Archives for September 2020

Beijing: China on Thursday said India’s decision to ban 118 Chinese APPs is not beneficial to the Indian users nor to China’s businesses and claimed it violated WTO rules.

India on Wednesday banned 118 more mobile apps with Chinese links, including the popular game PUBG, citing data privacy concerns and a threat to national security, taking the total count of Chinese-linked mobile apps banned by New Delhi to 224. India’s move came amid fresh border tensions with China in eastern Ladakh.

Responding to a question on India’s fresh ban on Chinese apps at a Commerce Ministry briefing here, spokesman Gao Feng said, the Indian side abused the concept of ‘national security’ and adopted discriminatory restrictive measures against Chinese companies, violating relevant World Trade Organisation rules. China urges India to correct its wrong practices.

“China-India economic and trade cooperation is mutually beneficial and win-win. It is hoped that the two countries will jointly maintain the hard-won cooperation and development situation and create an open and fair business environment for international investors and service providers, including Chinese companies,” state-run CGTN quoted Gao as saying.

At a separate Chinese Foreign Ministry briefing, spokesperson Hua Chunying in her reaction to the ban on Chinese apps, said, “By banning these hi-tech, easy-to-use and popular apps, the Indian side is sacrificing first and foremost the rights and interests of the Indian users, and damaging those of Chinese companies. Therefore, no one gains from such an action.”

She also noted that the US State Department on the same day cited New Delhi’s ban and called on other countries to join India to join the Clean Network programme.

“I wonder if there’s connection or coordination between India and the US on this issue,” she claimed.

“But India, as a country proudly possessing an ancient civilisation, is wise enough to have known about Dirtbox, PRISM, Irritant Horn, Muscular and Undersea Cable Tapping. It knows fully well whether the US is clean or dirty when it comes to US policies and practices.

“Independence is so precious. We hope that the Indian side will stick to it. No short-sighted decisions shall be made to impede the long-term interests of the two countries and two peoples,” Hua said, any avoiding any reference to the border tensions.

She noted that both countries are close neighbours and proud of their civilisations. The start of our exchange and mutual learning can date back to 1,000 years ago. The great Indian poet Tagore is very popular in China.

He wrote, “We read the world wrong and say that it deceives us.” Yoga and Indian movies like “Dangal” are also very popular in China, she said.

“However, it never crossed our mind that India is trying to infiltrate or pose any threat to our country,” she said in an updated statement released by the Chinese foreign ministry.

She said the intermingling of different cultures is conducive to promoting people’s mutual understanding and friendship.

“So, we hope that the India will attach importance to the two peoples’ friendship and long-term interests and work to promote bilateral exchange and cooperation in various fields,” the spokesperson said.

Lakhimpur Kheri: The three-year-old girl, who was found dead in a sugarcane field in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri, was raped before murder, a senior police officer said on Friday.

This is the third such incident in the district in as many weeks.

The girl’s body, which bore injury marks on the head, was recovered from the vicinity of her village in Singahi area on Thursday after she went missing on Wednesday, police said. “The postmortem report has confirmed rape. I am with family members right now. Seven of our teams are working on the case. I am myself going for combing in sugarcane fields and strict action will be taken against the accused,” Superintendent of Police, Satyendra Kumar Singh, told PTI over phone.

“If needed, NSA will also be invoked against the accused,” he said.

In his complaint to police, the girl’s father had alleged that Lekhram, a resident of their village, had abducted and killed the child due to an old enmity with his family. A case of murder was lodged against the accused.

Lakhimpur Kheri district was in the news recently when a 17-year-old Dalit girl was found dead outside her village. She was allegedly raped and murdered after she left home to fill a scholarship application.

Her mutilated body was found near a dry pond, around 200 metres ways from her village falling under the Neemgaon police limits. Prior to this incident, a 13-year-old girl was raped and killed in the district.

Police said the girl had gone to her fields in the afternoon and when she did not return home, her family started looking for her. She was found dead in a sugarcane field.

