The controversy over Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP D.N.V. Senthilkumar’s disparaging reference to the Hindi-speaking States continued to simmer on Wednesday, forcing at least one adjournment of the House, despite a formal apology tendered by the MP on the floor of the Lok Sabha.
During Tuesday’s Lok Sabha debate on the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, Senthilkumar made some objectionable references to Hindi-speaking States which were later expunged from the record.
A day later, Union Ministers Piyush Goyal and Pralhad Joshi demanded that T.R. Baalu, the DMK’s leader in the Lok Sabha, should first apologise for Kumar’s remarks from the previous day.
“Baalu ji should apologise first for the kind of remarks made by the DMK member. How can the House run like this? How can any member make any remarks and walk away,” Goyal said, as other BJP members joined him in protest.
As the din continued, Speaker Om Birla adjourned the House proceedings for 20 minutes, till noon. When the House resumed, Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal asked whether Baalu and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi agreed with the comments.
“Statement made by Senthilkumar was not correct. [Tamil Nadu Chief Minister] M.K. Stalin has warned the particular member,” Baalu responded.
Soon after, Kumar, who had posted an apology on X (formerly Twitter) the previous night, also expressed his regret, saying that his remarks had been made “inadvertently” and that “if they have hurt the sentiments of people,” he “withdraws them”.
But this was not the end of the matter. First, Union Minister Anurag Thakur and later, his colleague Rajeev Chandrasekhar held press conferences accusing the Congress of running a divisive agenda.
Thakur accused the Congress-led Opposition of conspiring to undermine India’s culture, pride, and identity, and playing the politics of regionalism instead of identifying the real cause of the party’s defeat in the State Assembly elections. He questioned what the Congress’ compulsion was in sticking with the DMK, despite the controversial remarks made by its leaders.
Chandrasekhar also made references to controversial remarks made by Telangana’s Chief Minister-designate, Revanth Reddy, who had said that the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K. Chandrashekar Rao’s DNA was Bihari, and as a Kurmi, he had migrated to Telangana from that State. “This reflects the divisive agenda and politics of the Congress party, a party that says it wants ‘Bharat Jodo’ (uniting India) but is actually intent on ‘Bharat Todo’ (breaking India),” he said.
After a fast start, COP28 climate talks now in murky middle of hope, roadblocks
After a first-day blur of rare quick action and agreement, negotiators at a critical United Nations climate summit on Wednesday finished up their first week in a more familiar place for them: the murky middle where momentum and roadblocks intertwine.
“Negotiations, as are often the case, are a mixed picture right now. We see big differences between individual states in some areas,” German climate envoy Jennifer Morgan said, “but there is a will to make progress.”
Proponents who are calling for a ground-shifting phase-out of fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal have hope for the first time in years, but also see where it could be torpedoed. Key issues of financial help for poor nations to decarbonise and how to adapt to warming need much more work, officials said.
That is in contrast to the first day when the conference — called COP28 — put into effect a climate compensation fund — called loss-and-damage — and started seeing its coffers grow to more than $720 million.
U.N. Climate Secretary Simon Stiell on December 6 warned against putting “a tick on the box” for that victory and thinks it solves the multi-trillion dollar problem of financial aid that’s needed to help cut emissions worldwide. “We need COP to deliver a bullet train to speed up climate action. We currently have an old caboose chugging over rickety tracks,” Stiell said.
Adnan Amin, the No. 2 official in the COP presidency official and a veteran United Nations diplomat, was a bit more optimistic, saying all negotiations have both an up period and depressing times. This one, he said, is in that time where “there’s still a buzz. There’s still positivity.”
Discussions have been focused on the so-called Global Stocktake — a status of where nations are at with meeting their climate goals to limit warming to 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial times and how they can get there. On December 5, negotiators produced a new draft of the text, but it had so many possibilities in its 24 pages that it didn’t give too much of a hint of what will be agreed upon when the session ends next week.
Negotiators for 197 countries are going over the document word by word to see what they can live with and what they can’t, Amin said: “They have so many demands and needs. But I think it provides a very good basis for moving forward.”
Cedric Schuster, the chair of the Association of Small Island States, said failing on the global stocktake would “make it significantly more difficult to leave this COP saying we can achieve the 1.5° C limit.” He said major emitters and developed countries need to take the lead and ramp up efforts to phase out fossil fuels.
“If we fail, the consequences will be catastrophic,” he said.
While United Nations officials highlight worries about finance and adaptation, many at the Dubai conference are focused on language about what to do about fossil fuels. Burning coal, oil and natural gas are the chief causes of climate change. For the first time in nearly three decades of talks, the idea of getting rid of all of three of them is on the agenda and a serious possibility.
