Newsletter 5 August

News in Box

Everything else has been overshadowed by the ‘Ram Mandir Bhoomi Pujan”, despite of Pak publication of new map which included some part of Indian Territory as its own and is putting every effort to dent the image of New Delhi, due to anniversary of Abrogation of 370.

Headlines of the Week

PM Modi will lay a 40 kg silver brick to mark the symbolic start of a grand temple at what many believe is the birthplace of Lord Ram.

Ram Mandir Bhoomi Pujan

PM Modi will lay a 40 kg silver brick to mark the symbolic start of a grand temple at what many believe is the birthplace of Lord Ram.

PM Narendra Modi returned to Ayodhya after 29 years today for the “Bhoomi Pujan” or groundbreaking ceremony for a Ram temple.
Modi, in a gold kurta and white dhoti, left by special aircraft for the mega ceremony that saw him lay a 40-kg silver brick later today to mark the symbolic start of a grand temple at what many believe is the birthplace of Lord Ram.
“India Is Emotional, Decades-Long Wait Has Come To an End,” Said PM.
Crores won’t believe that they have seen this day in our lifetime.
For years, our Ram Lalla (infant Lord Ram) lived beneath a tent, now he will reside in a grand temple built by Ram bhakts.
“Today, Ram Janambhoomi has been liberated,” said PM Modi, who began his address chanting “Siyavar Ram Chandra ki Jai!” and “Jai Siya Ram” as he addressed some 170 people at the “Bhoomi Pujan” ceremony.
The historic event showcases the triumph of one of India’s longest campaigns, one that found resonance with millions in the country and abroad.
The riverside Ayodhya town is a riot of colors for the event that also meets a decades-long promise, core to the ruling BJP’s ideology.
Images released on Mon of the temple design showed a grand three-storey stone structure with multiple turrets, pillars and domes. The temple will be 161 feet tall.
Besides PM Modi, 50 VIPs including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Mohan Bhagwat – the chief of the BJP’s ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)- will attend the ceremony.
Iqbal Ansari, a litigant in the temple-mosque dispute, was the first person invited.
PM Returns To Ayodhya After 29 Years For Ram Temple Ceremony
Party veterans LK Advani – who led the Ram temple movement in the 1990s — will attend through video-conference because of coronavirus precautions. The Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust, tasked with building the temple, issued a last-minute invite to him and another prominent face of the movement, Murli Manohar Joshi.
Today’s festivities, held at a time recommended by astrologers, are vastly curtailed because of the coronavirus battle with over 50,000 daily infections.
- Home Minister Amit Shah, has been hospitalized with the virus.
- A priest and 14 policemen on duty near the temple site have also tested positive.
Some 175 spiritual leaders will also attend the ceremony to be beamed onto large screens around the country and even on the huge displays at Times Square in New York.
Soil from almost 2,000 holy sites around India and water of around 100 holy rivers will be used in the foundations.
The construction of the temple is the result of century’s long sacrifice, struggle and penance of the innumerable devotees of Lord Ram-Amit Shah, Home Min India. Terming the foundation laying of Ram temple in Ayodhya as a “historic and proud day” for India, he said it heralds the beginning of a new era.
PM’s Wisdom Paved Way For Peaceful Resolution Of Ram Temple Issue: UP CM Yogi
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi says Lord Ram is ultimate embodiment of supreme human values and can never appear in cruelty, hatred or injustice.
India’s long Ayodhya dispute as temple construction starts-Reuters

Among Sino-Indian Standoff:

No news on any media in the India, regarding this issue!

Jammu and Kashmir: India’s move to strip special status ‘illegal, invalid’, says China

China on Wed said that India’s move to strip JnK of its special status under Article 370 was “illegal” and that the dispute must be resolved peacefully through dialogue, Hindustan Times reported.
“China follows closely the situation in the Kashmir region,” the country’s foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a press conference, in response to a question on the impact of India’s decision to strip Kashmir of its autonomy a year ago.
“China’s position on the Kashmir issue is clear and consistent.
Any unilateral change to the status quo is illegal and invalid.
This issue should be properly resolved peacefully through dialogue and consultations between the parties concerned.”
“This issue is a dispute leftover from history between Pakistan and India,” the spokesperson added.
“That is an objective fact as laid out by the UN [United Nations] Charter, UN Security Council resolutions and the bilateral agreements between Pakistan and India.”
China added that peaceful coexistence would be in the best interest of both India and Pakistan. “Pakistan and India are neighbors that cannot be moved away,” the foreign ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying by The Hindu.
“China hopes that they [India and Pakistan] can properly handle the differences through dialogue, improve relations, and jointly safeguard peace, stability and development of both countries and the wider region.”

