BORDER PEACE, TRANQUILLITY REMAIN BASIS OF NORMAL TIES BETWEEN INDIA, CHINA: JAISHANKAR

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday said peace and tranquillity in the border areas remain the basis for normal ties between India and China and “new normals of posture” will inevitably lead to “new normals of responses”.

Speaking on the topic “China’s Foreign Policy and International Relations in the New Era” at a conference organised by the Centre for Contemporary China Studies, Jaishankar said, “The last few years have been a period of serious challenge, both for the relationship and for the prospects of the continent. The continuation of the current impasse will not benefit either India or China. New normals of posture will inevitably lead to new normals of responses.”

“It is the willingness to take a long-term view of their ties that the two countries must display today,” he said, in a series of tweets.

“Peace and tranquillity in the border areas clearly remains the basis for normal relations. From time to time, this has been mischievously conflated with the sorting out of the boundary question,” he said.

“India’s search for a more balanced and stable relationship with China take it across multiple domains and many options. Given the developments of 2020, they obviously focus on an effective defence of the border. This was notably undertaken even in the midst of Covid,” Jaishankar said.

He said India must prepare to compete “more effectively, especially in our immediate periphery”.

“Establishing a modus vivendi between India and China after 2020 is not easy. Yet, it is a task that cannot be set aside. And this can only become sustainable on the basis of three mutuals: mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and mutual interest,” he said.

CENTRE PITCHES UNIFORM CIVIL CODE TO SUPREME COURT

Underlining that the Constitution obligates the State to have a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) for its citizens, and that people belonging to different religions and denominations following different property and matrimonial laws is an “affront to the nation’s unity”, the Centre has told the Supreme Court that the matter will now be placed before the 22nd Law Commission.

The Centre said this in its response to petitions filed in the apex court seeking uniformity in laws governing matters of divorce, succession and inheritance and adoption and guardianship for all, irrespective of gender and religion.

The govt said that “Part IV of the Constitution of India is related to Directive Principles of State Policy and creates an obligation upon the State to endeavour to secure for citizens a Uniform Civil Code throughout the country under its Article 44”.

In its response, filed on October 13, the Centre pointed out that the expression Uniform Civil Code “denotes the field of personal law relating to marriage, divorce, maintenance, custody and guardianship of children. inheritance and succession and adoption”. It submitted that the purpose behind Article 44 is to strengthen the object of “Secular Democratic Republic, as enshrined in the Preamble of the Constitution”.

The govt stated in its response: “This provision is provided to effect integration of India by bringing communities on the common platform on matters which are at present governed by diverse personal laws. This Article [44] is based on the concept that in matters of inheritance, right to property, maintenance and succession, there will be a common law. Article 44 divests religion from social relations and personal law.”

It said, “Citizens belonging to different religions and denominations follow different property and matrimonial laws, which is an affront to the nation’s unity.”

ELIMINATE SAFE HAVENS FOR TERRORISTS: PM MODI

Calling for the international community to work faster for “eliminating safe heavens” for terrorists and criminals, PM Narendra Modi today said there was a need for a global response to present-day crime, as threats had transnational dimensions.

Addressing the inaugural session of the 90th Interpol General Assembly in New Delhi, PM Modi also highlighted that when the “forces of good cooperate, the forces of crime cannot operate”. He warned about the harmful globalised threats that the world faces — terrorism, corruption, drug trafficking, poaching and organised crime. Noting that the pace of change of dangers from criminals was faster than earlier, Modi said, “When threats are global, the response cannot be just local. It is high time the world came together to defeat these threats.”

Addressing the gathering, comprising delegates from 195 member countries of Interpol, which also included a delegation from Pakistan, led by its Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Director General Mohsin Butt, Modi said India had been combating transnational terrorism for decades. “Long before the world woke up to it, we knew the price of safety and security. Thousands of our people made the ultimate sacrifice in this fight,” he noted.

