in administering education

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Monday wrote to his counterparts of 12 States — Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Jharkhand, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, West Bengal and Goa — on the need to put up a united effort to restore the primacy of State governments in administering the education sector, as envisaged in the Constitution. He recalled a resolution adopted against the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) in the Assembly. Our considered position has always been that the move by the Union Government to introduce NEET goes against the spirit of federalism and violates the constitutional balance of power by curbing the rights of the State governments to decide on the method of admission in the medical institutions founded, established, and run by them, the letter said. Stalin enclosed the report submitted by Justice AK Rajan Committee, which was appointed by the State government to study whether the NEET-based admission process has affected the socially backward students in the past few years. The Committee was also requested to suggest alternative admission procedures which would benefit all students, the feasibility of implementing such alternatives, and the legal steps to be undertaken to implement such fair and equitable methods. Based on the recommendation of the Committee, the Tamil Nadu State Assembly recently passed an Act called Tamil Nadu Admission to Undergraduate Medical Degree Courses Act, 2021. We consider that the State governments need to assert their constitutional right and position in deciding the method of admission to their higher educational institutions he said. Stalin urged his counterparts to extend their support to ensure that the students of the respective States, especially those hailing from rural areas and marginalised sections of the society are not put to hardship in obtaining admissions to higher educational institutions. We need to put up a united effort to restore the primacy of State Governments in administering the education sector, as envisaged in our Constitution, the letter said.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

U.S. scientists David Julius, Ardem Patapoutian get Medicine Nobel for discovery of temperature, touch receptors

Two U.S.-based scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine on October 4 for their discovery of the receptors that allow humans to feel temperature and touch. David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian focused their work on the field of somatosensation, that is, the ability of specialised organs such as eyes, ears and skin to see, hear and feel. This really unlocks one of the secrets of nature, said Thomas Perlmann, secretary-general of the Nobel Committee, in announcing the winners. It’s actually something that is crucial for our survival, so it’s a very important and profound discovery. The committee said Julius, 65, used capsaicin, the active component in chilli peppers, to identify the nerve sensors that allow the skin to respond to heat. Patapoutian found separate pressure-sensitive sensors in cells that respond to mechanical stimulation, it said. The pair shared the prestigious Kavli Award for Neuroscience last year. Imagine that you’re walking barefoot across a field on this summer’s morning, said Patrik Ernfors of the Nobel Committee. You can feel the warmth of the sun, the coolness of the morning dew, a caressing summer breeze, and the fine texture of blades of grass underneath your feet. These impressions of temperature, touch and movement are feelings relying on somatosensation. Such information continuously flows from the skin and other deep tissues and connects us with the external and internal world. It is also essential for tasks that we perform effortlessly and without much thought, said Ernfors. Perlmann said he managed to get hold of both of the winners before the announcement. I only had a few minutes to talk to them, but they were incredibly happy, he said. And as far as I could tell they were very surprised and a little bit shocked, maybe. Last year’s prize went to three scientists who discovered the liver-ravaging hepatitis C virus, a breakthrough that led to cures for the deadly disease and tests to keep the scourge from spreading though blood banks. The prestigious award comes with a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (over $1.14 million). The prize is the first to be awarded this year. The other prizes are for outstanding work in the fields of physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics.

 