Both incidents drew flak from the opposition, with Congress and SP leaders attacking the Yogi Adityanath-led state government over the law and order situation.

New Delhi: As many as 500 academicians, scientists and researchers from various educational institutes across the country have urged the environment ministry to withdraw the controversial draft EIA notification and strengthen the existing EIA 2006 notification with a new proposal.

Ever since the notification was issued in March, the ministry has received suggestions through nearly 17 lakh e-mails, including several objections.

In yet another letter, the signatories from 130 institutions have listed their concerns regarding the draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification, which has been surrounded by controversy since its release, and asked the ministry to withdraw it as it could adversely affect the environment and dilute the clearance process.

The institutes and universities that have written to the ministry include the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER), Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) and Wildlife Institute of India (WII).

The controversial notification has drawn severe criticism and protests from students, citizens, activists, environmentalists across the country for “fundamentally dismantling environmental safeguards to promote ease of doing business”.

“This cross-institutional collaboration, initiated by PhD students from different institutes, was supported by 105 faculties, former faculties and senior scientists, along with over 400 PhD scholars, post-doctoral research fellows, independent researchers and other research students, who have all signed the letter in their personal capacities,” a press note released by the signatories said.

The letter says the legitimisation of ex-post-facto environmental clearances is a significant dilution of the EIA process.

It also expresses concern on the reclassification of many highly-polluting industries and projects to exempt those from proper environmental appraisals altogether.

It calls for an improved and more inclusive public consultation processes in environmental decision-making and effective post-clearance monitoring mechanisms.

“While a lot of noise is made about iconic species like tigers, turtles and elephants and there is outrage even about individual animals, the truth is that poorly planned large-scale development projects have the greatest negative impacts on biodiversity, ecosystems and people.

“This notification leaves the door open to projects that may severely impact the environment and yet have little real benefit for the people in need,” Kartik Shanker, associate professor at the IISc, Bengaluru, who is one of the signatories to the letter, said.

Ayaz Ahmed, a PhD scholar from IIT-Bombay, said, “The EIA process is supposed to regulate the polluting industries and other development projects and mitigate their impact on the environment. But instead, the draft proposes to ease the environmental safeguards. We need stronger environmental regulations.”

The draft EIA notification was issued by the ministry on March 23 with public opinions and suggestions invited till August 11.

New Delhi: The authors of the controversial book “Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story” filed a complaint with the police on Thursday against publishing house Bloomsbury, some media organisations and noted individuals, alleging cheating, mischief, misappropriation of property and criminal intimidation by them.

The authors met Delhi Commissioner of Police S N Shrivastava with their complaint and sought immediate and necessary action against those named in it.

The complaint accused professor-activist Nandini Sundar and news portals The Print and Newslaundry of “illegal receipt and retention of stolen property”, and several noted individuals, including historian William Dalrymple and author Aatish Taseer, of “criminal intimidation and (making) statements creating and promoting enmity, hatred, and ill will between classes”.

The book, authored by advocate Monika Arora and professors Sonali Chitalkar and Prerna Malhotra, got embroiled in a controversy for inviting BJP leader Kapil Mishra as a guest of honour on its launch on August 22.

There have been allegations that several leaders, including Mishra, made inflammatory speeches targeting anti-citizenship law protesters before the violence broke out in Northeast Delhi on February 23.

Later, Bloomsbury after facing a massive backlash on social media withdrew itself from the book, saying the virtual launch was “organised without its knowledge”. The book found a new publishing house in Garuda Prakashan the very next day.

According to the complaint, signed by Arora, Bloomsbury “wilfully with dishonest intentions expunged her work and also leaked a PDF version of the book in public to hamper any future sales”.

“The present complaint seeks investigation… for being the publisher of my authored book and having deliberately, willfully with dishonest intentions expunged my work, effort and skill thereby diminishing my goodwill, reputation and standing, without my knowledge and consent rescinded from performing its obligations under the terms of the agreement dated 29.5.2020 and leaked a PDF version of the book in public to hamper any future sales,” read the complaint.

