The Evening Wrap: Prashant Bhushan refuses to apologise

The Hindu Newsletter - Here are the latest updates and the big news stories to follow today Thursday 20, August 2020 [alt_text]( The Evening Wrap [Here are the biggest news stories of the day]( [alt_text]( Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. We hope you are staying safe. Failing to speak up would’ve been a dereliction of duty, Prashant Bhushan tells SC The Supreme Court has given civil rights lawyer Prashant Bhushan [“two or three days” to “reflect on”](, and possibly modify, a [statement he read out to the judges]( on Thursday in which he refused to apologise for his tweets. When the Attorney General urged the court not to punish him, Justice Arun Mishra replied that “Mr. Bhushan might have done a lot of good, but he should not cross the Lakshman Rekha... We can be very, very lenient, but only if the person tenders an apology in the real sense.” Convicted of contempt for two tweets, Bhushan today read out a statement saying that he has served it for three decades not as a courtier or a cheerleader but as a humble guard of its majesty. “Failing to speak up would have been a dereliction of duty, especially for an officer of the court like myself... We are living through that moment in our history when higher principles must trump routine obligations, when saving the constitutional order must come before personal and professional niceties, when considerations of the present must not come in the way of discharging our responsibility towards the future,” Bhushan told a three-judge Bench led by Justice Arun Mishra during a sentence hearing via video conferencing on Thursday. In an emotionally charged voice, he said “I am pained not because I may be punished, but because I have been grossly misunderstood”. Refusing to apologise for his tweets, he said it would be contemptuous and insincere on his part to apologise. “My tweets were nothing but a small attempt to discharge what I considered to be my highest duty at this juncture in the history of our republic. I did not tweet in a fit of absent-mindedness. It would be insincere and contemptuous on my part to offer an apology for the tweets that expressed what was and continues to be my bona fide belief,” he stated in court. After a two-hour hearing, which witnessed a sharp back-and-forth over whether his tweets had crossed the line, the Supreme Court gave the 63-year-old lawyer two-three days “to reconsider” his statement. If PM-CARES is not under RTI, how was it cleared for CSR donations, asks Chidambaram Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Thursday [accused the BJP of “desperately” trying to shield the PM-CARES fund]( from scrutiny as he asked a series of questions regarding the establishment of the fund. The Congress leader’s questions on Twitter follow [a report published in The Hindu]( today. The report pointed out that although the government claimed that PM CARES Fund was not a public authority under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) in March had justified allowing donations to PM-CARES under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on the grounds that it had been set up by the Central government. [Screenshot of the PM Cares site homepage. ]Screenshot of the PM Cares site homepage. “Was the Fund set up by the central government as concluded by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs? If not, who set up the Fund and in what capacity? If the Fund was not set up by the central government, why are the PM and three Ministers serving as Trustees? Who appointed them as Trustees? If the Fund is a private established fund, why are donations to the Fund counted against CSR,” asked Chidambaram. Yesterday, the Supreme Court had ruled that the PM-CARES does not require any auditing by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) since it is only a public charitable trust for voluntary donations and does not get any government support. Rahul accuses Modi regime of decimating informal economy Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused the Narendra Modi government of [disrupting the balance between the organised and unorganised economies]( of the country, thereby destroying the latter’s capacity to provide employment to the country’s youth. On the occasion of the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, he said, “Mr. Modi in the past six years has been attacking the unorganised economy so that money goes to only big businesses close to him.” He pointed to demonetisation, the GST, and the abruptly imposed lockdown as instances of the attack. “As soon as the lockdown eases, small and medium businesses will be destroyed. It is already happening. For the first time in the country’s independent history, it will not be able to give employment to its youth,” he said. [ Congress leader Rahul Gandhi pays tribute to his late father and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on his 76th birth anniversary, as it rains at Veer Bhoomi in New Delhi, Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020. ] Congress leader Rahul Gandhi pays tribute to his late father and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on his 76th birth anniversary, as it rains at Veer Bhoomi in New Delhi, Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020. While clarifying that he did not imply an attack on the organised sector, Gandhi exhorted Congress workers to unite the country, and amplify the voices of the poor, especially