1. Shankarsinh Vaghela Quits Gujarat Congress
After the jolt of 11 legislators cross voting for the NDA in the presidential poll, the Congress in Gujarat is set to get another jolt with its seniormost leader Shankarsinh Vaghela quitting the party along with his supporters, including several legislators.
While announcing his exit from the party to the cheers of his supporters on his birthday gathering, Vaghela did not announce on Friday the formation of a third front or return to the BJP more than two decades.
Among the options Vaghela is reportedly considering include joining the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which has two MLAs in the State and is trying to create a third front in Gujarat where the polity remains distinctly bipolar for decades.
(Source: The Hindu)
2. Petrol Outlet Owned by Lalu’s Son Sealed
A petrol outlet owned by Bihar Health Minister Tej Pratap Yadav in Patna was sealed on Friday by the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), allegedly for “irregularities in acquiring land for the pump”.
The opposition BJP has demanded that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar immediately sack the Yadav from the Cabinet.
On 29 May, BPCL had served a show cause notice to the Minister following allegations by senior State BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi. Modi claimed that Yadav had furnished false information in his application to acquire the petrol pump in Beur area of Patna district.
(Source: The Hindu)
3. Mamata Positions Herself for 2019
Mamata Banerjee on Friday turned her party's Martyrs' Day programme into a platform to declare a war against the BJP by a united Opposition, obliquely also positioning herself as a national player and the ruling party's staunchest enemy.
The Bengal Chief Minister declared she would invite every anti-BJP party to next year's event, the most important on Trinamool's annual roster.
Every year, Mamata uses the 21 July programme, held in the memory of the 13 Youth Congress activists who fell to police bullets in 1993 when she led the outfit, to chart her party's political course and set targets. She did it on Friday too, but looking two years ahead to the next general election.
She took a tilt at the BJP's aura of invincibility, which has caused jitters even within her party following the Uttar Pradesh polls and indications of cross-voting in favour of NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind in this week's presidential election.
Let me explain the arithmetic. Meira Kumar, our (presidential) candidate, got 35 per cent votes. That’s very good. The 65 per cent they got was secured through a lot of things – (investigative) agencies and what not. In the vice-presidential polls, two more parties have joined us. The number will keep growing.
(Source: The Telegraph)
4. Modi Government Policies are Burning Kashmir: Congress VP Rahul Gandhi
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi reiterated his charge on Friday that the Modi government's policies are “burning” Jammu and Kashmir, asserting that no third party intervention was required to resolve India’s internal matters.
India is Kashmir and Kashmir is India... It is being said there should be discussion on Kashmir with China and Pakistan, but this is our internal matter... our internal business and no one should interfere in it.Rahul Gandhi
Kashmir has seen increased tensions since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter on 8 July last year. This year, on 10 July, terrorists attacked a bus carrying Amarnath pilgrims in south Kashmir, killing seven of them.
“I have been saying this for a long time that Modi's and the NDA's policies are burning Jammu and Kashmir,” the Congress vice president said.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
5. In Aadhaar and WhatsApp Cases, Centre Takes Different Views on Privacy
The Centre on Friday told the Supreme Court that protection of data is integral to a citizen's personal life, and is part of his fundamental right to life and dignity.
Any sharing of personal data by a service provider or a social media platform that impinges on a person's right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution requires regulation, the government submitted before a five-judge Constitution Bench led by Justice Dipak Misra.
The Bench is hearing a petition filed by students led by Karmanya Singh Sareen alleging that a data-sharing contract entered into between Facebook and instant messaging platform WhatsApp in 2016 is a violation of the citizens' right to privacy.
This data includes photographs, messages, pictures shared by the users on WhatsApp.
Incidentally, the stand taken by the Centre in this WhatsApp case does not gel with its position before the 9 judge Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India JS Khehar, which is now examining the right of a citizen to not part with his personal information or data to the State or private parties.
(Source: The Hindu)
6. House Panel Headed by BJP MP Slams Homophobia
A parliamentary committee headed by a BJP MP has criticised the central government’s draft bill on rights for transgender people, saying it fails to address important civil rights issues, such as marriage and divorce, and thereby rendering transgender people as criminals under section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.
The report by the Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment – headed by Ramesh Bais, a seven-term Lok Sabha MP representing the Raipur constituency – is the first ever government document to recognise the right to civil union for transgender persons.
The 31-member panel, comprising MPs from a number of political parties, tabled its “unanimously passed” report on The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016, in the Lok Sabha on Friday.
(Source: The Indian Express)
Meanwhile, here’s a video from Kochi, Kerala, where the city’s metro corporation took the responsibility of providing employment to transgender people.
7. Zeliang Wins Trust Vote in Nagaland
The youth wing of the ruling Naga People's Front (NPF) today "celebrated" TR Zeliang's return as Nagaland's Chief Minister by winning the trust vote with a beef party.
The 'food first' feast – one that was also a mark of protest, said those who partook of it – marked a severance of ties between the NPF and the BJP, which people believe was also largely responsible for the state's latest round of political turmoil.
The crisis lasted 13 days, starting 7 July when predecessor Shürhozelie Liezietsu's chief detractor raised the flag of dissent with 34 MLAs.
The developments included Zeliang taking 34 MLAs to a hotel at Kaziranga National Park, 230 km away in Assam, and Governor PB Acharya dismissing Shürhozelie for failing to turn up for a trust vote on Wednesday.
(Source: The Telegraph)
8. Skirting SC Ban, Govt Says Drilling Is Not Mining
Overturning its 15 May decision to “plug permanently” gas extraction wells falling within 1 km of a wildlife sanctuary, the standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) cleared it on 27 June based on a legal opinion from the Environment ministry that drilling for oil and gas “is not covered under mining”.
Ruling on the Jamua Ramgarh (Sariska) mining case in 2006, the Supreme Court prohibited mining activities within 1 km of all wildlife sanctuaries and national parks. Mining has been defined as “any excavation for the purpose of searching for or obtaining mineral oils and includes an oil well,” according to the Oilfield (Regulation and Development) Act, 1948.
The safety issues involved in oil extraction are regulated by the Director General of Mines Safety and the Oil Mines Regulations, 1984 made under the Mines Act, 1952.
(Source: The Indian Express)
In Meghalaya, where the infamous rat-hole mines were banned by the NGT in 2015, coal mining continues, but at the cost of labour protection and rights. Here’s our video from the ground:
9. India Protests US Reference to PoK as ‘Azad Kashmir’ in Terror Report
India has lodged a strong protest with the US over the state department's "Country Report on Terrorism 2016", released on Wednesday, referring to Pak-occupied Kashmir (PoK) as "Azad Jammu & Kashmir" even as it states that the area is being used by terrorist groups to target India.
The Indian government approached US authorities after the release of the report. An official spokesperson of the external affairs ministry told TOI:
The government has seen the mention of the term ‘Azad Jammu & Kashmir’ in the US state department’s country report on terrorism for 2016. We have raised the matter with the US authorities and lodged our protest.
This is the first time the US has referred to PoK as "Azad Jammu & Kashmir" despite the fact that the region is closely controlled by the Pakistan military in the face of Indian protests. Till recently, the US has used the nomenclature "Pakistan-administered Kashmir". The report, however, praises India's efforts to combat terrorism.
(Source: Times Of India)
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