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NATIONAL AFFAIRS - July 2020

Jul 2020

Oct 01, 2020

BJP to Contest Bihar Election with JD(U), LJP

Amid pressure exerted by alliance partners ahead of the Bihar polls, the BJP announced that it would go to the electoral battle in the state with its allies — the JD(U) and LJP.
The party deputed senior functionaries Bhupender Yadav and Devendra Fadnavis to work out the seat-sharing details with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is also president of the JD(U).
The two leaders will report back to the BJP leadership. Yadav said that the NDA would contest the elections under the leadership of Nitish Kumar.
It has been learnt that the JD(U) will contest more number of Assembly seats than the BJP so that the party can accommodate the outfit led by former state Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi.

Sep 30, 2020

Bypolls to 56 Assembly Seats, One Lok Sabha Seat in November

By-elections to 54 assembly seats across 10 states will be held on November 3, the Election Commission annouced. Besides, one Parliamentary constituency in Bihar and two assembly seats from Manipur will to polls on November 7. The counting of votes will be held on November 10. The list of states where elections will be held includes Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Odisha, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.
The commission has also decided not to hold by-elections to seven constituencies in four states. Elections on the seats -- two each in Assam, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and one in Bengal -- will be held early next year.
The maximum number of seats going to polls is from Madhya Pradesh, where a chunk of seats fell vacant as Jyotiraditya Scindia switched camp from the Congress to the BJP with his loyalists. Twenty-seven seats will be up for election in the state.
In terms of numbers, Madhya Pradesh is followed by Gujarat, where eight seats will go to polls and Uttar Pradesh, where the corresponding number is seven.

Tharoor Continues as Head of Parl Panel on IT; Harsimrat New External Affairs Committee Member

The parliamentary panel on information technology will continue to be chaired by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, whose decisions to summon Facebook executives and take up the suspension of 4G internet services in J&K had drawn criticism from the committee's BJP members, some of whom had even sought his ouster.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in consultation with Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu announced the composition of several reconstituted parliamentary standing committees, with former Union Minister and Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal being made a member of the panel on external affairs.
Besides Tharoor, various other Congress leaders who were critical of the government as chairperson of their respective parliamentary panels have been retained.
Congress leader Anand Sharma will continue to chair the parliamentary panel on home affairs and Jairam Ramesh will remain the head of the panel on environment and science and technology.
The chairperson of all parliamentary standing committees have been retained.
YSR Congress' Vijaysai Reddy has been reappointed the chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce, Samajwadi Party's Ram Gopal Yadav of Health, TRS's K Keshava Rao of Industry, TMC's Sudip Bandyopadhyay of Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, BJD's Bhartruhari Mahtab of Labour.
DMK's Kanimozhi will continue to lead the panel on chemicals and fertilizers and JD(U)'s Rajiv Ranjan Singh will head the panel on energy.
All remaining chairpersons of the parliamentary standing committees, most of who are from the BJP, have also not been changed.

Sep 29, 2020

Pappu Yadav Forms Poll Alliance with Chandrasekhar Azad

Pappu Yadav-led Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) decided to forge a poll alliance with three other political outfits including Chandrasekhar Azad's Azad Samaj Party, to fight the Bihar Assembly election.
The new coalition named Progressive Democratic Alliance (PDA) also includes the Bahujan Mukti Party (BMP) and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) of MK Faizi to fight against the NDA and other fronts in the upcoming Bihar Assembly polls.

Negate Farm Bills with Your Own Laws: Sonia to Cong-ruled States

A day after President Ram Nath Kovind granted his assent to the controversial farm Bills, Congress president Sonia Gandhi asked states ruled by her party to negate the agriculture-related Central laws by passing their own legislations.
Congress president has advised the Congress-ruled states to explore the possibilities to pass laws in their respective states under Article 254(2) of the constitution which allows the state legislatures to pass a law to negate the Anti-Agriculture Central laws encroaching upon State's jurisdiction under the Constitution.
Sonia Gandhi has told the states ruled by Congress that enacting their own legislations would enable bypassing the unacceptable anti-farmers' provisions in the three "draconian agricultural laws", including the abolition of MSP and disruption of APMCs in Congress-ruled states.

India Inks First Green Pact with Denmark

India and Denmark decided to elevate their bilateral ties to a "green strategic partnership", the first of its kind, during a virtual summit between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Mette Frederiksen.
Niche pollution control solutions being offered by Denmark include those to curb stubble burning. "Danish companies are already talking to Indian companies to take it forward," said MEA's Joint Secretary (Central Europe).
PM Modi in his address indicated that Indian expectations from Denmark went well beyond pollution control initiatives and partnerships. Mentioning the extensive reforms in the manufacturing, labour, regulatory and taxation sectors, he recalled Denmark's constant attendance at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit since 2009 and cautioned against the risks of overdependence on a single source.
The PM then spoke of virtual conferences with India, Japan, Australia and France to diversify supply chains and invited other like-minded democracies to join this endeavour.
PM Modi observed that India and Denmark could set up energy parks where a large number of Danish companies were present. India had recently intensified its conversation with Denmark and the groundwork for this summit was laid during talks between the two Foreign Ministers in January, followed up with more online interactions.

