1. Must Unite Against Terrorism: Modi
Talking tough on terrorism, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the Indian diaspora in Brussels and paid tribute to the victims of the terror attack.
Modi said terrorism posed a challenge to humanity and underlined the need to delink it with religion.
Modi noted that India has been facing the menace of terrorism for over 40 years but will never bow down to it. He added that United Nations must address the problem.
The world was jolted by 9/11. Till then the world powers did not understand what India was going through. But India never bowed to terrorism and there is no question of bowing before it. If the UN does not address this problem, it will not be too long before the world body loses its relevance.Narendra Modi, Prime Minister
Earlier, Modi met the Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel and pitched for resumption of talks on a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty and other instruments to combat the common challenge of terrorism.
Modi also invited the Belgian government and companies to associate themselves with the ambitious projects of his government like ‘Make in India’, ‘Skill India’ and ‘Start Up India’. He added that Belgian businesses can make their supply chains more cost effective by manufacturing in India, reports The Indian Express.
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2. HC Delays Floor Test in Uttarakhand
The Uttarakhand High Court retracted its earlier order on the floor test in the Uttarakhand Assembly after the Centre had challenged it on Wednesday.
The next hearing in the case will be held on 6 April. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi represented the Centre.
The petition was mentioned before a division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice KM Joseph and Justice VK Bisht. The petition sought clarity on whether the floor test can be held in the state Assembly after the promulgation of President’s rule when the House is in suspended animation.
Meanwhile, Uttarakhand BJP leaders alleged that state police had tapped the phones of BJP leaders, rebel Congress leaders and some journalists. BJP spokesperson Munna Singh Chauhan said the state police had informed under the Right to Information Act that it had recorded 378 such phone calls since June 2015, reports The Indian Express.
He added that ousted CM Harish Rawat is attempting horse-trading.
My allegation is that the police have taped the phone calls on Harish Rawat’s directive… to keep watch on certain people including politicians, journalists and those members of Rawat’s former cabinet who have turned rebel now.Munna Singh Chauhan, BJP Spokesperson to The Indian Express
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3. Landmine Blast Kills 7 CRPF Personnel in Dantewada
Seven CRPF men were killed on Wednesday and their weapons were looted after Naxals carried out a deadly landmine blast on their vehicle in the jungles of Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh.
Officials said the incident occurred near the Basaras-Kuakonda axis in the Melawada village when a Tata-709 mini-truck of the force went over a landmine at about 4 pm. All seven occupants were killed from the impact of the blast.
The blast was so huge that it left a deep crater on the road. The vehicle and bodies of the personnel were completely blown apart, reports The Indian Express.
The Hindu reported that a special meeting of anti-Naxal wing was officiated by the state Home Minister at his residence.
The Maoists carried out the attack out of frustration. We make sure we take extreme precautions but some human mistakes happen. New instructions would be issued as per the situation. The Maoists are on the back foot and are targeting the innocent nowAjay Chandrakar, Home Minister, Chhattisgarh to The Hindu
4. No Law Prevents Women From Entering Any Temple: Bombay High Court
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday said that if men are allowed in a place of worship then women should be too as no law prevents them from doing so.
The High Court also added that any temple or person imposing restrictions on women entering a place of worship will face a six-month jail term under Maharashtra law.
The observations were made by a division bench of Chief Justice DH Waghela and Justice MS Sonak on the prevention of women’s entry in the sanctum sanctorum of Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra.
The judges also said the offering of worship has to be made before the deity and not outside, reports The Times of India. The judges added that state will have to file cases for contravention of Section 3 of the Act, which says “no Hindu shall in any manner be prevented from entering such place of public worship or from worshipping or offering prayers as any other Hindu.”
The debate over the issue in Maharashtra escalated after a woman last year tried to enter and offer prayers at the Shani Shingnapur temple, in “breach” of the age-old practice of prohibiting the entry of women.
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5. Egyptian Hijacked Plane to See his Wife after 24 Years
Seif Eldin Mustafa, the Egyptian man accused of hijacking a plane and diverting it to Cyprus told the authorities that he did it to see his wife and children.
According to a Hindustan Times report, 59-year-old Mustafa told police he acted the way he did because he wanted to see his estranged wife and kids after 24 years.
As he left the court compound in a police jeep, Mustafa stuck his hand out of an open window flashing the ‘V’ sign for victory.