US health chief to make most senior visit to Taiwan in decades

United States Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar will lead a delegation to Taiwan, his office announced Tuesday, in a high-level trip that is almost certain to anger Beijing, which claims the self-governing island as part of its territory.
The trip, scheduled will be the highest level visit by any US Cabinet official to the island since 1979, when Washington broke official ties with Taiwan to establish diplomatic relations with Beijing, said a statement from the US Health and Human Services (HHS) Department.
“Taiwan has been a model of transparency and cooperation in global health during the Covid-19 pandemic and long before it,” Azar said in a statement.
Why haven’t high-ranking US officials at the level of Azar visited Taiwan in the last 40 years? Because it is an international rule. Azar’s visit is a further breach of rules and a geopolitical show. Don’t tarnish the public health. Global Times tweeted.

The Chinese Communist Party is seeking to apply its national security law on Hong Kong to people across the world– an egregious attempt to undermine the exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Beijing cannot be allowed to export its authoritarian governance model.- Secretary Pompeo, U.S. Secretary of State Dept

China- US relations have hit the lowest point in 50 years. Beijing does not hope a “cold war” will break out between the two countries. Both sides need to work together to repair relations that are unprecedentedly strained: China’s Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai

More U.S. Troops Will Leave Afghanistan Before the Election, Trump Says

President Trump said that there would be fewer than 5,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan by Election Day in November.
His assertion undercuts diplomats who have said withdrawals will depend on the Taliban’s commitment to its peace deal.
“We’re going down to 4,000, we’re negotiating right now,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with Axios that was filmed on July 28 and released in full Monday night.
The president’s statement seems to undercut U.S. diplomats’ repeated assertions that any further troop reductions in Afghanistan would be based on the Taliban’s commitment to the Feb. 29 peace agreement signed with the US.
After the signing, the U.S. military is supposed to completely withdraw from Afghanistan in 14 months, a move that senior military officials have called “aspirational.”
Mr. Trump’s drive to pull U.S. forces from war zones, especially Afghanistan, has often put the White House at loggerheads with the State Department, as American negotiators and military officials have tried to keep an already shaky peace process on track.

Political absurdity: India on Pak’s boundary map

Releasing the political map during a meeting in Islamabad attended by his cabinet and senior officials, Pakistan PM Imran Khan said this was the first step towards a political struggle to achieve the right of self-determination for the Kashmiri people.