Namami Gange: Six Mega Projects, "Ganga Avalokan" to be Inaugurated

PM Modi is to inaugurate six mega projects under Namami Gange Mission through video conference.
The projects to be inaugurated are as follows
• Construction of 68 MLD STP
• Upgradation of 27 MLD at Jagjeetpur, Haridwar
• Construction of 68 MLD Jagjeetpur Project
• Inauguration of 26 MLD in Rishikesh
• Construction of 18 MLD STP at Darai, Haridwar
• Inauguration of 5 MLD STP at Chirpani. Also, two STP at Badrinath.
MLD is Million Litres per Day and STP is Sewage Treatment Plant.
The PM Modi along with these projects is to inaugurate Ganga Avalokam. It is the first museum of Ganga that is dedicated to showcase the biodiversity, rejuvenation and culture in Ganga river. The museum is located in Haridwar.
The Prime Minister will also launch a book "Rowing Down the Ganges" that was co-published by National Mission for Clean Ganga and Wildlife Institute of India.
The Prime Minister will also release a logo of Jal Jeevan Mission, Magdarshika for Gram Panchayats and Paani Samitis under Jal Jeevan Mission.

Sep 28, 2020

Gupteshwar Pandey Joins Nitish Kumar's JD(U)

Putting rest to days of speculations, former Bihar Director-General of Police (DGP) Gupteshwar Pandey has joined the ranks of Nitish Kumar-led JD(U).
As per reports, Nitish Kumar called him and asked to join the party.
The development comes just days after the Election Commission of India announced the dates for the upcoming Bihar assembly polls 2020.
Putting rest to days of speculations, former Bihar Director-General of Police (DGP) Gupteshwar Pandey has joined the ranks of Nitish Kumar-led JD(U).
As per reports, Nitish Kumar called him and asked to join the party.
The development comes just days after the Election Commission of India announced the dates for the upcoming Bihar assembly polls 2020.

New Defence Acquisition Procedure to Reduce Time Delays, Enhance Ease of Doing Business

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh unveiled a new Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) that features steps to turn India into a global manufacturing hub of military platforms, reduce timelines for procurement of defence equipment and allow the purchase of essential items by the three services through capital budget under a simplified mechanism.
Under the new policy, the offset guidelines have also been revised to give preference to defence majors offering to manufacture products in India instead of meeting the offset obligations through other means, officials said. The DAP also incorporates new chapters on information and communication technologies, post-contract management, acquisition of systems developed by the state-run defence entities like the DRDO and Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs).
In what is seen as a significant move, the DAP featured measures to reduce delay in procurement of essential items by the three services as it proposed a new enabling provision to acquire them through capital budget under a simplified procedure in a time-bound manner.

Akhilesh Yadav Welcomes SAD's Decision to Quit NDA

Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav welcomed Shiromani Akali Dal's (SAD) decision to quit the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) against the recently promulgated farm bills.
Apart from the opposition, people and BJP's alliance partners, even the workers of the ruling party are objecting to Centre's policies. This is because they are directly facing the ire of the people.
President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to three farm bills passed by the Parliament in the recently-concluded monsoon session.
With this, all three bills have now become acts- The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Service Act, 2020 and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.
The three bills were passed by Parliament amid vehement protest by the Opposition parties.

Sep 27, 2020

Shiromani Akali Dal Breaks Ties with BJP-led NDA

Shiromani Akali Dal, one of the oldest ally of the BJP announced to quit the ruling party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) after sharp difference over three newly-passed farm bills.
SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal announced the move after attending a core committee meeting of the party.
According to a party statement, the said the decision to quit the NDA was taken because of the Centre's stubborn refusal to give statutory legislative guarantees to protect assured marketing of farmers crops on MSP and its continued insensitivity to Punjabi and Sikh issues like excluding Punjabi language as official language in Jammu and Kashmir.
The SAD becomes the third major NDA ally to pull out of the grouping after the Shiv Sena and the TDP. The development comes days after SAP MP Harsimrat Kaur resigned from the Cabinet due to rift widening between the two parties over farm bills.
Badal said that the SAD will continue to stand by its core principles of peace, communal harmony and guard the interest of Punjab and Punjabi in general, and Sikhs and farmers in particular.

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