But issues about language, timing and meaning — especially defining terms — are far from settled. Some are using phase-down as less stringent, along with the term “unabated” tossed in front of fossil fuels. When asked to define “unabated,” Stiell said that’s up to negotiators.
“We have seen options about fossil fuel phase-out in the text. And while it’s historic to have them, they’re not enough,” said environmental activist Romain Ioualalen of Oil Change International. He pointed to 106 nations signing a document calling for a phase-out, which was mentioned by many world leaders when they made speeches in the first few days.
“The situation we’re in right now, it was unthinkable just three COPs ago to have these debates on the phase-out of all fossil fuels,” Ioualalen said. “There’s definitely momentum in the conversation. There’s definitely opposition, of course. And that’s that’s to that’s to be expected. But that’s what we need to solve.”
Congress unhappy with Left campaign dissuading Rahul Gandhi from contesting in Wayanad
Unhappy with the Left parties’ public campaign asking former Congress president Rahul Gandhi not to contest from the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala, a seat that the Communist Party of India (CPI) stakes claim to, the Congress has upped the ante with repeated attacks on the functioning of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s government in Parliament.
On Monday, Kerala party president and MP K. Sudhakaran moved an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha decrying the alleged high-handedness and human rights violations by the Kerala police. On Tuesday, during the zero hour in the Rajya Sabha, Congress member Jebi Mather raised the issue of farmers’ suicide in Kerala, allegedly because of inordinate delay in payment of paddy dues by the State government.
Flagging Sudhakaran’s adjournment notice, CPI(M) floor leader in the Rajya Sabha Elamaram Kareem, at the parliamentary strategy meeting on Tuesday, complained about “State issues” being dragged at the Centre, endangering the bonhomie of the INDIA bloc. Responding to this, senior Congress leader and party’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha, Kodikunnil Suresh said the Kerala government’s failures could not be dismissed merely as a State-centric issue.
“There was nothing wrong in Sudhakaran’s adjournment notice. As the State president, he has to defend his party cadres. These issues are not merely State issues and if not Parliament, where will we raise it,” Suresh said in an interview to The Hindu. He alleged that the Kerala police are working under the protection of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and attacking Congress workers mercilessly for protesting against the government.
Suresh instead pointed at the recent remarks made by CPI general secretary D. Raja, CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan, CPI leader and State Revenue Minister K. Rajan urging Gandhi to not contest from Wayanad. Raja said that while every party had the right to contest from anywhere they want, but the current political situation dictated that Gandhi should contest from a constituency against the BJP, preferably in the North. Govindan said he should not contest against the Left front. Rajan suggested that if Gandhi is insisting on contesting from southern India then he can opt for Karnataka.
Suresh said, “It is wrong to blame us alone. They have been running a very public campaign against Gandhi’s decision to stand once again from Wayanand. If they are so concerned about the INDIA bloc’s unity, why are they raking a public controversy on this?”
The differences, Suresh said, would have to be settled through a sincere dialogue between the two sides and not through a public spat.
Senior advocate Dushyant Dave writes open letter to CJI on shifting of cases from one Bench to another in disregard of SC Rules
Former Supreme Court Bar Association president and senior advocate Dushyant Dave on Wednesday penned an open letter to Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud highlighting that cases, including sensitive ones, were being “taken away” from Supreme Court Benches hearing them and listed before other Benches in clear disregard of the Supreme Court Rules.
Dave said cases which were first listed before a Bench or notice issued by it were suddenly shifted to another Bench. He said cases, instead of remaining with the lead judge on a Bench, were listed before the associate judge when the latter starts heading a new Bench.
“I have personally come across a number of cases listed before various Benches upon first listing and/or in which notice have been issued, being taken away from those Benches and listed before other Benches. Despite first coram being available, the matters are being listed before Benches in which second coram presides. Matters listed before Court No. 2, 4, 6, 7 amongst others have been shifted out and listed before other Benches in clear disregard of the Rules, the Handbook on Practice and Office Procedure referred above and established Practice and Convention. Curiously, the seniority of the first coram is also being ignored in doing so,” he wrote.
“As master of the roster you alone have the prerogative to constitute a Bench and allocate cases to the Benches so constituted,” Dave said.
The senior lawyer said the power of the CJI as master of the roster was both unique and extraordinary. “This is an extraordinary power to upset the roster and to ‘pick and choose’ and allocate and assign any appeal or cause or matter to any judge or judges of the court. However, the Chief Justice can only exercise the power as per the practice, and in case the coram as per roster is available. The Chief Justice cannot exercise power to take away any case before the available coram and place it before another,” Dave wrote.