Contrary to what Bloomsbury India had claimed, the complaint said that an e-poster of the book launch event in question with the list of “confirmed speakers” was sent to the publishing house and that they had acknowledged it too.

It alleged that the publishers withdrew only after being pressured by its parent company Bloomsbury UK.

“The book launch event was widely publicized on social media platforms with full knowledge of the Publisher. 100 physical copies of the book were delivered as per the terms of the agreement by the Publisher to the Author on 1.8.2020. On the date of the launch, at 3:30 PM, the Publisher phoned the Author to say that it was considering withdrawing the book on account of pressure of its parent company, and from certain other persons on social media,” it added.

In the complaint, Arora claimed that a “venomous campaign” emerged on the social media and a “group of individuals/ propagandists”, whom she referred to as Urban Naxal Gang, “conspired and went all out to kill the book by pressurizing, intimidating, bullying and blackmailing the publishers”.

She also put out tweets by activist Saket Gokhale, along with journalist Arfa Khanum Sherwani and poet Meena Kandasamy, all named in the complaint, alleging that they were congratulating one another for being able to put a stop on the release of the book.

The complaint also accused media houses The Quint and NewsLaundry, and professor-activist Nandini Sundar for critiquing the book and attempting to discredit the authors’ work based on a leaked or “stolen” PDF copy of the book.

“How in the world would they have got their hands on the book if not for this unauthorized circulation. As on date, there is no other physical copy in existence except for those 100 copies that had been delivered to me. Thus, despite knowing such a version was stolen property’ neither the aforesaid media houses nor Ms Sundar chose to take any appropriate legal measures to bring it to the notice of authorities,” it said.

Some individuals who have been named in the complaint have reacted to it through tweets.

“I’m actually glad this has happened. This should remove all doubt, in anyone’s mind, that these were not independent writers at all, but a state-sponsored syndicate, dedicated to whitewashing the role of certain BJP leaders in the Delhi Riots,” tweeted Taseer.

“This is an attempt at intimidation by BJP-linked authors using Central agencies bcoz we spoke against their vile book full of lies & minority-blaming on the Delhi Pogrom. This complaint is a joke. But the one I file about the contents of the book with @DGPMaharashtra won’t be,” tweeted Gokhale.

“Wow just learnt this. now coming after us with state machinery. We will not allow literature and publishing to platform hate,” tweeted Kandasamy.

Scindia, who quit the Congress in March this year and joined the BJP, said under the Prime Minister’s leadership, an environment of safety of people has been created.

GWALIOR: In remarks apparently aimed at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Jyotiraditya Scindia on Thursday said thinking of some people is just confined to making comments, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a development-oriented outlook for the country.

Gandhi on Wednesday hit out at the PM over the state of the economy, rise in COVID-19 cases and “external aggression” at borders, alleging that India is reeling under “Modi-made disasters”.

On the one hand there is a development-oriented, safety-oriented thinking while on the other there is a thinking of only making comments.

“But I believe the people of the country are aware and they are associated with a positive thinking and will remain so in the future also, Scindia said without naming Gandhi.

The former Union minister was responding to a question on demonetisation, which Gandhi has termed as a “total failure”.

Scindia, who quit the Congress in March this year and joined the BJP, arrived in Gwalior in the evening to take part in the ‘Urs’ (mela) of Manur Baba.

During this atmosphere of pandemic, under the Prime Minister’s leadership, an environment of safety of people has been created by making available beds, plasma, remdesivir medicine in hospitals for saving the lives of patients,” the BJP leader said.

The Rajya Sabha MP alleged that during the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh, the Gwalior-Chambal region was neglected in terms of development.

During the 15-month Congress rule, the then chief minister Kamal Nath and other top leaders of the party did not visit the underdeveloped region, he said.

The number of development schemes announced for the region in the last five months of the BJP rule was far more than what the area got under the 15 months of the Congress government, Scindia said.

He referred to the Chambal expressway, which will be named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and an elevated road over the Swarna Rekha river, among other projects, to buttress his point that development is taking place in the region under the BJP regime.