The Evening Wrap Welcome to The Evening Wrap, your guide to the day’s major news developments with concise analysis from The Hindu. To get it in your inbox every evening click here. Criminal Figures The Supreme Court has ordered all political parties to publish the criminal history of their candidates for Assembly and Lok Sabha polls, along with the reasons why they chose to nominate people with criminal antecedents. Political parties, it said, will have to furnish these details within 48 hours of the selection of the candidates. That elected officials with criminal records pervade our political system is no secret, but here are some recent numbers to give you some context . According to an analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), in the recently concluded Delhi polls, 61% of newly-elected Delhi MLAs have declared criminal cases as compared to 34% in 2015. The Election Commission of India, meanwhile, has said that 46% of our MPs have criminal records. It also said that such candidates should not get tickets. The Court ordered political parties to publish the criminal antecedents of their candidates in local and national newspapers and on their social media handles. Long way to go The arrest of 2008 Mumbai terror attack mastermind, Hafiz Saeed is a long-pending international obligation of Islamabad, an Indian government official said today. The official added that the government considers the move as a step taken in view of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting that is scheduled to start on February 16. “The decision has been made on the eve of the FATF Plenary meeting, which has to be noted. Hence the efficacy of this decision remains to be seen,” a source said. Meteoric Rise Indian-origin politician Rishi Sunak, the son-in-law of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy, was appointed the U.K.’s new Chancellor, a position equivalent to Finance Minister, by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a Cabinet reshuffle. Pakistani-origin Sajid Javid had earlier resigned as Chancellor, with the BBC reporting that he had quit over being asked to fire his team of aides. Mr. Sunak was serving under Mr. Javid as the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and just seven months ago was a junior housing minister. No change in ‘chronology’? In a televised public interview with a news channel, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, when asked about the government’s stand on the National Register of Citizens (NRC), said something strange. He said “no decision had been taken” on the NRC, but also added, “NRC is part of the party’s manifesto, and will happen.” So, if he is certain that the NRC will happen, then what does “no decision has been taken” mean? In an earlier interview, Mr Shah had used the term ‘chronology’ to explain that first the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) will be passed and implemented, and then NRC will be implemented across the country. Interestingly, in response to another question, Mr Shah said that the hate speech by some of his party leaders may have contributed to the BJP’s poor performance in the Delhi assembly elections. “My assessment of the Delhi elections was wrong,” he said. The BJP could not touch double figures, finishing with just eight seats in the 70-member Delhi assembly. Honorable mentions: 139 electoral bonds worth ₹81.67 crore were sold by various branches of the SBI in the run-up to the Delhi elections, as per a response to an RTI query. Sara Abdullah Pilot’s petition challenging the booking of her brother Omar Abdullah under the Public Safety Act (PSA) is listed before a Bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Indira Banerjee for Friday. That’s it for this edition of The Evening Wrap. We’ll see you tomorrow! |
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