Newsletter 1 Feb

Top 5 of the news of the Week

Budget-2020 Presented in House.
CAA brought to correct historical injustice: Modi slams Congress to defend CAA law.
Centre to give political, economic benefits to Bodos by signing a tripartite agreement Assam:
Corona Virus Row
EU Parliament over anti-CAA resolution, discussion have done but voting Postponed

Saturday’s Brief

Jammu and Kashmir DGP Dilbag Singh on Nagrota encounter: We have apprehended the truck driver, conductor& a person, who is supposedly the over ground worker (OGW) for terrorists. A sniper has been found in the cache of arms and ammunition. We have sanitized the area. The truck driver, Samir Dar who has been apprehended is the cousin of the Pulwama suicide bomber, Adil Dar. Samir Dar is being interrogated for further investigation.
Dr AP Maheshwari, Director General, CRPF, in Jammu: All the security forces are working proactively so that no untoward incident takes place. If we look over the working of CRPF, they have neutralized around five dozen militants in the past one year.
Secy, Ministry of defense: Nearly 40 countries have confirmed their participation in Defense Expo. A delegation from China to also come. We’re taking precautions for all foreigners. We’ve Standard Operating Procedure in place and screening will be done as per the procedure.
As an experimentation to sigmeted privatization to railway, IRCTC’s third pvt train to be between Indore and Varanasi: CRB

National

Budget-2020 Presented in House

Fundamentals Of Economy Strong,” Says Nirmala Sitharaman

Budget 2020: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Union Budget 2020 presentation comes at a time when the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate has been spiraling downwards in the last five quarters. 160 Min record speech by FM. Sensex went down by 800 points.

Main Points

Rs 27,300 cr for industry, commerce development
“India raised 271 million people out of poverty between 2015 and 2016. The milestones achieved are unprecedented and globally recognized. A household saves an average of 4 per cent annually because of GST… The dreaded Inspector Raj has also vanished,”
“We recognize the need to energies Indian entrepreneurship spirit. The three guiding factors of this Budget are aspirational India, economic development for all and ours should be a caring society,”
Under Aspirational India program, the first point is agriculture, irrigation and rural development. We are committed to doubling farmers’ income by 2022,”
“The Indian Railways will set up a Kishan Rail through PPP to ferry perishable goods faster; they will have refrigerated coaches
Krishi Udan will also be launched on domestic and international routes.
“Horticulture exceeds the production of food grains.
Hospitals to be set up in PPP (public-private partnership) mode for better treatment under Ayushman Bharat (health insurance) scheme.
Rs 69,000 crore has been allocated for the healthcare sector.
A degree level full-fledged online education program will be imparted by institutes among the top 100 ranked ones.
For education sector Rs 99300 cr has proposed, including National Police University, and National Law University, and Rs 3000 for Skill Development.
“Five new Smart Cities will be set up in public-private partnership mode,” the Finance Minister said. “We propose to digitally refund duties and levies to exporters.”
“Delhi-Mumbai Expressway and other similar projects will be completed by 2023. Work on the Chennai-Bengaluru Expressway will start soon.
More Tejas type trains will connect tourist destinations. High-speed rail between Mumbai and Ahmedabad will be pursued. A suburban rail project in Bengaluru is planned.
Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao has yielded tremendous results. Gross enrolment rate of girls under this scheme is 59.7 per cent as against 57.54 of boys. Girls are performing better under this scheme.
To improve national nutritional status of girls and women, more than six lakh Anganwadi workers are equipped with smartphones to upload nutritional status of 10 crore households.
Rs 85,000 crore for fiscal 2021 for Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes. Rs 53,700 crore for Scheduled Tribes. Rs 9,500 crore for divyangs or the differently abled.
Insurance cover for bank depositors will be raised to Rs 5 lakh from Rs 1 lakh. The Banking Regulation Act will be amended to make bank managements function more efficiently and in a transparent manner.
The government will sell a part holding in LIC via an initial public offering.
Rs 40,000 crore a year will be revenue foregone from new income tax rates for individuals, says the Finance Minister.
The government plans to increase investment limit of Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPI) in corporate bonds from 9 per cent to 15 per cent.
NRIs to be allowed to invest in certain categories of G-Secs
GIFT City to set up International Bullion Exchange
Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT) abolished, shifted to individuals instead of companies

Rahul Gandhi on Budget: The main issue facing is unemployment. I didn’t see any strategic idea that would help our youth get jobs. I saw tactical stuff but no central idea. It describes Govt well, lot of repetition, rambling-it is mindset of govt, all talk, but nothing happening.
P Chidambaram, former FM “without a free society, there can be no free economy or free market. Can’t have draconian social control, police state repression, outlawing of dissent and free speech and then expect development & growth. No, India not China”

Centre to give political, economic benefits to Bodos by signing a tripartite agreement

The government of India is all set to sign an agreement with all factions of banned insurgent organization National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) on Monday. The accord will give political and economic benefits to the Bodos.

