Kashmir’s 'Accession for Autonomy’ Deal Banished from Textbook; Judge Hearing Rahul Appeal Was Shah’s Counsel in Fake Encounter Case

Does Rajnath practise what he preaches? SC says ‘caste stigma doesn’t go away’, Hindutva leader arrested for cow slaughter, polls are rebellion season, ‘photo aa gayi kya?’, PIO jailed for caste hate

A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by MK Venu, Seema Chishti, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sushant Singh, Sidharth Bhatia, Tanweer Alam and Pratik Kanjilal | With inputs from Kalrav Joshi | Editor: Vinay Pandey

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Snapshot of the day

April 13, 2023

Vinay Pandey

Satellite imagery shows Chinese soldiers continue to violate the LAC on Pangong Tso – despite India and China having allegedly reached a stand-down agreement in the area of the strategic Ladakh lake last year.

Flexing its muscles, the Narendra Modi government’s Enforcement Directorate on Thursday registered a case of “foreign exchange violations” against BBC India. The move comes weeks after the income-tax department "surveyed" the BBC's Delhi and Mumbai offices. The “surveys” were slammed globally as they were seen to be linked with the BBC showing a documentary on the Gujarat violence of 2002, when Narendra Modi was the state's chief minister. Officials told PTI that the ED has asked for documents and the recording of statements by certain BBC employees under the Foreign Exchange Management Act.

The Surat judge who is hearing Rahul Gandhi’s appeal against his conviction in the Modi surname defamation case was Amit Shah’s lawyer in the 2006 Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter case. Gandhi has filed an appeal against his conviction and two-year prison sentence in the 2019 defamation case. Bar and Bench reported Judge Mogera on Thursday specifically hearing Gandhi’s plea for a stay on his conviction so that his disqualification from the Lok Sabha can be reversed.

Mogera, appointed judge in January 2018, is the same Robin Mogera who, as a lawyer, had defended Shah in the 2006 fake encounter case that caught national attention. Shah was then Gujarat’s home minister. Mogera represented him at least until 2014, when the case was being heard at a Central Bureau of Investigation court in Mumbai.

Addressing the International Conference on Defence Finance and Economics on Wednesday, defence minister Rajnath Singh said that “the gold standard of open tender” should be adopted to the extent possible when purchasing defence equipment. “A competitive bid-based procurement process, which is open to all, is the best possible way to realise the full value of the public money being spent. There would be some rare cases when it may not be possible to go for an open tender process,” he added. However, some of the biggest deals in recent times, including the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets, S-400 long-range air defence systems and four stealth frigates, have been through intergovernmental agreements.

In paving the way for reforms in the Supreme Court towards the inclusion of the LGBTQIA+ community, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, unlike many, has been an outlier. In a statement, the Supreme Court administration said that nine universal restrooms are being constructed at different spots in the main building as well as the additional building complex of the court. The online appearance portal has also been made gender-neutral. Following a request from an advocate from the LGBTQIA+ community, the CJI is also considering a proposal for broadening the scope of the Gender Sensitisation and Internal Complaints Committee. 

After nine years of no change since 2014, the health ministry on Wednesday announced that it has revised the Central Government Health Scheme package rates for all CGHS beneficiaries and simplified the referral process under the CGHS for the benefit of its employees by offering a video call facility. A senior health ministry official said that this would put an additional burden of between ₹240 crore to ₹300 crore on the government.

A recent report by Chhattisgarh state’s Women and Child Commission based on a scheme called “Vajan Tyohar” (weight festival) shows that the tribal districts have more cases of malnutrition than non-tribal districts. The report, which is unavailable on government websites, was provided to The Wire by a government official.

Forty-one BJP officials, including two former chief ministers (Babulal Marandi and Raghubar Das), a union minister (Arjun Munda), as well as lawmakers and parliamentarians, have been booked by the Ranchi police on various charges, including rioting and causing hurt.

“Stigma doesn’t go away,” says the Supreme Court as it hears pleas seeking reservation for SC and ST converts. The court refused to get drawn in to the Modi’s government’s delaying tactics – last year it appointed a new committee to examine the validity of the Christian and Muslim Dalit demand for reservation because it disagreed with the positive recommendation made by an earlier committee – and said it would decide the matter without waiting for any new report.

Twenty-five years ago, a teenage boy in Jalabsar village of Rajasthan, was sentenced to death as an adult for murder. However, last month, the Supreme Court freed the man, who is now 41, after determining that he was a minor when the crime occurred. All this because of a man’s birth date error. 

The Financial Times has told the Adani group it will not comply with their demand to take down a story on the company’s questionable business practices.