UNprecedented Intervention

The Hindu Newsletter - UNprecedented Intervention

	Tuesday 03, March 2020

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:  UNprecedented Intervention The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has taken the unprecedented step of filing an intervention application in the Supreme Court against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The move was confirmed by the Ministry of External Affairs which immediately responded by arguing that the law was an internal matter of India and that the topmost human rights body had no locus in the matter.  “We are clear that the CAA is constitutionally valid and complies with all requirements of our constitutional values. It is reflective of our long-standing national commitment in respect of human rights issues arising from the tragedy of Partition of India. We strongly believe that no foreign party has any locus standi on issues pertaining to India's sovereignty,” an official spokesperson of the MEA said.  Our reporting on this story quotes, former External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh who has described the move as “absolutely unprecedented in the diplomatic history of India”. “As far as my memory goes, this is the first time the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights has come to the Supreme Court of India,” he says. This is a major developing story and we will have more on it tomorrow.  COVID spread More updates on the spread of COVID-19 in India now. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on said there was no need to panic and added that people need to work together and take “small yet important” measures for self-protection. This, even as the Union Health Ministry said that six suspected cases of coronavirus have been detected in Agra now during sample testing. An Italian tourist, who arrived in India on February 29, has also been tested positive in Jaipur.  Despite the Prime Minister’s assurances, panic does appear to be spreading. A private school in Noida cancelled exams today after it came out that the individual tested positive for COVID-19 in Delhi yesterday has a child studying in the school and that some children had met family members for a party on February 28. The Karnataka health department has also now begun the task of tracking all the people who could have come into contact with the 25-year old software engineer from bangalore who had tested positive for COVID-19.  Meanwhile, in a bid to contain the further spread of coronavirus cases in India, the central government on Tuesday decided to cancel all visa/e-Visa that had been granted to nationals from Italy, Iran, South Korea and Japan on or before March 3. Paying Up Vodafone Idea on Tuesday paid the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) ₹3,042.80 crore for airwaves bought in the auctions of 2014. The payment comes even as the telecom firm faces balance adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues of ₹53,500 crore. The company has so far paid ₹3500 crore and is hoping for some relief, without which it has warned it may have to shut operations. Meanwhile, the press Trust of India has reported that the DoT will write fresh letters to telecom companies questioning them about the variation in AGR dues assessed by firms themselves and its own calculations. In Brief:  The National Investigation agency arrested a father-daughter duo for their alleged involvement in the Pulwama attack last year. The accused had tracked the movement of CRPF convoys and allegedly helped assemble the bomb used in the attack that killed at least 40 paramilitary personnel. The Centre said it was ready to discuss last week’s communal violence in parts of Delhi a day after the festival of Holi on March 10. The statement came amidst an uproar from several politicians in the Opposition as they attempted to start a debate on the large-scale violence in North East Delhi that claimed 47 lives last week. Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that 79 houses and 327 shops were completely gutted in arson during the communal violence in North east Delhil last week. According to police, 41 bodies have been recovered so far, Mr. Sisodia said at a press conference. Iran’s supreme leader put the Islamic Republic’s armed forces on alert on March 3 to assist health officials in combating the outbreak of COVID-19, — the deadliest outside of China — that authorities say has killed 77 people. The Taliban carried out more than a dozen attacks on Afghan army bases, hours after ending a partial truce and throwing into doubt peace talks between Kabul and the insurgents. The intra-Afghan negotiations are due to begin March 10 according to The U.S-Taliban peace deal signed in Doha on Saturday.  That’s it for this edition of The Evening Wrap. We’ll see you tomorrow.

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