Author: LokMarg

The agreement between the Russian Federation and Ukraine to break a months-long blockade of grain deliveries via the Black Sea is a critical step forward to ensuring the safe and secure export of Ukrainian products, said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday in a press brief.

He further said that through this agreement, the world is seeing a ray of hope in this juncture when the world is darkened by a global crisis.
“Today in Istanbul, we have seen a critical step forward to ensuring the safe and secure export of Ukrainian food products through the Black Sea,” Antonio Guterres told reporters.

In a world darkened by global crises, today, at last, we have a ray of hope, he said, adding the aim of all parties is not just an agreement between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, but an agreement for the world.

Ukraine is regarded as the “breadbasket of Europe” supplying 10 per cent of the world’s wheat, 12-17 per cent of the world’s maize and half of the world’s sunflower oil.

Twenty-five million tonnes of corn and wheat – the entire annual consumption of all the least developed countries – can’t be exported and is currently at risk of rotting in Ukrainian silos.

The ongoing blockade has placed 47 million people around the world on the brink of humanitarian disasters.

In addition to preventing grain from leaving Ukraine via the Black Sea – the route by which 96 per cent of Ukraine’s grain has historically been exported, Russian attacks are disrupting rail exports.

According to Western countries, not only is Russia preventing Ukraine from exporting its grain but there is also increasing evidence that Russia is stealing grain from Ukraine.

Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, security experts say one of Moscow’s earliest strategic aims quickly became apparent as its armoured columns advanced along the coast in an effort to seize Ukraine’s coastline.

The seizure of ports would strangle Ukraine economically at a time when it most needs the funds to fend off Russia. After more than four months of the conflict, two of Ukraine’s five main commercial ports have been taken and both are in the northeast of the Black Sea. (ANI)

Amid the unrest in Sri Lanka, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday said that it is important to address the conflict and grievances of protestors.

Taking to Twitter, UN Chief urged all party leaders of Sri Lanka to compromise for a peaceful and democratic transition.
“I continue to follow the situation in Sri Lanka very closely. It is important that the root causes of the conflict and protestors’ grievances are addressed. I urge all party leaders to embrace the spirit of compromise for a peaceful and democratic transition,” he tweeted.

A large number of protestors on Wednesday gathered outside the residence of the Sri Lankan Prime Minister and took over his office. Security personnel resorted to tear-gas shelling to drive away protestors on the streets of Colombo.

This comes after the embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa who escaped to the Maldives today appointed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the interim President of Sri Lanka.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa who earlier fled to the Maldives on Wednesday with his wife and two bodyguards after full approval of Sri Lanka’s Defence Ministry is expected to go to Singapore.

Rajapaksa along with his wife Ioma Rajapaksa and two security officers were expected to leave for Singapore on board SQ437 from Male to Singapore tonight but did not board the aircraft due to security issues, Daily Mirror added citing sources.

Moreover, talks are on to secure a private aircraft for the embattled President, Maldivian Media reported.

Over the incident, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) asked the protesters to immediately return the office of the Prime Minister to the respective authorities saying ‘attempts to occupy Government Offices and to cause destruction or damage to property do not constitute peaceful protests’.

Meanwhile, Wickremesinghe imposed an island-wide curfew until Thursday morning.

73-year-old Gotabaya Rajapaksa had gone into hiding after crowds of protesters stormed his residence on July 9 and he had announced that he will hand over his resignation letter on Wednesday.

The country is facing a severe shortage of fuel and other essential supplies and is in the throes of its worst-ever economic crisis with soaring inflation. (ANI)

India witnessed an uptick in the number of COVID-19 cases as it recorded 20,139 fresh infections (19 per cent higher than yesterday) in the last 24 hours, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed on Thursday.

This is an increase of 3,233 infections as compared to yesterday. The country reported 16,906 new COVID cases on Wednesday.
The active cases have now gone up to 1,36,076 and constitute 0.31 per cent of the total caseload in the country.

The daily positivity rate was observed to be 5.10 per cent in the last 24 hours, while the weekly positivity rate was recorded to be 4.37, the Health Ministry informed.

On Wednesday, the daily positivity rate was at 3.68 per cent and the total weekly positivity rate was 4.26 per cent.

The recovery rate in the country is currently at 98.49 per cent. As many as 16,482 recoveries were recorded in the last 24 hours thereby taking total recoveries to 4,30,28,356.

The government data added that 38 new fatalities have pushed India’s COVID-19 death toll to 5,25,557.

A total of 3,94,774 COVID samples were tested during this period. 86.81 crore tests have been conducted in the country so far.

