Archives for 2021

United Nations: Stressing on enhancing maritime security, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday called for peaceful settlement of disputes as per international law and for jointly combating maritime threats posed by non-state actors as he chaired a high-level UN Security Council open debate.

Addressing the debate on “Enhancing Maritime Security – A Case for International Cooperation” via video conferencing, Modi proposed five principles for inclusive maritime security strategy, and mentioned India’s vision SAGAR’ for sustainable use of the oceans.

He also emphasised that the oceans are the world’s common heritage and sea routes are the lifeline of international trade. He also highlighted that maritime routes were being misused for terrorism and piracy.

“We need a framework for mutual cooperation in order to conserve and utilise our shared maritime heritage. Such a framework cannot be created by any country alone. It requires joint efforts by all of us, he said.

Underlining that the countries’ shared maritime heritage is facing many challenges, the Prime Minister said, “we should remove barriers for legitimate maritime trade. Global prosperity for all our nations depends on the active flow of maritime trade. Any hindrance in maritime trade can threaten the global economy.”

Noting that free maritime trade has always been part of the civilisational ethos of India, Modi said that New Delhi has put forward the vision of Sagar – security and growth for all in the region and it wanted to create an inclusive framework for maritime security in the region.

“The vision aims for a safe, secure and stable maritime domain. For free maritime trade, it is also necessary that we fully respect the rights of the seafarers of other countries, he said.

The second principle, he said, was that the settlement of maritime disputes should be peaceful and on the basis of international law.

His remarks assume significance amidst China’s maritime territorial dispute with countries in the Indo-Pacific region on the South China Sea and the East China Sea.

“This is very important for mutual trust and confidence. This is the only way we can ensure global peace and stability,” he asserted.

Modi said it was with this understanding and maturity that India resolved its maritime boundary issues with its neighbour Bangladesh.

He said the third key principle was that the global community should jointly fight maritime threats posed by natural disasters and non-state actors, and added that India has taken several steps to enhance regional cooperation to address these issues.

India has taken several steps to enhance regional cooperation on this subject, he added.

“We have provided support for hydrographic surveying and training of maritime security personnel to several countries. India’s role in the Indian Ocean has been that of a net security provider, he added.

Preserving the maritime environment and maritime resources, and encouraging responsible maritime connectivity were the fourth and fifth principles enunciated by the prime minister.

“Our Oceans directly impact our climate and hence, it is very important that we keep our maritime environment free of pollutants like plastic waste and oil spills, he said.

“I’m confident that we can develop a global roadmap for maritime security cooperation based on these five principles,” he added.

Modi is the first Indian Prime Minister to preside over a UN Security Council Open Debate, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.

The meeting was attended by several heads of state and government of member states of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), including Russian President Vladimir Putin and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and high-level briefers from the UN system and key regional organisations.

The open debate was focussed on ways to effectively counter maritime crime and insecurity, and strengthen coordination in the maritime domain.

The UN Security Council has discussed and passed resolutions on different aspects of maritime security and maritime crime in the past.

However, this is the first time that maritime security was discussed in a holistic manner as an exclusive agenda item in such a high-level open debate.

New Delhi: Parliament on Monday cleared a bill to bury the ghost of retrospective taxation which had created “discontent” among foreign investors even as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman assured the Rajya Sabha that the legislation does not dilute the sovereign right of India to levy taxes.

The Rajya Sabha returned The Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 after a brief discussion. Opposition parties, Congress, DMK and TMC had walked out of the House to protest against listing of the bill in the supplementary business circulated just hours before the House took it up.

The amendment bill, passed by the Lok Sabha last week, will enable the government to withdraw all tax demands made on companies like Cairn Energy and Vodafone using a 2012 legislation on indirect transfer of Indian assets prior to May 28, 2012.

The 2012 legislation, commonly referred to as the retrospective tax law, was enacted after the Supreme Court in January that year rejected proceedings brought by tax authorities against Vodafone International Holdings BV for its failure to deduct withholding tax from USD 11.1 billion paid to Hutchison Telecommunications in 2007 for buying out its 67 per cent stake in a wholly-owned Cayman Island incorporated subsidiary that indirectly held interests in Vodafone India Ltd.

The Finance Act 2012, which amended various provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961 with retrospective effect, contained provisions intended to tax any gain on transfer of shares in a non-Indian company, which derives substantial value from underlying Indian assets, such as Vodafone’s transaction with Hutchison in 2007 or the internal reorganisation of the India business that Cairn Energy did in 2006-07 before listing it on local bourses.

Using that law, tax authorities in January 2013 slapped Vodafone with a tax demand of Rs 14,200 crore, including principal tax of Rs 7,990 crore and interest. This was in February 2016 updated to Rs 22,100 crore plus interest.

Replying on the debate, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “This (bill) is appealing enough and putting an end to this ghost which we have been carrying all these while from 2012.”

