CONGRESS POLL LOSS INTROSPECTION TURNS INTO SHOW OF SUPPORT FOR RAHUL; SONIA STAYS PRESIDENT

Days after its election debacle in five states, the Congress' top decision-making body on Sunday brainstormed over the way forward "and "unanimously reaffirmed'' faith in the leadership of party president Sonia Gandhi. Amid calls for large-scale reforms to revive the party's dwindling electoral fortunes, AICC general secretary KC Venugopal said after the over four-hour meeting of the Congress Working Committee that the party president will immediately take up corrective measures to revamp and re-strengthen organisation.

The Congress will hold a chintan shivir immediately after the Budget session of Parliament and the CWC will meet again before that, he told reporters.

Ahead of the meeting, the chorus for making Rahul Gandhi Congress president again grew louder as several leaders and workers voiced support for him to take on the mantle of party chief.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said no one was taking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi as Rahul Gandhi does and was fighting resolutely. "The prime minister has to start his speech after targeting Rahul Gandhi, you can understand what this means. All of us want that Rahul ji should take on the mantle of party leadership," Gehlot told reporters.

Karnataka Congress president D K Shivakumar also backed the idea to make Gandhi the party chief. "As I have said it earlier as well, Sh. Rahul Gandhi should take up the Congress presidency in a full-time role immediately. This is the wish of millions of Congress workers like me," he tweeted.

Gandhi listened to all leaders at the CWC meet and said she is willing to make required changes to strengthen the party. "Every single member of the CWC wants Sonia Gandhi to guide party till organisational elections are held," Congress leader Randeep Surjewala said.

Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and Mukul Wasnik were the only three from the Group of 23 leaders who participated in the meeting of the CWC, which has a large number of Gandhi family loyalists.

Despite a high-pitched campaign led by Priyanka Gandhi, the Congress could manage to win only two of the 403 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh with the vote share plummeting to a meagre 2.33 percent and most of its candidates losing security deposits.

BUDGET SESSION OF PARLIAMENT RESUMES TODAY

The second part of the Parliament's Budget session begins today, with the Opposition set to corner the govt on a range of issues, including rising unemployment, a reduction in the interest rate on employees' provident fund and the evacuation of Indians stranded in war-hit Ukraine.

Top on the govt's agenda would be getting Parliament's approval to the budgetary proposals.

With the COVID-19 situation easing out considerably, both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha will have simultaneous sittings from 11 am, instead of the two separate shifts during the first part of the Budget session from January 29 to February 11.

INDIA TO TEMPORARILY RELOCATE EMBASSY FROM UKRAINE TO POLAND

The govt on Sunday decided to temporarily relocate the Indian embassy in Ukraine to Poland. The embassy had already closed its operations in capital Kyiv on March 1 and relocated staff to Lviv near the Polish border, where many Indians seeking to leave Ukraine had converged.

Another team of embassy staff had moved eastwards to coordinate the evacuation of Indians, mostly students, out of Kharkiv and Sumy which were part of the initial conflict zones in the east.

Apart from the security situation, another deciding factor in relocating the mission is the govt’s assessment that all the Indians known to be living in Ukraine and eager to leave have left.

Announcing the decision, the external affairs ministry said: “In view of the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Ukraine, including attacks in the western parts of the country, it has been decided that the Indian embassy in Ukraine will be temporarily relocated in Poland. The situation will be reassessed in the light of further developments.”

COVID DASHBOARD – INDIA

As of 0800 IST / March 14

from mohfw.gov.in ,

New Cases on Sunday 2,494

Active Cases 36,168 (-1,901)

Total Deaths (Deaths Yesterday) 5,15,877 (18)

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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RUSSIA AND UKRAINE GIVE BRIGHTEST ASSESSMENT YET OF PROGRESS IN TALKS

Russian and Ukrainian officials gave their most upbeat assessments yet on Sunday of progress in their talks on the war in Ukraine, suggesting there could be positive results within days. Separately, US deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman said Russia was showing signs of willingness to engage in substantive negotiations about ending a conflict in which thousands have died. Ukraine has said it is willing to negotiate, but not to surrender or accept any ultimatums. “We will not concede in principle on any positions. Russia now understands this. Russia is already beginning to talk constructively,” Ukrainian negotiator and presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in a video posted online. “I think that we’ll achieve some results literally in a matter of days,” he said.