Under the nationwide vaccination drive, 13,44,714 COVID vaccines were administered in the last 24 hours. A total of 1,99,27,27,559 vaccines have been administered so far.

In the new phase of the universalization of the COVID vaccination drive, the Union Government will procure and supply (free of cost) 75 per cent of the vaccines being produced by the vaccine manufacturers in the country to States and UTs. (ANI)

Congress leaders, in a meeting on Wednesday, decided to protest across the country against the BJP-led Central Government on July 21, the day Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi is scheduled to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in National Herald case.

Another significant meeting has been called by the party today (on Thursday), where all the general secretaries, state in-charges and PCC chiefs will discuss ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ and other organisational programs.
In the meeting, top leaders will discuss the protest march and other public outreach programmes.

With the Monsoon Session of Parliament starting from July 18, the Congress MPs will also take the opportunity to protest inside the Parliament premises.

Talking to ANI after the meeting, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said, “Congress President Sonia Gandhi is a tigress. She is not afraid of these things. She has seen so many things like this. She will go to the ED office and face this Government.”

The Enforcement Directorate has summoned Congress Interim President Sonia Gandhi for questioning in connection with the National Herald case in which senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, Pawan Bansal has already been questioned.

Besides them, ED questioned former Congress President and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi last month in June in the case for more than five days and during that time also Congress Party leaders and workers protested against ED and BJP-led Centre for indulging in ‘vendetta politics.’

The party workers and leaders also protested the “brutal” action by Delhi police officials who manhandled many party activists and allegedly entered the Congress headquarters in Delhi forcefully.

According to sources, the party has also prepared pamphlets to be distributed among the public on the National Herald case.

Today’s meeting was attended by the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress General Secretary Organisation KC Venugopal, AICC Treasurer Pawan Bansal, AICC General Secretary Mukul Wasnik, Ajay Maken, Randeep Surjewala, Bhawar Jitendra Singh and Rajya Sabha MP and AICC in-charge of Delhi Shaktisinh Gohil.

Official sources said that Sonia Gandhi has been asked to appear before the investigators at its headquarters here around 11 am on July 21.

Fresh summons were issued to Sonia Gandhi as she could not appear before its investigators on June 8 in the case for the first time in connection with a money laundering case involving the National Herald as she was infected with COVID-19 and was hospitalised.

The ED wants to record both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi’s statements under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The ED last month questioned Rahul Gandhi on several occasions in the case.

The case to investigate alleged financial irregularities under the PMLA was registered about nine months ago after a trial court took cognisance of an Income Tax Department probe carried out on the basis of a private criminal complaint filed in 2013.

The petitioner had approached the court alleging that the assets of Associated Journals Limited (AJL), which published the National Herald newspaper, were fraudulently acquired and transferred to Young Indian Pvt Limited (YIL), in which Sonia Gandhi and her son owned 38 per cent shares each.

The YIL promoters include Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. Swamy had alleged that the Gandhis cheated and misappropriated funds, with YIL paying only Rs 50 lakh to obtain the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that AJL owed to Congress.

Congress argued that YIL was a not-for-profit company under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956 that can neither accumulate profits nor pay dividends to its shareholders.

Calling it a case of political vendetta, senior Supreme Court advocate and Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi had said, “This is truly a very weird case — an alleged money laundering case on which summons are issued with no money involved.”

The federal agency’s move followed the questioning of senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress Treasurer Pawan Bansal in April this year in New Delhi in connection with its money laundering probe into the National Herald case.

The agency then recorded the statements of both the Congress leaders then under the PMLA. The National Herald is published by AJL and owned by YIL. While Kharge is the CEO of YIL, Bansal is the Managing Director of AJL.

The ED is currently investigating the shareholding pattern and financial transactions as well as the role of party functionaries in the functioning of AJL and YIL. (ANI)

Former Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari on Wednesday refuted the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) allegation that he had shared “confidential and sensitive” information about India with Pakistani journalist Nusrat Mirza.

In a statement, Ansari said, “Yesterday and today a litany of falsehood has been unleashed on me personally in the sections of the media and by the official spokesman of the Bharatiya Janata Party: that as Vice-President of India I had invited the Pakistani journalist, Nusrat Mirza. That I had met him in a conference in New Delhi on ‘Terrorism’, and that while as Ambassador to Iran, I had betrayed the national interest in a matter for which allegations have been made by a former official of a government agency.”

Ansari said that invitations to foreign dignitaries by the Vice-President of India are on the advice of the government generally through the Ministry of External Affairs.

He said he had inaugurated the Conference on Terrorism, on December 11, 2010, the ‘International Conference of Jurists on International Terrorism and Human Rights’. As is the normal practice the list of invitees would have been drawn by the organisers. He said he never invited Mirza.