She stressed that the government has a right to tax, “but to apply it in retrospective has created a lot of discontentment”.

“I seek support of the House to make India look very clear, transparent and fair taxation land. …this whole thing about retrospective amendment bill, which was brought in, since then we were bearing the negativity of this all over the world.”

The minister also told the House the bill provides for no payment of interest on refunds made under this and the parties seeking relief would not pursue further appeals or litigation in these cases.

Seeking support of the House for the legislation, Sitharaman assured the Rajya Sabha: “We continue to have the sovereign right intact. That is not getting diluted. This is just a right decision which had to be taken years ago”. The minister said the government waited for the decision of arbitrations before bringing in the amendment.

She further stressed that any correction in retrospective taxation “should be through Indian laws and not through any of the court outside”.

While introducing the bill in the Rajya Sabha, Sitharaman also took a jibe on the Congress party saying it takes different positions in Parliament and outside on the same issue.

While there was no substantial amount involved in the Vodafone case, in the case of Cairn Energy, the tribunal had asked the Indian government to return the value of the shares it had seized and sold, tax refund withheld and dividend confiscated to enforce the retrospective tax demand.

With the government refusing to honour the award, Cairn Energy Plc moved a court in the US to seize assets of Air India. It got an order from a French court to freeze 20 Indian properties in Paris to recover USD 1.2 billion-plus interest and penalties.

The move clubbed India with nations such as Pakistan and Venezuela that have faced similar actions by entities seeking enforcement of awards.

Finance Secretary T V Somanathan said a total of Rs 8,100 crore was collected using the retrospective tax legislation. Of this, Rs 7,900 crore was from Cairn Energy alone. This money will be repaid.

As much as Rs 1.10 lakh crore in retro taxes was sought from 17 entities that were levied taxes using the 2012 legislation. Of these, major recoveries were made only from Cairn.

Javed Akhtar

Mumbai: Lyricist Javed Akhtar on Monday urged the Bombay High Court to dismiss a plea filed by actor Kangana Ranaut seeking quashing of the criminal defamation proceedings initiated against her by a metropolitan magistrate’s court in the city, on a complaint filed by him.

In a counter-affidavit filed in the HC, Akhtar said, through his lawyers NK Bharadwaj and associates, that the metropolitan magistrate’s court in suburban Andheri had followed a due process in launching the criminal defamation proceedings against Ranaut.

Akhtar’s counter-affidavit was filed in response to a plea filed by Ranaut through her counsel Rizwan Siddiquee last month in which she challenged the defamation proceedings initiated earlier this year, saying the magistrate’s court had failed to apply its mind to the case.

Ranaut had said the magistrate’s court did not independently examine the complainant or the witnesses named in the complaint against her. It had instead relied merely upon the Juhu police’s discretion and initiated the case against her.

The counter-affidavit stated the magistrate had been well within his powers to initiate the proceedings against the actor.

Akhtar said the magistrate had gone through his complaint and his statement made on oath, detailing his grievances against Ranaut.

He further stated that while the Criminal Procedure Code provided for the magistrate to independently examine witnesses, it did not make the same mandatory.

“The MM (metropolitan magistrate) followed due process of law before proceeding to initiate the summoning order against the applicant (Ranaut). That it was only after considering the footage of the interview dated July 19, 2020, and detailed verification of the statement made by the respondent (Akhtar) and the statement of witnesses that the MM proceeded to issue process against the applicant (Ranaut),” reads Akhtar’s affidavit.

Akhtar filed a criminal complaint against Ranaut in November last year before the Andheri metropolitan magistrate alleging that she made defamatory and baseless comments against him in a television interview given to journalist Arnab Goswami.

In December 2020, the court directed the Juhu police to conduct an inquiry into Akhtar’s complaint against Ranaut. The police subsequently informed the court that an offence of defamation, as alleged by Akhtar against the actor, was prima facie made out, and further probe is required.

The court then initiated criminal proceedings against Ranaut and issued summons to her in February this year.

As per section 202 of the CrPC, a magistrate, on receipt of a complaint of an offence of which he or she is authorised to take cognisance of, can inquire, or direct the police to see if an actual case is made out, before issuing summons to an accused person.

In his counter-affidavit, Akhtar also said that Ranaut never cooperated with the police’s probe. He stated the actor refused to respond to the summons in the case and that she continued to make defamatory statements against him on social media even after the proceedings were initiated in the case.

The high court is likely to hear Ranaut’s plea on August 18.

The Andheri metropolitan magistrate’s court on July 27 allowed as the “last chance” Ranaut’s plea seeking exemption from personal appearance in the defamation case filed by Akhtar and directed her to remain present on the next date of hearing on September 1 without fail.

Metropolitan magistrate, Andheri, RR Khan, had also rejected the plea of Akhtar, filed through his lawyer, seeking issuance of an arrest warrant against the actor but said the complainant can move the plea again if Ranaut fails to appear at the next hearing.