workers and farmers. Kerala govt calls all-party meeting to discuss award of airport contract to Adani Group The Kerala government [convened an urgent all-party meeting]( on Thursday evening to discuss the Union Cabinet’s decision to hand over the Thiruvananthapuram international airport to Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL) of the Adani Group. The Adani Group has won the bid to manage and operate the airport under a public-private partnership (PPP) framework for 50 years. The Centre’s decision to award the rights of the Trivandrum airport to Adani comes at a time when the privatisation of the airport is under litigation following a Supreme Court directive. “Thiruvananthapuram airport privatised to Adani rejecting the claim of Kerala govt, even after offer to match Adani's rate. PMO's promise to accept Kerala proposal broken. People of Kerala will not accept this act of brazen cronyism. #Airportprivatisation," State Finance Minister Dr Thomas Isaac tweeted. Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, however, said that the award of the contract had been done in a transparent manner and the best bid had won. “Winning bid quoted ₹168 per passenger, KSIDC quoted ₹135 per passenger & third qualifying bidder was at ₹63 per passenger. Thus, despite special provision of RoFR [Right of First Refusal] being given to GoK, they could not qualify in international bidding process carried out in a transparent manner,” he tweeted. [Thiruvananthapuram International Airport. File]Thiruvananthapuram International Airport. File Adani Enterprises has won the contract for all the six airports opened up for privatisation earlier this year: Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Mangalore, Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram. Opposing the privatisation move, Kerala has been demanding that the airport management be entrusted to a special purpose vehicle (SPV) in which the state government would be the major stakeholder. On Wednesday, in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said, “In view of the unilateral decision taken by the Union government without giving any credence to the cogent arguments put forward by the state government, it will be difficult for us to offer co-operation to the implementation of the decision, which is against the wishes of the people of the state.” Covid watch: Numbers and Developments The number of reported [coronavirus]( cases from India stood at 29,00,892 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 54,966. India on Tuesday reported 69,652 new cases. Nearly a third of Delhi's population has been exposed to Covid-19 and has developed antibodies, the state government said today, giving details of a second serological survey conducted in the capital. “29.1% prevalence of the virus has been found in the second sero-survey," Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said. In other words, 58 lakh people in Delhi now have antibodies. Meanwhile, the Punjab government, as part of a strict response to a worrying surge in coronavirus cases, has ordered a daily night curfew from 7pm to 5am starting Friday, and a weekend lockdown in all the 167 cities and towns in the state. The emergency measures, which will be in place till August 31, include restrictions on public and private transport and a ban on all public gatherings (except weddings and funerals). Union Minister of Jal Shakti Gajendar Singh Shekhawat on Thursday said that he has tested positive for the coronavirus. He is the sixth Union minister to have contracted the infection. Kamala Harris formally accepts VP nomination Kamala Harris, the first black woman and person of Indian descent to be nominated on a major political party ticket in U.S. history, [accepted the (uncontested) nomination]( as Vice-Presidential candidate of the Democratic Party. “My mother taught me that service to others gives life purpose and meaning. And oh, how I wish she were here tonight, but I know she’s looking down on me from above. I keep thinking about that 25-year-old Indian woman — all of five feet tall — who gave birth to me at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland, California. On that day, she probably could have never imagined that I would be standing before you now speaking these words: I accept your nomination for Vice President of the United States of America,” Harris said in a televised address from Delaware during Day Three of the Democratic National Convention. In Brief: For the fourth year in a row, [Indore was ranked the cleanest city]( in the country by the Swachh Survekshan 2020 report, released by the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry on Thursday. The survey of sanitation in over 4,000 cities was carried out earlier this year over 28 days. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. Today's Top Picks [alt_text]( [Gmail services being restored, expect resolution for all users in near future: Google]( [alt_text]( [Watch | Unique idols for Ganesh Chaturthi]( [alt_text]( [Escaping the Coronavirus bogey with some Lockdown boogie]( [alt_text]( [After floods, infection scare from domestic animals in Kaziranga]( You are receiving this email because you are a user of [thehindu.com]( If you do not wish to receive any such emails, [unsubscribe here.](mailto:rm-0b405r90bf2f90kauhrxfebysa8hkad@newsalert.thehindu.com?subject=Unsubscribe&body=You will be unsubscribed from our mailing list.) 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