Newsletter 22 July

July 23, 2021
 Team

Important Picks of the Day

NATIONAL​

Pegasus row: IT Minister reiterates media report attempted to malign Indian democracy (↓)

TMC MP Santanu Sen is suspended from Rajya Sabha for this entire session, a day after he snatched papers from IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and tore them in the House. IT minister said “TMC has a culture of violence in Bengal. What message do they want to give to the next generation of Parliamentarians?”

Fresh dates for India, China 12th round of Corps Commander-level talks being worked out: ANI (↓)

India and China are working out fresh dates for the 12th talks on the situation in eastern Ladakh, Indian Army sources said on Thu. China had earlier suggested holding military talks on July 26 but India asked Beijing to work out fresh dates as the Indian Army would be celebrating Kargil Vijay Diwas, they added. The two sides are expected to discuss disengagement from existing friction points in Depsang plains, Gogra, and hot springs in the next round of meetings of the military commanders.

J-K: 2 LeT terrorists neutralized in Sopore encounter-Police

Two Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists were eliminated in an encounter at Warpora village in Sopore, Baramulla on Fri so far. Police have seized incriminating materials including arms and ammunition, the Inspector General of Police Kashmir, Vijay Kumar said. (↓)

Judicial inquiry into Stan Swamy’s death yet to be initiated: State in Bombay HC

The Maharashtra govt informed the Bombay High Court on Friday that a judicial magisterial inquiry into the death of Father Stan Swamy is yet to be initiated. Swamy, who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency on Oct 8, 2020, as an accused in the Elgaar Parishad case, died in a private hospital on July 5. Oral comments made on Swamy, withdrawn by the court after ASG submitted they were ‘twisted’ on social media and by the press.

US welcomes PM Modi’s continued focus on driving clean energy transformation in India: Official

Jonathan Pershing, a senior advisor to the Special Envoy on Climate Change John Kerry said the US and India have committed partners on climate.

Income Tax officials conducted searches at multiple premises linked to ‘Dainik Bhaskar group’

A search is being carried out in the Bhaskar group offices under the Income Tax Act over allegations of huge tax evasion, govt sources said on Thu. They said 32 premises, consisting of residential and business premises.

NEIGHBORHOOD

Tibet gets first bullet train, links Lhasa to the border with India (↓)

Xinhua confirms Xi Jinping is in Tibet, his first visit since taking over and since 2011; he is visiting Lhasa and also Nyingchi (right near the Arunachal border), inspecting the new Sichuan Tibet railway, also visited the Yarlung Zangbo (Brahmaputra)

White House 'deeply disappointed' with China for rejection of fresh COVID-19 probe

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Thu slammed China for rejecting a fresh WHO probe into the origins of COVID-19. Speaking to reporters at a White House briefing, Psaki said the Biden administration is “deeply disappointed” by China’s rejection.

Russia to upgrade Indian Air Force’s MiG-29 fighters by 2022

About 60 MiG-29 fighters of the Indian Air Force would be upgraded to the MiG-29UPG level using Russian components, including radio electronics and armaments

India supports Afghan govt, people's aspiration of peaceful, democratic future: MEA (↓)

India supports the Afghan govt and people in realizing their aspiration for a peaceful, democratic and prosperous future, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thu.

The largest-ever military exercise has come in the wake of Taliban advances in Afghanistan. Even Russia is planning to hold joint exercises with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan

Taliban killed 100 civilians in Kandahar: Report

After they seized Spin Boldak district in Kandahar province, the Taliban killed 100 civilians in Kandahar, said Tolo News quoting a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior. The brutal terrorists on the order of their Punjabi bosses (Pakistan) ambushed the homes of the innocent Afghans in certain areas of Spin Boldak, looted the homes, and martyred 100 innocent people,” Tolo News quoted the spokesman as saying.

Dissatisfied opposition elements promoting hate against India for selfish political motives: Maldives FM

The Maldives has said that some elements from the previous regime are spreading hatred against the Indian mission in the island nation.