Saranya Sasi

Thiruvananthapuram: Popular Malayalam actress Saranya Sasi died at a private hospital here on Monday, sources close to her said. The 35-year-old actress was diagnosed with brain tumour years ago and underwent surgical procedure several times as part of the treatment.

When she faced a severe financial crisis, Saranya’s friends and well-wishers had raised funds for her treatment.While she was undergoing treatment for tumour, she contracted COVID-19 in May this year.

She recovered from the virus infection but her health condition worsened due to related complications.

Hailing from Pazhayangadi in Kannur district, she had acted in a few Malayalam movies like ‘Chacko Randaman’ and ‘Chotta Mumbai’ and was a popular TV actress in the state.

Condoling the death, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the actress fought the disease confidently.

Hailing her commitment towards society, Vijayan recalled that the actress had set aside an amount from her medical expenses for the people when the state was hit by floods.

New Delhi: Enough of video of phone calls, now sportspersons should get rewards as promised, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Monday in an apparent swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In an Instagram post, he posted screenshots of media reports claiming that Olympians in the past had not been paid the rewards announced in Haryana.

Gandhi also attached screenshots of tweets made in 2019 by Tokyo Games medal winner Neeraj Chopra – who won India’s first ever gold in a track-and-field event – and Bajrang Punia, who won the bronze in wrestling, in which they urged ministers and authorities to fulfil the promise of rewards for athletes after winning medals.

“Players should get their dues along with congratulations, not cuts in the sports budget,” Gandhi wrote on Instagram.

“Enough of video of phone calls, now hand out the amount of rewards,” the former Congress chief said in an apparent swipe at the prime minister who spoke with several medal winners and videos of which were widely shared on social media.

Bhopal: BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh has said the coronavirus cannot harm Madhya Pradesh where the chief minister is ‘Shiv’ and the state party unit chief in ‘Vishnu’.

Currently, Shivraj Singh Chouhan is the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, while Vishnu Dutt Sharma is the state BJP president.

The Congress claimed BJP leaders were only engaged in seeking applause from their party workers by making such statements, despite “3.28 lakh deaths from January to May this year” in the state, which the opposition party said was much higher than the normal fatality rate in the state.

In a tweet on Sunday, Chugh said, “How can corona harm Madhya Pradesh where state president is Vishnu and Chief Minister is Shiv.”

He was at the state BJP office here to participate in the launch of the Rashtriya Swasthya Swayamsevak Abhiyan, a programme to provide health care training to BJP workers so that they can volunteer during the pandemic and other health-related crisis.

Chugh also said that 135 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines will reach health centres in the country by December this year.

Meanwhile, state Congress spokesman Bhupendra Gupta hit out at the BJP, saying its leaders speak like this only to seek applause from their party workers.

Gupta claimed “3.28 lakh people died in Madhya Pradesh between January and May this year, which was 54 per cent higher than the normal death rate”.

He further claimed that the BJP state president himself admitted that 3,500 people from the families belonging to BJP workers and leaders had died due to COVID-19.
 
“Chugh should have told us where Shivraj and Vishnu Dutt were when COVID-19 was wreaking havoc? Were they sleeping? How will they curb the pandemic in future? Gupta asked.

On equating the two leaders with the Hindu Gods, he said, Such dictatorial forces in the entire world consider themselves as supreme powers. Such forces believe they are God.

However, state BJP secretary Rajneesh Agrawal said this was just a way of speaking.

He (Chugh) only mentioned the first names of the CM and the BJP state president, Agrawal pointed out.

He said the BJP government and the party organisation were engaged in serving the people during the pandemic.

The pandemic spread across the world. It was important how the state government dealt with it and the party organisation served the people in the time of crisis. Now, the pandemic is under control,” he said.

The Congress only spread chaos during the pandemic crisis, Agrawal alleged.

On Sunday, Madhya Pradesh reported 10 COVID-19 cases, taking the tally of infections to 7,91,960, while the death toll remained unchanged at 10,514, as per the state health department.

The number of recoveries in the state stood at 7,81,298, leaving the state with 148 active cases, as per official figures.

BALLIA: A BJP leader has supported farmers” agitation against the three new farm laws and said that the BJP-led central government could withdraw them keeping in mind Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.

Due to protests against the farm laws, BJP leaders could not enter villages in western UP, he said, adding the farmers can also gherao them in the future.

On the deadlock in parliament over Pegasus snooping, Singh said opposition’s demand should be considered in a democratic country.

“If opposition wants probe, government should go ahead with it. It is the responsibility of the government that parliament runs smoothly,” he said.

Questioning preparations of the predicted third wave of COVID-19, Singh said the state government did not learn from the second wave and no effective arrangements were made to tackle the expected surge in cases by the end of the month.