INDIA CONDEMNS BUCHA KILLINGS AT UNSC, BACKS INDEPENDENT PROBE

India on Tuesday unequivocally condemned the "deeply disturbing" reports of civilian killings in the Ukrainian city of Bucha and supported the call for an independent investigation, as it underlined that when innocent human lives are at stake, diplomacy must prevail as the only viable option.

"The situation in Ukraine has not shown any significant improvement since the Council last discussed the issue. The security situation has only deteriorated, as well as its humanitarian consequences," India's permanent representative to the UN ambassador T S Tirumurti told a meeting on Ukraine in the UN Security Council that was addressed for the first time by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Thanking Zelenskyy's participation at the meeting, Tirumurti said, “Recent reports of civilian killings in Bucha are deeply disturbing. We unequivocally condemn these killings and support the call for an independent investigation.”

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, in his address to the Council, said that he will never forget the "horrifying images of civilians killed in Bucha" and immediately called for an independent investigation to guarantee effective accountability. “I am also deeply shocked by the personal testimony of rapes and sexual violence that are now emerging."

Images and videos of people lying dead on the streets of Bucha, some with their hands tied behind them, drew global condemnation and calls for investigation and tougher actions against Russia.

Tirumurti said India continues to remain deeply concerned at the worsening situation and reiterates its call for immediate cessation of violence and end to hostilities.

“We have emphasised right from the beginning of the conflict the need to pursue the path of diplomacy and dialogue. When innocent human lives are at stake, diplomacy must prevail as the only viable option,” he said, adding that India takes note of the ongoing efforts, including the meetings held recently between the Parties.

Tirumurti noted that the impact of the crisis is being felt beyond the region with increasing food and energy costs, especially for many developing countries.

IN LOK SABHA, MPs ACROSS PARTY LINES PRAISE GOVT’S UKRAINE EVACUATION EFFORTS

Lok Sabha members, including those from the Opposition, on Tuesday heaped praise on the government’s efforts to evacuate Indian students from Ukraine.

RSP member N K Premachandran opened the debate under Rule 193 on the situation in Ukraine and commended the government’s efforts.

He also said the evacuation programme would have been better if “early cautious steps were taken” and that advisories issued by the Ministry of External Affairs on February 15 lacked clarity and direction.

“New Zealand and Australia issued advisories asking their citizens to leave immediately, as did many other countries such as the US, Britain, Japan, Norway, etc,” he said. “’Non-essential citizens may consider to leave temporarily’ was the direction given by the MEA, which according to me was a strategic flaw on our part in the evacuation process.”

Congress’s Shashi Tharoor commended the government for both the success of Operation Ganga and sending humanitarian aid to Ukraine. However, he criticised the statements at the UN while abstaining from the vote against Russia.

“As I mentioned to the Foreign Minister, it was not just the abstention,” he said. “As regards abstention, there are good reasons why we wanted to signal a certain position, but the fact that in the initial statements at the UN we failed to mention any of the principles that we have stood for in the world for the last 75 years. We did not mention the UN Charter; we did not mention State’s sovereignty; we did not mention the inviolability of borders, and we did not mention even the inadmissibility of the use of force when it comes to resolving international disputes.”

INDIA’S FUEL PRICE HIKE IS LOWEST, SAYS PETROLEUM MINISTER

Responding to concerns on increase in oil prices due to the Ukraine crisis, Petroleum Minister Hardeep Puri said India’s percentage increase is merely one-tenth of what it is elsewhere. “We have raised the price of petrol by Rs 9 over 12 or 13 days, whereas the international price has shot up. I have some figures, which show a comparison in prices of gasoline between April 2021 and March 2022. In USA, during that period the increase in prices of gasoline in terms of percentage is 51. In Canada, the increase is 52%; in Germany and the UK, it is 55%; in France, it is 50%; in Spain 58%, in Sri Lanka 55%. In India, it is just 5%,” he said.