Asserting that “a safe and secure world is a shared responsibility of the global community”, Modi said, “There can be no safe havens for the corrupt, terrorists, drug cartels, poaching gangs or organised crime.”

COVID DASHBOARD – INDIA

As of 0800 IST / Oct 18

from mohfw.gov.in ,

New Cases on Monday 1,537

Active Cases 26,449 (-385)

Total Deaths (Deaths Yesterday) 5,28,913 (3)

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

======================

RUSSIA DESTROYS POWER AND WATER INFRA ACROSS UKRAINE

Russia has destroyed almost a third of Ukraine’s power stations in the past week, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday, as Moscow rained more missiles down on infrastructure in what Kyiv and the West call a campaign to intimidate civilians.

Russia has openly acknowledged targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with waves of missile and drone strikes since the start of last week, in what President Vladimir Putin said was legitimate retaliation for a blast on a bridge.

Kyiv and the West say intentionally attacking civilian infrastructure is a war crime, and the attacks, aimed at leaving Ukrainians with no heat and power as winter arrives, are Putin’s latest tactic to escalate a war his forces are losing.

UK ALERT AFTER CHINA HIRES 30 EX-RAF PILOTS

China has recruited as many as 30 retired British military pilots, including some who flew sophisticated fighter jets, to train pilots in the People’s Liberation Army, according to Britain’s defence ministry. An official said the ministry worried that the practice could threaten British national security.

Britain said it was working with allies to try to stop the practice, which the official said dated to before the coronavirus pandemic but had gained momentum in recent months.

None of the retired pilots are suspected of violating the Official Secrets Act, the British law that covers espionage, sabotage and other crimes. But the official said Britain was determined to tighten the controls on retired service members to guard against training activities that could contravene espionage laws.

The contracts are lucrative — about $270,000 a year — and are particularly attractive to pilots who retired from active duty several years ago, the official said.

ARREST FEARS SURROUND IRAN ATHLETE WHO COMPETED WITHOUT HER HIJAB

An Iranian competitive climber left South Korea on Tuesday after competing at an event in which she climbed without her nation’s mandatory headscarf covering, authorities said. Farsi-language media outside of Iran warned she may have been forced to leave early by Iranian officials and could face arrest back home, which Tehran denied.

The decision by Elnaz Rekabi, who last year became the first Iranian woman to win a medal, a bronze, at the sport climbing world championships, to forgo the hijab, came as protests sparked by the death in custody of a young woman have entered a fifth week.

A later Instagram post on an account attributed to Rekabi described her not wearing a hijab as “unintentional”, though it wasn’t clear whether she wrote the post or what condition she was in at the time. Rekabi left Seoul on a Tuesday morning flight, the Iranian embassy in South Korea said. BBC Persian quoted an “informed source” who described Iranian officials as seizing both Rekabi’s cell phone and passport.

Ina tweet, the Iran embassy in Seoul denied “all the fake, false news” regarding Rekabi’s departure.

THE REST

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COPTER CRASH NEAR KEDARNATH LEAVES 6 PILGRIMS, PILOT DEAD

All six passengers died when their Bell 407 helicopter belonging to Delhi-based NSOP holder M/s Aryan Aviation crashed on the way to Guptkashi from Kedarnath in Rudraprayag district of Uttarakhand Tuesday morning. There were three passengers each from Gujarat and Taminadu.

The pilot, Anil Singh (57) too lost his life in the accident.

Capt RK Negi, CEO and chief of operations of Aryan Aviation, said they have three Bell 407 helicopters operating in the area for transportation of pilgrims. The helicopter that met with the accident yesterday was providing shuttle service between Guptkashi and Kedarnath.

“The chopper had landed in Kedarnath to drop passengers and was returning to Guptkashi with a new set of passengers. Weather may not be responsible for the mishap because if weather was bad, the pilot would not have taken off soon after landing at Kedarnath,” Negi said. A sortie between Guptkashi and Kedarnath takes around 20 minutes, Negi said.

Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation has constituted a three-member team for probing the crash. This is the second helicopter crash in the area in about four-and-a-half years.

AAP’S FULL FOCUS ON GUJARAT AS ITS HIMACHAL PLANS SCUPPERED

With its plans in Himachal Pradesh having derailed following a series of setbacks, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is now concentrating on the Assembly elections in Gujarat.

The perception in sections of the party is that the senior leadership, including Delhi Chief Minister and party convener Arvind Kejriwal, has given up on the hill state and putting all their efforts into Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state where they stand a chance of winning a sizeable number of seats.

Kejriwal often visited Himachal Pradesh earlier this year but is now addressing events only in the western state. On October 16, the Delhi CM was in Bhavnagar. Though the election date for Himachal has been announced — November 12 — and Gujarat poll dates have not been declared, most AAP leaders from Punjab, including ministers and MLAs, are being seen more in Gujarat.

After July 25, when Kejriwal and (Punjab CM Bhagwant) Mann addressed a virtual rally together, Kejriwal has not been seen in the hill state.

BILKIS BANO CASE CONVICTS WERE OUT OF JAIL FOR OVER 1,000 DAYS EACH BEFORE RELEASE

A day after the Gujarat Govt told the Supreme Court that it had obtained the Centre’s concurrence before granting remission to 11 life convicts in the March 2002 Bilkis Bano case which the CBI had investigated, the Congress equated the move to a stain on the ruling dispensation that “will never wash off”.

The govt defended the decision as Union Minister Pralhad Joshi, speaking to a TV channel on Tuesday, said everything was done as per the law. The minister’s reference was to a lenient July 9, 1992, remission policy that makes no exception for heinous crimes as against a 2014 policy that does.

Meanwhile, it emerged that 10 of the 11 men sentenced to life imprisonment for the 2002 gangrape of Bilkis Bano were out of jail for more than 1000 days each — on parole, furlough, temporary bail — and the 11th for 998 days, before all were released for “good behaviour” by the Gujarat govt on August 15 this year.

Usually with a maximum duration of one month, parole is granted for a specific reason in case of short-term imprisonment, while furlough is usually for a maximum duration of 14 days after serving a specified minimum period in a long-term sentence.

PANEL INDICTS SASIKALA FOR EX-CM JAYALALITHAA'S DEATH

A panel that probed the circumstances leading to former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s death in 2016 has indicted VK Sasikala, confidante of the late leader. The Tamil Nadu Govt on Tuesday said it would initiate action after getting legal opinion.

The report of the panel, that was tabled by the state govt in the Assembly, also indicted former Health Minister C Vijayabaskar, Dr KS Sivakumar (Sasikala’s relative) and the then Health Secretary, J Radhakrishnan, and recommended a probe against all four.

The panel also recommended investigation against the then state Chief Secretary, Rama Mohana Rao, and two doctors, though it did not specify if it found “fault” with them or not. It said the govt may, “decide and investigate” the matter against the chairman of a corporate hospital, where she was treated.

GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX DOES NOT REALLY MEASURE HUNGER: ICMR

A new study published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research, the Indian Council of Medical Research publication, on Tuesday said the Global Hunger Index did not really measure hunger and was not a true indicator of the same.

The ICMR paper said the indicators of undernourishment, stunting, wasting and child mortality, which the Global Hunger Index uses, do not measure hunger per se as these are not the manifestations of hunger alone.

“Many of the measures that are used to evolve an index that measures hunger are probably contextual. The GHI exaggerates the measure of hunger, lacks statistical vigour, has a problem of multiple counts, and gives higher representation to under-five children. Undernourishment, stunting, wasting and child mortality are not the consequences of hunger alone, as these manifestations are seen among the relatively rich as well,’ the ICMR study, titled, “Global Hunger Index does not really measure hunger - An Indian perspective”, said.