Australia won’t welcome international tourists until 2022

The Australian Tourism Export Council, which represents a sector that made $33 billion a year from international tourists before the pandemic, wants international visitors to return by March. International tourists won’t be welcomed back to Australia until next year, with the return of skilled migrants and students given higher priority, the Prime Minister said on October 5. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia was expected to reach the vaccination benchmark on October 5 at which the country could begin to open up — 80% of the population aged 16 and older having a second shot. Last week, he outlined plans to allow vaccinated citizens and permanent residents to fly overseas from November for the first time since an extraordinarily tough travel ban took effect in March last year. But Mr. Morrison on October 5 said that after Australians, the next priority would be skilled migrants and international students entering Australia before tourists. Australian immigration has been at its lowest since World War II because of pandemic restrictions. The pandemic has also had a disastrous effect on Australian universities that rely heavily on fees paid by international students. The education sector fears that students will enroll in other countries unless Australia opens its border to them soon. The next priorities are skilled migrants that are very important for the country and who are double vaccinated, as well as students who are coming and returning to Australia for their studies, Mr. Morrison told Seven Network television. The Australian Tourism Export Council, which represents a sector that made $33 billion a year from international tourists before the pandemic, wants international visitors to return by March. Australia is racing to inoculate its population as an outbreak of the more contagious delta variant that began in Sydney in June continues to spread. Victoria State on October 5 reported a national record 1,763 new local infections. Australia’s second-most populous State also reported four COVID-19 deaths. The previous national record of 1,599 infections in 24 hours was set by New South Wales when its outbreak peaked on September 10. Hospitalizations peaked in Australia’s most populous State in mid-September. New South Wales leads the other States in vaccination rates and Sydney’s airport is expected to be the first to reopen to vaccinated travelers.

 

NATIONAL NEWS 

Two protesting farmers killed after being run over by car driven by Union Minister’s son, allege farmer bodies

Farmer bodies on Sunday claimed that two farmers protesting against BJP leaders were killed and several others were injured after they were run over by a car that allegedly was part of a convoy of Union minister of state for home affairs and BJP MP Ajay Kumar Mishra in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri district. Farmers in Tikonia area of Kheri had lined up on the roads with black flags to protest against the visit of Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya to the district. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, a body of farmers protesting against the three new farm laws, said a third farmer died after being shot and the car was driven by the MP’s son Ashish. The claims could not be independently verified yet and UP police are yet to comment on the incident or casualties. Following the incident, angry farmers set on fire and vandalised vehicles of the BJP leader and staged further protests as the area remained tense. Senior officials from Lucknow as well as farmer leaders rushed to the spot. Official statements from the police and the BJP leaders accused by the farmers for the incident are still awaited. Mishra told a Hindi news channel in a phone interview that the driver of his car, which was going to receive Maurya at the helipad, was injured and died after being struck by a stone. The driver then lost control of the car, causing the accident, he told News1 India channel. Mishra, also known as Teni, said he had invited Maurya as the chief guest at the annual wrestling event held in his village in the district, the Ambika Prasad Mishra Smriti Kushti Pratiyogita. The car was going to receive the Deputy CM from the helipad, said Mishra. Someone pelted a stone at the driver, he lost consciousness and died. He lost control of the car which caused an accident…some people were injured in the incident and some lost their lives, the minister and two-time MP said. The SKM said three farmers were killed and around 10, including SKM leader Tajinder Singh Virk, were seriously injured in the incident. SKM leader Darshan Pal said farmers had planned to gherao a helipad to prevent UP Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya from landing. After the protests, the farmers were going back when three cars in the convoy of Mishra ran over the farmers, he alleged.

