RAJYA SABHA PASSES TWO CRUCIAL FARM BILLS AMID SEVERE PROTESTS BY OPPN

Dismissing Opposition objections and pleas, the government pushed through

two key farm Bills in Rajya Sabha on Sunday amid unprecedented scenes of

chaos, confusion, and ruckus. Agitated Opposition members, protesting the

extension of the House sitting beyond the scheduled end at1 pm, tore copies

of the Bills, broke microphones on the Chairman's table, flung a copy of the

Rule Book at the presiding officer, and then sat on a dharna in the House

even after it was adjourned for the day.

Never unsure of its numbers in the Upper House, and given that many

Opposition members have cited health reasons to stay away, the government,

using its numerical strength, rejected the Opposition demand to refer the

Bills:

-    The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce Bill (APMC Bypass Bill, in

common parlance),

-    The Farmers Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill

(Contract Farming Bill, in common parlance)

to a select committee for parliamentary scrutiny.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a series of tweets after the passage of the

Bills in Rajya Sabha, described it as "a watershed moment in the history of

Indian agriculture".

The Opposition hit back, saying it was "historic for all the wrong reasons"

given the manner in which the "anti-farmer" Bills were passed.

AS IT HAPPENED, IN RAJYA SABHA

The debate, though heated, proceeded smoothly till 1 pm with the Opposition

tearing into the government and the treasury benches launching

counter-attacks in defence of the Bills. At 1 pm, Deputy Chairman Harivansh,

who was in the Chair, sought permission of the House to extend the time of

the sitting till disposal of the Bills. Opposition members did not agree and

asked the Chair to adjourn the House and continue the discussion Monday.

But the Deputy Chairman did not end the proceedings. Members of the

Congress, Trinamool Congress, DMK, AAP and the Left protested, saying there

was no unanimity on extending the sitting. Sanjay Singh of AAP, Jairam

Ramesh of Congress and Dola Sen of TMC came to the Well of the House to

protest.

When the Deputy Chairman began the process for passage of the Bill, even

more members trooped into the Well.

TMC floor leader Derek O'Brien came rushing to the Chairman's podium, waving

the rule book. One member then threw a copy of the rule book at the Chair,

and another broke the microphones. Audio telecast of the live proceedings

was soon cut.

At 1.26 pm, the Deputy Chairman adjourned the House for 15 minutes. And when

it resumed, Parliament security personnel created a human wall between the

Opposition members and the Chair. Amid slogan shouting, clapping and jeering

by the Opposition, the Deputy Chairman began clause-by-clause consideration

of the Bills. The statutory motions, moved by several members, were

negatived by voice vote. Opposition members sought division on the clauses,

but this was turned down by the Deputy Chairman who pointed out that members

were not on their designated seats.

Amid the melee, the two Bills were passed by voice vote.

Opposition members led by Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad then sat on a

dharna inside the House for another 90 minutes.

"IRRESPONSIBLE BEHAVIOUR OF PEOPLE TO BLAME FOR COVID SURGE"

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan told the Lok Sabha Sunday that Prime

Minister Narendra Modi had built consensus on "even the smallest issue

related to Covid-19 management", as the House held a discussion on the

pandemic.

He said the government did a commendable job in providing essential services

to people at the beginning of the nationwide lockdown, but blamed

"irresponsible behaviour" shown by people for the daily surge in cases

today.

The minister urged MPs to spread awareness about masks as well as social

distancing norms in their respective constituencies. "PM Modi took everybody

along, right from the start, and built consensus for even the smallest

thing. It is work that everybody did together and I congratulate everybody.

You have to really bow down to PM Modi's innovative idea of a janata curfew

before the lockdown, both to prepare the country and test it for

compliance."

Vardhan pointed out how people refused to maintain vigilance against

exposing themselves to the virus after 'unlock' - the phase-wise easing of

restrictions - began. "As public representatives, you must work towards

ensuring social distancing so that we can break the chain of transmission.

Covid cannot stay in air, it travels from one person to another and that

transmission chain is what we need to break," the health minister said.

Earlier in the day, opposition MPs criticised the government for

unilaterally announcing a countrywide lockdown without taking states into

confidence, multiplying the plight of migrant workers and failing to make a

dent in India's rising Covid numbers.

