The Evening Wrap Welcome to The Evening Wrap, your guide to the day’s major news developments with concise analysis from The Hindu. Here’s what you need to know today: Conscious Transfer After Justice S Muralidhar of the Delhi High Court took the Delhi police to task yesterday for failing to file FIRs against BJP leaders for hate speech, the Law Ministry, in a late night move, notified his transfer to the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The timing of this move is controversial. While his transfer was recommended by the Supreme Court collegium on February 12, it is impossible to ignore the fact that the Delhi police were set to face some tough questions today by Justice Muralidhar’s court. In hearings yesterday, the judge had played videos of inflammatory speeches made by BJP leaders and come down hard on the Delhi police, asking them to come back with a “conscious decision” on bringing these politicians to book. “What is causing us concern is that the same slogans are being repeated in all videos. When you don’t register an FIR, a wrong message goes out which won’t deter people from using this slogan,” he had observed. The Law Ministry notification has now taken Delhi police out of the firing line. Government sources, however, insist that his transfer was a routine matter. Following the notification, no proceedings were held in Justice Muralidhar’s court, and the case was transferred to a different bench. In today’s hearing in front of this new bench, the Delhi police, through solicitor general Tushar Mehta, said they have decided not to book anyone for hate speech at the moment as it won’t help in restoring peace and normalcy. They also claimed they needed “more time” to study the videos of the hate speeches. The bench acquiesced and the next hearing has now been fixed for April 13. Toll mounts Five days after violence broke out in northeast Delhi, seven more fatalities have been recorded at three hospitals, taking the total death toll to 38 . Till Wednesday night, the total count of casualties stood at 27. More than 200 people have been injured in the violence that has raged over the last four days. In what is unusual, going by the record of previous communal clashes in India, most of the deaths were due to gun shot wounds. Condemnation of the violence and the role of the Delhi police continues to pour in. Most notable today was a statement by the UN Human Rights Chief who voiced “great concern” over India’s amended citizenship law and the reports of “police inaction” in the face of communal attacks in Delhi. The Delhi Police has now transferred the riots probe to the Crime Branch and formed two Special Investigation Teams. Dismissing Concern The government today dismissed as “factually inaccurate” and “misleading” the comments made by a U.S. commission on religious freedom and a “few individuals” on the violence in Delhi. It described the remarks as an attempt to politicise the issue. The statement by the External Affairs Ministry was in response to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) expressing “grave concern” over the violence in Delhi. The USCIRF also asked the Indian government to provide protection to people irrespective of their faith. Among the “few individuals” to have spoken out is Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, currently the frontrunner for the Democratic party’s nomination for President. In Brief: The Delhi High Court on Thursday was informed by aviation regulator DGCA that it will look into stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra’s representation against the airline companies that put him on their no-fly lists for allegedly heckling journalist Arnab Goswami on a flight. If you want a refresher on that case and on the rules that airlines have for in-flight behaviour, we have an explainer here. TDP president and former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh N. Chandrababu Naidu was taken into custody under preventive detention at Visakhapatnam Airport on Thursday. That’s it for this edition of The Evening Wrap. We’ll see you tomorrow. | 
Post a Comment