Mamata Banerjee wins Bhabanipur bypoll with record margin of over 58,000 votes 

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee won the Bhabanipur Assembly bypoll on Sunday by a record margin of 58,832 votes against her nearest rival Priyanka Tibrewal of the BJP. This victory makes Banerjee a member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly and will allow her to continue as Chief Minister of West Bengal. She had contested the Assembly poll from Nandigram and lost to BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari by a margin of 1,956 votes. She was unanimously elected Chief Minister by the Trinamool Congress legislature party in May 2021. The numbers of voters at Bhabanipur are relatively less and about 1.15 lakh votes were polled this time. This time we have won by a margin of 58,832 votes, Banerjee told media persons outside her residence. The Chief Minister said the results would provide her encouragement to work more for the people of the State. Banerjee had represented Bhabanipur seat in 2011 and 2016. In the 2021 Assembly poll, Trinamool Congress candidate Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay had defeated BJP Rudranil Ghosh by a margin of 28,790 votes. In 2011, the TMC chairperson had won Bhabanipur with a margin of over 54,000 votes. Highlighting that the margin of victory had surpassed all previous records, the Chief Minister said that in every ward of the constituency she had won on this occasion. She said that about 46 % of the electorate of the constituency were non-Bengali, and they also overwhelmingly voted for her. The BJP fielded Tibrewal, who secured about 25,000 votes. Elections to Bhabanipur and two other constituencies, Jangipur and Samserganj, were held on September 30. TMC candidate Amirul Islam won Samserganj by a margin of 26,379 votes by defeating his nearest rival, a Congress candidate from the seat. At  Jangipur Assembly polls, TMC’s Jakir Hussain defeated the BJP candidate by a margin over 92,480 votes. With these victories, the TMC has increased its tally in the West Bengal Assembly to 219.  TMC had won 213 seats in the Assembly polls but its MLA from Bhabanipur had resigned. Four legislators of the BJP had defected to TMC and three won the by polls on Sunday, taking the tally to 219. The Trinamool Congress chairperson also announced candidates for bypolls for three of the four seats that are scheduled in the first week of October. Chattopadhyay, who had resigned from Bhabanipur to allow the Chief Minister to contest the bypolls, will contest from Khardah seat in North 24 Parganas, and Udayan Guha will contest from Dinhata in Cooch Behar district. The TMC has nominated Braj Kishor Goswami from Sanntipur. The BJP has won Dinhata and Santipur in the 2021 Assembly polls, but two sitting MPs, Nisith Pramanik and Jaganath Sarkar, did not take oath as MLAs from the respective constituencies.

New DGP after consulting Sidhu: Channi 

Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Sunday said that a new Director General of Police (DGP) would be appointed soon in consultation with the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Navjot Singh Sidhu and other ministers. His comments came hours after Sidhu had tweeted that DGP Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota and Advocate General (AG) Amar Preet Singh Deol must be replaced as their appointments are like rubbing salt on the wounds of the victims of the sacrilege issue. Sidhu’s latest tweet comes just days after Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi reached out to him for a compromise after he sprang a surprise by resigning as the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief to protest against these appointments. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a government programme to announce debt waiver for farm labourers and landless farmers, the Chief Minister said, as mandated by law, the State government has already forwarded the names of all senior police officers with 30 years of experience to the Centre. Now, it is awaiting the Centre’s clearance to a panel of three names from which the new DGP would be appointed, a statement from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said. The name would be finalised after consultation with Sidhu, and all the ministers and MLAs, the CMO statement added. Channi also told reporters that a coordination committee has been constituted for better coordination between the government and the PCC. Earlier, in the day, Sidhu had tweeted that not replacing the DGP and the Advocate General would leave the Congress with no face. Demand for Justice in sacrilege cases and for arrest of main culprits behind the drug trade brought our Govt in 2017 & Due to his failure, People removed the last CM. Now, AG/DG appointments rub salt on wounds of victims, they must be replaced or we will have No face, Sidhu tweeted. In an attempt to placate him, the Channi government appointed R.S. Bains as Special Public Prosecutor to handle all the sacrilege-related cases. However, Sidhu, whose status as the PCC chief is still not clear as he has not formally withdrawn his resignation, seemed to harden his stance a day after his tweet that he would stand by the Gandhis, post or no post. Will uphold principles of Gandhi Ji & Shastri Ji … Post or No Post will stand by @RahulGandhi & @priyankagandhi ! Let all negative forces try to defeat me, but with every ounce of positive energy will make Punjab win, Punjabiyat (Universal Brotherhood) win & every punjabi win !! he had tweeted on Saturday. The cricketer-turned-politician, who has made the Bargari sacrilege issue the main poll plank ahead of next year’s Assembly polls, wants the DGP and AG changed for their roles, respectively, in the sacrilege issue. His objection to Deol is that he defended the former Punjab police chief Sumedh Singh Saini, an accused in the Behbal Kalan police firing case of 2015. Sahota has earned Sidhu’s ire as the head of a Special Investigation Team on the sacrilege issue that reportedly gave the Badals a clean chit.