RIA news agency quoted a Russian delegate, Leonid Slutsky, as saying the talks had made substantial progress. “According to my personal expectations, this progress may grow in the coming days into a joint position of both delegations, into documents for signing,” Slutsky said. Neither side indicated what the scope of any agreement might be. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said late on Sunday that talks between Russia and Ukraine will continue on Monday.

In a tweet, Podolyak said Russia was carefully listening to Ukraine’s proposals. “Our demands are — the end of the war and the withdrawal of (Russian) troops. I see the understanding and there is a dialogue,” he said.

Meanwhile, Russia took direct aim on Sunday at a hub for Western arms shipments and fighters in Ukraine, launching a barrage of airstrikes at a military base near the Polish border that killed at least 35 people and brought the war perilously closer to Nato’s doorstep. A day after warning that weapons flowing into Ukraine from Western allies were “legitimate targets,” Russia carried out the aerial assault against the base 19 km from the frontier with Poland.

WASHINGTON WARNS BEIJING AGAINST PROVIDING HELP TO RUSSIA

Russia said on Sunday that it was counting on China to help it withstand the blow to its economy from Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine, but the US warned Beijing not to provide that lifeline. Russian finance minister Anton Siluanov said sanctions had deprived Moscow of access to $300 billion of its $640 billion in gold and foreign exchange reserves, and added that there was pressure on Beijing to shut off more.

“We have part of our gold and foreign exchange reserves in the Chinese currency, in yuan. And we see what pressure is being exerted by Western countries on China in order to limit mutual trade with China. Of course, there is pressure to limit access to those reserves,” he said. “But I think that our partnership with China will still allow us to maintain the cooperation that we have achieved, and not only maintain, but also increase it in an environment where Western markets are closing. ”

Siluanov’s comments in a TV interview marked the clearest statement yet from Moscow that it will seek help from China to cushion the impact of sanctions.

But US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Washington was warning China not to provide it. “We are communicating directly, privately to Beijing, that there will absolutely be consequences for large-scale sanctions, evasion efforts or support to Russia to backfill them,” Sullivan told CNN.

CHINA SHUTS TECH HUB OVER 66 COVID CASES. 17 MILLION PEOPLE IN LOCKDOWN

China placed all 17 million residents in one of its biggest cities under lockdown on Sunday, as virus cases doubled nationwide to nearly 3,400 and anxiety mounted over the resilience of its 'zero-Covid' approach in the face of the worst outbreak in two years.

The southern tech hub of Shenzhen told all residents to stay at home as the city struggles to eradicate an Omicron flare-up linked to neighbouring virus-ravaged Hong Kong.

The lockdown and a suspension of public transport will last until March 20, a city govt notice said, adding that it would launch three rounds of mass testing.

Shenzhen reported 66 new infections on Sunday -- a fraction of the 32,430 confirmed the same day in Hong Kong.

"If prevention and control is not strengthened in a timely and decisive manner, it could easily become large-scale community transmission," Shenzhen health official Lin Hancheng said at a briefing.

The surge in infections across China has also prompted authorities to close schools in Shanghai and lock down multiple northeastern cities, as 18 provinces battle clusters of the Omicron and Delta variants.

THE REST

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YOGI MEETS PM, OTHER TOP BJP LEADERS AHEAD OF UP GOVT FORMATION

Uttar Pradesh chief minister-designate Yogi Adityanath on Sunday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J P Nadda among other top party leaders in New Delhi ahead of the formation of the new govt in the state.

Though the BJP leaders called these “courtesy meetings”, they hold significance ahead of the formation of new govt and selection of ministers for the cabinet. As several ministers of the outgoing cabinet have faced defeat in the elections, the party has been looking for fresh faces for induction in the council of ministers, sources said. “The new cabinet is expected to be a mix of experienced leaders and young MLAs. Social equations will also be maintained in the new cabinet,” said a party leader.