Read more here.
6. Bihar Assembly Passes Bill on Partial Liquor Ban
A Bill providing for up to capital punishment to those manufacturing or trading illicit liquor in the event of a hooch tragedy was unanimously passed by both Bihar legislature on Wednesday. The legislators of the state also adopted a resolution that its members will not consume liquor and will inspire others to stay away from it.
In the first phase, there will be a complete prohibition in rural areas on country-made liquor across the state while Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) will be sold in limited areas of the state i.e. municipal corporations and councils.
The Bihar Excise (Amendment) Bill 2016 talks about complete prohibition in the state. The provisions of the new Bill, that incorporates some stringent measures, will come into effect from 1 April.Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister, Bihar
A Hindustan Times report read that the ban will be one of the largest in the world and affect about 100 million people in the state. This is Bihar’s second experiment with prohibition, after a failed attempt in the 1970s saw the proliferation of smuggling from neighbouring states where alcohol remained legal.
We have discussed the issue with bordering states and the vehicles in transit would be digitally locked with entry into Bihar. The locks would automatically open when they would leave state territory, which has to be within 24 hours.Nitish Kumar to Assembly
Read more here.
7. Drop in Number of JNU Applicants
For the first time in five years, the number of applications for admission into Jawaharlal Nehru University has dropped. The varsity has received 76,091 applications for this year’s JNU entrance examination (JNUEE for general sciences and social sciences), down from 79,714 last year but higher than the 2014-15 figure, reports The Times of India.
The varsity administration said the 4.5 percent decline in aspirants for social sciences and general science courses was not alarming but didn’t rule out the possibility of the recent political turmoil on the campus having deterred some students from applying.
Meanwhile, JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar has said that he will fight against every massacre after facing criticism for his comments on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, .
Speaking at Jantar Mantar on Wednesday, Kanhaiya appeared to be in damage control mode.
We will fight against massacres may it be Bathani Tola massacre, or 1984 riots or the 2002 riots. We will together fight for their closures and we will make sure that the closure is in favour of justice and in favour of societyKanhaiya Kumar, JNUSU President
JNU has refused to make a report of the preliminary inquiry conducted by three professors in the controversial events of 9 February public. According to Deccan Herald, the University cited exemption clauses of the RTI Act saying that “the matter of incidents that took place on 9 February and subsequent developments relating thereto are under investigation at the University level.”
8. LDF Announces Candidates for 124 Seats in Kerala
The Left Democratic Front (LDF) issued a list of 124 candidates on Wednesday out of Kerala’s 140 seats. The list included 43 sitting MLAs, 16 women candidates and eight independents, reports The Indian Express.
Some of the key entries in the list are actor Mukesh, Managing director of Reporter TV MV Nikesh Kumar, Leader of Opposition VS Achuthanandan and politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan. However, the most surprising name on the list was secretariat committee member MM Mani.
Mani has publicly said that CPM has a history of killing rivals and at a time when BJP is making “CPM-sponsored violent politics” as poll theme, his nomination becomes interesting.
Read more here.
9. Opinion: Narendra Modi’s ‘Vikas’ has not Become a ‘Janandolan’
The evidence is now unmistakable that India’s economic transformation is not the primary project of the BJP regime. Basically, no cadres, no crowds, no great emotions have been mobilised in behalf of economic development. To paraphrase Prime Minister Narendra Modi, vikas (development) has not become a janandolan (mass movement).Ashutosh Varshney in his column for The Indian Express
Varshney added that India’s cultural transformation is BJP’s fundamental project because a cultural transformation will provide a better narrative for political campaigns.
Compare this government’s lacklustre economic mobilisation with the unflagging energy of Hindu nationalist cultural campaigns. First it was “ghar wapsi” (reconversion of Muslims and Christians to Hinduism); next came cow protection; and now we have Bharat Mata (Mother India). Indeed, the emergence of nationalism as a theme and the identification of Bharat Mata as its central metaphor are the new ideological pivots. The pivot was formed in the JNU crisis but its roots lie in the BJP’s attempt to discover a formula that can merge its own concerns with those of the RSS. All political regimes in India have, nearly always, appointed sympathetic heads of universities, research and cultural bodies. What is distinctive about the current regime is not its appointment of obscure figures as academic heads, but its focus on the student politics of universities.
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