The BJP’s attempt to corner the Ashok Gehlot government over the phone-tapping scandal may boomerang on it. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has made it clear that he stands by what he said in the Assembly and before the media last year. He said that the BJP is unnecessarily blowing it out of proportion.

Informed sources said Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat might be in trouble if the phone-tapping scandal assumes a big proportion. From Day 1, Congress has been demanding the test of voice of Shekhawat so as to match it with what is on the tapes.

However, Shekhawat himself made it a big issue in the Assembly following which the state BJP got active. In fact, replying to a question from BJP in the Rajasthan Assembly, the Gehlot government replied that it taps phones in the interest of public safety and order. It was a technical answer that any government would have given to such a question. The government did not say that it got the phone of any people’s representative tapped. As per the Constitution, the police have the authority to tap phones if required. It was nowhere mentioned in the reply that phones were tapped during the political crisis last year. But the BJP linked it to the phone tapping scandal of last year when the Gehlot government was facing a crisis of survival. Over a dozen MLAs of the Congress led by Sachin Pilot had turned rebels and started targeting the Gehlot government last year in what was seen as an attempt of adversaries of CM to topple the government.

Congress had directly accused the BJP of conspiring to dislodge the state government. Some audio tapes were viral in social media at that time, allegedly containing the voice of Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Congress MLA Bhanwarlal Sharma. Congress had sought a probe into the tapes. But no investigation took place. Gehlot succeeded in saving his government. The rebel MLAs under the leadership of Sachin Pilot finally returned to the party.

But this development led to the BJP getting divided into two groups. One faction was of former CM Vasundhara Raje, which was never in favour of toppling the government. The second group was led by the present leadership of the BJP. Shekhawat is in the second group.

After the Gehlot government sailed through the crisis, the internal fight of the BJP intensified. The BJP high command is trying to put in place a new state leadership. Shekhawat is said to be close to Union Home Minister Amit Shah. He is understood to be quite active in state politics because of the backing of Shah. This is the reason why immediately after the state government’s reply on phone tapping, Shekhawat tweeted his comments linking the scandal to what happened last year. He accused the state government of getting the phones tapped. Congress also did not waste a minute and raised the demand for a probe into the tapes. The state government may come out with a reply on the issue raised by BJP.

The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which was introduced by the Centre in Parliament, has been criticised by the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi as an attempt to curtail the powers of the elected government. AAP MP from the Rajya Sabha Sanjay Singh spoke to The Sunday Guardian. Excerpts:

Q: Why is the AAP protesting against the amendment bill bought by Central government in Parliament?

A: The constitutional bench of the Supreme Court has already passed the verdict in which the apex court said that elected government in Delhi is the only ruling government, and the elected Chief Minister is the Chief Minister of Delhi, but the BJP wants to turn around the verdict of the Supreme Court and wants to end the powers of the elected government and ultimately wants to make L-G the government of Delhi. The verdict of the Supreme Court clearly laid out that the L-G would be bound by the advice of the elected government, except in matters pertaining to police, land and law and order. The amendment now provides for concurrence of the L-G in matters of day-to-day functioning of the administration.

Q: Why do you think that the bill has been introduced now?

 A: You have seen that in the recently held MCD bypolls, the people have given major mandate to Aam Aadmi Party which shows that the people does not like the BJP in the national capital; rather, they are happy with the work of the AAP. It is an attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party to curtail the powers of the elected government after people rejected it in the Assembly polls last year and the civic body bypolls held recently.

Q: How far you will take this fight further?

A: I spoke to other political parties and MPs to oppose this bill in both Houses of Parliament and I got a positive response. From Parliament to streets of the national capital, we will fight against this unconstitutional bill introduced by the Centre.

The Health Ministry reported that the number of beneficiaries aged 60 years and above in the nationwide Covid vaccination drive has crossed one crore in just 15 days. Meanwhile, the total vaccination coverage in India has crossed 3.29 crores.

However, the spread of the infection still continues as India recorded 24,492 new Covid-19 cases, taking the total cases in the country to 1,14,09,831, while the death toll increased to 1,58,856, with 131 fresh fatalities. For the sixth day in a row, India registered more than 20,000 cases.