‘TUSI KAMAAL KAR DITA’: KEJRIWAL TERMS VERDICT A ‘REVOLUTION’

Top AAP leaders and hundreds of party volunteers from across Punjab descended on Amristar Sunday for a massive road show that choked city streets almost throughout the day. Led by CM-designate Bhagwant Mann and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, the road show took the BRTS lane, but crowd spilled to other lanes as the victory march progressed.

In his short speech during the road show, Kejriwal said, “Tusi kamaal kar ditta. I love you, Punjab. The whole world is talking about you. The world is in disbelief that such a revolution has come to Punjab. All big names were defeated. It is a big revolution. Only Punjabis could have done this.”

He added, “Punjab has got an honest chief minister in Bhagwant Mann after so many years. It will be an honest govt. If our minister or MLA does corruption, we will send that person to jail. We will stop this loot. Every penny will be spent on the people…We will keep all the guarantees. Some may take time. Some will be done instantly. But we will keep all. Every Punjabi will become CM on March 16. All Punjabis are invited to Khattar Kalan. You all have to take oath as Chief Minister.”

Mann said: “Punjabis are invited for oath taking ceremony on March 16. You all have to come with basanti (yellow) turbans to take oath and carry ideology of Bhagat Singh to every home. All Punjabis will take oath as CM and all will be CM.”

GOVT CURBS CHOKING MEDIA IN J&K: PRESS COUNCIL PANEL

A fact finding committee (FFC) of the Press Council of India (PCI) has found that the “news media in the Jammu & Kashmir region, and especially in the Valley is slowly being choked mainly because of the extensive curbs imposed by the local administration”.

“There is also the threat of violence by the militants which acts as a deterrent,” the committee has said in its report that was submitted last week.

The FFC was set up in September 2021 by then PCI chairman Justice (retd) C K Prasad to look at the state of the media in Jammu and Kashmir after PDP leader and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti wrote to the Council.

“There is a long list of journalists who have been individually harassed. The object is to create a fear and intimidation to fall in with the govt line,” the FFC report says.

According to the report, “normal lines of communication between the local govt administration and journalists has been disrupted” because of the govt’s “suspicion that a large number of local journalists are sympathizers of the militants’ cause”.

Lt Governor Manoj Sinha had “frankly told the FFC that many journalists were of ‘anti-national’ persuasion”, the report says. “He (Sinha) conceded that when he was first appointed, he used to encourage open press conferences, but now had gone back to a ‘selective engagement’ with preferred journalists.”

The three-member committee, comprising Prakash Dubey, Suman Gupta, and Gurbir Singh, recorded “numerous cases of journalists being subject to interrogation, threatened and made to fill irrelevant profiling documents”.

The FFC found that “in the guise of information gathering, threats and various forms of intimidation by the police have become part of the new ‘normal’ in the Kashmir valley, particularly after the imposition of central rule since August 2019”.

MUMBAI POLICE GRILL FADNAVIS IN PHONE TAPPING CASE, PROTESTS

A team of the BKC cyber police in Mumbai recorded senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis's statement for almost for two hours at his residence in connection with a case of alleged illegal tapping of phones, an official said.

In the wake of BJP's protest against Mumbai police over Fadnavis’s questioning, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday asked why some people and political parties think of themselves as above the law and why "drama" was being staged. Raut, in a post on Twitter, claimed that earlier central agencies summoned several Maharashtra ministers and public representatives to probe into some cases out of 'political vendetta'.

There are no special rights for anyone in a democracy. All are equal before the law, said the Rajya Sabha member and Shiv Sena's chief spokesperson, whose party shares power with the NCP and Congress in Maharashtra.

51% MLAS FACE CRIMINAL CASES IN NEW UP VIDHAN SABHA: ADR

More than half of the 403 newly elected Uttar Pradesh legislators have criminal cases against them, states an analysis report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

Of the 403 legislators, 205 (51 per cent) have declared in their affidavits that they face criminal cases. Of them, 158 (39 per cent) winning candidates have declared serious criminal cases, including cases related to murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, and crime against women, the ADR added.

