| Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day's biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. We hope you are staying safe. Supreme Court proposes forming a panel to help resolve farmers' protests The Supreme Court on Wednesday said talks between the Centre and farmer leaders on the controversial agricultural laws have broken no ground and are "bound to fail". A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde proposed setting up a committee of farmer leaders from across the country, including the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), which has been at the forefront of the protests, and representatives of the Central government. "The Committee can talk and resolve this issue. Secure the names of some farmers' unions who want to join... It should include BKU and other farmer leaders. They should be drawn from across the country. It affects all and this will soon become a national issue," Chief Justice Bobde said. Reacting to the development, former minister and senior Shiromani Akali Dal leader Daljit Singh Cheema alleged that the Central government was depending on "motivated pleas in the Supreme Court to forcibly lift the congregation of peaceful farmers from the borders of Delhi". "Such pleas only highlight the failure of the NDA government... Instead of doing this the government could have arrived at a solution in Parliament by discussing the issue threadbare and repealing the three agricultural acts," he said. The Bench scheduled the case for urgent hearing on December 17. "December 18 is the last day before we close for vacations," Chief Justice Bobde said. Thousands of farmers from various parts of the country, mainly from Punjab and Haryana, have braved the onset of winter and blocked the entry points to the National Capital since late November. British foreign secretary says he 'discussed' farmers' protests with Jaishankar Agricultural reforms are India's internal matter but the protests here are part of British politics too, said the visiting British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who "discussed" the ongoing farmer protests at Delhi's borders during talks with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. Raab, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, said the U.K. respected India's "heritage" of protests and debates, and was watching the situation closely.  British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab calls on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on December 16, 2020. "We [UK government] respect the fact that the reforms going through [the Indian] system here are domestic reforms," he said, in response to a question from The Hindu on whether the protests had come up in bilateral talks in Delhi. "Your [Indian] politics is in some sense, because of the Indian diaspora in Britain, our [U.K.'s] politics," Raab emphasised, in an interaction with journalists. India had a "vibrant heritage of peaceful protests and vigorous debate," which the UK has "watched…with interest," he observed. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) did not refer to the issue in its press statement on the meeting between the India-U.K. Foreign Ministers on Tuesday. Nor did it respond to a request for a comment on Raab's remarks. Earlier in the month, the MEA spokesperson had said that remarks by foreign leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other foreign politicians, on the farmers protests were "ill-informed" and "unwarranted", and the matter was an "internal" issue for India. Raab, however, said that since members of the Indian diaspora had joined protests in the U.K. over the farm Bills, this was now an issue in British politics as well. Over the past two weeks, 36 British Members of Parliament, mostly from the Opposition Labour Party, had written to Raab, asking him to raise the issue of the new agricultural laws, which they called a "death warrant" for farmers. Last week on The Hindu's In Focus podcast we addressed the issue of Interventionism in International Affairs and whether this is now a growing trend. Do listen in for a fascinating discussion. Rahul Gandhi, Congress members walk out of Parliamentary Committee on Defence meeting Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and other members of his party on Wednesday walked out of a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Defence, alleging that the panel's time was being wasted in discussing armed forces' uniforms instead of the crucial issue of national security, sources said. Gandhi was not allowed to speak at the meeting by the panel chairman Jual Oram (BJP) when he sought to raise the issues of Chinese aggression and better equipment for the soldiers at the border in Ladakh, they said. The issue of uniforms of the Army, Navy and Air Force was being discussed in the presence of the Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat when Gandhi intervened to say that instead of discussing this, the political leadership should discuss the issues of national security and how to strengthen the forces fighting the Chinese in Ladakh. The Committee chairman did not allow Gandhi to speak, following which the Congress leader decided to walk out, the sources said, adding that Congress members Rajeev Satav and Revanth Reddy also left the meeting along with their leader. No element in Bajrang Dal's content that necessitates ban: Facebook India head Facebook's India head Ajit Mohan deposed before a parliamentary panel on Wednesday and said that the social media company's fact-checking team had so far found no such element that necessitated a ban on the Bajrang Dal, sources said. Mohan deposed before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, chaired by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor. The panel had called him on the issue of citizens' data safety. Mohan was accompanied by Shivnath Thukral, the public policy director of Facebook.  