India on Tues described as an “exercise in political absurdity” a new map issued by Pakistan that lays claim to the UT of JnK and Ladakh, and Junagadh in Gujarat state, on the eve of the first anniversary of the scrapping of J&K’s special status.
Releasing the political map during a meeting in Islamabad attended by his cabinet and senior officials, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said this was the first step towards a political struggle to achieve the right of self-determination for the Kashmiri people.
Hours later, India’s external affairs ministry described the “so-called ‘political map’ of Pakistan” released by Khan as “an exercise in political absurdity, laying untenable claims to territories in the Indian state of Gujarat and our Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and of Ladakh”.
“These ridiculous assertions have neither legal validity nor international credibility. In fact, this new effort only confirms [the] reality of Pakistan’s obsession with territorial aggrandizement supported by cross-border terrorism,” the ministry said in a brief statement, repeating New Delhi’s assertion that Islamabad uses terror as an instrument of state policy.
Over the past few days, the Pakistani leadership has pulled out all stops to rake up the Kashmir issue ahead of the first anniversary of the Indian government’s decision on August 5, 2019 to scrap Jammu & Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 of the Constitution, and split the state into two UTs.
Pakistan’s new map includes the whole of the UT of Jammu & Kashmir as part of the country’s territory, describing it as “Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir” and a “disputed territory” whose final status is to be decided in line with UN Security Council resolutions.
The boundary of Himachal Pradesh is depicted as the international border.
In a nod to China’s sensitivities, the map does not depict the Ladakh region, with a legend stating “frontier undefined”.
During the ceremony at which the map was unveiled, Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi referred to the India-China border standoff in Ladakh and said Pakistan, too, has a view on the matter.
Qureshi also said the map includes Siachen glacier as part of Pakistan to challenge the region’s “illegal occupation by India”. He further said the map depicts the boundary in the disputed Sri Creek region of Gujarat according to Pakistan’s stated position on the issue to challenge India’s claim.
Khan described the unveiling of map as a “historic” move that he said was backed by his cabinet, the Kashmiri leadership and all of Pakistan’s political parties. “The move reflects the desires of the people of Pakistan and Kashmir and rejects India’s illegal action of Aug 5 last year,” he said, speaking in Urdu.
The new map will be “used in schools and colleges and internationally” and the “only solution to the Kashmir issue can be found under the UN Security Council resolutions, which clearly give the right to the Kashmiri people to vote on whether to go with Pakistan or India,” Khan said.
The map also depicts the Junagadh and Manavadar region of India’s Gujarat state as part of Pakistan. The nawab of Junagadh had opted to accede to Pakistan in Sept 1947, before fleeing from India with his family the following month. Junagadh voted overwhelmingly to stay with India in a plebiscite held in the region in 1948. Experts believe Pakistan has no legal ground for claiming the region.
“The biggest false assumption that Modi made was that he thought that by posting 800,000 soldiers in the valley, he could strike fear in the hearts of the Kashmiris and then India would be able to change occupied Kashmir’s demography.” Pak PM
India’s move to nullify Article 370 last year had triggered a strong reaction from Pakistan, with whom India’s ties were then at an all-time low following the standoff over the Pulwama terror attack. It was also opposed by Pakistan’s “iron brother” ally China, which believed it would affect its territorial claims in Ladakh, especially after India included Aksai Chin region in new maps of the union territories.
The Pakistani leadership has also attempted to mobilize support for its position on Kashmir from the country’s traditional allies, with only Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan assuring Khan and President Arif Alvi of his country’s backing on the issue.
On Tue, Khan repeated his allegation that India is “trying to settle people from outside so that Kashmiris become a minority”. He added: “The map is the first step and we will launch a political struggle. We don’t believe in military solutions, we believe in political solutions.”
Qureshi also said the Kashmir Highway in Islamabad has been named the Srinagar Highway. Solidarity walks, photo exhibitions and seminars will also be organized to protest against alleged atrocities in Jammu and Kashmir, he said.
Academic Happymon Jacob, who closely tracks India-Pakistan relations, said Islamabad should “stop mouthing the worn-out platitude that it supports the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination”.
“It only seeks to wrest Kashmir from India,” he said, adding that making the LoC the international boundary “is the only solution available to either side”.

Meanwhile, along LoC and Beyond

Terrorists fire upon Sarpanch Arif Ahmad in J-K’s Kulgam

Terrorists fired upon sarpanch Arif Ahmad at Akhran Village of Kulgam district on Tue night.
He has been shifted to an emergency hospital.
“Terrorists fired upon one Arif Ahmad at Akhran (sarpanch). He is being shifted to an emergency hospital. He sustained an injury to the neck,” the Police said.

IAS, IPS officers in J&K accused of ‘anti-national’ activity can now be fired without probe

The provision is one of the changes taking effect as a result of the scrapping of Article 370, a decision taken by the Modi govt on 5 Aug last year.

Any government official in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), including senior IAS and IPS officers, can now be dismissed from service without an inquiry if found to be engaged in “anti-national” activity, ThePrint Reported.
According to sources in the J&K government, a committee has been formed under Chief Secretary B.V.R. Subrahmanyam to examine and recommend action, including dismissal from service, with regard to officers “working against the ‘integrity and security’” of India.
The panel was set up after an order was issued by the J&K government last week.
The order, invokes Article 311(2)(c) of the Constitution of India, which allows for the “dismissal, removal or reduction in rank of persons employed in civil capacities under the Union or a State” on certain predetermined grounds.

Transformation underway in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh

A transformation is underway in JnK, and Ladakh, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Wed on the first anniversary of the Centre’s decision to revoke the special status of the region.
In a tweet he highlighted “the application of progressive laws, delivery of social justice, empowerment and support for vulnerable sections and rolling out of development projects as part of the transformation.
The MEA listed expansion of education and employment opportunities and advancement of women’s rights as other takeaways.
The Jammu and Kashmir administration will focus on strengthening and empowering panchayati raj institutions in the coming days to address issues of mis-governance and corruption, Lt Gov GC Murmu has said.
Effective implementation of the three-tier panchayati raj system will help “mainstreaming of the public participation” in the decision-making process and development of the Union Territory, he said.
JnK Director General of Police Dilbag Singh has sanctioned scholarship to 38 wards of police personnel who laid their lives in violence/terrorist-related incidents: JnK Police
However, Modi Govt promised JnK 50,000 jobs after Article 370 move, only 4,300 posts filled so far. Of course, Covid could be one of the reason.