“My work as Ambassador to Iran was at all times within the knowledge of the government of the day. I am bound by the commitment to national security in such matters and refrain from commenting on them. The Government of India has all the information and is the only authority to tell the truth. It is a matter of record that after my stint in Tehran I was appointed India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York. My work there has been acknowledged at home and abroad,” added Ansari.

Ansari, a retired diplomat was the 12th Vice President of India from 2007 to 2017.

Notably, Nusrat Mirza, a Pakistani columnist who has visited India many times during the Congress’ rule, boasted on camera that he used to pass on information collected during his visits to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

He claimed that he had visited India on several occasions.

“I was invited to India at the time of Vice Presidentship of Mohammad Hamid Ansari,” Mirza said.

Following this, BJP attacked Congress and alleged that it was sharing the most secret things of the country with other countries, which they were using for terrorism. BJP said the Congress party has been “weakening the country”.

Addressing a press conference, BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said, “Pakistani journalist Nusrat Mirza himself has revealed that Hamid Ansari, the former Vice President of India, invited him to India five times between 2005 and 2011. Nusrat Mirza said in an interview that the then Vice President used to call him to India. During their conversations, highly sensitive and confidential information used to be shared.

The BJP spokesperson said Mirza stated that the highly sensitive and confidential information was shared not just once but five times by Hamid Ansari and this information was used against India.

“India is playing a leading role in the campaign against terrorism all over the world. And the Congress government invited such a person to visit India five times between 2005-11 and confidential information about the country was shared,” Bhatia said. (ANI)

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will meet the Presiding Officers of state legislatures in India on July 15 in the Parliament premises, the Lok Sabha secretariat said in a statement.

The Presiding Officers will be discussing issues pertaining to the All India Presiding Officers’ Conference and CPA India Region and they will deliberate on areas of interest concerning the functioning of legislative bodies in India, including anti-defection law, disruption in legislatures, people’s participation in legislative bodies and uniformity of rules and procedures in legislatures.

After the meeting, the Lok Sabha Speaker will chair a briefing meeting of the Indian delegation which will attend the upcoming 65 Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference at Halifax, Canada from August 20 to 26.

The Speaker will lead the Indian Parliamentary Delegation to the Conference. The conference is slated to discuss wide-ranging areas from the Role of Parliaments in achieving sustainable development, the use of innovative technology, issues related to women, youth and climate change, etc.

The Parliament of India and all state legislatures are members of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and are expected to attend the Conference in Halifax, Canada. (ANI)

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested Ajay Ramesh Nawandar, an alleged aide of gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s close associate Chhota Shakeel, in connection with an alleged bank fraud of Rs 34,615 crore by Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL).

During the investigation, his role was unearthed. He was in possession of costly articles and artcrafts belonging to DHFL’s then chairman-cum-managing director Kapil Wadhawan and promoter director Dheeraj Wadhawan which were acquired from the funds diverted from DHFL.
When CBI conducted a search at his premises on July 8, they had recovered two paintings worth of Rs 35 crore and ultra-luxury watches belonging to the Wadhwan brothers and other items worth of crores were recovered from his house, said a senior CBI official.

“He was questioned on July 8 over the recoveries and today he was formally arrested. Several artworks purchased from diverted funds were recovered from his house. The matter is under investigation. We will find out if there are more links in the ‘investment’,” said a senior CBI official.

On July 8, CBI searched the premises of Rebecca Dewan and Ajay Ramesh Nawandar in Mumbai and Dewan Villa, Mahabaleshwar which led to the recovery of a large number of paintings and sculptures, some cash & other incriminating documents. The value of artworks recovered during the search was estimated to be around Rs 40 crore, as per initial estimates.

During the investigation, it was found that the promoters had allegedly diverted the funds and made investments in various entities. It was also alleged that the promoters had acquired expensive paintings and sculptures worth about Rs 55 crore (approximately) using the diverted funds.

A case was registered on a complaint from Union Bank of India, Industrial Finance Branch, Mumbai against a private (borrower) company based in Mumbai, its then CMD, then Director and others including a private person, private companies, unknown public servant(s) and private persons on the allegations that the accused cheated a consortium of 17 banks led by Union Bank of India to the tune of over Rs 34,615 crore (approximately) by siphoning off loans availed from the banks and falsifying the books of said private (borrower) company and creating Shell Companies/false entities, which had come to be known as “Bandra Book Entities”.

It was alleged that the said private company and its promoters had created a number of shell companies and fictitious entities (Bandra Book entities) and siphoned off huge funds by disbursing funds to such fictitious entities.

