Month: August 2020

Just before the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting is scheduled to be held on Monday, an internal dispute has emerged regarding “leadership” issues in the party.

Reportedly several senior Congress leaders have written to party interim President Sonia Gandhi raising a 5 Point Agenda to revive the Party, emphasising the need for active leadership in the party and raising questions about the party’s condition and direction, as well as demanding the election of the Congress Working Committee.

According to sources, some members of the CWC, MPs and leaders wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi in which they have raised many questions and suggestions about the functioning of the party. It is being said that a five-page letter drafted by two senior leaders and then discussed and signed by others has not openly criticised either Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi but it is being seen as a distrust and charge sheet against the party high command, especially Rahul Gandhi.

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal, Manish Tiwari, Shashi Tharoor, Jitin Prasad, Veerappa Moily, Sandeep Dikshit, Pramod Tiwari, PJ Kurien are being named as signatories on this letter. However, none of these leaders are accepting that they are signatories to the communication. While the Congress has also denied that it has received any such letter, sources in the party said this exercise has been done from the state level where former PCC Presidents are involved.

On the condition of anonymity, a leader involved in the process told ANI that the attempt is not against the leadership of Gandhis. “The group of leaders who have written the letter do not agree on all points but the party needs to discuss the issues and leadership issue should be finalised. If Rahul Gandhi is ready to accept the party President post I will be the first person to welcome it wholeheartedly,” the leader said.

Although there may not be an official confirmation of this letter, reactions to it have started.

Reacting sharply to the media report related to the letter, Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam called it a conspiracy against Rahul Gandhi. “This letter is a new conspiracy to undermine the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. The conspiracy which used to be held in closed rooms has emerged in a letter. The only answer is, Rahul ji should leave his stubbornness of not taking up the post of President. Leave the stubbornness and save the crumbling walls of the Congress in the states. Only those can save the Congress,” he said.

There is a possibility of dispute in the CWC meeting, to be held through video conferencing at 11 am on Monday, regarding the letter written in the name of Sonia Gandhi.

At the same time, there are also indications that the demand to re-appoint Rahul Gandhi as party President may also arise in the meeting. Before the CWC meeting, Congress National Secretary Challa Vamshi Chand Reddy has written a letter to the members of the CWC, demanding that Rahul Gandhi be re-elected as the President. Earlier, in the last meeting of the CWC and after that in the meeting of the party’s MPs, there has been a demand to reassign Rahul Gandhi as party President.

According to a Congress source, there may be some important discussion about the organisation in the CWC meeting because in this meeting all 52 members have been instructed to be present “on every condition”. In the wake of the coronavirus epidemic, CWC meetings are being held through video conferencing.

Till now the ‘Zoom’ platform was used for these meetings but Monday’s meeting will be on ‘Cisco WebEx’ which is considered more secure. A test was also conducted among all CWC members on Saturday evening regarding the new platform. (ANI)

Pakistan’s intelligence agency, ISI, has been using the services of Pakistani crime syndicates operating in several countries, including France and Thailand, to further its agenda, according to a report in the Global Watch Analysis.

Recently, Thailand Police arrested a Pakistan national named Baqar Shah for his involvement in multiple illegal activities in the country including money laundering for the ISI.

He was first noticed by Thai authorities due to his involvement in organising an anti-American protest outside the US Consulate in Chiang Mai in September 2012. In February 2016, his name again surfaced when Thailand Police busted a major fake passport syndicate in the country and an Iranian national, Hamid Reza Jafary, and five Pakistanis were arrested.

The six of them were found to be involved in the supply of fake travel documents and human trafficking. It is to be noted that Jafary was on the wanted list of security agencies in several countries including the UK, France, Australia and New Zealand.

According to investigations, Jafary and his five Pakistani contacts were supplying forged passports that were being sold to people from Gulf countries for travel to Australia and Europe. During the probe, it was found that Gohar Zaman, one of the five Pakistanis in custody, had close links to Shah.

As the Thai security agency put Shah under close surveillance, they discovered that he maintained regular contact with officials from Pakistan Embassy in Bangkok and his restaurant was being used as a meeting point for Pakistani officials.