The government has also made it clear that the Centre would not make the state’s Bodoland territorial district into a Union Territory.

HM Shah and representatives of Bru refugees had on January 16 signed an agreement to end the long-pending crisis of Bru refugees and for their settlement in Tripura in presence of Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb and Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga.

“Under the leadership of PM Modi all the issues of Northeast are getting solved. This is one such step. Approximately 30,000 Bru refugees will be settled in Tripura. Rs 600 crores rupees package has been given for this,” Amit Shah had said after signing the agreement.

Centre extends ban on Assam’s Bodo insurgent group NDFB for 5 more years on Nov 24, 19 on a charge that the organization has been indulging in illegal and violent activities intended to disrupt, or which may disrupt, the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India in furtherance of its objective of achieving a separate “Bodoland”.

“NDFB is aligning itself with other undergrounds outfits of the North Eastern Region in furtherance of its objectives to create a separate Bodoland and engaging in unlawful and violent activities thereby undermining the authority of the Government of India and the Government of Assam and spreading terror and panic among the people,” the notification said.

Assam: 1,615 cadres of different factions of National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) laid down their arms at a ceremony in Guwahati. The Government of India had signed a tripartite agreement with NDFB groups & the Assam Government on 27^th Jan in Delhi. Himanta Biswa Sarma on this occasion said, “Glad to announce the Arms Laying Ceremony by members of the NDFB groups today at Guwahati.” The historic Bodo Peace Accord heralds a new era of peace

in Assam. The path laid down by Hon PM Modi, and HM Sri Amit Shah on prosperity of NE gets a shot in the arm.

Bodoland, officially the Bodoland Territorial Region, is an autonomous region in the state of Assam, India. It made up of four districts on the north bank of the Brahmaputra river, by the foothills of Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh. The region is predominantly inhabited by the indigenous Bodo people and other indigenous communities of Assam. The official map of Bodoland includes four districts of BTAD recognized by the Government of India. It is administered by the Bodoland Territorial Council, which covers over eight thousand square KM. The territory came into existence under the BTC Accord in Feb 2003.

Historically it was inhabited by the Boros or Bodos or the Kacharis and other immigrants. The British gained control of the region through the Treaty of Yandabo upon winning the First Anglo-Burmese War in 1826. The war was primarily for the control of NE India between the British and Burmese empires. It was then known as the Kachari Dwars or Kachari plains or Kachari country by the British during the British Raj. The Bodo people in the Brahmaputra Valley have survived in the midst of Aryan and Shan invaders and settlers, while one of its cousins known as Koch, that ruled various parts of Lower Assam and North Bengal have now gradually become a semi-Hinduised aboriginal caste, due to inter-marriage who now speak Kamtapuri or Assamese. Surviving remnants of the royal family of Koch empire proved aboriginal members of the Koch caste spoke Bodo language. Along with the other parts of Northeast India, regional aspiration in the region reached a turning point in the 1980s. The isolation of the region, its complex social character, and its backwardness compared to other parts of the country have all resulted in the complicated set of demands ranging from demand for autonomy and opposition to ‘outsiders’ to movements for secession.

The WHO has declared the Wuhan coronavirus an international emergency.

Conspiracy theories are spreading faster than the coronavirus itself.

That hasn’t stopped an outbreak of nonsense and conspiracy theories. On Sunday, the Washington Times — a paper with a distinct ideological bent — published an article claiming that the virus’ outbreak could be linked to a military lab in Wuhan.

The article suggests a government-run lab, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, could have been researching military applications for the coronavirus and may have been the source of the outbreak.

The only basis for the claim is a quote from former Israeli intelligence officer Dany Shoham, who has expertise in biological warfare.

The Texas radio station KPRC posted the story to its site, concluding “some intelligence experts believe the Chinese military’s biowarfare department may be responsible.”

GreatGameIndia, a small ‘conspiracy website’ (AS PER FORIGN POLICY), which, among other things, has reported that British intelligence was responsible for the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine in 2014—began publishing reports last week claiming that Canadian researchers had sold this strain of coronavirus to China.

