1. Uneasy Calm in North East, But Protests Spread to a Few Cities Elsewhere
Violence in Assam and Tripura over the new citizenship law ebbed on Friday after 72 hours of mayhem on the streets even as new pockets of unrest emerged in Bengal, Delhi, parts of western UP and Kerala.
As the shifting sands of the agitation against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, kept the Union government guessing, the All Assam Students' Union (Aasu) appeared to set the tone for more organised and less disruptive protests in Guwahati, where it had all started last Monday.
(Source: The Times of India)
2. Rahul Gandhi’s Remarks on Rape Cases Stir Heated Exchange
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members of Parliament on Friday, the last day of the current Winter Session, sought an apology from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who, taking a jibe at the government’s ambitious Make in India campaign at an election rally in Jharkhand a day before, said this wasn’t happening and instead, “wherever you look, it is Rape in India”.
Both houses witnessed disruptions over the comment.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
3. Won't Direct Kerala to Enforce Women's Sabarimala Entry: SC
Expressing apprehension of violence, the Supreme Court said on Friday it would not direct the Kerala government to forcibly implement a five-judge bench's verdict quashing the bar on the entry of females between 10 and 50 years into the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple till a seven-judge bench reconsidered the judgement on the "emotive" issue, which stemmed from a 1,000-year-old tradition.
Appearing for Fatima AS and Bindu Ammini, who sought entry into Sabarimala on the basis of the SC's September 28 judgement, senior advocates Colin Gonsalves and Indira Jaising said the order was the law of the land and its operation was not stayed despite being referred to a seven-judge bench.
(Source: The Times of India)
4. Shinzo Abe-PM Modi Summit Off as Protests Rock Northeast
In a major casualty of the violent protests rocking Assam and some other parts of the Northeast due to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill controversy, India on Friday announced the cancellation of its annual summit with Japan that was to have been held in Guwahati from 15-17 December. With this, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to India for the summit was also cancelled.
“With reference to the proposed visit of Japanese PM Shinzo Abe to India, both sides have decided to defer the visit to a mutually convenient date in the near future,” the external affairs ministry announced in a terse statement.
(Source: The Asian Age)
5. UN Terms New Law Discriminatory; US Panel Concerned
The United Nations human rights office on Friday described the Citizenship (Amendment) Act as “fundamentally discriminatory in nature” and called for it to be reviewed, even as a United States panel that monitors religious freedom again expressed concern about the law.
The government has said the CAA, approved by Parliament on Wednesday, was aimed at protecting minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, though the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights noted that the law “does not extend the same protection to Muslims, including minority sects”.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
6. Citizenship Law: Bangladesh Protests After Convoy of Envoy Attacked in Assam
On Wednesday, as protests broke out in Guwahati, the convoy of Bangladesh’s Assistant High Commissioner in Guwahati – a mid-level diplomat – was reportedly attacked, and two signposts of the Bangladesh Assistant High Commission were vandalised.
Protesting against these incidents, Bangladesh’s Acting Foreign Secretary Kamrul Ahsan, in a rare move, summoned Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Riva Ganguly Das at the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry on Thursday evening and requested extra security for the mission.
(Source: The Indian Express)
7. Nirbhaya Case: Tihar Execution Chamber Ready, Curbs on Convicts
With the secret shifting of Pawan Kumar Gupta, one of the convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, from Mandoli jail to Tihar jail, and heightened restrictions on the other three convicts, the execution of the death sentence awarded to the four dreaded criminals doesn’t seem to be too far away.
Top placed sources from Tihar jail said, “As soon as Pawan Kumar Gupta reached Tihar from Mandoli jail, we banned communication between all the four convicts. Earlier, the three convicts in the case lodged in Tihar jail used to talk among themselves during the day time.”
(Source: The Tribune)
8. UK's Boris Johnson Wins Parliamentary Majority
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday won a parliamentary majority in the UK's general elections, according to media reports here, a victory that will end the uncertainty over Brexit and will help him to take the UK out of the European Union by the end of next month.
Results showed the Boris-led Conservative won 326 of the 650 seats in the lower House of Commons, according to Sky News and BBC.
(Source: The Asian Age)
9. NRC Buzz Triggers Advisories, Videos: Get IDs Ready
The unusual advisory is issued just before Friday prayers begin: gather your ID papers, keep them ready. Then, there are tutorial videos on WhatsApp groups, and seminars and workshops, to ensure uniform spelling across these documents. A guide book in Urdu has gone into its third edition in less than a month.
From Bengaluru to Kolkata, and Mumbai to Hyderabad, mosques, Muslim groups, lawyers and activists are rushing to ensure that community members have their identity documents in place.
(Source: The Indian Express)
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