“Shah’s main job appeared to be spotting potential assets for Pakistanis in the local police, immigration, customs and airlines and to develop contacts within the Muslim community in Chaing Mai and Mae Sot region,” according to the report.

Shah was blacklisted by the Thai immigration for five years and deported to Pakistan in 2018. However, he managed to sneak back into Thailand under the guise of ISI mentors on a fresh passport in the name of Syed Baqar Ahmed Jaffri. However, Thailand Police tracked him down again and he is currently in custody.

A similar syndicate, pertaining to the supply of forged passports, is reported to be operational in France. A person with the initials B.H., who is controlling the syndicate, is believed to have connections at the Pakistani Embassy in Paris.

Citing sources, Global Watch Analysis reported that a Pakistani restaurant situated near Gare du Nord, the office of a welfare association in La Courneuve area and a travel agency in the 10th arrondissement in the Paris, are used as fronts to run the illegal activities of supplying Pakistani passports and resident permits of European countries including Portugal, Belgium and France.

The price for these identity cards and travel documents range between 850 to 1,500 Euros.

During investigations by the Global Watch Analysis, for instance, copies of fake travel documents held by a person linked to this network were found. The individual, who is based in France, has several British and Pakistani passports, all under different names.

Sources said the multiple passports would have enabled the person to hold several bank accounts and credit cards with French banks.

It is well known that ISI has links with several terror groups of “jihadist tendency”. “It is not excluded that these type of criminal networks, manipulated by ISI’s branches in the Western capitals, may provide their ‘services’ to members of the terrorist groups in question infiltrated in the West,” the article concluded. (ANI)

Although China and Russia have often described their relationship as “special and unprecedented”, cracks are appearing in their ties on several issues including differences on Vladivostok, sales of Russian arms to India and delays in the delivery of Russian missiles to Beijing, South China Morning Post reported.

The biggest crack involves New Delhi’s suggestion that Moscow join the US-led Indo-Pacific grouping, which is widely seen as anti-China, according to a report by SCMP.

There has been a suggestion that Washington wants to embrace its old Cold War adversary as a way of countering growing Chinese might.

It seems Russia’s arms sales to New Delhi has irked Chinese public soon after a deadly stand-off between Chinese and Indian troops along the Line of Actual Control.

As one Chinese internet user put it: “While fighting your opponent, how would you feel if your friend handed over a knife to your opponent?”

However, Dmitry Stefanovich, a research fellow with the Centre for International Security at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of World Economy and International Relations, pointed out that Russia had been supplying arms to India since long before the clash in the Himalayas.

Another faultline appeared between Beijing and Moscow over the supply of Russia S 400 anti-aircraft missile system to China.

Last month, the Chinese websites NetEase and Sohu reported the deliveries had been “delayed” due to the coronavirus, but Moscow said later the deliveries had been “suspended”.

According to Russia’s TASS news agency, China received its first batch of S-400s in 2018 but further deliveries were suspended when Moscow accused Valery Mitko, president of the St Petersburg Arctic Social Sciences Academy, of spying for Beijing.

Watchers of Russia-China relations believe the spying allegations against an Arctic researcher could highlight a burgeoning competition between the two countries in the region, according to CNN.

Divisions over Vladivostok are also a contentious issue between China and Russia.

Last month, the Russian embassy caused an online backlash in China when it posting a video about the commemoration service for the city’s 160th anniversary.

Describing the S-400 suspension as an “intriguing development”, Derek Grossman, a senior defence analyst at the Rand Corporation, a Washington think tank, said the suspension ran counter to the narrative that Sino-Russian security relations had strengthened in recent years.

“This strongly suggests that Moscow’s decision was in response to the [Himalayan] incident,” Grossman said.

Recently, it was reported that India told Russia to support the Indo-Pacific grouping.

Some Chinese commentators deemed the development as a “betrayal of China”. But while some analysts questioned whether the US would agree to Russian membership, others thought that given the right incentives Moscow could be convinced. (ANI)

As China continues to wield its influence over various countries, Beijing’s nexus with the top establishment in the Nepal government has raised serious doubts over the Himalayan nation’s ‘autonomy’ and ‘ability to take independent decisions’, according to a report in Global Watch Analysis.