It was further alleged that separate audits conducted by other private audit accounting organisations had identified multiple instances of diversion of funds by the accused for personal benefits and falsification of books of accounts to camouflage and conceal dubious transactions.

The audits also identified several instances where large value loans were provided to such fictitious entities without due diligence and without securities. Instances of sanction and disbursement of loans, merely by e-mail communications were allegedly found for which no loan files were maintained in the said private (borrower) company. (ANI)

Sri Lankans residing in the Maldives staged a protest on Wednesday against ex-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

They demanded that Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is currently at a resort in the Maldives, be sent back to Sri Lanka, reported Newswire.
Video footage shared by a social media user shows Sri Lankans staging a protest in the Maldives’ capital, Male.

The protesters are seen holding the Sri Lankan national flag and placards with anti-government slogans.

Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives with his family early this morning, despite stating that he will announce his resignation Wednesday, reported Newswire.

The public in Sri Lanka has been calling for the President’s resignation over the current economic crisis.

Apart from leaving the country without tendering his resignation, he has also appointed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the Acting President.

Meanwhile, the Maldives media reports that Rajapaksa is set to leave for either Singapore or Dubai, UAE from the Maldives later Wednesday, reported Newswire.

Amid mayhem and chaos in Sri Lanka, acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe instructed armed forces and police to bring the current situation under control.

Further, some of the protesters have stormed the premises of Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister’s Office in Colombo.

Security personnel resorted to tear-gas shelling to drive away protestors on the streets of Colombo.

Wickremesinghe declared an emergency and imposed a curfew in the western province of the country as protests intensified following Rajapaksa’s escape to the Maldives.

A state of emergency was declared as protesters came prepared to face tear gas shelling by security forces deployed outside Wickremesinghe’s residence. Air patrolling also began around the PM’s residence.

The country’s opposition leader Sajith Premadasa said that the PM cannot exercise the powers of the President, and cannot declare a curfew or a state of emergency.

“PM becomes acting President only if the President appoints him as such, or if the office of President is vacant, or if the CJ in consultation with the Speaker forms the view that the President is unable to act,” Premadasa tweeted.

“In the absence of any of these, the PM cannot exercise the powers of President, and cannot declare curfew or a state of emergency,” he said in another tweet.

73-year-old Rajapaksa had gone into hiding after crowds of protesters stormed his residence on July 9 and he had announced that he will resign on July 13.

The country is facing a severe shortage of fuel and other essential supplies and is in the throes of its worst-ever economic crisis with soaring inflation. (ANI)

US President Joe Biden, who is on the first-ever visit to Israel landed at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday and asserted “You need not be a Jew to be a Zionist.”

Marking his first-ever official visit to Isreal as the President of the United States (POTUS) said, “You need not be a Jew to be a Zionist. It’s an honour to once again stand with friends and visit the independent Jewish state of Israel.”
He was greeted on the tarmac by Israeli President Issac Herzog, Prime Minister Yair Lapid and other senior officials, including former Premier Naftali Bennett.

Biden reminisced briefly about previous visits and relationships with former leaders, and emphasized the deep connections between Americans and Israelis, reported The Jewish Chronicle.

He discussed the continued growth of the bilateral relations between generations, asserting, “The connection between the Israeli people and the American people is bone deep.”

Biden pledged to “fight the poison of antisemitism wherever it rears its ugly head,” noting the “horror” of the Holocaust and his planned visit to Yad Vashem.

The US president then turned to collaboration between the two countries, particularly in the realm of security, saying he will explore cutting-edge Israeli defence systems, the Iron Dome and the brand-new laser-powered “Iron Beam”.

Biden also emphasised his support for a two-state solution, saying that Israel and a Palestinian state is the solution to the conflict in the region, “even though it’s not (feasible in the near term)”.

“We will continue to advance Israel’s integration into the region.. Greater peace, greater stability is critical for all of the people of the region,” he added.

During his visit, Biden will also be meeting the President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem on Friday in a bid to restart talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, reported Doha News.

He concluded his remarks by saying, “May Israel and the US continue to grow and prosper together for the benefit of the entire world.”

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid called Biden “a great Zionist and one of the best friends Israel has ever known”.

“During your visit we will discuss matters of national security. We will discuss a new security architecture with the nations of the Middle East following the Abraham Accords and we will discuss the need to renew a global coalition that will stop the Iranian nuclear programme,” Lapid added.

Biden hopes to advance Israel’s desire to establish diplomatic relations with the Saudi Arabia which could help the Middle East countries unite against Iran. Israel has already formalized relations with United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.

Biden will remain in the country until Friday before travelling to Saudi Arabia. (ANI)