LAC STANDOFF: CORPS COMMANDERS MEET TODAY, MEA OFFICIAL IN INDIA TEAM

More than a week after Indian and Chinese foreign ministers reached an

agreement in Moscow on a five-point approach to resolve the military

standoff in eastern Ladakh, the sixth round of the Corps Commander-level

talks will be held on Monday morning.

Sources in the defence establishment confirmed that the delegation will, for

the first time since May, include a joint secretary-level officer from the

Ministry of External Affairs.

The two sides have been stuck in a stalemate since early July when troops

from both sides had moved back from the friction points in the region.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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

TRUMP ALL SET TO BRING INA CONSERVATIVE JUDGE BEFORE ELECTIONS

US President Donald Trump and fundamentalist Republicans loyal to him are

pressing ahead with a judicial coup aimed at ensuring an electoral win that

will guarantee him a second term.

Disregarding the dying wish of liberal Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader

Ginsburg, who passed away on Friday, that her replacement nomination should

not be named until after January 20, 2021, when the next presidential term

begins, Trump announced on Saturday that he would nominate a female

replacement as soon as next week. At a Saturday night campaign rally in

North Carolina, Trump told his supporters that he had not yet chosen a

nominee, but "it will be a woman, a very talented, very brilliant woman".

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, who will drive the confirmation

process, has confirmed that Trump's nominee will get a hearing before the

Senate - where Republicans currently have a 53-47 majority. In affirming

that he would greenlight confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary

Committee - where Republicans have a 12-10 majority - McConnell reversed his

own argument (that it was too close to elections) used to deny then

President Obama's nominee Merrick Garland a confirmation process in the

Senate in 2016.

The exercise appears to be aimed at securing a 6-3 conservative majority in

the Supreme Court (where they had a 5-4 majority that is now 5-3 following

Ginsburg's death). Such a comfortable majority on top of lower courts that

Trump has stuffed with conservatives, will ensure a Trump second term should

there be a disputed outcome on November 3. Trump has already cast doubts

about the process, indicating he will not accept any result other than one

where he wins, and there are already lawsuits in lower courts on the

balloting process.

THE REST

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OPPN CALLS FOR REMOVAL OF RS DY CHAIRMAN, AND PRAISES LS SPEAKER

In an unprecedented move, as many as 12 Opposition parties came together on

Sunday to submit a no-confidence resolution seeking the removal of Rajya

Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh. The move followed uproar in the House over

his decision to extend the session beyond the scheduled 1 pm while

overruling Opposition pleas to continue discussions on the contentious farm

Bills the next day.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla was in for some unexpected praise from the

Opposition on Sunday after he obliged to its demand for adjournment of the

House. The request was made as several Opposition members were on a sit-in

protest in Rajya Sabha, which would have meant that MPs allocated seats

there on account of social distancing protocol would not have been able to

take their places.

"You could have rejected our demand. But you obliged to it which shows your

respect for the Opposition and your attempts to run this house taking

everyone along. It will be recorded in the history of this house," Congress

leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said.

Birla adjourned the House for an hour until 4 pm due to unavailability of

seating for all MPs amid the Rajya Sabha ruckus, even after the Upper House

was adjourned at around 1.30 pm after the passage of controversial farm

bills.

ANGRY FARMERS BURN EFFIGIES IN PUNJAB, BLOCK ROADS IN HARYANA

Thousands of farmers in Punjab and Haryana took to the roads on Sunday to

protest against the Modi government's agri-marketing bills, which were

cleared by both Houses of Parliament and are now awaiting the presidential

nod to become laws.

While angry farmers in Punjab villages burnt numerous effigies of the Modi

government and copies of the three agri-marketing bills, protests in Haryana

remained relatively peaceful even as three MLAs of BJP's coalition partner

Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) went against the official line spelled out by

the party's senior member and deputy CM Dushyant Chautala and expressed

solidarity with the protesters, reflecting a rift among their ranks.

Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh once again said that his government will

take BJP and its allies, including the Akalis, to court over the new

"unconstitutional, undemocratic and anti-farmer" laws passed by the central

government.

