Newsletter 13 Feb

Top 5 of the Day

1- SC directed political parties to Publish details of criminal cases against poll candidates on website, newspapers
2- India out of US’ developing nations list for trade benefits
3- Foreign envoys’ delegation reached Jammu from Srinagar today
4- Panchayat polls to be held in J-K using ballot boxes, first political exercise since its special status was scrapped
5- On Pak Jailing Hafiz Saeed, New Delhi Questioned “Efficacy”

Tweet of the Day..

National

SC directed political parties to Publish details of criminal cases against poll candidates on website, newspapers

The Supreme Court ordered all political parties to publish credentials, achievements and criminal antecedents of candidates on newspaper, social media platforms and on their website while giving a reason for selection of candidate with criminal antecedents.
A 5 judges bench, headed by Justice F Nariman was pronouncing its order on a petition filed Ashwani Upadhya (BJP), on a contempt plea, which has raised the issue of criminalization of politics and claimed that the directions given by the apex court in its Sept 2018 verdict relating to disclosure of criminal antecedents by poll candidates were not being followed.
SC says that political parties will liable for contempt if they fail to comply with the order.
It asks Election Commission of India to file contempt petition in SC if political parties don’t not comply with the order.
According to reports, out of the 539 winners analyzed in Lok Sabha 2019, 233 MPs have declared criminal cases against themselves. This is an increase of 44% in the number of MPs with declared criminal cases since 2009.

India out of US’ developing nations list for trade benefits

Ahead of President Donald Trump’s visit on Feb 24-25, the US on Mon removed India from its list of developing countries that are exempt from investigations into whether they harm American industry with unfairly subsidized exports.

The United States Trade Representative (USTR) eliminated a host of countries including Brazil, Indonesia, Hong Kong, South Africa and Argentina from getting special preferences under the methodology for countervailing duty (CVD)

investigations, stating that the previous guidance that dated back to 1998 “is now obsolete”.
The USTR said in a federal notice “For purposes of US CVD law, the USTR therefore considers countries with a share of 0.5% or more of world trade to be developed countries”. India’s share in global exports was 1.67% in 2018. In global imports, it was 2.57%.
Last year, US wants the Switzerland-based, World Trade Organization (WTO) to review the ‘developing country’ status of India and China, the two fastest growing economies in the world.
Though both are the world’s leading nation in terms of economic growth, the US claims they continue to enjoy special trade benefits that come with a ‘developing country’ tag.
The developing nations in question, India and China, have in turn flagged several key factors, including per capita income and human development indicators, where they are still lagging and are far behind than the developed countries like the US, Singapore, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, etc.

The economists are also divided over the issue, but many of them feel neighboring countries like China, Singapore, South Korea, and Hong Kong are way ahead in economic prosperity than India, and that putting India on the same scale can’t be justified.As per the 2017 World Bank figures:

	India	Singapore	S Korea	China
per capita national income	$1,800	$54,530	$28,380	$8,690
Human Development Index	103	86	22	9
poor population (living on $1.90 a day as per 2011 purchasing power parity)	21.2 %			7.9%
employed population in agriculture	41.6%	0.1	4.8	16.4

What does ‘developing’ nation tag mean?

A country will get a certain advantage in terms of subsidies and tariff than a developed nation.
Get a longer time to implement global initiatives and more flexibility in adopting measures to boost international trade.

Foreign envoys' delegation reached Jammu from Srinagar today

Early in the day, they were briefed by Chinar Corps Cmdr Lt Gen KJS Dhillon regarding the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
Met GC Murmu, the Lt Governor of the newly-formed Union Territory, CJ of JnK, Justice Gita Mittal, CS BVR Subrahmanyam, today, district administration officials and civil society members of Jammu division.
The foreign envoys, including those of Germany, France and Mexico, are on a 2-day visit of JnK to witness the ground situation in the region nearly 6 months after the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution.
Yesterday, the foreign diplomats held extensive discussions with the prominent business community and some 100 political leaders in Srinagar.
The business community told envoys that they suffered losses due to abrogation of Article 370 followed by restrictions and at the same time they also said they are hopeful that promises of fast pace development by the center would be fulfilled.
The group comprises of representatives from Afghanistan, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, the European Union, France, Germany, Republic of Guinea, Hungary, Italy, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Namibia, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Rwanda, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Uganda and Uzbekistan.
Last month, envoys of 15 countries including US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster and diplomats from Vietnam, South Korea, Brazil, Niger, Nigeria, Morocco, Guyana, Argentina, Philippines, Norway, Maldives, Fiji, Togo, Bangladesh, and Peru visited Jammu and Kashmir on Jan 9 and 10 to see first-hand efforts being made by the government in the region.