Pegasus row: IT Minister reiterates media report attempted to malign Indian democracy

  • TMC MP Santanu Sen is suspended from Rajya Sabha for this entire session, a day after he snatched papers from IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and tore them in the House. IT minister said “TMC has a culture of violence in Bengal. What message do they want to give to the next generation of Parliamentarians?”
  • Union Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thu reiterated that the media report about the use of Pegasus spyware is a carefully-timed attempt to malign the Indian democracy.
  • Taking to microblogging sites Twitter and Koo, the Minister said, “A sensational story around Pegasus being published just a day before the monsoon session in Parliament cannot be a coincidence.
  • In the past, similar claims were made regarding the use of Pegasus on WhatsApp. Those reports had no factual basis and were categorically denied by all parties, including in the Supreme Court.”
  • He said, “This press story on Pegasus, done by a web portal on 18th July 2021, attempts to malign the Indian Democracy and its well-established institutions.”
  • The minister has earlier given the same statement in Lok Sabha, on the first day of the Monsoon Session on July 19, a day after the report was published.
  • However, the Minister didn’t clarify that GoI has this liberty or not? And no Govt can answer it.
  • ‘All my phones are tapped, I get calls from IB officials,’ Rahul Gandhi says on Pegasus row. however, The Citizen Lab, which had completed the forensic examination, made it clear iPhone over 11.5 can’t be hacked by Pegasus.

CDS Gen Bipin Rawat, 3 services chiefs discuss the creation of theatre commands -(ANI)

  • Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and the three services chiefs on Thu discussed issues related to the creation of integrated theatre commands.
  • Discussions and minor exercises related to the issue of the creation of theatre commands were taken up by the top 4 officers of the Indian defense forces today and more discussions are likely to be held on the issue, govt, sources said.
  • As per plans, the Department of Military Affairs (DMA) is all set to create 4 theatre commands of which three would be land-based commands headed by Army officers and one maritime command which would be looked after by a Navy officer.
  • A support command in form of the Air Defence Command is also planned to be set up under an Air Force officer.
  • the DMA under the Defence Ministry would be soon seeking permission of the Cabinet Committee on Security to set up these new fighting formations which would be working under the CDS.
  • The DMA would first be moving a proposal to seek the permission of the govt to initiate the process. The officers given the charge would be senior officers from the tri-services and would serve till their superannuation.
  • India is working for creating war-fighting theatres which would be solely responsible for specific areas.
  • The Army officers will be heading land-based commands in Eastern and Western theatres, while North is being left alone at the moment, according to the Army plans.
  • The Navy would lead the maritime theatre command while the IAF officers would be leading the air defense command. The 3 forces are still discussing the issue among themselves to enhance coordination among the 3 in times of war.
  • The first step in the direction of the theatre commands was the creation of the post of the CDS on Jan 1, 2020.

Second time in two days, DRDO successfully tests Akash-NG Missile in Balasore

  • India has successfully test-fired indigenously developed New Generation Akash Missile (Akash-NG), a Surface to Air Missile defense system at 1145 hrs from Integrated Test Range, Chandipur off the coast of Odisha in Balasore on Friday.
  • This is the second test firing of the 30 km strike-range air defense missile systems in the last two days.
  • The test was carried out against a high-speed unmanned aerial target which was successfully intercepted by the missile.
  • The test was carried out amidst inclement weather conditions proving the all-weather capability of the weapon system. The system performance was validated through the data captured by many Radar, Telemetry, and Electro-Optical Tracking systems deployed by ITR, Chandipur in presence of a team of Indian Air Force Officers.
  • Once deployed, the Akash-NG weapon system will prove to be a force multiplier for the Air Defence capability of the Indian Air Force. Production agencies Bharat Electronics and Bharat Dynamics Limited have also participated in the trials.

Tibet gets first bullet train, links Lhasa to the border with India-The Hindu

This will be the second railway line connecting Tibet to the hinterland, following the already open Qinghai-Tibet rail. China on Fri started operating the first bullet train line in Tibet, linking Lhasa to Nyingchi near the border with Arunachal Pradesh.

