MISHRA ASKED TO SURRENDER
within the week
➡️ WHAT: The Supreme Court has set aside the Allahabad High Court order granting bail to prime accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, Ashish Mishra, son of Union minister Ajay Mishra.
👩⚖️ WHO: A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana, Justice Surya Kant, and Justice Hima Kohli.
❗️WHY: The SC ruled that the HC order was based on "irrelevant observations" and "overlooked relevant considerations".
🗯 ON THE RECORD: “The victim has unbridled participatory right in such a criminal trial process...We hold that the victims have been denied the chance of effective hearing."—Justice Surya Kant
🕰 WHAT NOW: Mishra has to surrender within a week. The HC to will consider afresh whether Mishra should be given bail or not, hearing out the victims’ families.
🚙 ICYMI: On October 3, 2021, three SUVs, including a Thar owned by Ajay Mishra, allegedly ran over a group of protesting farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri. Four farmers and a journalist were killed and several others were injured. In the retaliatory violence that followed, two BJP workers and the driver of the Thar vehicle were killed.
♦️Ashish Mishra and 12 others have been charged for the death of the farmers and the journalist.
🗓 On Feb 10, 2022, the Allahabad High Court granted Ashish Mishra bail.The kin of some of the victims, then, petitioned the SC against the bail, contending they were not heard when Mishra's bail application was taken up.
RESISTING SCIENCE
THE NUMBERS GAME
🦠 WHAT: Since Feb 2021, the World Heath Organisation has been putting together estimates of deaths caused by Covid-19. It was ready to publish the report on Dec. 2021, but some countries—most notably, India—have been stalling its release.
🌍 WHY: WHO estimates 15 million people died, more twice as many as the official global death toll of 6.14 million.
🇮🇳 Of the additional 9 million, one third of deaths happened in India, the WHO has found. It says India’s death toll is around four million. India’s official number: 520,000.
🎙INDIA SAYS the WHO’s process was not collaborative or scientifically rigorous.
🇮🇳FYI: India has not submitted its total mortality data to the WHO for the past two years.
📄 HOW: WHO’s researchers used numbers gathered from at least 12 states which showed four to five times more deaths as a result of Covid-19.
⏰ WHAT NOW: India has reportedly asked the WHO to postpone the release, sent a big team to review the WHO data and requested several tests and analysis of the WHO’s data models since Dec 2021.
👩🏼🔬 Researchers associated with the global excercise told The New York Times they plan to publish independently in April, if the WHO fails in pushing past the pressure.
HEADS UP
MASKS UP
🦠 WHAT: A sharp surge in Covid-19 cases in India over the last few days.
😷 THE NUMBERS: 90% increase in last 24 hours. 1,150 cases on Saturday, 2,183 cases on Sunday.
❗️Delhi recorded over 500 cases yesterday. Its positivity rate has jumped from 0.5% to 5.33% in two weeks.
📢 FYI: The UP governments has, once again, made it compulsory to wear a face mask in public places in Lucknow and six NCR districts.
🗓 For the first time since the third week of January, active cases are also rising; not much, but consistently for four days now.
💉 PSA: Get all your vaccine doses. Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Maintain distance where and when you can.
AGAIN
AND AGAIN
🔥 WHAT: Continuing the pattern of growing communal violence, clashes were reported from three states and Delhi on April 16, Saturday, celebrated as Hanuman Jayanti by Hindus.
🎙 NW NOTE: Like on Ram Navami, the violence mostly followed a template. A rally would cross a Muslim neighbourhood, stone pelting would begin and escalate, and finally the police would get involved.
📍 DELHI: 21 arrested, two minors detained for clashes that broke out during a Hanuman Jayanti procession in Jahangirpuri. Local guns, swords have been recovered. Eight cops and a local were injured.
📍 UTTARAKHAND: A Hanuman Jayanti procession was allegedly attacked with stones while it was crossing a village near Roorkee. Nine persons have been arrested in an FIR that names 13. Four people were injured.
📍 ANDHRA PRADESH: Stone pelting began when a Hanuman Jayanti procession was crossing an area with a mosque hosting Iftar. 20 have been taken into custody. At least 15 people sustained injuries.
📍 KARNATAKA: Violence was reported after a mob pelted stones at a police station in Hubli, demanding action against a person who put up an ‘objectionable social media post’. Police used lathis and tear gas to impose order. 6 cases registered, 40 arrested, curfew in Hubli. Four cops were injured.
🚙 AND TODAY, a minor road accident led to a communal clash in Gujarat's Vadodara, with rioters throwing stones, vandalising a shrine and damaging vehicles. 19 have been arrested; three were injured.
RECOMMENDED WATCH: HATE, ON SIMMER
These incidents of communal violence are not isolated. There is a larger pattern of intolerance and bigotry and it's essential and urgent to join the dots.
SPEAKING OF HATE
YATI NARSINGHANAND IS AT IT AGAIN
🖊 CONTEXT: Arrested in December 2021 for calling for the genocide of Muslims. He received bail on Feb 7 on the condition that he could not be a part of any gathering “which aims towards creating difference between communities”.
🤬 He has violated that condition at least twice since then, and remains free to walk.
🗓 APRIL 17 | “Dharma Sansad” at Una, HP
🗯 ON THE RECORD: “Increasing population of Muslims in the country indicates the decline of the Hindus. All Hindus should have more children to protect their families, humanity and Sanatan Dharma…In 2029, a Muslim will be PM. Within 20 years, 50% of Hindus will be forcibly converted, 40% Hindus will be killed...”
🗓 TWO WEEKS AGO: Narsinghanand was named in an FIR by Delhi Police for exhorting Hindus to pick up arms at Burari on April 3.
#NEWSWORTHY SNIPPETS
SHOW ME THE MONEY
🛺 Taxi and autorickshaw unions in Delhi started the first of their two-day strike today, demanding Compressed Natural Gas subsidies and fare increases at a time where fuel price hikes are making the headlines on a near-daily basis once again.
🇵🇰 Also hit by sky-high fuel prices (no thanks to Russia's war on Ukraine), Pakistan can no longer afford to buy coal or natural gas from overseas to fuel its power plants. It has started cutting electricity to households and industries.
🇳🇵Alarm bells are going off as Nepal seems to be headed down the same road as Sri Lanka's. The country is facing an acute economic crisis as the tourism industry, a key source of revenue, struggles to recover after Covid-19.
Nepal's foreign exchange reserves fell over 18% to $9.6 billion as of mid-March from mid-July—enough for around six months imports of essential commodities for the agrarian economy. It has imposed restrictions on import of luxury goods, including cars, and is asking Nepali citizens overseas to deposit money in domestic banks. A ban on the import of rice and pulses is in the works.
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