On Pak Jailing Hafiz Saeed, New Delhi Questioned "Efficacy"

“We have seen media reports that a court in Pakistan has sentenced UN designated and internationally proscribed terrorist Hafiz Saeed in terror financing case,” government sources said.
India has asked Pakistan to ensure all terrorist leaders and groups operating on its soil face justice, after reports said a court in the neighboring country has sentenced 26/11 attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed to six years on terror charges.
New Delhi told to media, the decision (by Pakistan) has been made on the eve of the FATF
- plenary meeting, which has to be noted. Hence, the efficacy of this decision remains to be seen”.
- New Delhi also questioned “”It has to also be seen whether Pakistan would take action against other all terrorist entities and individuals operating from territories under its control, and bring perpetrators of cross-border terrorist attacks, including in Mumbai and Pathankot, to justice expeditiously,”
- The Financial Action Task Force or FATF is a global watchdog against terror funding that has told Pakistan to come clean or face action, such as putting on a black list that could severely restrict international financial aid and even lead to a downgrade by independent ratings agencies.
- Hafiz Saeed was found guilty of “being part of a banned terrorist outfit” and for “having illegal property”, his lawyer Imran Gill told news agency AFP.
- The conviction “is an important step forward — both toward holding LeT accountable for its crimes, and for Pakistan in meeting its international commitments to combat terrorist financing,” tweeted Alice Wells, the top US diplomat for South Asia.
- The US House Foreign Affairs Committee also noted then that Hafiz Saeed had been arrested and released eight times since 2001.
Nevertheless, watchable point will be what kind of amenities will be provided him in jail even till meeting of FATF.

HM Amit Shah, at BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) Conference on ‘Combating Drug Trafficking’ in Delhi quoted UN’s ‘World Drug Report’ which says around 4.5% of the people in the age group of 15-64 yrs, across the world, use drugs-over 27 Cr people across the world. It’s a matter of concern that the figure is rising.

Drugs business lead to health issues, breaking of families; it also poses serious threat to national security. Money circulating in this business is a source of income for terrorists, anti-national & anti-social elements.

BIMSTEC is an international organization of 7 nations of South Asia and South East Asia, housing 1.5 billion people and having a combined gross domestic product of $3.5 trillion (2018). The BIMSTEC member states—Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan are among the countries dependent on the Bay of Bengal.

A 14 priority sectors of cooperation have been identified and several BIMSTEC centers have been established to focus on those sectors. A BIMSTEC free trade agreement is under negotiation, also referred to as mini SAARC.

Leadership is rotated in alphabetical order of country names. The permanent secretariat is in Dhaka.

J-K youth participate in special recruitment drive for border police

This was the second day of recruitment rally conducted for the Border Battalion.

This is the first time that border specific recruitment is taking place.

FIR against former NRC official for Data Missing

Hours after Assam’s updated citizenship data disappeared from the website ‘nrcassam.nic.in’, an FIR was filed against a former NRC official for allegedly failing to submit the password to the sensitive document before quitting her job.
- Talking to PTI on Thursday, NRC state coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma said the complaint against former NRC project officer was filed under Official Secrets Act in Paltan Bazar police station here, as she “did not provide the password to the document, despite written reminders”.
“She failed to surrender the password even after tendering her resignation on Nov 11 last year. She was a contractual employee and no longer authorized to hold the password, after quitting her job. An FIR has been filed against the former NRC project officer on Wed for violating the Official Secrets Act,” he said.
Sarma also stated that the NRC office had written to her on several occasions for submitting the password, but did not get any response.
“We knew (she had resigned) and, therefore, sent several letters to her for handing over the password. But as she did not respond all these months, we filed a complaint against her yesterday for violating the Official Secrets Act.
“We must know if she has tampered with the sensitive information, after resigning,” he added.
The NRC state coordinator, however, disproven allegations of “malafide intent” involved in the matter.
The Centre on Wed asserted that NRC data in Assam was safe even though some technical issues have been detected, which would be resolved soon.
Senior journalist-cum-RTI activist Saket Gokhale had sent an application to the NIC, the IT wing of the government, seeking a copy of the contract with Wipro.
“The Assam NRC data suddenly vanishing from the website (& the lack of data security) is incredibly shady. I’ve filed an RTI with the NIC specifically asking about details of the contract with Wipro, name of the cloud service provider, & all contracts signed for hosting this,” he tweeted, while attaching a copy of the RTI application.
Leader of the Opposition in Assam Assembly and Congress leader Debabrata Saikia has also written to the Registrar General of India, requesting him to look into the fiasco urgently.