  • The China State Railway Group said the 435-km line, on which construction began in 2014, has a designed speed of 160 km/hr and would connect the capital city of the Tibet ‘Autonomous Region’ to the border city of Nyingchi with a travel time of three and a half hours.
  • Over 90% of the track is 3000 m above sea level, state media quoted the railway group as saying, and the line is the first electrified high-speed rail (HSR) line, as China refers to bullet trains, in Tibet. China has the world’s longest HSR network.
  • The Lhasa-Nyingchi rail is one among several major infrastructure projects recently completed in Tibet’s southern and southeastern counties near the Arunachal border.
  • Last month, China completed the construction of a strategically significant highway through the Grand Canyon of the Yarlung Zangbo river, as the Brahmaputra is called in Tibet.
  • This is the “second significant passageway” to Medog county that borders Arunachal, the official Xinhua news agency reported, directly connecting the Pad township in Nyingchi to Baibung in Medog county.
  • The Lhasa-Nyingchi rail is one section of the Sichuan-Tibet railway line connecting the two provincial capitals, another strategic project deemed important enough for President Xi Jinping to officially launch it and described by the Chinese leader as “a major step in safeguarding national unity and a significant move in promoting the economic and social development of the western region.”
  • The first section of the new line, from Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan, to Yaan, was finished in December 2018, while work on the 1,011 km Yaan-Nyingchi line will compete for the entire railway line by 2030.
  • Zhu Weiqun, a senior Party official formerly in charge of Tibet policy, was quoted as saying by state media the railway will help “transport advanced equipment and technologies from the rest of China to Tibet and bring local products out”. “If a scenario of a crisis happens at the border,” he said, “the railway can act as a ‘fast track’ for the delivery of strategic materials.“

As part of his increasingly hardline Tibet policy, Xi makes an unannounced Tibet visit. He started near the heavily militarized border with India by visiting Nyangtri (Chinese: Nyingchi), located next to the site of China’s planned super-dam on the Brahmaputra. Xi then went to Lhasa.- Brahma Chellaney, an Indian expert.

J-K: 2 LeT terrorists neutralized in Sopore encounter-Police

  • Two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists were eliminated in an encounter at Warpora village in Sopore, Baramulla on Fri so far. Police have seized incriminating materials including arms and ammunition, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir, Vijay Kumar said.
  • He said that one of them identified as Fayaz War was involved in several attacks and killings of civilians and security personnel. He was the last perpetrator of violence in north Kashmir, added IGP Kashmir.
  • According to police, a top terrorist commander along with an associate was trapped in a house in Warpora village where the police and security forces were engaged in the encounter.
  • The operation was launched on Thu evening on specific police input at Warpora in Sopore and is underway, police said. (ANI)

J-K: Hexacopter shot down 6 km inside Indian border, 5 kg explosives recovered

  • The drone shot down around 6 km inside the Indian border in the Kanachak area of Jammu and Kashmir has been identified as a Hexacopter. As per the J&K Police, approximately 5 kg of explosives have been recovered from the Hexacopter.
  • Earlier today, the J&K Police informed that a drone was shot down in the Kanachak area and explosive material was recovered.
  • On Wed, a suspected drone was spotted in the Satwari area, while earlier on July 16, a drone that was seen operating around the Jammu Air Base was picked up by the radars of the anti-drone system deployed by the National Security Guard (NSG) there.
  • The NSG had deployed an anti-drone system in the city after a drone attack took place on the Jammu air base last month.
  • The Air Force had also taken measures to prevent any such attack in Jammu and other important airbases across the country, along with the measures to address threats from small drones.
  • After the Jammu attack, the number of drone sightings has gone up drastically and there have been several instances where the Army and Border Security Forces troops at the border have fired at them.

NIA arrests two terrorists of Lashkar-e- Mustafa ( LeM) in LeM Conspiracy Case: The two accused persons Md Arman Ali (20) and Md Ehsanullah from Saran district, Bihar, in connection to a conspiracy hatched by LeM, an offshoot of JeM to carry out terrorist activities in J&K. NIA claimed that investigation has revealed that both the accused were co-conspirators and were involved in the transportation of 2 separate consignments of illegal arms/ammunition from Bihar to Mohali and Ambala.

India supports Afghan govt, people's aspiration of peaceful, democratic future: MEA

  • India supports the Afghan govt and people in realizing their aspiration for a peaceful, democratic and prosperous future, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thu.
  • Addressing a weekly briefing, MEA said India and Afghanistan bilateral relations are guided by a strategic agreement that was signed in Oct 2011.
  • When asked whether there has been any plan to help the Afghan military amid the Taliban offensive, Bagchi said: “the relations are guided by a strategic agreement that was signed in Oct 2011.”