In the report, the ADR also said five MLAs have declared cases related to murder (Section 302 of the IPC) against themselves. In all, 29 winning candidates are booked in attempt-to-murder cases, while six newly elected MLAs have declared cases related to crime against women — one of them faces a rape case.

As for the party-wise break-up, of the 255 newly elected BJP legislators, 111 (44 per cent) have criminal antecedents. The SP has 71 such MLAs out of its total strength of 111 in the newly elected Assembly. Seven out of eight winning candidates of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) have a criminal taint. The Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) and Nishad Party have four “tainted” legislators each out of their respective six winning nominees. The Apna Dal has three MLAs with criminal cases out of 12, and the Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik) two. The Congress won two seats and both its MLAs are accused in criminal cases. The BSP’s lone MLA in the newly elected UP Assembly has criminal antecedents.

US MAJORS STILL DOMINATING CARDS PAYMENTS IN INDIA

The sanctions-led withdrawal of card payments networks like Visa and Mastercard from Russia throws light on the dominance of US-based companies in the global payments ecosystem.

The withdrawal of services from Russia by these companies means that any cards issued by banks globally on these networks will not work anymore in Russia at PoS terminals or ATMs. Further, cards issued by Russian banks on these networks will also stop working outside the country.

In India, the cards space has layers to it with the scales tipped in the favour of the foreign players. According to a January 2021 report by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), with 60.36 crore cards issued, the NPCI’s RuPay card had more 60 per cent share in the number of cards issued as of November 30, 2020. But a significant chunk of this was from debit cards, with only 9.7 lakh RuPay credit cards being issued as of November 2020.

The significant lead for RuPay in number of debit cards notwithstanding, the value of card payments made through point-of-sale (PoS) machines using credit cards, where the American card network companies like Visa and Mastercard enjoyed a majority share, far exceeded those done using debit cards.

‘THE KASHMIR FILES’ GETS TAX BREAK IN GUJARAT, MP

The Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat govts on Sunday decided to exempt the recently-released film ‘The Kashmir Files’ from paying entertainment tax in respective states.

“Movie #TheKashmirFiles is a heart-wrenching narration of the pain, suffering, struggle, and trauma faced by Kashmiri Hindus in the 90s,” MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan wrote on his Twitter handle. “This needs to be watched by maximum people, hence we have decided to make it tax-free in the state of Madhya Pradesh,” he stated.

Written and directed by Vivek Agnihotri and produced by Zee Studios, the film depicts the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus from Kashmir following systematic killings of people from the community by Pakistan-backed terrorists.

On Saturday, the film’s team met Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The PM congratulated them and appreciated the film.

BENGALURU TEST, DAY 2: INDIA SET SRI LANKA DAUNTING CHASE

Rishabh Pant put Sri Lanka’s attack to the sword with a record-breaking half-century while Shreyas Iyer yet again conjured up a measured fifty as India took complete control of the second Test, in Bengaluru, on Sunday.

Pant's 31-ball 50 and Iyer's 67-run knock after useful contribution from the top-order batters enabled India set Sri Lanka a mammoth 447-run target after declaring their second innings at 303 for 9, on Day 2 of the day-night Test.

The struggling visitors will need nothing less than a miraculous show to save the match after ending the day on 28 for 1 in their second innings.

With plenty of time at their disposal after bundling out Sri Lanka for 109 in the first session of the day for a 143-run first-innings lead, India’s batters gained more experience of playing with pink ball on a wicket that assisted spinners.

Scores at end of Day 2: India 252 & 303/9 (declared); Sri Lanka 109 & 28/1

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness. - Mark Twain

OFF TRACK

To impress his date, the young man took her to a very chick Italian restaurant. After sipping some fine wine, he picked up the menu and studied it with an appraising eye.

"We'll have the Giuseppe Spomdalucci," he said finally.

"Sorry, sir," said the waiter. "That's the owner’s name."