Among the new cases, Maharashtra accounted for 17,864 new cases. This is the first time this year that over 17,000 Covid-19 cases have been recorded in a single day in the state. The previous highest single-day surge in 2021 was 16,620 on Sunday, March 14.

Besides the new cases, 87 Covid-19 deaths were recorded during the day, taking the state’s death toll to 52,996. The case fatality rate in the state is 2.26%.

The surge in cases in Mumbai also prompted the BMC education department to issue an order asking all schools in its jurisdiction to discontinue the 50% rotational attendance rule from March 17. Teachers are to take their classes in the ‹work from home› mode with the help of e-learning platforms until further orders.

Delhi recorded 425 new Covid-19 cases as its positivity rate rose to 0.61 percent. The death toll climbed to 10,945 with one more fatality. The new coronavirus cases recorded took the infection tally to 6,44,489. The national capital recorded a positivity rate of 0.59 percent.

Goa›s coronavirus caseload went up by 94 and reached 56,100, while the recovery count increased by 73 to touch 54,497. With four deaths in the last 24 hours, the toll in the state is 811, leaving the state with 792 active cases. Jammu and Kashmir recorded 97 fresh Covid-19 cases that pushed its infection tally to 1,27,831, while two more deaths linked to the virus raised the toll to 1,972 in the Union Territory. 19 of the fresh cases are from the Jammu division and 78 from the Kashmir division.

India’s southern states also saw a surge in coronavirus cases. Tamil Nadu reported 867 new cases, taking the state’s infection tally to 8,61,429, while five more fatalities took its death toll to 12,556. The number of active cases stands at 5,450.

Karnataka reported over a thousand cases for the first time since Christmas last year. As many as 1,135 more people contracted the infection in the last 24 hours, indicating a test positivity rate of 1.65 percent. Of these, Bengaluru Urban continued to top the list with 710 new cases and 329 discharges among 30 districts in the state.

Kerala recorded 1,970 new cases of Covid-19 and 15 deaths in the last 24 hours. The active caseload amounted to 26,127 as the death toll rose to 4,422. In the same period, a passenger from South Africa tested positive for Covid-19. This has taken the total number of passengers infected with Covid-19 strains from the UK, South Africa and Brazil to 104.

The surge in fresh coronavirus cases also continued in Andhra Pradesh with 261 people testing positive for the virus in the last 24 hours, pushing the active caseload up to 1,579. The state also saw 125 patients recovering from the infection while no deaths were reported during this period. The Covid-19 caseload in the state is at 8,92,269 with 8,83,505 recoveries and 7,185 deaths. Nationwide, registering a spike in cases, the total active caseload has increased to 2,23,432, which now comprises 1.96 percent of the total infections. Meanwhile, the recovery rate has dropped to 96.65 percent.

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed senior official of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to remain present in the court with the status report on the next date of hearing while hearing a plea of window seeking to exhume the mortal remains of her Hindu husband, who was mistaken as a Muslim and buried in Saudi Arabia. The widow has pleaded for repatriation of the mortal remains to India to conduct his last rites as per the faith of the family.

A bench of Justice Prathiba M. Singh, while seeking a response from the respondent, also directed the counsel representing the MEA to file a status report with the details of steps taken towards the wife’s plea. The bench showing its displeasure towards the MEA decided that a senior official of the ministry would be required to join the court with a status report. The bench also slated the matter for Thursday, while refused to give the MEA 10 days’ time.

According to the petition, the woman’s husband named Sanjeev Kumar, an Indian citizen, passed away on 24 January 2021 at his workplace in Saudi Arabia. Sanjeev, who worked in Saudi Arabia for 23 years, died due to diabetes, hypertension and cardiac arrest and the mortal remains were kept in Beesh General Hospital, Jizan, Saudi Arabia.

The aggrieved woman told the court that on getting the information of her husband’s death, her family members had requested the concerned authority to repatriate the mortal remains. Subsequently, the wife was asked to execute a power of attorney for completing the formalities of repatriation of mortal remains of Sanjeev Kumar and the same was done on 28 January, the petition states.

However, on 18 February, the wife was informed that the body of her husband has been buried in Saudi Arabia while the family members of the deceased were waiting for the mortal remains in India. The officials in the Indian Consulate explained that it was due to a mistake committed by the official translator of the Indian Consulate, Jeddah, who wrongly mentioned his religion as ‘Muslim’ in the death certificate. They also shared a letter of apology tendered by the official translating agency of the Indian Consulate in Jeddah with the Petitioner.