Violence in Afghanistan displaces over 36,000 families in four months

  • Amid the recent increase in the Taliban offensive, more than 36,000 families have been internally displaced in Afghanistan over the past four months. Afghan Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation on Thu expressed concern over a potential spike in the number of displaced people if war continues.
  • Earlier this week, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had said that more than 49,500 weapon-wounded patients have received treatment and care at 416 ICRC-supported health facilities across the country.
  • The developments in Afghanistan have countries in the region on alert. On Thursday, Tajikistan held its largest-ever military exercise that involved its entire army. On the same day, Russia deployed military machinery at its base near the Afghan border

Taliban: To reach a peace deal, the Afghan president must go: The Taliban say they don’t want to monopolize power, but they insist there won’t be peace in Afghanistan until there is a new negotiated government in Kabul and President Ashraf Ghani is removed.

Dissatisfied opposition elements promoting hate against India for selfish political motives: Maldives FM

  • The Maldives has said that some elements from the previous regime are spreading hatred against the Indian mission in the island nation.
  • Foreign Minister of Maldives Abdullah Shahid in an interview with ANI said that these elements are in a minority, dissatisfied with the large projects with assistance from India underway in the country, and are doing it for their selfish political interest. When asked how he compared the assistance provided by China and India, said that India has always been a first responder in time of need. (ANI)

The Maldives should treat India ‘first among equals but can keep China door open too: Envoy Sudhir

  • In an exclusive interview to ThePrint, Sudhir said this realization is now deeply embedded in the foreign policy of Maldives as chalked out under President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, who came to power in Nov 2018, after the previous Abdulla Yameen regime was ousted.
  • The Maldives now understands that due to its strategic location on the Indian Ocean it has a “responsibility to maintain peace and security” of the region, said Sunjay Sudhir, High Commissioner of India to the Maldives.
  • “The Solih govt realizes that being at the location where they are, they have a clear responsibility in maintaining peace and security in the Indian Ocean. This is a realization which was not there in the previous dispensation,” Sudhir told ThePrint.
  • Thus, the High Commissioner said, India is putting its full support behind the Maldives on this aspect. “India is a net provider of security, it is also our responsibility to maintain peace and security in the region. So these two are complementary approaches and we are working on that,” he said.
  • Ties between New Delhi and Malé had plummeted significantly during Yameen’s regime. Under his govt, Maldives gathered Chinese debt to the tune of $2 billion.
  • President Solih’s reaffirmation of the ‘India First’ policy had reset the ties between both countries, bringing them closer once again. However, New Delhi has been quite apprehensive of Beijing’s growing influence in the Maldives.

Male’s commitment to ‘India First’ policy vis-à-vis China: According to the Indian envoy, recognizing the geostrategic significance of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, it is key that Malé treats India as the “first among equals” when it comes to China.

  • “When Solih came to power in November 2018, he categorically said ‘India First policy is my foreign policy’. We, of course, have our neighborhood first policy. The twain had to meet. With the Maldives we have been able to do that because there is a determination on both sides and it has happened,” Sudhir said.
  • He added, “In the previous dispensation of Yameen, there was a very heavy tilt towards China because Beijing announced a few BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) projects.”
  • However, Sudhir also stressed that for a small country like the Maldives, it is not possible to “shut the door” on China and neither does India want them to do so.
  • “They don’t want to shut the door (for China). It is in nobody’s interest to shut the door. That’s not our idea either. What is meant by India First, good reactions with everybody, but India is the first among equals. It is not an ‘India only’ policy,” he said.

India developing 45 projects in the Maldives: Presently, India is engaged in developing 45 infrastructure development projects in the Maldives compared to 9 by Saudi Arabia, 9 by Kuwait, 1 by The Netherlands, and 1 each by Pakistan and China, the envoy said.

  • In Aug 2020, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had announced India’s decision to support the implementation of the Greater Malé Connectivity Project in the Maldives through a financial package consisting of a grant of $100 million and a new Line of Credit of $400 million.

‘Defence and counterterrorism efforts are key’: India and Maldives are also engaged in deep defense cooperation as well as in counterterrorism measures. In April 2021, both sides held their first meeting of the Joint Working Group on counterterrorism, countering violent extremism, and de-radicalization. “

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