According to an article by Roland Jacquard, the author explains China’s policy of corrupting the political class of a country, especially those who are not economically strong. He also details how the foreign policy of Nepal, the latest entrant to fall victim to China’s strategic expansionism, has veered towards pushing the interests of Beijing.

In January last year, the day when China condemned United States’ move to slap economic sanctions on Venezuela, the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) also issued a similar statement denouncing Washington and its allies for intervening in Venezuela’s internal matters. This was probably the first time Kathmandu had taken a stand pertaining to US policies in Latin America.

Another worrying and trend noticed in Nepal is the deteriorating human rights condition of Tibetan refugees residing in Nepal. The Himalayan nation shares a long border with Tibet and is home to over 20,000 Tibetan exiles, many of whom coming into the country after the Dalai Lama took refuge in India in 1959.

According to a recent report submitted to the United Nations (UN), two human rights groups — Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet and the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights — have noted that the new arrivals of Tibetans to Nepal often face threats of being deported to China.

With the growing links between the Nepal government and China, Tibetan refugees are barred from holding elections to elect members of their refugee associations or celebrate the Dalai Lama’s birthday, Jacquard writes in the article.

Attempts to protest against Chinese persecution are met with a heavy-handed response by Nepali authorities, says the writer.

To ensure that the top establishment of Nepal carries out China’s bidding, the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu has been steadily building a network of loyalists, and doles are given out to them, many times on the pretext of legitimate jobs undertaken for the embassy.

For instance, the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu awarded a contract of 1.5 million Nepali rupees to Rajan Bhattarai, a member of the NCP and who is currently Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s Foreign Affairs Advisor, for a research paper on Nepal-India relations. When the initiative started in October 2017, Bhattarai was a member of the Eminent Persons Group on Nepal-India Relations and the Chairman of the Nepal Institute for Policy Studies.

According to the contract, Bhattarai’s wife Geeta Gautam while he would oversee the project. The payment for the duty was sent to Bhattarai’s account in Nabil Bank.

“The contract was what the Chinese would call ‘a win-win’, as it not only found a way to engage a senior NCP functionary in a financial transaction, it also came with an added understanding of Nepal’s policies towards India,” the writer states.

Bhattarai was appointed as Foreign Affairs Advisor to Oli in November 2018. While it is not clear whether China played a role in his appointment, what is interesting to note that despite his position in the Prime Minister’s Office, Bhattarai continued to keep contact with Li Yingqiu, a Chinese diplomat posted in the Nepali capital.

“With Nepal’s Prime Minister’s Office, including its senior advisors, known to have established a transactional relationship with China, it raises serious doubts about the autonomy of the government and its ability to take independent decisions,” Jacquard says in the article. (ANI)

While India has the lowest fatality rate due to COVID-19, it probably has the best recovery rate in the world, said Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Saturday.

Harsh Vardhan said that contrary to what the experts had claimed about the number of cases reaching 300 million in the country, including five-six million deaths, by July-August, India had less than three million cases, out of which 2.2 million have already recovered.

“As far as COVID-19 numbers are concerned, our fatality rate, 1.87 per cent, is really low and we have probably the best recovery rate (75 per cent) in the world. We have around 1,500 testing labs now. It is a great achievement in itself,” Harsh Vardhan told ANI here.

“Also we have achieved the target of testing 10 lakh tests per day six weeks before the set deadline. We now have 1,511 testing labs in the country,” he added.

He further said the Indian scientists are working very hard to develop a vaccine and provide it to the world.

“Out of the three vaccine candidates, one has entered the third phase of trials. We are confident that within this year we will provide the world with an effective vaccine to save the people,” Harsh Vardhan said.

The number of samples tested for COVID-19 per day has crossed the million mark in India, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research on Saturday. (ANI)

India’s COVID-19 tally neared the three million mark after 69,878 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours, informed the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday.

With this latest spike, India’s coronavirus cases stand at 29,75,702. The total cases are inclusive of 6,97,330 active cases, 22,22,578 patients who have been cured/discharged or have migrated. 945 deaths due to COVID-19 have been reported in the last 24 hours across the country, taking the death toll 55,794.