The woman told the Court that neither she nor any member of the family of the deceased has given any consent to bury the body of Sanjeev Kumar in Saudi Arabia. She requested that the officials of the Indian Consulate in Jeddah to impress the local authorities to exhume the mortal remains of her husband so that the same can be transported to India for performing last rites as per the faith of the family. Unfortunately, even after seven weeks of the death of the husband of the petitioner, the authorities concerned have failed to do necessary formalities to repatriate the mortal remains of Sanjeev Kumar to India for performing last rites.

“That the inaction on the part of the respondents are illegal and arbitrary, thus violating the fundamental rights of the petitioner guaranteed under the Constitution of India,” the woman said and urged the Delhi High Court to issue a direction to the Union of India and Indian Consulate (Jeddah) to do necessary formalities for exhuming the mortal remains of her husband repatriate the same to India in an urgent and time-bound basis.

Pakistan may have expressed its willingness to host the long-delayed summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), but India wants the neighbouring country to “walk the talk” on terrorism before any such meeting of the key regional body. Pakistan will have to pass the test of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in the month of June before India gives any word on whether the SAARC should be held in Islamabad or not.

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) top officials recently discussed the Pakistan Foreign Minister’s statement showing the country’s readiness to host the SAARC summit later this year. The SAARC summit has been pending since 2016 as a result of growing tension between India and Pakistan over the Uri attack.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is learnt to have made it clear to the MEA officials that Pakistan must show some credible action against terrorism before being allowed to host the SAARC summit.

Sources told The Sunday Guardian that India will be watching how Pakistan is able to satisfy the FATF in its next meeting to be held by the end of June this year. “Only then will India be making its stand clear on attending the SAARC summit in Pakistan,” say sources.    

“FATF will be a significant test for Pakistan to clear before its entitlement to hosting the SAARC summit. If it gets black listed or it stays on the grey list of FATF, then Pakistan will have no moral authority whatsoever to host SAARC summit,” says a senior foreign service official posted in MEA.

The Paris-based terror and money laundering watchdog has already rebuked Pakistan over its utter failure to deal effectively with terrorism being promoted on its soil. Here one can recall how PM Modi had last year given a strong message about the SAARC nations (particularly Pakistan) to come clear on the issue of terrorism. “The full potential of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation can only be realised in an atmosphere free of terrorism and violence. Let us re-commit ourselves to defeating the forces that support and nurture terrorism, and to work collectively towards a secure and prosperous South Asia,” PM Modi said in a message on the occasion of the 36th Charter Day of SAARC in December last year.

An official said that Pakistan has not yet come up with what could convince the world community and SAARC member nations of its seriousness in uprooting terrorism from its soil. “Rather it has been found backing and sponsoring terror organisations operating from Pakistan’s soil,” he added. “There is no question of PM Modi visiting Pakistan if it continues to be a sympathiser of terror elements present there,” he said. FATF’s admonishment is already a substantial proof of Pakistan being negligent towards terrorism. Hence, India would prefer to keep a watch over how FATF takes a view of Pakistan’s further action in the next crucial meet in the month of June.

In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Union Minister of State for Home G. Kishan Reddy had also said: “According to reports, there are several terrorist training camps in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), which are used for training and subsequently for infiltrating trained militants and terrorists into Jammu and Kashmir for terrorist activities. Some of these training camps are still active and imparting training to militants.”

What the minister said goes on to suggest that Pakistan continues to be a patron of terror organisations, which continues to strain the ties with India. Even state actors in Pakistan are behind them, it is reported. “How can such a country stop funding the terror outfits,” asks a diplomat. “It can’t get FATF clean chit with this kind of activity. With this being the case, how can Pakistan be allowed to have a SAARC summit?”

The last SAARC summit was held in Kathmandu in 2014. The 2016 SAARC summit was to be held in Islamabad. But after the terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir on 18 September that year, India expressed its inability to participate in the summit due to “prevailing circumstances”. The summit had to be called off after Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to participate in the Islamabad meet.

SAARC summits are usually held biennially and hosted by member states in alphabetical order.