Brus rejected resettlement sites proposed by Tripura non-Brus

Organizations of the displaced refugees from Mizoram also rejected inclusion of Joint Movement Committee in monitoring team for settlement

Three organizations representing the Bru community displaced from Mizoram have rejected the sites proposed by the Joint Movement Committee (JMC), an umbrella group of non-Brus in Tripura, for their resettlement.
The Mizoram Bru Displaced Peoples’ Forum, Mizoram Bru Displaced Peoples’ Coordination Committee and Bru Displaced Welfare Committee have also trashed the demand for inclusion of four JMC members in the monitoring team for the resettlement of the Brus.
The JMC comprising the Bengali, Mizo, Buddhist Barua and other communities had on July 21 submitted a memorandum to the Tripura government specifying six places in Kanchanpur and Panisagar subdivisions of North Tripura district for the resettlement of the Brus who fled ethnic violence in Mizoram since 1997.
The JMC also proposed settling 500 families at most in these places.
“The interference of the Kanchanpur Nagarik Suraksha Mancha and Mizo Convention [prime constituents of JMC] in site selection is completely unjustified as they are not a part of either the quadrilateral agreement or signatory,” the three Bru organizations said in a letter to North Tripura district’s Superintendent of Police on Aug 3.
The quadrilateral agreement was signed among the Bru groups, the Centre and the State governments of Mizoram and Tripura in New Delhi in Jan this year.
The three refugee groups insisted on resettling some 6,500 families in clusters of at least 500 families at each of the sites of their choice —7 in North Tripura district and five in the adjoining Dhalai district.
The sites proposed by the JMC, they said, are unconnected by road and electricity and too far from hospitals, schools and other facilities.
The Bru groups also demanded the arrest of the JMC leaders for “abusive, derogatory and inflammatory statements” against the Bru community.

"No Case Of Interference": Delhi Court On Curbs On Use Of Apps By Army

The high court’s order came while dismissing a senior Army officer’s petition challenging the Indian Army’s recent policy banning armed forces personnel from using 89 social networking platforms.

If the government has concluded that permitting use of certain social networking websites, including Facebook and Instagram, by its defence personnel is enabling enemy countries gain an edge, the courts would be loath to interfere with the decision, the Delhi High Court said on Wednesday.
It said warfare in today’s world is not confined to “accession of territory” but extends to affecting the economy and “inciting civil unrest” by enemy nations.
The high court’s order came while dismissing a senior Army officer’s petition challenging the Indian Army’s recent policy banning armed forces personnel from using 89 social networking platforms.
A bench of justices Rajiv Sahai Endlaw and Asha Menon, while pronouncing the order, said, “Sorry we are dismissing. Thank you.”
It dismissed the petition of Lieutenant Colonel PK Choudhary seeking a direction to the Director General of Military Intelligence to withdraw its June 6 policy by which all Indian Army personnel were ordered to delete their accounts from Facebook, Instagram and 87 other applications.

India extends Line of Credit worth USD 18 M to Maldives Govt for expansion of fishing facilities at Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company, MIFCO

Project envisages investment in fish collection & storage facilities & setting up of a tuna cooked plant & fishmeal plant

The Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) on Wednesday said it will provide USD 800 million (about ₹ 5,500 crore) credit to Maldives to finance developmental projects.
Exim Bank has extended a Line of Credit (LoC) of USD 800 million to Maldives for financing developmental projects, Exim Bank said in a release.
An agreement for the LoC was signed between Maldives Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer and Exim Bank Chief General Manager Sudatta Mandal.
The LoC agreement was exchanged during the visit of MEA Sushma Swaraj to Maldives, Exim Bank said.
“With the signing of the above LoC agreement for USD 800 million, Exim Bank, till date, has extended three LoCs to the Govt of the Republic of Maldives, on behalf of the Government of India, taking the total value of LoCs extended to USD 880 million (~ ₹ 6,000 cr),” it said.
The projects covered under the LoCs extended to Maldives include various infrastructure development projects.
Exim Bank has in place 245 LoCs, covering 63 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the CIS, with credit commitments of around USD 24.24 billion (about ₹ 1,67,200 crore), available for financing exports from India.