Though he said he would not want to identify the cases by name as they were still pending before the court, Dave said “it would not be out of place to mention that these matters include some sensitive matters involving human rights, freedom of speech, democracy, and functioning of statutory and constitutional institutions”.
The senior lawyer said he had taken recourse to writing the open letter “as efforts by some of us to meet you personally have not yielded any result despite an appointment being sought months ago by a senior and respected colleague for and on behalf of many of us”.
“I personally met the Secretary General and apprised him of the anxiety and misgivings of the Bar in this regard. Emails sent to Registrar (J-I) by Advocates on Record (AoRs) making serious grievances about it have not been responded to…,” Dave said.
The senior advocate said Justice Chandrachud’s appointment as top judge had created “strong hopes in the minds of citizens that under your leadership, the Supreme Court of India will rise to greater heights, the march towards which has somehow paused for some time earlier. The scars caused on account of such improprieties in the past few years on justice delivery have not healed as yet”.
“Sir, this does not augur well for the Institution of Supreme Court of India under your Leadership. The Institution is highly respected by all. That respect must continue forever, in all respects. I would therefore urge you to look into this immediately and take corrective measures,” he said.
Italy withdraws from China’s Belt and Road project
Italy has withdrawn from China’s vast Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, more than four years after becoming the only G7 nation to sign up, a government source said on December 6.
The long-expected decision was communicated to Beijing three days ago, according to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, which first broke the news.
Neither side has published an official communication, but an Italian government source confirmed to AFP that Rome had pulled out. The source gave no details beyond saying it was done in such a way as to “keep channels of political dialogue open”.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has long been opposed to Italy’s participation in an initiative viewed by many as an attempt by Beijing to buy political influence — and whose benefits to Rome were limited. The deal was due to automatically renew in March 2024 unless Italy opted out by the end of this year.
But Meloni and her hard-right government were also wary of provoking Beijing and risking retaliation against Italian companies. She told reporters at the G20 summit in Delhi in September that should Rome leave the project, it “would not compromise relations with China”.
Beijing says upwards of 150 countries stretching from Uruguay to Sri Lanka have signed up to the initiative, a central pillar of President Xi Jinping’s bid to expand China’s clout overseas.
Beijing says it has inked over two trillion dollars in contracts around the world, from high-speed rail tracks crisscrossing South East Asia and massive transport, energy and infrastructure works through Central Asia.
Proponents hail it for bringing resources and economic growth to the Global South — but it has also been slammed for saddling poor countries with enormous debt.
It has also given Chinese infrastructure firms a foothold in many emerging economies.
There are concerns, particularly among Western nations, that China is seeking to rebuild the global world order to its advantage, while opposition voices in BRI countries have also decried what they see as increasing Chinese influence in local politics.
Meanwhile, Washington has warned that China could use the initiative as a pretext to build up military bases around the world in the name of protecting BRI investments. Italy, a member of the European Union, the G7 grouping of advanced economies and NATO, signed up in 2019 under the government of then Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.
Before taking office in October 2022, Meloni said that was a “mistake”. The non-binding memorandum of understanding struck with China contained broad undertakings for cooperation in logistics, infrastructure, financial and environmental sectors.
But details were scarce and the lack of transparency fuelled distrust among Italy’s allies. In addition, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said in September that membership “has not produced the results we were hoping for”. Experts noted that other big European economies, such as Germany and France, did not join the BRI, but have nonetheless secured important trade and investment deals.
In Brief:
Lok Sabha passes J&K reservation Bills
The Lok Sabha continued to debate the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 on the third day of the ongoing Winter session of Parliament. After a statement by the Union Home Minister Amit Shah, both bills were passed by the Lok Sabha via voice vote.
90 newly-elected MLAs in Madhya Pradesh have criminal cases, says ADR report
After the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh concluded and its results announced, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) released its report in which it was revealed that 90 newly-elected MLAs out of 230 in the State, which is nearly 39%, have criminal cases against them. “90 winning candidates out of the 230 analysed in 2023 have declared criminal cases against themselves. Similarly, 34 winning candidates out of 230 which is nearly 15%, in the state have declared serious criminal cases against themselves,” says the ADR report. Of these 90 MLAs having criminal cases, 51 belong to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 38 belong to the Congress Party and one is from the Bharatiya Adivasi Party.
Taylor Swift is named Time Magazine’s person of the year
Time Magazine named Taylor Swift its person of the year on December 6, a week after Spotify announced she was the most-played artist on the streaming platform. Swift was picked from a group of nine finalists that included Barbie, King Charles III, and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, among others. “While her popularity has grown across the decades, this is the year that Swift (33) achieved a kind of nuclear fusion: shooting art and commerce together to release an energy of historic force,” Time said about her selection.
Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.