BILL TO AMEND FCRA IS AN ATTEMPT BY GOVERNMENT TO TARGET CRITICS: OPPN

The Opposition on Sunday opposed the Foreign Contribution Regulation

(Amendment) (FCRA) Bill to incorporate more stringent measures for receiving

foreign funds, alleging that it is part of the government's "attempts to

target its critics".

The government, which introduced the Bill in Lok Sabha on Sunday, maintained

that the proposed changes in the legislation were not to take anyone's

rights.

Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and his party colleague

Manish Tewari said Bill would give more powers to the government to "muzzle

the voices of dissent".

TMC's Sougata Ray termed the Bill as the "Big Brother watching" and said the

government is trying to block foreign contributions to a number of social

organisations, including those who work in tribal and rural areas.

OUR 'CODE OF ETHICS' SHOULD BE MADE PART OF RULES, BINDING ON ALL NEWS

CHANNELS, NBA TELLS SC

The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) has suggested to the Supreme Court

that its "code of ethics" should be made part of statutory rules on cable TV

by the central government to ensure it becomes binding on member and

non-member news channels alike.

Taking note of the NBA's alleged inadequacy in regulating "hurtful" and

"communal" contents in television programmes of news channels, the top court

on September 18 had sought suggestions from it and the Centre to strengthen

the association's self-regulatory powers.

A Bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud has been hearing a case of a lawyer

seeking granting of pre-telecast ban on a programme called 'UPSC Jehad' of

Sudarshan TV and it will hear the case on Monday again. At present, the

court has stayed the telecast of episodes that deal with alleged

infiltration of Muslims in bureaucracy.

Annie Joseph, secretary general of the NBA, has filed the affidavit in

pursuance of the court's direction asking it to give suggestions as to how

the self-regulatory mechanism of the NBA could be strengthened and made more

effective in regard to the electronic media.

SOME SCHOOLS BEGIN TO OPEN FROM TODAY

Schools across the country are allowed to partially reopen for students of

Class 9 to 12 from today. The SOP, under the Unlock 4 guidelines of the

Ministry of Home Affairs, also permitted 50% of teaching and non-teaching

staff to be called to the schools at a time for online teaching or

tele-counselling and related work from September 21.

While some states have decided for a partial reopening of schools, others

have decided against it, amid fear of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

INDIGENOUS COVID TEST DEVELOPED BY TATA GETS GOVT NOD

An indigenous Covid-19 test, developed by the Tata group in collaboration

with CSIR-IGIB and ICMR, has received regulatory approval from the Drug

Controller General of India (DCGI) for commercial launch, according to a

statement issued here on Sunday.

The test uses CRISPR technology to detect the genomic sequence of the

SARS-CoV-2 virus, the statement added. The test met the ICMR's high quality

benchmarks with 96% sensitivity and 98% specificity for detecting Covid-19,

it added.

The Tata CRISPR test is the world's first diagnostic test to deploy a

specially adapted Cas9 protein to successfully detect the virus causing

Covid-19, it added.

Commenting on the development, Girish Krishnamurthy, CEO, TATA Medical and

Diagnostics Ltd, said, "The approval for the Tata CRISPR test for Covid-19

will give a boost to the country's efforts in fighting the global pandemic.

The commercialisation of the Tata CRISPR test reflects the tremendous R&D

talent in the country, which can collaborate to transform India's

contributions to the global healthcare and scientific research world."

The test-named Feluda-will diagnose the virus in two hours. The cost of the

test once commercialised is estimated to be under Rs 600.

PAYTM ACCUSES GOOGLE OF TRYING TO DOMINATE INDIA'S DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM

Indian unicorn Paytm has accused Google of making policies that are over and

above the laws of India after the Noida-based startup's app was briefly

delisted from the Playstore last week.

"This was the first time that Google sent us a notification regarding our

UPI cashback and scratch cards campaign. Contrary to accepted practice, we

were not given any opportunity to respond to their concerns or put forth our

views," said the company in its blog post.

Paytm suggested the global tech giant's move as hypocritical as Google, too,

regularly runs similar scratch card campaigns in India under its Google Pay

app.

Such moves will be familiar to all Indian internet companies since they face

similar arm-twisting and fear of Google's dominance over India's digital

ecosystem every day, Paytm added.