International

Beirut explosion: at least 100 dead and 4,000 wounded

Lebanon is in mourning and surveying the damage to its capital, Beirut, after a massive explosion ripped through the city’s port and surrounding areas on Tue, killing at least 100 people and injuring 4,000 with many feared to be still trapped under rubble.
Thousands of tons of Ammonium Nitrate stored in a warehouse has been blamed for a deadly explosion in Beirut-BBC
Initial investigations indicate years of inaction and negligence over the storage of highly explosive material in Beirut port, reported, Reuters
In a country already reeling from an economic crisis, the full scale of the calamity became apparent as the city woke on Wed morning, with rescue teams searching through the debris of ruined neighborhoods for the missing, and hospitals buckling under the weight of thousands of casualties.
A Lebanese Red Cross official said on Wed’s morning the death toll had reached at least 100, with smoke still rising from the port and downtown streets littered with upturned cars and the ruins of shattered buildings.
“What we are witnessing is a huge catastrophe,” the head of Lebanon’s Red Cross, Georges Kettaneh, told a local broadcaster. “There are victims and casualties everywhere.”
Ambulances wailed throughout the night and mountains of glass were swept from shattered apartments on to the streets below.
Exhausted emergency workers trudged through the pre-dawn gloom, some holding sledgehammers, others carrying water.
A car park in the Gemmayze district near the port had been turned into a triage center. Orange plastic stretchers, slick with blood, were lined up from one side to the other.
Soldiers at the site cleared rubble as helicopters passed over dropping water to extinguish the smoldering remains.
Aerial images of the port showed a deep crater of blown-out land.
The Russian government is sending five planes of medical equipment and a team of doctors to set up a field hospital in Beirut to help the city in the aftermath of yesterday’s explosion, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.
- On Tuesday evening in Lebanon’s capital city of Beirut, two huge explosions in its port sent an enormous blast wave across the city, killing at least 78 people and injuring thousands more.
- The scale of the damage is huge, with buildings miles from the port lying in ruin. The blast comes at a terrible time for Lebanon, which is on the brink of financial collapse.
- Lebanon’s Prime Minister, Hassan Diab, said the cause of the explosion was 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate, a common industrial chemical used in fertilizer and as a component in mining explosives.
- Diab declared a national day of mourning for the victims of the explosion. The warehouse that authorities claim was the site of the blast had been the subject of warnings going back to 2014, he said.
- He would “reveal facts” about the warehouse soon, he said, but did not want to pre-empt an investigation.
- Hospitals that are already dealing with the coronavirus crisis were quickly filled beyond capacity, and issued pleas for blood donations and generators to keep the lights going.
- Donald Trump has said the deadly explosion in Beirut “looks like a terrible attack”, contradicting the information coming from Lebanese officials.
- Asked whether he was “confident” the Lebanon explosion was “an attack and not an accident”, he told reporters: “Well it would seem like it, based on the explosion.”
- The president added he had met US generals and said they “seem to feel that it was”.
- Lebanon’s Supreme Defence Council recommended declaring Beirut a disaster-stricken city, declaring a two-week state of emergency in the capital and handing over security responsibilities to military authorities.
- A council statement, read live on television, said President Michel Aoun has decided to release 100bn Lebanese pounds in emergency allocations from the 2020 budget.
- Lebanon’s economy minister, Raoul Nehme, said the wheat in Beirut’s port granaries cannot be used and that the ministry lost track of seven employees in the granaries. The minister also told local media that Lebanon will import wheat and added that the country currently had enough wheat until imports resume.
- There was confusion among residents over whether the air had become dangerous to breathe. The US embassy in Beirut released a statement advising people to wear masks and stay indoors, following “reports of toxic gases released in the explosion”.
- Many people’s windows were shattered by the blast making it difficult to avoid breathing the air outside.
- The American University of Beirut’s aerosol research lab’s indicators showed air quality levels had returned to “good” by 7pm, however, after showing “moderate” levels of particulate matter an hour earlier.
- United Nations Secretary General António Guterres sent his condolences, saying, he “wishes a speedy recovery to the injured, including several United Nations personnel working in Lebanon.” At least 48 UN staff were injured in the blast, along with 27 of their dependents.
- Governments worldwide have offered support, including the UK, France, Australia, the US, Canada and Israel.
- An Australian citizen has been confirmed dead. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said: “It’s my deep regret to inform you that one Australian has been killed in this horrific blast” but did not reveal further details.
- UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson offered the UK’s support and said that there were British nationals affected by the incident.

Nation Amid COVID-19

COVID 19- Updated India reached the maximum no of infected cases in the world

The Medical Council of India (MCI), the country’s apex body for medical education, has advised the colleges affiliated to it to not to promote MBBS students to the next level without holding examinations.
Global deaths exceed 700,000
Latin America passes Europe for world’s highest death toll
Some 24,000 health workers infected in South Africa
Australia’s Queensland shuts its state border
Novavax said its experimental COVID-19 vaccine produced high levels of antibodies against the novel coronavirus, according to initial data from a small, early-stage clinical trial.