NOT IN INDIA'S INTEREST TO UP RUSSIAN IMPORTS: US

The White House and Pentagon separately complimented India for not depending too much on Russian oil and defence purchases. Washington also left no doubt that it wants India to completely cut off dependence on Russia in this regard.

The comments came less than a week before Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar are scheduled to meet their US counterparts in Washington. “Right now, India’s imports of Russian energy represent only 1-2 per cent of their total energy imports,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said. “What Daleep Singh (US Deputy NSA) did make clear to his counterparts during his visit was that we do not believe it is in India’s interest to accelerate or increase imports of Russian energy and other commodities,” she said.

“We would be happy to be a partner in reducing their reliance or even their small percentage of reliance on that,” she said, indicating the White House may not countenance even small Indian buys of Russian oil. The Pentagon said it did not want India to purchase the S-400 or any other defence hardware from Russia. “We have made it very clear to India about our concern on this particular purchase,” said Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby.

On oil, the White House couched its language, but left no doubt about its final aim – to persuade other countries to cut Russian oil purchases to nil.

COVID DASHBOARD – INDIA

As of 0800 IST / April 6

from mohfw.gov.in ,

New Cases on Tuesday 1086

Active Cases 11,871 (-183)

Total Deaths (Deaths Yesterday) 5,21,487 (15)

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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IMRAN PAYING PRICE FOR BEING 'DISOBEDIENT' TO US: RUSSIA

Russia has criticised the United State for making "another attempt of shameless interference” into the internal affairs of Pakistan and asserted that Prime Minister Imran Khan was paying the price for being “disobedient” to Washington and being punished for visiting Russia in February this year.

Khan met Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on February 24, the day the Russian leader had ordered a “special military operation” against Ukraine.

On Monday, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said despite pressure from the US to cancel his visit to Moscow, Khan went ahead with his trip. “Immediately after the announcement of the working visit of Imran Khan to Moscow on February 23-24 this year, the Americans and their Western associates began to exert rude pressure on the Prime Minister, demanding an ultimatum to cancel the trip," Zakharova said in a commentary on the controversy over Khan's allegation that the US was trying to effect a regime change in Islamabad.

Pakistan's Opposition leaders have ridiculed Khan's allegation, and the US has dismissed these claims.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s powerful army has contradicted PM Imran Khan’s remarks accusing the US of hatching a conspiracy to topple his government, saying there was no evidence of interference, media reported. PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday asked army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and ISI chief General Nadeem Ahmed Anjum to bring evidence before the nation and the apex court of a “foreign conspiracy” about a regime change in Pakistan and involvement of the country’s opposition leaders in it.

AMID FINANCIAL RUIN, SRI LANKA CAUGHT IN POLITICAL DEADLOCK

The parliamentary majority of Sri Lanka's ruling coalition headed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has come under threat with dissident lawmakers, led by former president Maithripala Sirisena, planning to break away from the government against the backdrop of nationwide protests over the country's worst economic crisis.

Sri Lanka is currently experiencing its worst economic crisis in history. With long lines for fuel, cooking gas, essentials in short supply and long hours of power cuts, the public has been suffering for months.

The 225-member Parliament will convene on Tuesday in its first session since a state of emergency was declared by President Rajapaksa last week. The dissidents, led by former president Sirisena's Sri Lanka Freedom Party, would leave the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna coalition with its 14 Members of Parliament, party sources said after their meeting with the President on Monday.

The coalition, which commanded 157 votes out of 225 at the last vote held on the government budget, is bound to lose between 50-60 members, Udaya Gammanpila, a dissident lawmaker told reporters on Monday.

India recently announced to extend a USD 1 billion line of credit to Sri Lanka as part of its financial assistance to the country to deal with the economic crisis following a previous USD 500 billion line of credit in February to help it purchase petroleum products.

