1. 1,200 Detained, Traffic Choked as Police Lock Down Central Delhi
Central Delhi was turned into a fortress on Thursday as different citizen groups protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act gathered at Red Fort and Mandi House in the morning to march to Shaheedi Park on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg.
Determined to prevent any outbreak of violence — after clashes at Jamia Nagar and Seelampur in the past few days — Delhi Police pulled out all the stops to foil the attempt. Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC were imposed in and around central Delhi and Red Fort, 20 Metro stations were closed and a communications blockade, shutting down voice, SMS and data service, was ordered.
By the end of the day, 1,200 protesters had been detained, but that didn’t prevent others from converging at Jantar Mantar where they stayed put till 8pm. No untoward incident was reported but the entire city felt the effect of the protest.
Among those whisked away to camps in Bawana, Nangloi and north-west Delhi were many opposition leaders, including D Raja, Sitaram Yechury, Nilotpal Basu, Brinda Karat, Ajay Maken and Sandeep Dikshit, and activists Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan, Harsh Mander and Umar Khalid.
The rest were a mix of students, activists, professionals and others. By nightfall, all of them had been released and some headed for Jantar Mantar where the agitation culminated after some persuasion by the police.
(Source: The Times of India)
2. Three Killed as Protests Break Out Nationwide
Two people were killed in Mangaluru in Karnataka after protests turned violent, while large-scale agitation resulted in the death of one person in Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow on Thursday as demonstrators across states took to the streets against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).
Hundreds were detained as protesters defied prohibitory orders of Section 144, imposed across states, even as demonstrations in West Bengal, Maharashtra, Bihar, Kerala and the North-east remained largely peaceful.
Noted historian Ramachandra Guha, who was part of the protest at the Town Hall in Bengaluru, was among those briefly detained by the police on Thursday.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
3. US House Impeaches President Donald Trump
Donald Trump on Wednesday became the third US President to be impeached as the House of Representatives formally charged him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in a historic step that will inflame partisan tensions across a deeply divided America.
The Democratic-led House’s passage of two articles of impeachment on a mostly party-line vote sets the stage for a trial next month in the Republican-controlled Senate on whether or not to convict and remove him from office.
No President in the 243-year history of the US has been removed from office by impeachment. That would require a two-thirds majority in the 100-member Senate, meaning at least 20 Republicans would have to join the Democrats in voting against Trump — and none have indicated they will.
(Source: The Hindu)
4. Nirbhaya Case: HC Junks Plea on Juvenility
The Delhi HC junked on Thursday a claim by Pawan Kumar Gupta, one of the four convicts on death row in the Nirbhaya case, that he was a juvenile at the time the offence was committed on 16 December 2012.
The court deprecated the conduct of his lawyer, A P Singh, for filing “forged documents” and not appearing in the court, and slapped a fine of Rs 25,000 on him for playing “hide and seek” with the court. It said Gupta had exhausted his legal remedy when his juvenility plea was rejected by the SC.
(Source: The Times of India)
5. Amid Net Shutdown, Delhi CM Opens Free WI-Fi Hotspot
On the say Delhi saw a suspension of mobile services, including Internet, for the first time, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal presided over the inauguration of a free Wifi hotspot installation at the ITO bus stop as part of the Aam Aadmi Party government’s flagship project aimed at providing free public access to Internet across the Capital.
The irony of the situation was not lost on the CM, who said, “It is ironic that Internet services are down today [Thursday] because the police have asked for them to be shut on the day when we are launching this project… We hope that the situation normalises soon and the services resume.”
According to the Delhi government, 109 free Wifi hotspots were installed in Delhi to mark the launch of the scheme. Deputy CM Manish Sisodia marked the launch of the project at the Vishwavidyalaya Metro station.
(Source: The Hindu)
6. IMA Scam: CBI Seeks Nod to Prosecute 6 Cops
In further trouble for those named in the IMA ponzi scheme case, the CBI has sought sanction to prosecute six Karnataka officials, including two IPS officers, saying they "blatantly and dishonestly favoured" the accused and allowed them to continue their activities "unhindered".
The CBI has written to the Karnataka government seeking sanction to prosecute Hemant Nimbalkar, a 1998-batch IPS officer, and Ajay Hilori, a 2008-batch IPS officer.
(Source: Deccan Herald)
7. Afghan NSA Meets Ajit Doval, India Says ‘No Persecution of Minorities Under Ghani’
As Afghanistan’s National Security Advisor Hamdullah Mohib met NSA Ajit Doval in New Delhi on Thursday, the government said religious persecution of minorities is not taking place under the government led by Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said religious persecution had taken place under the Taliban regime and the Mujahideen. “It is not happening under the present government… the present government addressed the concerns of minorities in Afghanistan,” he said, adding that Taliban had given a call in 2001 for minorities to convert to Islam.
His comments assume significance as the Citizenship (Amendment) Act grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians, Jains and Parsis — but not Muslims — who entered the country from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till 31 December 2014.
(Source: The Indian Express)
8. At 5.2°C, Thursday Was Season’s Coldest Night in Delhi
Weather dealt a severe double-whammy to Delhiites on Thursday. While the city woke up to the coldest and foggiest morning of the season with the minimum temperature dropping to 5.2 degrees Celsius, three notches below normal, the day too stayed intensely chilly as the mercury remained seven degrees below the normal mark at 15 degrees C.
This made Thursday the third ‘severe cold day’ of the week, as per readings at Delhi’s main weather station in Safdarjung. Other places in the capital were even colder on Thursday morning. Mungeshpur registered a low of 4.1 degrees C while Jafarpur recorded 4.9.
The Ridge was the coldest place in the city during the day, recording a maximum of 14.4 degrees C.
(Source: The Times of India)
9. Climate Crisis Hits Insurance Plan for Crops
Narayan Amre, a soyabean grower in Maharashtra’s Palghar, knew he was ruined when devastating rains in August washed away the entire crop on his four-hectare farm. “It’s a 100% loss,” he says.
Some of Amre’s losses will be covered by crop insurance, but it’s unclear when compensation will be paid and how much losses, in value terms, will be accepted by the insurance surveyors, he adds.
Delayed payouts have dogged the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), the country’s flagship farm insurance scheme, since its roll-out in the summer of 2016. Now, there’s a new risk to be hedged, insurance companies say — climate crisis-induced extreme weather events.
Untimely rains and sudden drought have upended the farm insurance business, as loss-making insurers brace for an avalanche of claims this year from 12 states that witnessed widespread summer flooding. Maharashtra is by far the worst hit, data show.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
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