1. India’s Dalveer Bhandari Re-Elected to ICJ After Britain Pulls Out
India's nominee to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Dalveer Bhandari was on Tuesday re-elected to the last seat of the World court after Britain withdrew its candidate from the election.
Bhandari received 183-193 votes in the General Assembly and secured all the 15 votes in the Security Council after separate and simultaneous elections were held at the UN headquarters in New York.
Bhandari and Britain's Christopher Greenwood were locked in a neck-and-neck fight for re-election to the ICJ.
The permanent members of the Security Council – the US, Russia, France and China –were understood to have been throwing their weight behind Greenwood.
Read full story here.
2. Decks Cleared For Rahul's Elevation as Congress President
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi appears all set to take over as Congress President in the first week of December.
The move is likely to take place in the middle of the Gujarat polls and the Gandhi scion will face trial by fire in less than a fortnight of his taking charge of the party as the results of the Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat elections will be announced on 18 December.
The nomination process will begin on 1 December and end on 4 December. If Rahul is the only one to file the nomination, as is expected, he will be declared elected unopposed after the scrutiny of nominations take place on 5 December.
(Source: Deccan Chronicle)
3. Gujarat Polls: Congress Alters 4 Names in Second List; PAAS 'Happy'
In an effort to placate the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), the Congress on Monday revised its list of candidates announced a day earlier by dropping four candidates, including Amit Thummar of the PAAS from Junagadh seat, ostensibly under pressure from Patidar quota agitation leaders.
The new list of 13 candidates named candidates for nine other constituencies, all going to the polls in the first phase of Gujarat Assembly polls on 9 December.
The changes come a day before PAAS leader Hardik Patel’s expected announcement on the organisation’s electoral stand with the Congress. Hardik was supposed to announce it on Monday but put it off, apparently miffed with Sunday’s first list of 77 names.
(Source: Indian Express)
4. Ayodhya Dispute: Shia Board Offers to Give up Land, Wants Mosque in Lucknow
Uttar Pradesh Shia Waqf Board on Monday made public a proposal — which it had presented before the Supreme Court on 18 November — forgoing its rights on the disputed land in Ayodhya, which it said should be given to Hindus to build a Ram temple and a mosque be constructed in Lucknow.
Claiming to be making efforts to resolve the Babri Masjid-Ramjanambhoomi title dispute outside court, chairman Syed Waseem Rizvi of the Shia board told reporters that the proposal was prepared after holding discussions with several mahants and stakeholders.
However, the proposal did not go down well with the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) and the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board.
The proposal urged the state government to provide one acre of land in Hussainabad of Lucknow. “Mosque built at this place would not be named after any Mughal emperor and would be known as Masjid-e-Aman (mosque of peace), so that it can give a message of peace and brotherhood to the country,” it added.
(Source: Indian Express)
5. First Privately Built Rocket to Launch by 2021: ISRO Chief
In a step towards outsourcing its launch vehicle programme, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning a joint venture with a consortium of companies where a space rocket will be completely built by the private industry.
"The target for such a (fully privately built) launch vehicle is 2020-21. Isro will be part of the JV. Work is in progress to put the mechanism in place," Isro chairman AS Kiran Kumar told TOI.
While commenting on a recent report that China is planning to reduce the cost of launching satellites to woo foreign customers, the ISRO chief said, "We will continue to improve our cost-effectiveness. It (launch cost) is not linked to what someone else is doing. It's not possible to change your activities at such a pace."
Isro is going to resume satellite launches from mid-December after a lull of three months.
(Source: Times of India)
6. MP Bans Padmavati Release, Amarinder Backs Protesters, Mamata Sees a ‘plot’
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan told delegations of the Rajput community, which is protesting the film’s depiction of Rani Padmini, or Padmavati, that his government won’t tolerate any “wrong portrayal of a character worshipped by the nation”. The Rajasthan government had earlier banned the film.
The protesters found a supporter in Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh, who became the first Congress leader to speak out against the film.
“Nobody will accept the distortion of history and those who are protesting are rightly doing so,” ANI quoted the Congress leader as saying.
The protests were condemned as muzzling freedom of speech. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee called the row a calculated “plan of a political party to destroy the freedom to express”.
Meanwhile, fringe group Karni Sena chief Lokendra Singh Kalvi called for a Bharat Bandh on the release day of the movie.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
7. I am a Political Victim Like Vadra, Virbhadra: Vijay Mallya
In his defence before a UK court against India's request to extradite him in a money laundering case, controversial businessman Vijay Mallya has drawn parallels between himself, and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra and Himachal Pradesh CM Virbhadra Singh.
In a statement, which also cited "inhuman jail conditions" in India, Mallya said he was a political victim like the other two. The former liquor baron attached newspaper reports quoting Congress members as alleging that the Centre was targeting Vadra and Singh as part of political vendetta.
Subsequently, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a reply saying instead of discussing the case on merit, Mallya was trying to divert attention by making statements on the basis of unsubstantiated media reports.
(Source: Times of India)
8. CRPF Offers Helpline to Let J&K Local Militants Return
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has thrown open its helpline (1441) for local militants willing to surrender to establish contact, CRPF Inspector General Zulfiquar Hasan told The Hindu on Monday.
Hasan, IG Operations in Srinagar said the helpline, launched earlier this year, has received more than 70,000 calls. “Since it is an established helpline, we decided that it should be used to help the local militants return home. We will guide them,” he said.
Foreign militants in Kashmir Valley would not be spared but security forces would pull out all the stops to ensure that the local boys who have joined terror groups come back to the mainstream, Hasan said.
The CRPF is one of the main central forces deployed in Jammu and Kashmir for counter-insurgency operations.
(Source: The Hindu)
9. Bimal Gurung Suspended From GJM
The Binay Tamang faction of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) on Monday suspended party president Bimal Gurung and general secretary Roshan Giri for six months.
The decision was taken at a Central Committee meeting of GJM held at the Ghum area in Darjeeling district. Apart from two top party leaders, eight others, including Gurung’s wife Asha, were also suspended.
The development comes a day ahead of the all party meeting called by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Siliguri.
Gurung has been absconding since August after the State government slapped cases against him under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for his alleged involvement in bomb blasts in Darjeeling.
(Source: The Hindu)
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