As per the health ministry’s website, Maharashtra has a total of 1,64,879 active cases and 21,698 deaths due to COVID-19 in the state. Tamil Nadu has 53,413 active cases and 6,340 deaths due to the coronavirus.

Andhra Pradesh has a total of 87,803 active cases and 3,092 fatalities due to COVID-19. Karnataka has a total of 83,082 active cases and 4,522 deaths.

Delhi has a total of 11,426 active cases and 4,270 deaths.

The total number of samples tested up to 21st August is 3,44,91,073 which is also inclusive of 10,23,836 samples tested yesterday, said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). (ANI)

US President Donald Trump on Friday said he will fully end the country’s reliance on China if elected president again.

“We’ll fully restore America’s manufacturing independence, bring home our critical supply chains and permanently end our reliance on China,” Trump said during remarks at the 2020 Council for National Policy meeting in Washington.

During his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention on Thursday, Joe Biden said if elected president he would ensure that US supply chains no longer rely on China and other foreign countries. Trump and Biden have often sparred on the campaign trail over who would have a firmer policy towards Beijing.

The United States and China signed a trade agreement in January after an extended tariff war between the two countries. Under the agreement, Beijing committed to expanding between this year and next to its purchase of certain US goods and services by a combined $200 billion from 2017 levels.

However, soon after the deal was signed, the COVID-19 pandemic caused disruptions making it difficult for Washington to enforce the deal on Beijing, although the Trump administration insists that Chinese purchases are on track. In June, the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics reported that China had only purchased some $40 billion of the $173 billion of US purchases committed for 2020.

The relations between the United States and China have significantly deteriorated under the current Trump administration following accusations Beijing engaged in unfair trade practices and made a poor effort to contain the COVID-19 outbreak. In June, US President Donald Trump signed into law the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act that allows the US government to impose sanctions over alleged human rights violations of the Muslim Uyghur minority in China. China’s foreign ministry has repeatedly refuted the accusations. (ANI/Sputnik)

Myanmar is demonstrating caution and resistance to China, which has been attempting to deepen its influence on Naypyitaw through the China Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC).

According to a report in The Irrawaddy, the reason for Myanmar’s recent behaviour is Pakistan’s experience in China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Myanmar’s leadership has kept a sharp eye on Pakistan, writes Yan Naing in The Irrawaddy. Yan Naing is the pseudonym of a regular observer on Myanmar affairs.

Though Chinese President Xi Jinping had hailed CPEC as the flagship project of his Belt and Road Initiative, the situation on the ground was “hardly rosy”.

In an investigative report published in 2017, the Pakistani daily Dawn unveiled that China was forging a new structural relationship with Pakistan, which would enable Beijing to exercise overwhelming influence on Islamabad.

“The [CPEC] plan envisages a deep and broad-based penetration of most sectors of Pakistan’s economy as well as its society by Chinese enterprises and culture,” the daily reported in its detailed investigation.

Likewise, Myanmar also draws a lesson from Sri Lanka and Maldives, where China has made efforts to push big infrastructure projects that are deemed to be debt traps.

“The Chinese invested billions of dollars at high-interest rates, and leveraged them to acquire strategic assets, such as the Hambantota port in Sri Lanka on a 99-year lease,” Yan writes.

In terms of geography, the Chinese have proposed that the CMEC would take the shape of an “inverted Y”.

It would start from China’s pivotal Yunnan province, which shares borders with Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. From Ruili city on the China-Myanmar border, the corridor would head towards Mandalay, Myanmar’s former royal capital on the banks of the Irrawaddy River in the northern part of the country. From there, it could extend towards the east and west to Yangon New City and the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone, in the western Rakhine province.

China has proposed 38 projects under CMEC and Myanmar so far has approved only nine.