Cruise ship drugs party: NCB arrests Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan 

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Sunday arrested Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, in connection with the seizure of banned drugs onboard a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast. Aryan Khan would be produced before a metropolitan magistrate’s court shortly. Advocate Satish Maneshinde would be representing Aryan Khan in court. Aryan Khan has been booked under various sections of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) for possession and consumption of banned substances. He and seven others were detained late Saturday night by NCB sleuths after they raided the cruise ship on its way from Mumbai to Goa.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

Google removes 93,550 content pieces in August in India, shows compliance report 

Google received 35,191 complaints from users and removed 93,550 pieces of content based on those complaints in the month of August, the tech giant said in its monthly transparency report. In addition to reports from users, Google also removed 651,933 pieces of content in August as a result of automated detection. Google had received 36,934 complaints from users and removed 95,680 pieces of content based on those complaints in July. It had removed 5,76,892 pieces of content in July as a result of automated detection. The U.S.-based company has made these disclosures as part of compliance with India’s IT rules that came into force on May 26. Google, in its latest report, said it had received 35,191 complaints in August from individual users located in India via designated mechanisms, and the number of removal actions as a result of user complaints stood at 93,550. These complaints relate to third-party content that is believed to violate local laws or personal rights on Google’s significant social media intermediaries (SSMI) platforms, the report said. Some requests may allege infringement of intellectual property rights, while others claim violation of local laws prohibiting types of content on grounds such as defamation. When we receive complaints regarding content on our platforms, we assess them carefully, it added. The content removal was done under several categories, including copyright (92,750), trademark (721), counterfeit (32), circumvention (19), court order (12), graphic sexual content (12) and other legal requests (4). Google explained that a single complaint may specify multiple items that potentially relate to the same or different pieces of content, and each unique URL in a specific complaint is considered an individual item that is removed. Google said in addition to reports from users, the company invests heavily in fighting harmful content online and using technology to detect and remove it from its platforms. This includes using automated detection processes for some of our products to prevent the dissemination of harmful content such as child sexual abuse material and violent extremist content. Under the new IT rules, large digital platforms with over 5 million users will have to publish periodic compliance reports every month, mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken thereon. The report needs to also include the number of specific communication links or parts of the information that the intermediary has removed or disabled access to in pursuance of any proactive monitoring conducted using automated tools. Recently, Facebook and WhatsApp also released their compliance reports for the month of August. Facebook said it had actioned about 31.7 million content pieces across 10 violation categories proactively during August in the country, while its photo-sharing platform Instagram took action against about 2.2 million pieces across nine categories during the same period proactively. In its report, WhatsApp said it had banned over two million accounts in India, while 420 grievance reports were received by the messaging platform in the month of August.

 

Shringla visits Trincomalee oil tank farm, key India-Sri Lanka economic partnership link.

Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Sunday visited the World War II-era oil storage facility in the strategically advantaged port district of Trincomalee in Sri Lanka’s east coast, which has been a key bilateral economic partnership link for decades. The Trincomalee Harbour, one of the deepest natural harbours in the world, was developed by the British during the World War II. Since 2003, the Lanka IOC, (LIOC) the Sri Lankan subsidiary of India’s oil major Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), has the leasing rights to 99 tanks at the facility for a period of 35 years for an annual payment of $100,000. According to the Indian High Commission, the LIOC briefed Foreign Secretary Shringla about the developments undertaken at the tank farm and the possibilities for further strengthening India and Sri Lanka energy partnership to enhance Sri Lanka’s energy security. The Indian mission also tweeted pictures of Shringla at the Trincomalee oil tank farm. Foreign Secretary @harshvshringla was happy to be with LIOC for the launch of LIOC’s new product – ‘Servo Pride ALT 15W-40’ during the visit, it said in a tweet. His visit to the site assumes significance as oil sector trade unions in Sri Lanka have demanded that tanks be brought under the control of the state fuel entity Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC). As per the agreement, the IOC was also given one-third share of the Sri Lankan government entity, Petroleum Storage Limited. However, the CPC trade unions had been pressing for the takeover of the tanks. Initially, the CPC wanted to develop 25 of the tanks by investing USD 25-30 million. The CPC maintains that it will allow them to strengthen their oil storage and distribution in the north and eastern provinces while allowing stock maintenance to suffice 2-3 months. Shringla arrived in Sri Lanka on Saturday on a four-day visit during which he will meet the top leadership, including President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, and review the bilateral ties between India and the island nation

 NATIONAL NEWS 

Prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas soar again

The price of petrol in Delhi rose to its highest ever level of ₹102.14 a litre and to ₹108.19 in Mumbai, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers, making it the fourth time the government has effected a price hike, which is sure to have a cascading effect on the prices of other essential commodities. Petrol and diesel prices soared high across the country on Saturday after rates were hiked again by 25 paise and 30 paise a litre, respectively. The CNG price too was hiked by Rs 2.28 per kg and that of cooking gas by Rs 2.10 in Delhi. Along with petrol price hike, Diesel rates touched a record high of ₹90.47 in Delhi and ₹98.16 a litre in Mumbai. The price hike follows international oil prices soaring to near three-year high as global output disruptions forced energy companies to draw more crude oil out of their stockpiles. The fourth increase in its rates this week has sent petrol prices above ₹100 in most major cities of the country. Similarly, the seventh increase in prices in nine days has shot up diesel rates above ₹100 mark in several cities in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) resumed daily price revisions on September 24 after international oil prices neared a three-year high. Global benchmark Brent crude is trading above $78 per barrel. India is dependent on imports to meet nearly 85% of its oil needs and so benchmarks local fuel rates to international oil prices.

Uncle and nephew cannot use the same party symbol, says EC

The Election Commission stepped into the uncle and nephew feud of the Lok Janshakti Party by passing an order that both factions of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), led by Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras and Lok Sabha MP Chirag Paswan, would not be allowed to use the party’s name or symbol for the upcoming Bihar Assembly by-polls. The interim order would cover the period of the by-elections to Kusheshwar Asthan and Tarapur Assembly constituencies and continue till the EC makes a final determination of the dispute, the order said. The two sides had staked claim to the LJP name and symbol, but with the last date for nominations of candidates for the by-polls being October 8, the EC said that the time available is not adequate to ensure the due process. Paswan had in his oral submission on October 1 sought a decision before October 8, the order said. The elections were announced on September 28 and polling is scheduled for October 30.  The EC said …in order to place both the rival groups on even keel and to protect their rights and interests, and going by the past precedence, both groups would not be permitted to use the LJP name and bungalow symbol, which is reserved for the party in Bihar. The two groups could choose names of their own and pick symbols from the list of available symbols notified by the EC, the EC said. The groups were asked to submit the names and three choices of symbols by Monday afternoon. In addition, they were asked to submit documents supporting their claim to represent the party by November 5. After the death of LJP founder Ram Vilas Paswan last year, his son, Chirag Paswan, and his brother, Paras, both staked claim to the party leadership.  Paras wrote to the EC on June 14 claiming to be the LJP leader in Parliament, the order stated. Chirag Paswan informed the EC in a series of letters about the party suspending five MPs, including Paras. Chirag Paswan reiterated his claim of being the party president on September 10, the EC said.  