CANADA BILL SEEKS TO MAKE GOOGLE, FB PAY FOR NEWS

Canada on Tuesday laid out details of a proposed legislation that would compel platforms like Facebook and Google to negotiate commercial deals and pay news publishers for their content, in a move similar to Australia’s ground-breaking law passed last year.

“The news sector in Canada is in crisis,” Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said, introducing the bill put forward by PM Justin Trudeau’s government.

Both Google and Facebook, in separate statements, said they were reviewing the proposed legislation.

THE REST

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ROAD AHEAD FOR CONG MORE CHALLENGING THAN EVER, SAYS SONIA GANDHI

Assuring cadres of reforms to make the party battle-ready in future, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday admitted that the road ahead was more challenging than ever before and the collective resilience of Congress workers was under severe test. She urged “unity at all levels” and, in a signal to critics, reiterated her willingness to do “whatever was necessary to maintain that unity”.

Addressing the first meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party since the electoral setbacks in UP, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa and Punjab, Sonia said, “The road ahead is more challenging than ever before. Our dedication and determination, our spirit of resilience is under severe test. Unity at all levels of our vast organisation is of paramount importance and speaking for myself, I am determined to do whatever is needed to ensure it. Our revival is not just a matter of importance to us alone — it is, in fact, essential for our democracy itself and society as well.”

RAJASTHAN TOWN SEES COMMUNAL VIOLENCE

On Saturday, communal violence broke out in Karauli, in Rajasthan. As per the FIR lodged over the violence, by Karauli Police Station SHO Rameshwar Dayal Meena, starting 4 pm, a Shobha Yatra to mark Nav Samvatsar, or the Hindu New Year, was taken out through the town by “400-500 persons on 200-215 bikes”, raising slogans such as Jai Shri Ram. A vehicle with a DJ system accompanied them playing songs “of Hindu organisations.”

As they reached a Muslim locality near Masjid Maniharan, they were pelted with stones from rooftops, causing injuries to the people on the bikes and the policemen accompanying them, police said. The FIR says the stone-pelting appeared to be “a pre-planned conspiracy”. Shops were burnt, and about two dozen persons were injured. Police, accompanying the march, were unable to control the violence.

Local residents allege the crowd raised incendiary slogans.

Around 35 shops were set on fire or vandalised, a police official said. These were mainly run by Muslims. So far, 20 people have been arrested while over 50 have been put under preventive arrest. The latter includes those found violating the curfew.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot accused the BJP of vitiating the atmosphere. Claiming that the BJP was “already in election mode in Rajasthan”, and urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to condemn the violence, Gehlot asked why those taking out rallies in the name of religion needed to shout provocative slogans or use DJs. “If you want to take out a religious rally, who would have stopped you?”

3 DELHI BJP-RUN CIVIC BODIES TO BE MERGED, PRESIDENT'S SIGN AWAITED

Delhi's three municipal agencies, run by the BJP, have been merged into one today, after the Rajya Sabha passed a bill to this effect. It was already cleared by the Lok Sabha.

The move to unify the three municipal corporations, or MCDs, namely South, East and North, came under stiff opposition from the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party, which is in power in Delhi under Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

The centre has said the move to combine the three MCDs would ensure better operations, save costs and ensure better use of funds.

Home Minister Amit Shah today accused the Aam Aadmi Party, or AAP, government in Delhi of "stepmotherly treatment" towards the three civic bodies. Speaking in Rajya Sabha during a discussion on the bill to merge the three municipal corporations, Shah said there is nothing in government records on the objectives behind trifurcating the Municipal Corporation of Delhi in 2012.

Opposing the Bill, Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi said, "This Bill is four things: it is constitutionally suspect, it is legally untenable, it is an administrative blunder and it is politically hypocritical." "This Bill is about control, more control and more control by a control-freak sarkaar," he said, adding that it has "nothing to do" with the improvement in services to Delhi citizens.