“Since last year senior Myanmar officials said that Myanmar will only implement the projects that can guarantee mutual benefits for both sides. Reading the tea leaves, the Myanmar government led by de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi is showing signs of standing up to China,” he further states

Myanmar continues to suspend the construction of Myitsone Dam. The proposed USD 3.6-billion dam is one of seven hydropower projects planned for the upper reaches of the Irrawaddy River as well as the Mali and N’Mai rivers, at whose confluence the Irrawaddy begins.

“Work on the project started in 2009, but then-President U Thein Sein suspended it in 2011 amid widespread public concern over the dam’s social and environmental impacts. The Chinese were humiliated to learn the news of the suspension,” Yan notes.

Myanmar government has set up a 20-member commission including the chief minister of Kachin State to review the project, including its environmental and social impacts. The commission has produced two reports to date, but the government has yet to release either.

As of today, the project remains in limbo.

Similarly, there has been no forward movement, so far, on the ambitious China-backed rail project to link Shan State’s Muse, on the border with China, with Mandalay. This $9 billion project involves constructing 431 kilometres of new track, which will link up with China’s high-speed network in Yunnan.

U Set Aung, the deputy minister of planning and finance, who is also chairman of the Kyaukphyu SEZ Management Committee, has openly warned against falling into the Chinese “debt trap”. He has stressed that Chinese projects must-have commercial viability and benefit Myanmar. The minister has successfully negotiated a reduction in the size and cost of the Kyaukphyu project in Rakhine.

Yan says that the situation is also ripe to step up ties with Naypyitaw, to counter China, following a trust-breaking military standoff between New Delhi and Beijing in Ladakh.

“There has been no let up in Japanese investments in Myanmar, but ties between the two countries could acquire a sharper security dimension as political friction between Tokyo and Beijing is flaring once again over their disputed East China sea islands,” he writes. (ANI)

The Election Commission has approved broad guidelines for the conduct of general elections and bypolls during COVID-19 period under which candidates will have the option to fill the nomination form and affidavit and deposit security amount online and five persons including candidate will be allowed for the door-to-door campaign.

The revised norms come ahead of assembly polls in Bihar which may be held later this year. The norms state that hand gloves shall be provided to all the electors for signing on the voter register and pressing the button of EVM for voting.

Voters will be given gloves before they head to the EVM machines. There shall be maximum 1000 electors instead of 1500 electors in a polling station.

The commission has also revised the norms of the number of persons accompanying the candidate and number of vehicles at the time of nomination.

An Election Commission press release said that public meetings and roadshows shall be permissible with suitable instructions subject to containment instructions issued by the Home Ministry and state government.

Face Mask, Sanitizer, Thermal scanners, gloves, face shield and PPE kits shall be used during the electoral process while ensuring social distancing norms.

The release said that the poll panel has created optional facility “to fill the nomination form and the affidavit online and submission of the same, after taking the print, before the RO concerned”.

“For the first time, the candidates will have the option to deposit security amount for contesting the elections online. Keeping containment guidelines in view, the Commission has limited the number of persons including candidate for the door-to-door campaign to five,” it said. Unlike the past when candidates of leading political parties went to file nominations in big processions, the new norms stipulate that only two persons can accompany candidate for submission of nomination.

Every person will be required to wear a face mask during every election-related activity. The guidelines state that at the entry of hall/ room/ premises used for election purposes, thermal scanning of all persons shall be carried out. “Sanitizer, soap and water shall be made available, social distancing shall be maintained as per the extant COVID-19 guidelines of the state government and the Ministry of Home Affairs.”

The guidelines state that as far as practicable, large halls should be identified and utilised to ensure social distancing norms. Also, awareness posters on COVID-19 should be displayed at visible locations.

They state that an adequate number of vehicles should be mobilized for movement of polling personnel, security personnel to ensure compliance of COVID-19 guidelines. Also based on these broad guidelines, a detailed COVID-19 related comprehensive plan will be prepared at the state level, taking local conditions into account.

In case of general elections, the three-layer plan will be prepared in consultation with the concerned nodal health officers – assembly, district and state levels.

In the case of bye-elections, the plans will be prepared at the district and constituency levels in consultation with respective nodal health officers.

In case more than one district is involved, such plans will be prepared by the returning officer of the parliamentary constituency in coordination with the DEOs, wherever required. (ANI)