Kashmiri Pandits In US Welcome PM's Remarks On Community In Parliament

The Global Kashmiri Pandits Diaspora hailed PM Modi for his “historic statement” where he spoke about the pain of the Kashmiri Pandits who had to leave the valley due to militancy.
- On Modi’s remarks in Parliament that Kashmir’s identity was buried when the exodus of the community began in 1990, diaspora acknowledged by saying this, “recognition is a step towards their rehabilitation and justice”.
The diaspora organisation said that there is “overriding evidence that over the last 30 years the property rights of lakhs of Kashmiri Pandits have been systematically eroded, leading to a genocide and loss to the tune of 35 billion dollars. This initiative was taken by the central government for the people who live in the border areas,” IGP Dr S D Singh Jamwal, Chairman Recruitment Board, JnK Police for Border Battalion.
Last month, the JnK police recruitment drive for the women battalion witnessed huge footfall at doda, on as 21000 aspirants turn up against 1300 posts.
- This may be considered as trust building exercises by center. Land, houses, temples and shrines belonging to the minority Kashmiri Pandit (Hindu) community have been illegally taken over”.

Panchayat polls to be held in J-K using ballot boxes, first political exercise since its special status was scrapped

The JnK administration has decided to hold the local body elections (panchayat polls), for vacant posts of every block will be held using ballot boxes, in the union territory, as per ANI.
This will be the first major political exercise since the Centre abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution in Aug 5 last year, which took away the statehood of JnK and turned it into a union territory.
A separate union territory of Ladakh was also carved out.
JnK is now governed by the Centre, which has appointed GC Murmu as the Lieutenant Governor to look after the affairs of the union territory.
While union territory of Ladakh doesn’t have an assembly and will be directly governed by the Union Home Ministry through the Lieutenant Governor, JnK will have an assembly and will largely work along the lines of the Delhi model.

The announcement on JnK is made as mainline political leaders are detained.

A Delhi Court sends all accused arrested, in connection with the alleged molestation of students during a cultural festival at the all-women Gargi College in Delhi, on last Fri to judicial custody for 14 days.

All India Council for Technical Education Chief Anil Sahasrabudhe to ANI on 50% seats vacant, AICTE bars new Engineering colleges for 2 yrs: Committee headed by IIT Hyderabad Chairman B V R Mohan Reddy has suggested this decision new courses are allowed only in emerging areas.

Corona Virus Row….

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on COVID-19: All 402 people kept in ITBP quarantine facility have tested negative and their condition is stable.
Till date, 2,51,447 airport passengers have been screened. Screening also being done at 12 major and 65 minor ports.
Ship Diamond Princess (of Japan) has been quarantined. 2 Indian crew members on board the ship tested positive. The MEA is keeping a close watch on it.
At least 219 people, including five crew members, have now tested positive for coronavirus on the Diamond Princess Cruise ship, from Japan. It’s the largest outbreak outside of mainland China. [CNN]
Death toll spikes: China’s Hubei province announced 242 new deaths from the novel coronavirus on Thursday, twice as many as on the previous day. New infections there jumped by more than 14,000.

Global epidemic: The virus has killed more than 1,350 people and infected over 60,000 people worldwide. The vast majority of cases are in mainland China.

MEA to media, In solemn tribute to the invaluable contribution of former EAM Sushma Swaraj, it has been decided to rename Pravasi Bhartiya Kendra, Delhi as Sushma Swaraj Bhawan and Foreign Service Institute, Delhi as Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Service.
The announcement is being made on the eve of her birth anniversary falling on 14^th February in honor of the legacy and decades of public service of the former EAM.

International

Pakistan has termed the US decision to sell integrated air defense weapon system to India as disturbing saying it will further destabilize the already volatile region.
At her weekly news briefing in Islamabad on Thursday, Foreign Office Spokesperson Aisha Farooqui said the sale of such sophisticated weapons to India will disturb the strategic balance in South Asia with security implications for Pakistan and the region.
She said the defense relations between the US and India are contributing to destabilization of peace and security in South Asia.
- US approves sale of Integrated Air Defence Weapon System to India on Tue, this week.
- The Trump Administration has notified to the US Congress of its determination to sell India the Integrated Air Defense Weapon System
- The entire system is estimated to cost $1.867 billion, the State Department has told the Congress in a notification. [Ref Newsletter, Feb 11]

Turkish President Erdogan arrives in Islamabad today

During the visit, Prime Minister Imran Khan and President Erdogan will have one-on-one meeting, after which they will co-chair the 6th Session of the Pakistan-Turkey High Level Strategic Cooperation Council in the joint cabinet format.

