The Manipur Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister N. Biren Singh has decided to convene the monsoon session of the Assembly on August 29. The Chief Minister’s Office on Tuesday announced this decision through X, previously Twitter, taken by the Cabinet on August 21.
This is the third such decision by the Manipur Cabinet since July. The monsoon session, if held, would be the fourth of the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly.
The 60-member Manipur Assembly failed to hold a special session on Monday to discuss the ongoing ethnic violence as Raj Bhavan did not issue any notification to convene it despite a recommendation from the State Cabinet.
On August 21, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the Manipur government requested Governor Anusuiya Uikey on July 29 to convene the special session of the Assembly in the third week of August. The Governor was requested again on August 4 to convene the Assembly on August 21, but Raj Bhavan did not issue any notification for holding the special session.
Officials in the State’s capital Imphal said the Governor normally issues the notification 15 days ahead of any session of the Assembly. “We expect a notification from Raj Bhavan this time,” a senior official said.
According to the rules, an Assembly is required to sit for at least two sessions in a year. The last session of the 60-member Manipur House was in March and the next is due by September 2. But the 10 Kuki MLAs, seven of them from ruling BJP, are not expected to attend the session if it is eventually held because of “security reasons”.
Ethnic clashes between the Kuki and Meitei communities since May 3 left about 160 people dead and displaced more than 60,000 others.
Supreme Court questions petitioners’ submission that Indian Constitution has no application to Jammu and Kashmir after 1957
The Supreme Court on August 22 questioned an argument made by petitioners that Article 370 ceased to operate in 1957 as soon as the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution came into existence.
Appearing before a Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud in the challenge to the abrogation of Article 370, senior advocate Dinesh Dwivedi, for a petitioner, said the Indian Constitution ceased to apply to J&K, and the State Constitution became the governing document.
“You are saying once the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir came into existence in 1957, Article 370 ceased to exist and only governing document became the Constitution of J&K. So which are the features of 370 which ceased to exist?” Chief Justice Chandrachud questioned the senior counsel.
Dwivedi referred to the Constituent Assembly debates to support his submissions.
“Can we say a statement made by a distinguished member of Parliament will become a binding commitment of a nation to the State of Jammu and Kashmir? This will have implications in interpreting the constitutional provision,” Chief Justice Chandrachud observed orally.
Justice S.K. Kaul, on the Bench, asked whether Dwivedi, by referring to the Constituent Assembly debates, was arguing that Article 370 had dissolved itself.
Dwivedi said Constituent Assembly debates revealed the intention of the framers of the Constitution.
“So, according to you, the net consequence will be application of Constitution of India will be frozen to J&K after 1957. How can this be permitted? If J&K is an integral part of India, then surely there has to be provisions in the Constitution which applies to J&K,” the Bench said.
After Dwivedi completed his submissions, senior advocate C.U. Singh argued about the illegality of the J&K Reorganisation Act. He said that to convert a State into a Union Territory, a constitutional amendment is needed under Article 368 which needs two-third ratification. “There is no other way to do it,” Singh submitted.
Nuh violence accused held after gunfight with police in Aravalli hills
A man allegedly involved in communal violence in Nuh was arrested after a brief encounter with police in the Tauru area of the district, officials said on August 21.
He has been identified as Aamir, a resident of Didhara village, they said. A search operation was launched following inputs that the accused, along with his associates, was hiding in the Aravalli hills near Tauru, police said.
The accused opened fire at the police and in retaliatory firing, he received a bullet injury in his leg, they said, adding the accused was nabbed and placed under arrest.
He was admitted to Nalhar Medical College for treatment, they said.
Police said the search is on for other communal violence accused hiding in the hills.
A country-made pistol and five cartridges were recovered from Aamir’s possession, they said.
Six people, including two home guards and a cleric, died in the communal clashes that erupted in Nuh when the Vishva Hindu Parishad’s Braj Mandal Yatra was attacked by a mob on July 31.