A Google spokesperson said on Sunday evening, "Offering cashbacks and

vouchers alone do not constitute a violation of our Google Play gambling

policies. Last week we reiterated our Play Store gambling policies. Our

policies don't allow online casinos or support any unregulated gambling apps

that facilitate sports betting, including daily fantasy sports in India. We

enforce our policies very thoughtfully to provide a safe and secure

experience for consumers, while also giving developers the platform and

tools they need to build sustainable businesses. In the case of repeated

policy violations, we may take more serious action which may include

terminating Google Play Developer accounts. Our policies are applied and

enforced on all developers consistently."

PLOY TO SHUT ME UP: ANURAG KASHYAP ON SEXUAL HARASSMENT ALLEGATIONS

Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who has been accused by actor Payal Ghosh of

sexual harassment, on Sunday said the claim is "baseless" and found support

in his industry friends, with Hansal Mehta, Taapse Pannu, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub

as well as former wife, film editor Aarti Bajaj crediting him for creating

safe work space for women.

The 30-year-old actor tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi in her tweet,

requesting him to take action against Kashyap.

In a video released to ABN Telugu, Ghosh claimed that the incident happened

in 2014-2015.

Dismissing the allegations, Kashyap called Ghosh's claim an attempt to

"silence" him.

An outspoken critic of administration and a member of the Indian film

industry who is vocal about the vilification of Bollywood by celebrities and

trolls online, the director said it had taken some people "such a long time"

to "shut me up". "(But) while shutting me up, you lied so much that you

dragged other women also in it. Please maintain some dignity madam. All I

will say is that all your allegations are baseless," Kashyap, 48, tweeted.

"Any lover or all those female actors with whom I've worked or the team of

all those girls and women that have been working with me or all those women

I've met in private or in public. I neither behaved like this nor do I

tolerate such a behaviour at any cost. Rest we will see what happens," he

added.

While Ghosh found support in National Commission for Women, with its

chairperson Rekha Sharma assuring the actor that the NCW will take

cognisance of the case, several film personalities including Sayani Gupta,

Tisca Chopra, Surveen Chawla and Anubhav Sinha urged that the #MeToo

movement must not be abused for vendetta.

ALL-ROUND STOINIS, COOL RABADA ENSURE SUPER OVER VICTORY FOR DELHI CAPITALS

Marcus Stoinis' last over star turns with both bat and ball was beautifully

complemented by Kagiso Rabada's briliant Super Over that ensured a thrilling

opening round IPL victory for Delhi Capitals over Kings XI Punjab on Sunday.

Stoinis first blasted his way to a 21-ball-53 as his late assault ensured a

decent 157 for 8 for Capitals with 57 coming off last three overs.

In reply, Capitals were in control for 15 overs before Mayank Agarwal 89 off

60 balls nearly won it for KXIP before Stoinis came into the picture again

with opposition needing one off three balls.

The first one was a dot followed by wickets of Agarwal and Chris Jordan as

match ended in a tie and went into Super Over.

Rabada, a Super Over specialist then removed KL Rahul and Nicholas Pooran

off successive balls to keep an easy three run target off one over. Rishabh

Pant got a couple and Mohammed Shami bowled a wide as Capitals got their

hard earned two points.

Scores: Delhi Capitals 157/8 (Marcus Stoinis 53 off 21 balls, Shreyas Iyer

39 off 32 balls, Mohammed Shami 3/15).

Kings XI Pujab 157/8 (Mayank Agarwal 89 off 60 balls, Marcus Stoinis 2/29,

Kagiso Rabada 2/28, R Ashwin 2/2).

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius. - Benjamin

Disraeli

OFF TRACK

Letter to home office from a traveling salesman: "Dear Boss, I seen this

outfit which ain't never bought a dime's worth of nothin from us and sole

them a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of guds, I'm now going to

Shikago.

Two days later, a second letter arrived at the home office: "I cum here and

sole them half a milyon," it said.

Both letters were posted on the bulletin board with a note appended by the

Sales Manager.

"We been spendin too much time hear tryin to spel, instead of tryin to sel.

Let's watch those sails. I want everybody shud read these letters from Gooch

who is on the rode doin a grate job for us.