DELHI HC REJECTS UMAR KHALID’S BAIL PLEA

The Delhi High Court Tuesday rejected the bail application filed by formerJNU student Umar Khalid in the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots conspiracy case, saying the protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act/National Register of Citizens (CAA/NRC) was “not a typical protest normal in political culture or democracy”.

Communal violence had broken out in February 2020, about a month after CAA/NRC protests in the national capital, and Khalid is an accused in the larger conspiracy case related to the riots. He was arrested in September 2020 and booked under the anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

Khalid’s first bail application was rejected in March this year by additional sessions judge Amitabh Rawat. On Tuesday, a bench comprising Justices Siddharth Mridul and Rajnish Bhatnagar said it was in “full agreement” with the findings of the sessions judge.

Khalid’s lawyer, Trideep Pais, had argued that a “terrorist act” as defined under Section 15 of the UAPA was not made out in his case.

However, the court asserted that “the protest was not a typical protest normal in political culture or democracy but one far more destructive and injurious geared towards extremely grave consequence”. It said that it was, instead, a “premeditated conspiracy… engineered to escalate to confrontational chakka-jam and incitement to violence and culminate in riots in (the) natural course on specific dates”.

INTERNET FREEDOM IN INDIA IMPROVES AFTER 4 YEARS OF DECLINE: FREEDOM HOUSE

India’s internet freedom score improved by two points to 51 in the global ranking following efforts to bridge the digital divide in the country, the US govt-funded NGO Freedom House said on Tuesday.

“Internet freedom in India marginally improved over the last year, following four years of decline, as efforts to bridge the country’s digital divides expanded access to the internet. While the govt continues to impose internet shutdowns, they have reduced in their frequency and intensity,” Freedom on The Net 2022 said.

The US govt-funded NGO found that global internet freedom declined for the 12th consecutive year with sharpest downgrades were documented in Russia, Myanmar, Sudan, and Libya. The report claimed that China was the world’s worst environment for internet freedom for the eighth consecutive year and internet freedom in the United States improved marginally for the first time in six years.

PAKISTAN MAY PULL OUT OF ODI WC IF INDIA DO NOT TRAVEL FOR ASIA CUP

Pakistan, on Tuesday, threatened to pull out of next year's World Cup in India, reacting strongly to BCCI secretary Jay Shah's statement that they would prefer to play the Asia Cup at a neutral venue.

Pakistan is scheduled to host the next edition of Asia Cup next year as per Asian Cricket Council's executive board's decision. Incidentally Shah is the president of Asian Cricket Council. After the BCCI AGM in Mumbai on Tuesday, Shah in an informal gathering of reporters stated that "India will play the Asia Cup at a neutral venue."

Sources close to PCB chairman Ramiz Raja indicated that one of the options that they are mulling after Shah's statement is to pull out of 50-over ICC World Cup in India.

"The PCB is now prepared to take hard decisions and play hard ball because it is also aware that the ICC and ACC events will have to face commercial liabilities and losses if Pakistan does not play India in these multi-team events," a senior PCB official said.

India does play Pakistan at global or continental events but haven't travelled to the neighbouring country since 2008 Asia Cup. Pakistan last came to India for a short six-match white ball bilateral series in 2012.

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

If you don't make things happen, then things will happen to you. - Robert Collier

OFF TRACK

Jason gets off the elevator on the 50th floor and nervously knocks on his blind date's door. She opens it and is very beautiful and charming.

"I'll be ready in a few minutes," she says. "Why don't you play with Spot, my dog, while you're waiting? He does wonderful tricks. He rolls over, shakes hands, sits up, and if you make a hoop with your arms, he'll jump through."

The dog follows Jason onto the balcony and starts rolling over. Jason makes a hoop with his arms and Spot jumps through, over the balcony railing.

Just then, Jason's date walks out. "Isn't Spot the cutest, happiest dog you've ever seen?"

"To tell the truth, " he replies, "Spot seemed a little depressed to me!"