Photo: vhp.org Congress MP Karti Chidambaram, along with Tharoor, questioned Mohan about a recent Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report suggesting that the social media giant was reluctant to ban the Bajrang Dal from its platform due to financial reasons and concerns over the safety of its staff, sources said. The WSJ report suggested that despite an internal assessment calling for a ban on the Bajrang Dal, Facebook did not crack down on the Hindu nationalist group due to these reasons. BJP MP Nishikant Dubey then asked if the Bajrang Dal content was not found to be in violation of its social media policies, then why did Facebook not deny the WSJ report and term it as fake. Kerala local body elections: LDF headed for emphatic victory The counting of votes polled in the 2020 local body elections in Kerala is on at 244 centres across the State, with trends projecting an emphatic victory for the Left Democratic Front (LDF). While the BJP-led NDA scored some significant political points in different parts of the state, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) registered a decent performance.  Left Democratic Front supporters in Kochi celebrate in Kochi the victory of the alliance in the Kerala local body polls on December 16, 2020. The results of the three-tier local body polls in the State are likely a template for the Assembly polls due in another four months. The local body elections were conducted in three phases on December 8, 10 and 14. JEE Main to be held four times Four sessions of JEE Main will be held in 2021 -- in February, March, April and May -- to ensure that it does not interfere with board exams of different states, which would be held in a staggered manner on account of a Covid-19-disrupted academic calendar, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said on Wednesday. The first session of the engineering entrance examination will be held from February 23-26. Students will be allowed to attempt all four times if they wish, with the best score being used.  JEE Main exam candidates stand in a queue to enter an examination centre in Patna on September 4, 2020. The pattern of the exam has also been changed to accommodate Covid-19-driven changes to the syllabus. The CBSE reduced its syllabus for Class 12 board exams by 30%, and other state boards have also reduced their syllabus due to the lockdown. Therefore, the JEE-Main question paper will now have greater choice. In an online interaction with students last week, the Minister had announced that the government is considering the possibility of holding the JEE three or four times a year, and a proposal is being evaluated on reducing the number of questions that students can attempt in JEE (Main) 2021. The Minister has already clarified that there will be no change in the syllabus for medical entrance exam NEET or engineering entrance exam JEE-Main in 2021. Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The number of coronavirus cases reported from India stood at 99,42,134 at the time of writing this newsletter, with the death toll at 1,44,509. Covaxin, Bharat Biotech's Covid-19 vaccine, has been found to be well tolerated with no serious adverse events, and produced robust immune responses, as per interim findings from Phase-I trials.  A health worker prepares to administer COVID-19 vaccine candidate Covaxin to a volunteer at a government hospital in Ahmedabad on November 27, 2020. The World Health Organisation said Wednesday that a team of international experts would travel to China next month to help investigate the animal origins of Covid-19. Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu government has granted permission to hold public and political meetings, religious gatherings, sports and cultural events with 50% capacity in open places from December 19.
In Brief: Ending weeks of speculations, TMC heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari resigned as an MLA of the State assembly on Wednesday, further fuelling speculations about him switching over to the saffron camp. Adhikari, who resigned from the State cabinet last month and has been maintaining some distance from the party leadership, arrived at the State assembly this evening and submitted his resignation to the assembly secretary. He was TMC MLA from Nandigram assembly constituency of East Midnapore district. The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the next round of auction of telecom spectrum, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said at a press conference. Spectrum in 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz, 2,100 MHz, 2,300 MHz and 2,500 MHz frequency bands will be auctioned for a validity period of 20 years, the government said in a statement. A total of 2,251.25 MHz, valued at ₹3,92,332.70 crore, is being offered. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. | 
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