A group of bioinformaticians at two prestigious universities in Delhi, India, published a preprint scientific manuscript on the bioRxiv preprint server Friday has led many to speculate wildly that 2019-nCoV may have been deliberately engineered using HIV protein sequences.

While the decision was headline news — and the failure to do so earlier had attracted considerable criticism — it is largely a political move, a signal to governments around the world

to take this outbreak seriously if they were not already and reminder to them of their WHO commitments. As per Nature published on Jan 31^st “Scientists need the pathogen to probe the biology of the emerging infection and to develop tests, drugs and vaccines.”

The conspiracy theory can’t be proven until some concrete evidences comes out. However, it can’t be ruled out as well.

The statement added that “all countries” should be prepared for additional measures, and that they are legally required to share information with the WHO under the International Health Regulations (IHR).

Air India special flight to depart yesterday from Delhi for Wuhan (China) for the evacuation of Indians. According to Ashwani Lohani, Air India, CMD, at least 400 Indians will be evacuated today. The flight will take off at 12 pm and will return by 2 am today.

Indian Army has created a facility near Manesar, Haryana for quarantine of approximately 300 Indian students who will be arriving from Wuhan, China. At the facility, students can be monitored for a duration of weeks by a qualified team of doctors and staff members.

The procedure of screening and quarantine will comprise two steps, the first one being screening at airport followed by quarantine at Manesar and if any individual is suspected to be infected, he/she will be shifted to isolation ward at Base Hospital Delhi Cantonment.

Screening of the Indian students from Wuhan, China, at the airport will be done by a joint team of Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) and Airport Health Authority (APHO).

Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has created a facility near ITBP Chhawla Camp, New Delhi for quarantine of approximately 600 Indian families arriving from Wuhan, China. Families and children will be taken to this facility from the Airport.

Kerala Health Minister K.K Shylaja: Those who come from infected areas should stay away from others for 28 days. Further precautions will be done in collaboration with the private sector. As part of it, we met officials of Indian Medical Association (IMA). No need to panic.

One positive case of Novel Coronavirus has been found, in Kerala. The student was studying at Wuhan University in China. The patient is stable and is being closely monitored, on Jan 30^th.

Tamil Nadu: Manufacturers in Madurai working extra hours to produce N95 masks as demand soars in China due to Corona Virus outbreak. Abhilash, MD, AM Mediwear, says, “We’re getting huge number of orders from Indian exporters who will send masks to China. We’ve doubled our production”.

At least 170 people are dead and more than 7,700 cases have been confirmed in mainland China, as the Wuhan coronavirus spreads across Asia and the rest of the world.

China on lockdown: Nearly 60 million people have been under partial or full lockdowns in Chinese cities for a week.

Global spread: There are more than 100 confirmed cases in 20 places outside of China, with India and the Philippines reporting their first cases.

Evacuations: The US, Japan, and several other countries are now flying their citizens out of Wuhan.

Spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in India, Counselor Ji Rong: Chinese Embassy in India has maintained close communication with Indian govt, timely briefed on the development of the epidemic and China’s efforts in epidemic prevention and control

EU Parliament over anti-CAA resolution, discussion have done but voting Postponed

In a relief for India, the European Parliament decided to postpone voting on a critical anti-CAA resolution to March even as it went ahead with the debate on Wednesday. The resolution was jointly introduced by five major groups across political leanings.

Out of the 751-member house, when the resolution was taken up, of the 483 MEPs present, 271 voted to delay the vote on resolution, while 199 didn’t want it postponed and 13 abstained.

MEA: We have noted the decision of EU Parliament not to put the CAA resolution to vote today. We have noted that European Commission’s clarification that the opinions expressed by European Parliament its members don’t represent official position of EU.

An official source said India’s diplomatic offensive in the past few days, mainly in Brussels but here too with European envoys, resulted in a “diplomatic win” where the vote has been put off. The diplomatic drive was aimed at clearing up “misunderstandings” over the nature and implications of the CAA.

With the vote kicked down the road, India has more time to work diplomatic channels and reach out to MEPs. India has also blamed POK-born MEP Shaffaq Mohammed for the resolution. The problem for India is that the resolution still retains some of the nastiest bits from the earlier resolutions.

The formidable number of 626 of the 751 members of the EU Parliament has come out in a scathing denouncement of not only the CAA but also the issue of Kashmir in its draft resolutions (numbering from B9-0077/2020 to B9-0082/2020).

GoI’s sources said the EU Parliament should not take actions that call into question the rights and authority of democratically elected legislatures.