At the conclusion of the session, a Joint Declaration will be signed. A number of important agreements and MoUs are also expected to be signed during the visit.

Turkey supports the cause of self-determination for the people of India-occupied Jammu & Kashmir.

Sanjiv Chawla, A key accused in one of cricket's biggest match-fixing scandals, was produced before a Delhi court

Sanjiv Chawla, an alleged bookie and key accused in one of cricket’s biggest match fixing scandals that involved former South African captain Hansie Cronje, was produced before a Delhi court.

The Delhi Police said that the proceedings against Cronje, who had died in a plane crash in 2002, be abated while the other five be summoned to face the prosecution in the case.

13 years after the match-fixing scandal involving former South African captain Hansie Cronje had rocked the cricket world, Delhi Police on Mon filed a charge sheet in the case in which the names of his compatriot cricketers Herschelle Gibbs and Nicky Boje have been left out.

The police, in its 93-page charge sheet, said that the proceedings against Cronje, who had died in a plane crash in 2002, be abated while the other five be summoned to face the prosecution in the case.

It said there is “sufficient evidence” to prove that the accused had entered into a conspiracy to fix matches played here between India and S Africa in Feb-Mar 2000.
“From the investigation conducted so far, there is sufficient evidence to prove that the accused persons….had entered into a criminal conspiracy to fix the cricket matches played between India and South Africa from Feb 16, 2000 to Mar 20, 2000 in India,” it said.
“The first test match at Mumbai and the first one-day internationals at Cochin were fixed and the same resulted in wrongful gain to the accused and wrongful loss in general to the public at large who had gone believing that they would witness a truly competitive matches in which each player would perform optimally.
“The accused persons have thus committed the offences punishable under sections 420 (cheating)/120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC,” the charge sheet said.
The charge-sheet, which was to be filed before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Amit Bansal, was filed before link magistrate Akash Jain as the CMM was on leave. The link magistrate has listed the matter for Tuesday before the CMM’s court.

Political

Banks, postal Dept being used to conduct NRC surveys, alleges Mamata

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday presented his government’s case to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a host of issues, including the plan to have three capitals for the state and the resolution to abolish the Legislative Council.
The Chief Minister also invited the Prime Minister to attend a program in the state on March 25 (Telugu New Year’s Day Ugadi), wherein 25 lakh house-sites would be distributed to eligible families on a single day.
The Chief Minister, who air-dashed to New Delhi on a call from the Prime Minister’s Office, had a 100-minute meeting with him at his residence.

Senior AAP leader Gopal Rai to ANI: Only people of Delhi will be invited to the oath-taking ceremony (on Feb 16). Chief Ministers of other states or leaders of other parties will not be invited

Congress’ Jyotiraditya Scindia on Delhi Election Result, 2020: It is highly disappointing for our party. There is an urgent need for a new ideology and a new work process. Country has changed, so we also need to opt for a new way of thinking and connect with the people of the country.

Scindia is supposed to be close to Rahul Gandhi, and was in CM race of MP.

States

3 Andhra Capitals, Polavaram Project, Jagan Reddy Discussed With PM

Mumbai: Poster put up by MNS outside Matoshree, residence of Maharashtra CM&Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray. Poster reads,”Respected CM, if you are serious about action against illegal infiltrators, start by cleaning your Bandra locality first which is filled with infiltrators”

Lucknow: Crude bomb hurled in a Lucknow court. Two lawyers injured. Three live crude bombs recovered.

Bomb was hurled towards chamber of lawyer Sanjeev Lodhi who has blamed another lawyer Jitu Yadav for the incident. Police at the spot.

Haryana Police have seized 1325 kg poppy husk by intercepting a truck in Sonipat district and 53000 tramadol tablets, a prohibited pharma drug, from Kaithal district. Five persons arrested in the case.

Maharashtra Home Min Anil Deshmukh on reports that a firm owned by Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Barve’s son and wife was awarded a contract of digitization of police’s records by previous BJP govt: We’re gathering all info on it. We’ll also seek information on this from him.