REPEAT OFFENDER

❗️CONTEXT: He is the head of the Juna Akhada, Yati Narsinghanand Giri organised a closed-door 'Dharma Sansad' or religious conclave from December 17-19 in Haridwar.

🤬 Many videos from the event have surfaced with speakers, including him, giving incendiary speeches targeting the minority community, especially Muslims. Giri was seen in one video calling for war against Muslims and urging Hindus to take up weapons to prevent a Muslim becoming prime minister in 2029.

👉 He has been named in two FIRs since then.

📣 NOW: Giri was arrested on Jan 15, nearly a month after the conclave.
😶 The Uttarakhand Police had then said it was related to another case related to his speeches defaming women from other religions. On Jan 17, today, the police changed its stance and said he had been arrested in the Dharma Sansad case too.
🗓 He has been sent to judicial custody for two weeks.

⏳ A MONTH LATER: In both FIRs, eight people have been named for inciting religious hate. Only two have been arrested till now, including Giri—after the Supreme Court issued a notice to the Uttarakhand government on Jan 12.

👉 PS: A third case was filed against Yati Narsinghanand Giri this weekend. A journalist alleged that Giri threatened to have him and the photographer accompanying him beaten up, after getting offended by a question.

❗️PPS: Before his 'Dharma Sansad', Giri had over six cases of alleged rioting, causing communal hatred and under the Arms Act, including for attempting to set up an “army” to counter the Islamic State.

PANDEMIC UPDATES

💉 WHAT: India may begin inoculating children in the 12-14 age group against Covid-19 in March as the 15-18 population is likely to get fully vaccinated by then, Dr N K Arora, chairman of the COVID-19 working group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) told reporters today.

🎉 Close to 50% of the 15-18 group has already received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. Seven out of 10 adults in the country are now fully vaccinated.

🦠 TALLY: India’s Covid-19 infections rose by 2,58,089 on Jan 16 with 385 fatalities.

😕 TESTING has fallen across states since the new ICMR testing guidelines were introduced last week, which do away with testing of asymptomatic persons on demand, low-risk contacts, and asymptomatic persons undergoing other procedures at hospitals.

❗️SOARING: Test positivity rate (or how many people are testing positive from among those who get tested)—Goa (41.3%), Kerala (33.07%), Delhi (27.9%), India (19.65%), Mumbai (13%).

VIOLENCE SPILLS

❗️WHAT: Three people were killed and six wounded after a suspected drone attack blew up petrol tanks near a major oil storage facility in Abu Dhabi causing fires, including at the construction site of a new airport.

👉🏽Two among those killed were Indian; one was Pakistani.

🇾🇪 Yemen-based and Iran-backed Houthi movement said it carried out the attack.

🇦🇪 CONTEXT: There is an ongoing war in Yemen between government forces led by President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, and the Houthi rebels. Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has been supporting Yemen’s government militarily to quash the rebellion.

EC RECONSIDERS

👉🏽 WHAT: At the request of Punjab, the Election Commission has pushed back the Assembly election date from February 14 to February 20.

🗓 WHY: Parties petitioned the EC via a letter to consider Guru Ravidas Jayanti celebrations between Feb 10-16, for which a large number of people from the Scheduled Castes community will be in Varanasi.

👉🏽FYI: The SC community makes up 32 % of Punjab’s population.

GIRL ON FIRE

🏸 WHAT: Tasnim Mir, 16 became the first Indian to reach the world no. 1 spot in the under-19 girls singles ranking by the Badminton World Federation on Jan 16.

📣 It’s a first for any Indian, including two-time Olympic medallist P V Sindhu and London bronze winner Saina Nehwal.

🔥 ON FIRE: Tasnim also won the national junior champion (U-19) at the age of 14 and also claimed the national crown in the under-13, under-15 and under-19 girls’ singles categories.

🏸 Of her four junior international titles, three came last year, which pushed her to rank #1 globally.

A MOMENTOUS LOSS

🥀 Renowned Kathak maestro and Padma Vibhushan awardee Pandit Birju Maharaj has passed away.

NEW SERIES ANNOUNCEMENT

🇮🇳 WOMEN OF THE REPUBLIC 🇮🇳
📜 For the next two weeks, we want to shine a spotlight on the 15 women who breathed life into India’s constitution, sitting among 374 men in the Constituent Assembly.

🪔 70+ years on, there remains a glaring absence of credible and cohesive information about most of these women and their life’s work in the public domain. We are determined to change that. Their stories are inspiring, coloured with grit and hope, worth telling and 100% worthy of your time and attention.

✨ The series will play out on Instagram and YouTube, and we'll attach snippets for our ScrollStack and WhatsApp readers! Stay tuned.