The Evening Wrap: Farmers enter Delhi

The Hindu Newsletter - Here are the latest updates and the big news stories to follow today [The Hindu Logo]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Youtube]( [Linkedin]( [Instagram]( Friday 27, November 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. Farmers enter Delhi after braving tear gas, water cannons Despite heavy security deployment, groups of farmers from Punjab managed to reach near two Delhi borders on Friday morning after breaking police barricades in Haryana as part of their protest march against the Centre’s farm laws. Delhi Police eventually [gave them permission to enter the national capital and hold “peaceful protests”]( in the Nirankari Ground in Burari area of the city. All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee leader Kiran Kumar Vissa termed it a “historic day” and said they are prepared to stay and protest until the government repeals the farm laws. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the farmers agitation and said no government in the world can stop the farmers fighting the “battle of truth”. “No government in the world can stop the farmers who are fighting the battle of truth,” the former Congress chief said. “The Modi government will have to agree to the demands of the farmers and take back the black laws. This is just the beginning!” he tweeted, with the hashtag ‘IamWithFarmers’. Meanwhile, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar requested the farmers to end their protest, promising talks next week. “The government has always been ready to discuss issues with farmers. We have invited farmers’ organisations for another round of talks on December 3. I appeal to them to drop the agitation in view of Covid-19 and winter,” Tomar told news agency ANI. Delhi govt denies permission to use stadiums as makeshift jails to hold agitating farmers The Delhi government, on Friday, denied permission to use stadiums in the Capital as temporary jails as sought by Delhi Police earlier in the day. In a statement, said to have been signed by Delhi Home Minister Satyendra Jain, the Delhi government denied permission to the Delhi Police saying that the agitating farmers have a Constitutional right to peacefully protest. “The demands of farmers are justified. The Central government should listen to the demands of the farmers. Sending them to jails is not an option,” the statement said. Earlier in the day, Delhi Police had sought the permission of the Arvind Kejriwal government to use eight stadiums in the city as temporary jails to accommodate farmers in case they need to be arrested eventually. Indian economy contracts by 7.5% in Q2, in ‘technical recession’ India’s [GDP contracted 7.5% in the second quarter of 2020-21](, following the record 23.9% decline recorded in the first quarter, as per estimates released by the National Statistical Office on Friday. The country has now entered a technical recession with two successive quarters of negative growth, which was preceded by seven quarters of declining growth. However, the economy’s contraction in the July to September period, during which lockdown restrictions were eased, is better than most projections of around 10% dip, and better than the 8.6% decline estimated by the RBI. Agriculture, which was the only sector to record growth between April and June this year, grew at the same pace of 3.4% in the second quarter, while manufacturing gross value-added (GVA) staged a sharp recovery to record 0.6% growth between July and September after collapsing by 39.3% in the first quarter. [ ] Electricity, gas, water supply and other utility services also recorded 4.4% growth in the second quarter, recovering from a 7% contraction in Q1. But it remained a bleak quarter for several sectors, including mining, retail trade, hotels, construction, and financial services. “We should be cautiously optimistic as the economic impact is primarily due to the pandemic and the sustainability of the recovery depends critically on the spread of the pandemic. The government remains ready to come up with calibrated responses,” said Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian, stressing that there was no room for either exuberance or pessimism at this point. ‘Liberty is not a gift for the few, says SC in order extending Arnab Goswami’s interim bail The Supreme Court on Friday [gave a clarion call to judges to protect personal liberty and the right of ordinary people to bail](, saying “liberty is not a gift for the few”. Common citizens without the means or resources to move the High Courts or the Supreme Court were languishing in jails as undertrials, the Supreme Court reminded. “Deprivation of liberty even for a single day is one day too many,” a Bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra declared in a 55-page order pronounced on Friday. [Supporters of Republic TV Editor-In-Chief Arnab Goswami celebrate after the Supreme Court granted him interim bail in the 2018 abetment to suicide case, at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020. ]Supporters of Republic TV Editor-In-Chief Arnab Goswami celebrate after the Supreme Court granted him interim bail in the 2018 abetment to suicide case, at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020. “It is through the instrumentality of bail that our criminal justice system’s primordial interest in preserving the presumption of innocence finds its most eloquent expression. The remedy of bail is the solemn expression of the humaneness of the justice system,” Justice Chandrachud, who wrote the judgment, observed. The State should not be allowed to use criminal law as a ruse to harass citizens, he cautioned. The judgment said, “Liberty survives by the vigilance of her citizens, on the cacophony of the media, and in the dusty corridors of courts alive to the rule of [and not by] law. Yet, much too often, liberty is a casualty when one of these components is found wanting”. Courts were the “first line of defence” against the deprivation of citizens’ personal liberty. But reality, Justice Chandrachud pointed out, showed that undertrials remained behind bars while their bail applications were lobbed from one rung of courts to another. To buttress this point, Justice Chandrachud highlighted that 91,568 bail pleas were pending in High Courts, while 1.96 lakh bail applications continued to wait for a hearing in the district courts. Mehbooba Mufti placed under house arrest, says daughter Iltija Mufti, daughter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti, on Friday said [her mother has been placed under house arrest]( in Srinagar. “My mother is not being allowed to see the family of party leader Waheed Parra in south Kashmir’s Pulwama,” she said. Parra was arrested two days ago by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a militancy-related case. “Is this what you call democracy where you don’t have any right to exercise your freedom of speech and expression? You are being threatened and intimidated for raising voice about anything,” she said. [Policewomen patrol outside the residence of PDP president and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba in Srinagar on November 27, 2020. ]Policewomen patrol outside the residence of PDP president and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba in Srinagar on November 27, 2020. Mehbooba Mufti had written two letters to the police department in the past two days and sought permission to visit Pulwama. “Why is it that puppets and proxies can travel the length and breadth of Kashmir yet we can’t visit and express solidarity with a party worker’s family?” Iltija asked. There has been no statement by the authorities on whether Mehbooba Mufti has been detained or not. Hetero Biopharma signs deal with Russia to make Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V in India The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), promoters of the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine candidate, has [entered into a deal with Hyderabad-based Hetero Biopharma for the manufacture of 100 million doses]( annually. [Sputnik V, the vaccine for COVID-19 developed by Russia]Sputnik V, the vaccine for COVID-19 developed by Russia The vaccine has shown an “interim efficacy” of 91.4% in its ongoing phase-3 trials. Human trials are already scheduled in India with Dr. Reddy’s, as per a previous agreement between the companies. The RDIF said it planned to start producing the vaccine in the beginning of 2021. Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The [number of coronavirus cases reported from India]( stood at 93,23,588 at the time of writing this newsletter, with the death toll at 1,35,984. Amid the race for a vaccine, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting three pharmaceutical plants to review the Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing process. The Prime Minister’s Office tweeted: “Tomorrow, PM @narendramodi will embark on a 3-city visit to personally review the vaccine development & manufacturing process. He will visit the Zydus Biotech Park in Ahmedabad, Bharat Biotech in Hyderabad & Serum Institute of India in Pune. “As India enters a decisive phase of the fight against Covid-19, PM @narendramodi’s visit to these facilities & discussions with the scientists will help him get a first hand perspective of the preparations, challenges & roadmap in India’s endeavour to vaccinate its citizens.” In Brief: In what could be an indication of severance of his ties with the Trinamool Congress, West Bengal Transport Minister [Suvendu Adhikari on Friday resigned from the Cabinet]( led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Adhikari also holds the portfolio of Irrigation. He has sent his resignation both to the Chief Minister and the Governor. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. 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