INDIA

  Nagpur in western India is to be the first major city in the country to return to a complete lockdown amid a sharp spike in coronavirus cases. The week-long lockdown, which starts on 15 March, will extend to adjoining areas of the district as well. Maharashtra state, where Nagpur is located, has always been a Covid hotspot, with the highest number of active and confirmed cases in India. India has recorded more than 11 million cases and 157,000 deaths so far. Caseloads have declined sharply in recent months across the country, but six states, including Maharashtra, have been reporting a fresh surge. Amaravati district, also in Maharashtra, was put under a week-long complete lockdown in February due to a spike in cases. Scientists fear that new variants could be o...

  On February 25th, Pakistan conveyed to India that the renewal of the 2003 ceasefire along the Line of Control can lead to a wider engagement only if and when Delhi restores statehood to Jammu Kashmir as a “starting point” for a discussion on the resolution of the Kashmir issue. The joint statement issued by the Directors General of Military Operations does not reflect any change in the Pakistani position that Kashmir is a “dispute” and that its resolution is anchored by the United Nations Security Council resolutions, said authoritative sources in Pakistan who did not wish to be identified. Moreover, they added, the statement in no way implies the acceptance of the Indian “narrative” of a “deal” on Kashmir. In a first indication of how Pakistan views relations with India...

A Sweden-based institute has classified India as an ‘electoral autocracy'. The V-Dem Institute, an independent research institute based at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, has been publishing data-heavy worldwide democracy reports since 2017. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi wrote on Twitter, India is no longer a democratic country, tagging a news report citing Sweden’s V-Dem Institute’s democracy report that has downgraded India's classification of the world’s largest democracy to electoral autocracy. The V-Dem report said that after Modi became the prime minister, censorship efforts became routine and were no longer related to only government matters. The government has constrained civil society and gone against the Constitution’s commitment to secularism. It added that the U...

Days after the Supreme Court of India stayed the demolition of Dargah Mubarak Khan Shaheed in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur city, Yogi Adityanath’s government in Uttar Pradesh has ordered the removal of the name of religious structures built along the roads. The decision on the demolition comes as the court was orally informed by the petitioner—Dargah Mubarak Khan Shaheed—that it had received a letter dated March 8 from the secretary of the Gorakhpur Development Authority (GDA) requesting the city’s superintendent of police to deploy a force and begin the demolition work from Tuesday, reported LiveLaw. The state home department has directed the district magistrates and divisional commissioners to remove all the religious places that encroach upon the roads. The structures which are bu...

  On Wednesday, speaking during the seventh annual convocation of Kamdhenu University in Gandhinagar, Governor Gujarat, Acharya Devrat, claimed that cow was the foundation of the Indian economy, as it increases the income of farmers. Quoting a research conducted by scientists from Hisar’s Agriculture University, he told the students that 1 gram of cow dung from indigenous cows has over 300 crore bacteria present in it which helps in improving fertility of the soil while cow urine is rich in minerals. He also said that the Indian breed cow products (cow urine and dung) are best for farming and have enriched minerals in them which western cows don’t have. He added that the cow milk gives nutrition while cow dung helps in agriculture, which can increase the income of farmers....

On Wednesday, a youth namely Tabarak Khan, a native of Samastipur in Bihar was arrested by police in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh under the anti-conversion law for kidnapping a minor girl and forcibly marrying her. The police said that he was living in a rented house in Shahpur, Uttar Pradesh, he kidnapped the girl from his neighborhood and forcibly married to her on March 1. The police said that a case of kidnapping along with provisions of the anti-conversion law has been lodged against the man, while further sections of law will be added if required after the girl’s statement in the court. There is a search going on for a person who facilitated the Nikkah ceremony, the police said. The girl in her statement said that the man gave her life threats and warned her to not tell anyon...

  On Wednesday, farmer unions called for a bharat bandh or countrywide shutdown on March 26, when farmer’s protest at borders of Delhi against the Centre’s three new farm laws completes four months. Farmer leader Buta Singh Burjgill said farmers along with trade unions will protest the hike in fuel prices and privatisation of railways on March 15. He said that the bharat bandh will remain effective from morning till evening at Singhu border on March 26. The farmers will observe “Mandi Bachao-Kheti Bachao” day on March 19, he added. The farmer unions have also decided to celebrate ‘Shaheedi divas’ of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, he said. Farmer leaders said that copies of the new farm laws will be burnt during ‘Holika Dahan’ on March 28. The protesting farmers h...

Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee has been attacked in Nandigram, on her return to Kolkata, after filing for nominations, as West Bengal elections approach. According to reports, Mamta Banerjee was supposed to spend the night at Nandigram, but she canceled her plans and returned to Kolkata. Arjun Singh, Vice President of BJP said : "She is trying to draw sympathy. If at all there is an attack then it is a failure of the state's chief minister and home minister". Visuals from the spot showed security guards lifting the 66-year-old and placing her on the backseat of a car. According to reports, she has sustained injuries in her leg. Mamta Banerjee said : "There was no local police, there was poor security. The SP wasn't around. My legs are injured". Mamta said that she was manhan...

  On Monday, The Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021, was passed in the state Assembly. The Bill was approved and submitted earlier in December last year, by the state Cabinet in a special meeting chaired by Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan. When the bill was passed, it received huge back lash from Congress members present at the assembly. "We won't allow forced conversions in Madhya Pradesh. Under the new bill, anyone who does it will face jail term up to 10 yrs and minimum Rs 50,000 fine. Many incidents came to light where minor girls were converted, married & made to contest Panchayat polls," Shivraj Singh Chouhan had said. Under the new Bill, forcing religious conversion on someone will attract one to five years of imprisonment and a minimu...

  The High Commission of India in London has condemned a debate among some British lawmakers on an e-petition over the right of peaceful protests and freedom of the press in India amid the ongoing farmers’ stir against three New Delhi laws on agricultural reform. The Commission damned the debate, held on Monday evening inside the British parliamentary premises, as “false assertions” in a “distinctly one-sided discussion”. “We deeply regret that rather than a balanced debate, false assertions -- without substantiation or facts -- were made, casting aspersions on the largest functioning democracy in the world and its institutions,” the commission said in a statement after the Monday evening debate on an e-petition. The debate was held in response to an e-petition that had crossed ...