Government clears seven names as HC judges

Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana on Saturday said the government has so far cleared seven of the 106 names recommended as High Court judges by the Supreme Court Collegium since May. Of the nine new Chief Justices of various High Courts suggested by the Collegium to the government from May, the latter has cleared one. Since May, my team so far has recommended appointment of 106 Judges and nine new Chief Justices to various High Courts. The government has cleared seven names out of the 106 judges and one out of the nine Chief Justices, so far. I expect that the government will clear the rest of the names very soon, Chief Justice Ramana said. The CJI, however, remarked that Law Minister Kiren Rijiju has agreed to process the rest of the names in a short while. Chief Justice Ramana was speaking at the inaugural function of the six-week ‘The Pan India Legal Awareness and Outreach Campaign’ organised by the National Legal Services Authority. The CJI’s speech was made in the presence of President Ram Nath Kovind,  Rijiju and Supreme Court judges and Collegium members Justices U.U. Lalit and A.M. Khanwilkar. The CJI said the appointments, as they come through from the government side, would take care of the issues of pendency in the High Courts to some extent. I seek the cooperation and support of the government to enable access to justice and to strengthen democracy, Chief Justice Ramana said. The CJI said the endeavour of the nation should be to carry the flag of justice to its remotest corner and to the weakest person. Chief Justice Ramana said inclusive growth can only be attained through equal and inclusive access to justice. Unequal access to justice leads to greater gaps in social fabric. Apart from pendency, vacancies and piling up of thousands of cases, the pandemic has exposed some deep-rooted problems in society. Lack of health care, eviction from home and uncertainty about one’s next meal — all these overflow from absence of justice, Chief Justice Ramana said. President Kovind commended the legal service authorities for reaching out to the poorest in the country. He emphasised the need to have more women lawyers participating in legal aid services to bring legal relief to more women. As a country, our aim is to graduate from ‘women development’ to ‘women-led development’. Therefore, increasing the number of women in National Legal Services Institutions is as important as reaching out to the largest possible number of women beneficiaries, the President said. The CJI said socio-economic growth would be impossible to achieve without equal access to justice.

Baghel firmly in saddle

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel was appointed as senior observer for Congress ahead of the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, settling once for all the question of  Baghel’s continuation in the Chief Minister’s chair.  State Health Minister TS Singh Deo had staked claim for the CM’s post invoking a promise made in 2018 by then party president Rahul Gandhi agreeing to a rotational tenure between him and Baghel. As per the arrangement, the Chief Minister’s post was supposed to go to him on June 18, the halfway mark of five-year tenure of the government. That is unlikely to happen any time now. The appointment of Baghel as senior observer is not entirely unexpected for the CM had played an active role as a senior observer ahead of the Assam Assembly elections. His close associate Rajesh Tiwari was appointed as the AICC secretary in the State assisting general secretary in-charge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Baghel’s political advisor Vinod Verma has also been stationed in U.P. for more than one month now.  The Congress needs an OBC face, specifically a Kurmi leader. Baghel fits in that role. His appointment sends a clear message that the party values him, a senior leader close to Baghel said.  The timing of the appointment is equally significant for Team Baghel. On August 27, at the end of a four-hour long meeting with former party president Rahul Gandhi, Baghel had announced that Mr. Gandhi would be visiting Chhattisgarh. His impending visit had started to be seen as a stock taking exercise to weigh in on the question of Baghel vs Mr. Singh Deo. The fact that the appointment comes before his visit clearly shows the trust he and the leadership bestows on the Chief Minister, the leader said.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