The debate saw opposition parties — AAP, Congress, Trinamool , DMK, CPM, Samajwadi Party and RJD — attacking the bill alleging that it was meant to delay the polls for the three MCDs which BJP was scared of losing. AAP’s Sanjay Singh said the bill should be renamed as “Kejriwal-phobia" bill as it was meant to prevent AAP from coming to power.

2.6 CR ADULTS HAVE NOT TAKEN EVEN ONE COVID SHOT: GOVERNMENT

India is inching closer to full Covid-19 vaccine coverage of its adults with the government on Tuesday informing the Rajya Sabha that 84.4 per cent of the adult population had been fully jabbed as of March 30, with the numbers rising daily. However, as many as 2.6 crore eligible adults have so far not taken even a single shot of the Covid vaccine.

Minister of State for Health Bharati Pawar shared the above information with the Rajya Sabha yesterday. She said 97 per cent of all doses administered as of March 30 this year have been free of cost.

As on March 30, against the estimated population of about 7.4 crore beneficiaries aged 15-18 years, 5.7 crore (77 per cent) have received at least one dose, 3.77 crore (51 per cent) beneficiaries have received both doses of vaccine.

SC SETS DEADLINE FOR CENTRE’S RESPONSE ON HINDU SUCCESSION ACT

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre to respond to a petition challenging provisions in the Hindu Succession Act as gender discriminatory.

A three-judge Bench led by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud gave the government four weeks to file its counter affidavit, failing which the Bench said it would go ahead with the final hearing of the case. The government had not filed a reply despite the fact that the case was filed four years ago, in December 2018. The court had in January 2022 appointed senior advocate Meenakshi Arora as amicus curiae in the case.

The petition filed by Kamal Anant Khopkar said sections 15 and 16 of the Act, which deals with inheritance of the self-acquired and inherited properties of Hindu women, “unveils deeply rooted patriarchal ideology”.

The petition, represented by advocates Mrunal Dattatraya Buva and Dhairyashil Salunkhe, draws attention to Section 15 of the 1956 Act which actually mandates how the husband’s heirs have the first right over the self-acquired property of a woman who dies intestate. That is, the husband’s family come first in the line of inheritance, even before the dead woman’s own parents.

“Section 15 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 gives priority to the heirs of the husband over the parents of the deceased. If a Hindu woman dies without making a will, her husband can take all her property without leaving any share for her own mother or father,” Ms. Buva, who drafted the petition, argued.

On the other hand, when a Hindu man dies, his blood relationship is given priority, it said. “His property is distributed among heirs, which includes his wife, children, mother and then father. His mother shares equally with the child and the widow. No matter the manner in which he acquired the property, his wife’s relatives do not figure in the order of inheritance,” the petition noted.

IPL MATCH 13: DK GUIDES RCB TO WIN AGAINST RAJASTHAN

A sensational display of hitting from Dinesh Karthik and Shahbaz Ahmed helped RCB recover from a mini batting collapse and record a four-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League, at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, on Tuesday.

Jos Buttler hammered half a dozen sixes in his unbeaten 70 off 47 balls as Rajasthan Royals grafted their way to 169/3 after RCB opted to bowl.

Losing four wickets in a space off 11 balls, RCB were in all sorts of trouble at 62 for four before Karthik (44 not out off 23 balls) and Ahmed (45 off 26) took the game away from the opposition with a 67-run partnership off just 33 balls. Karthik eventually got the team home in 19.1 overs.

It was RCB's second win in three games while it was the first loss in 3 games for the Royals.

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Everyone in your life gives you something. The bad ones give you experience, the worst ones a lesson; the good ones give you memories, the best ones, joy. - Jeffrey Fry

OFF TRACK

"Everyone goes with the flow.. but the one who goes opposite to the flow becomes someone remarkable in life.."

Before I could explain this to the traffic cop, Pagal ne "parchi" kaat di..!!