MONTH THREE OF WAR
🇷🇺 WHAT: Russia has accused NATO, specially the US, of fighting a proxy war by supplying military aid to Ukraine.
🗯 ON THE RECORD: “Nato, in essence, is engaged in a war with Russia through a proxy and is arming that proxy. War means war. The risks of nuclear conflict are considerable.”—Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov
🇩🇪 ON CUE, for the first time ever since WWII, Germany today announced it will deliver anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine.
⭐️ PUSH BACK: Sweden and Finland are planning to file their applications for NATO membership as early as May.
🇯🇵 Russia also warned Japan of "retaliatory measures" if it further expands joint naval exercises with the US near Russia's eastern borders.
⛽️ OTHER UPDATES: Russia has shut off gas supplies to both Bulgaria and Poland after they refused to pay in rubles. The European Union has accused Russia of trying to blackmail the bloc.
🩸 WAR UPDATE: Ukraine has acknowledged the loss of several eastern towns and villages in eastern Donbas as Russia steps up its offensive. Russian forces have taken control of the town of Zarichne, and have started attacking the nearby town of Yampil.
🇺🇦 Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has a somber view of prospects for peace: “It is obvious that every day – and especially today, when the third month of our resistance has begun – that everyone in Ukraine is concerned with peace, about when it will all be over. There is no simple answer to that at this time.”
HEAR, HEAR
❗️WHAT: The Supreme Court has today begun listening to two petitions challenging the constitutionality of the sedition law.
✏️ WHO: The petitions, one by a retired Army general and the other by Editors Guild of India, have been listed for hearing before a three-judge Bench led by CJI NV Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli.
🗯 OVERHEARD IN COURT: “Sedition is a colonial law. It suppresses freedoms. It was used against Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak... Is this law necessary after 75 years of Independence? The use of sedition is like giving a saw to the carpenter to cut a piece of wood and he uses it to cut the entire forest itself. —CJI’s oral observation in court
🗓 NOT A FIRST: Last year, CJI surprised many with his unusual judicial criticism of the way sedition was used by the government to crush civil liberties.
🟥 WHAT NOW: The court has issued notices to all petitioners. It will take up this matter for final hearing on May 5.
SPEAKING OF CONTROVERSIAL LAWS
NEW VIDEO ON ALL THINGS AFSPA
The Centre recently reduced the number of areas that come under the Disturbed Areas Act, in three states of north east India. The move, a significant one, reduces the footprint of the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). Crucially, the act is not repealed.
Watch Anubha—who quite literally wrote the book on the matter—explain the significance, context and history of AFSPA and its use.
POINTING FINGERS
⛽️ WHAT: PM Narendra Modi has appealed to states to reduce VAT, or value added tax, on rapidly increasing fuel prices, after many failed to do so in November 2021, when the Centre reduced its excise duty on fuel.
😑 Since then, the prices of fuel have increased exponentially (due to the war and other reasons), but no similar central tax cut on fuel has followed.
⬛️ CONTEXT: The retail price of petrol is made up of 3 different components: base price that reflects the cost of international oil, central excise duty and state taxes. Both central and state governments rely heavily on collections from taxes on these products for filling up their treasuries. This break up differs from state to state.
🎴ON AVERAGE, you pay Rs 34-53 of taxes to the state and centre for every Rs 100 you pay for fuel.
📣 THE RESPONSE: Not good; the Opposition is unhappy.
🔹Maha CM Uddhav Thackeray said the Centre owed Rs 26,500 crore to the state, having passed the buck on to states to reduce VAT earlier as well.
🔹 Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala asked for an account of the Rs 27 lakh crore "collected" by the BJP government from tax on petrol and diesel.
🔹 West Bengal’s CM Mamata Banerjee said her government ha spent Ra 1,500 crore in the last three months to subsidise fuel in the state.
HEAT WAVES
SHOULD BE FREAKING US OUT
☀️ The heat this summer has already become unbearable in many parts of India. In Delhi-NCR, temperatures are likely to cross 45 degrees in the coming days—a threshold rarely crossed even in the peak summer that used to come with June. Even hill stations, which would serve as cool gateways from the northern plains, are reporting a surge in temperatures.
🔥And with great temperatures come great fires. See the story of one such first that broke out in a landfill on Monday, and continues to burn, adding to the sweltering heat and hot, dirty air in Delhi.
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