India, China militaries may hold talks next week, says Naravane

India and China may be having their 13th round of senior military commander level talks next week to resolve the boundary stand-off at eastern Ladakh, Chief of the Army Staff Gen M M Naravane said on Saturday, after asserting that China enhanced their troop presence along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). We’re hopeful of having the 13th round of (Corps Commander level) talks in the second week of October and reaching a consensus on how disengagement will take place, Gen Naravane said in an interview to news agnecy ANI after taking stock of the Army’s operational preparedness on the ground. The Army Chief noted an increase in the People’s Liberation Army’s presence along the disputed boundary but observed that India matched them in equal strength. Chinese (troops) have been deployed in considerable numbers all across eastern Ladakh and northern front right up to our Eastern Command. Definitely there has been an increase in their deployment in the forward areas, which remains a matter of concern for us, he said. But we are monitoring all their developments. Based on whatever inputs we get we are carrying out matching developments in terms of infrastructure. At the moment, we are quite well poised to meet any eventuality. Each side has currently deployed 50,000-60,000 troops in areas close to the LAC. Since April 2020, the Indian and PLA troops have engaged in a sensitive face off at several locations at eastern Ladakh including the Galwan valley that witnessed a brutal hand-to-hand combat between the two sides leading to the death of 20 Indian soldiers and a large number of Chinese troops. After long negotiations over months, the two sides mutually withdrew front line troops from the northern and the southern banks of Pangong Tso as well as from the face-off point at Gogra Post. But the stand-off remained unresolved in other locations along the LAC. Asked about the disengagement through bilateral talks, Gen Naravane said: By and by, all friction points will get resolved. I am of the firm opinion that we can resolve our differences through dialogue. I am hopeful we will be able to achieve results. Meanwhile, to improve its firepower, the Indian Army deployed the K-9 Vajra made-in-India howitzers in eastern Ladakh. More than 100 such guns have been inducted in the Army and there are plans to buy more. We have inducted an entire regiment and it adds to our firepower, Gen Naravane said. The Army also deployed light weight M-777 howitzers in the eastern sector of the LAC. The Army Chief also attended an event in which India’s largest flag, covering an area of 33,750 sq ft and weighing 1,400 kg, was unfurled atop a high mountain overlooking the Leh valley to commemorate Gandhi Jayanti and the 75th anniversary of India’s independence.

 

Gandhi Museum inaugurated at Noakhali in Bangladesh

On the occasion of the 152 birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the renovated Gandhi Museum was inaugurated at the historic Gandhi Ashram Trust at Noakhali in Bangladesh. The inauguration was done by the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh Dr A K Abdul Momen, Law Minister Advocate Anisul Huq and High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh Vikram Doraiswami. The renovation of the Museum housed inside the Gandhi Ashram campus has been supported by India. The guests visited the Gandhi Memorial Museum and appreciated the unique display of memorabilia and artefacts related to Mahatma Gandhi. A seminar on the theme of Ahimsa, Satyagraha and the Mahatma – Revisited was also organised to commemorate the International Day of Non-Violence and the 152nd Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi at Gandhi Ashram, Noakhali as part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations. The event was also attended by former Minister for Cultural Affairs, Asaduzzaman Noor, MP, Aroma Dutta, MP, Tuomo Poutiainen, interim UN Resident Coordinator and ILO Country Director among other dignitaries. A large number of common people from the nearby areas participated enthusiastically in the programme. Speaking at the occasion, High Commissioner Vikram Doraiswami said that Gandhiji’s life and his message holds relevance even today. He recalled the remarks made by Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina during a UN event organized to commemorate 150 years of Mahatma Gandhi in 2019. She had said that Gandhiji’s love for common people and ideals of non-violence contributed to shaping Bangabandhu’s vision of struggle against oppression and tyranny perpetrated by the then regime of Pakistan. Foreign Minister Dr. A K Abdul Momen recalled the influence of Mahatma Gandhi on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He highlighted the continuing relevance of Gandhi’s principles of truth, non-violence, communal harmony and his deep environmental concern. A dance drama based on Rabindranath Tagore’s Chandalika was specially presented by Spandan Cultural Center from Dhaka on the occasion. Mahatma Gandhi had visited Noakhali in 1946-47. He toured hundreds of villages during his four month stay in Noakhali to establish peace in the area which was suffering communal violence in those days. Gandhi Ashram Trust was established to propagate the Gandhian ideals of peace, non-violence and communal harmony.