“We hope sponsors and supporters of the draft will engage with us to get a full and accurate assessment of the facts before they proceed further. As fellow democracies, EU Parliament shouldn’t take actions that call into question the rights and authority of democratically elected legislatures in other regions of the world,” they added.

Vice President, Naidu expresses concern over trend of foreign bodies interfering in matters ‘completely within purview of Indian Parliament and govt’

A total of 6 resolutions have been tabled by groups within the EU, including the

Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament (S&D),
Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) (PPE),
Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance (Verts/ALE),
European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR),
Renew Europe Group (Renew) and
European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) Group.
This Anti CAA resolution, tabled by European United Left/Nordic Green Left Group, is set to be debated on Wed and voted upon the day after. It made a reference to –

The Charter of the United Nations, Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The India-EU Strategic Partnership Joint Action Plan signed in Nov 2005,
And to the EU-India Thematic Dialogue on Human Rights.

‘Some MEPs were surprised when Shaffaq Mohammed (Pak origin EU MP) introduced this matter. We will definitely vote against it’, says Tomáš Zdechovský. It says “Instead of addressing concerns, offering corrective action, calling for security forces to act with restraint and ensuring accountability, many government leaders have been engaging in efforts to discredit, rebuke and threaten the protesters.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, during her visit to India last year, had also raised concerns regarding the situation in Kashmir, calling it “not sustainable” and “not good”, following which there have been discussions on the issue at the EU. In afternoon a statement came from Delegation of European Union to India on draft resolution on CAA: The European Parliament is an independent institution, sovereign in the organization of its work and in its deliberations. The text referred to are draft resolution by political groups in the European Parliament.

As per media, for France, a founding member of EU, the CAA is India’s internal political matter. We have stated this on several occasions. Ahead of EU debate on CAA, Cong accuses govt of internationalizing issue. Mehbooba Mufti, Former CM of JnK and presently detained ‘relieved’ at EU Parliament’s CAA resolution; seeks sanctions against India.

Article 15, UNHRC says:

(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality. (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

CAA brought to correct historical injustice

Amid protests for and against going on nationwide, PM in a rally of NCC annul day, PM Modi designated CAA as h correction of “Historical Injustice”

Ruckus in Parliament as President Ram Nath Kovind backs CAA, condemns violence in name of protests. Addressing the joint session of Parliament ahead of the Budget Session, the President said, “I am happy that the dream of the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi has been fulfilled through the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act by both the Houses of Parliament.”

Delhi Police books Sharjeel Imam, an activist who came in limelight during ongoing protest in Shaheen Bagh, for allegedly delivering inflammatory speeches against amended citizenship act and NRC. He has been arrested and sent to Judicial Custody for 5 days. Later, police recovered his mobile phone and Laptop.

Delhi Police Sources: Interrogation has revealed that Sharjeel Imam is highly radicalized and believes that India should be an Islamic state, he has also admitted that no tampering has been done with the videos of his different speeches. Police are also examining Sharjeel Imam’s connections with Islamic Youth Federation & Popular Front of India. He has said he has no remorse over his arrest. All his videos are being sent to Forensic Science Lab & his social media accounts are being examined.

Jamia Millia Islamia Registrar: It is to inform that any kind of protest meeting, agitation, speeches and mass gathering or any unlawful activities causing inconvenience and disruption in the day to day academic functioning are not allowed anywhere in the campus. Students are expected to cooperate actively in discipline maintenance to support exam and conduct of classes.They are also expected to immediately report any outsider/unauthorized Campus entry as this can lead to an attempt of disruption of peace at JMI.

As the Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC) organized march against CAA and NRC, from Jamia to Raj Ghat. But due to bullet fire, Police stopped them to go ahead. Protest continues near JMI University, against CAA and NRC.

The suspect behind the Jamia Gun Violence was Rambhagat Gopal, arrested and sent to 20 days protective custody in juvenile home.

Man, who brandished the gun and opened fire in Jamia area, has been taken into custody. He is being questioned. The injured, said to be a student, has been admitted to a hospital. Investigation is continuing.

The three students of JMI University who were summoned by Delhi Police Crime Branch today in connection with violence which broke out during anti-CAA protests on 15.12.19, arrive at the Crime Branch’s office.

Delhi: People protesting outside Raj Ghat against CAA and NRC have been detained by the Police.

WB: a special session of assembly called today to passed a Resolution against CAA

INC leaders Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi arrive at National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) office to file a complaint ‘against the action of the state police on the protesters during demonstrations against CAA.