Congress will conduct caste census in Madhya Pradesh after winning Assembly polls, establish varsity in name of Sant Ravidas: Kharge
The Congress will conduct a caste census in Madhya Pradesh after winning the Assembly polls and establish a university in the name of Sant Ravidas, said party president Mallikarjun Kharge, accusing the regime at the Centre of wishing to change the Constitution.
He was addressing a public rally in Sagar in MP’s impoverished Bundelkhand region on Tuesday. Assembly elections are expected to be held in the BJP-ruled State at the end of the year.
“Some people are trying to change the Constitution. This is not possible because 140 crore people of the country are in support of the protection of the Constitution,” Kharge said, remembering Dr BR Ambedkar, who was born in MP’s Mhow.
Kharge criticised the ruling BJP for remembering Sant Ravidas, a revered figure for Scheduled Castes, only during elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently laid the foundation of a ₹100 crore memorial-cum-temple of Sant Ravidas in Sagar district.
As per the 2011 Census, the population of Dalits in MP was 1.13 crore.
“Modi ji has been in power for the last nine years while Chouhan (Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan) has ruled the state for the last 18 years. They remembered Ravidas only at the time of the polls”, Kharge said.
Citing a newspaper report, Kharge claimed that the BJP demolished a temple of Sant Ravidas in Delhi. He announced that the Congress will set up a university in the name of Sant Ravidas in Sagar district if voted to power in Madhya Pradesh. Kharge also said that Congress will conduct a caste-based census in MP after returning to power.
Referring to the crisis in Manipur, Kharge accused PM Modi of not doing “anything” to control violence in the northeastern state. Modi spoke on the Manipur issue at 10.30 a.m. on the day when the Parliament session was to start at 11 a.m., Kharge said. Otherwise, he maintained silence for more than three months despite the violence in the troubled State, he said.
He also alleged that the BJP government has not implemented the Bundelkhand package approved on the recommendation of the senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. Responding to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who recently asked Congress to tell people what it had done in its 53-year rule in MP, Kharge listed out several institutions, including Bhilai Steel Plant, IIM and IIT in Indore, AIIMS in Bhopal and Chambal Ghati Project.
He said that Narendra Modi ruled Gujarat as CM for 13 years and now nine years as PM but the children in his own state are still not getting enough nutritious meals.
The Congress chief accused the ruling party in MP of disrespecting the public mandate and said his party won last time and Kamal Nath was the CM but the BJP “snatched” the government.
The BJP talks about democracy but “purchases (elected representatives) and threatens by misusing the CBI, ED and other agencies” to form governments, Kharge alleged.
He termed MP’s BJP government “illegal”, claiming that it was formed by “stealing” legislators. “Despite this, they [BJP] claim that they formed the government on principles.” Like Madhya Pradesh, the BJP had formed the government in Karnataka, he said.
CBI arrests Canada-based businessman in defence espionage case
The CBI has arrested a Canada-based businessman in connection with a defence espionage case in which a journalist and a former Navy commander were held in May, officials said on Tuesday.
Rahul Gangal, a businessman who had taken Permanent Residency in Canada in 2019, was arrested in the case when he landed here on Monday, they said. He has been sent to four days of custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) by a special court, the officials said.
The agency had earlier arrested freelance journalist Vivek Raghuvanshi and former Navy commander Ashish Pathak for allegedly collecting sensitive information on defence matters and passing them on to foreign intelligence agencies. In its charge sheet filed before a special court here last month, the CBI had named Raghuvanshi and Pathak as accused in the alleged violation of the Official Secrets Act and related offences, the officials said. Raghuvanshi and Pathak were arrested on May 16.
In Brief:
A day before the crucial soft landing of the Chandrayaan-3 Lander Module on the Moon surface, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said that the mission is on schedule. On August 22, ISRO posted on social media platform X: “The mission is on schedule. Systems are undergoing regular checks. Smooth sailing is continuing. The Mission Operations Complex (MOX) is buzzed with energy & excitement!” The lander, with the rover in its belly, is in 25 km x 134 km orbit. It is set to land on the Moon on August 23 around 6.04 p.m. IST. Powered descent is expected to commence around 5.45 p.m.
Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.
