The Evening Wrap: Govt likely to table cryptocurrency bill in winter session

The central government is likely to introduce a bill on cryptocurrencies during the winter session of Parliament beginning November 29, amid concerns over such currencies being allegedly used for luring investors with misleading claims and for funding terror activities, PTI reported. Currently, there are no particular regulations or any ban on use of crypto currencies in the country. Against this backdrop, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Saturday, held a meeting on crypto currencies with senior officials and indications are that strong regulatory steps could be taken to deal with the issue. According to sources, the proposed bill would focus on investor protection as crypto currencies come under a complex asset class category. Once cleared by the Union Cabinet, the government plans to introduce the bill on crypto currencies in the first week of the winter session. In August, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said she was awaiting an approval from the Cabinet on the crypto currency bill. Both the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have raised concerns about crypto currencies in recent months. The three-week long winter session is scheduled to be held from November 29 to December 23. On Monday, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance discussed the pros and cons of crypto finance with various stakeholders, and several members were in favour of regulating crypto currency exchanges rather than an outright ban on such currencies, according to sources. At the meeting convened by the prime minister on Saturday, it was strongly felt that attempts to mislead the youth through over-promising and non-transparent advertising of crypto currencies should be stopped. An inter-ministerial panel on crypto currency under the Chairmanship of Secretary (Economic Affairs) had recommended that all currencies except those issued by the state should be banned. Supreme Court refuses Trinamool plea to postpone Tripura civic polls The Supreme Court did not accede on Tuesday to a plea by the Trinamool Congress to postpone the conduct of municipal elections in Tripura, saying such step was a “last and extreme recourse”. A Bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Vikram Nath, however, directed the Director General Police of Tripura and Inspector General (Law and Order) to meet with the State Election Commission on November 24 to assess the number of CRPF required to “ensure the peaceful conduct of elections”. The officers should then requisition the CRPF or the Ministry of Home Affairs for the forces. Voting for civic body elections is scheduled on November 25. “The DGP and IGP shall take all steps to ensure that election process is conducted in a peaceful manner, particularly on November 25, leading up to the counting of ballots on November 28,” the court directed. The court said that while “we are not inclined to accede to the prayer for postponement of elections”, it would be the duty of the DGP, IGP and the Home Secretary to assuage any misgivings about fairness in the electoral process in Tripura. Noting that the law enforcement agencies in the State have to act in an “even-handed, non-partisan manner”, the court cautioned the DGP to scrupulously abide by the court’s directions to obviate the need for it to take “coercive action”. The court directed the State to provide a tabulated statement of the complaints lodged, FIRs registered, action taken, arrests made, to be filed along with a compliance affidavit on November 25, the next day of hearing of the case. During the hearing, the Trinamool Congress accused the State and the police of being mute spectators while goons roamed the street, indulging in wanton violence against its candidates. The party, represented by senior advocate Jaideep Gupta, produced photographs in court allegedly of “severe violence” meted out by helmeted men even as the “police look here and there”. Gupta said there have been instances of ransacking, a journalist was beaten up and political workers are being “driven out”. “All this would have a direct effect on the workers... Please give orders to bump up security, then grant a week for campaigning without fear of violence. This would not cause a significant change in the democratic process. Campaigning itself has not been possible. Voters’ confidence is low,” Gupta submitted. The Tripura government, represented by senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, said the petition by Trinamool Congress is a “politically contrived” one, filed in the Supreme Court on the eve of the elections. “How many arrests have you made,” Justice Chandrachud asked the government even as Trinamool said the “only arrests made so far is of my party members”. Jethmalani said “appropriate legal action” has been taken against 88 “trouble mongers”. “What do you mean by ‘appropriate legal action’? Have you made any arrests,” Justice Chandrachud quizzed. Jethmalani said, “no arrests have been made for scuffles”. He referred to a Supreme Court judgment which dissuaded arrest if the offence attracted a punishment less than five years’ imprisonment. He said 10 FIRs have been registered on incidents which were “minor skirmishes” between members of the Trinamool and BJP, the ruling party in the State. He said two out of three battalions of CRPF stationed in Tripura were already deployed to protect the elections. “The problem is with their performance, which is abysmal. They have been standing around as violence goes on,” Gupta said, pointing to the photographs. Jethmalani countered that these photographs did not have any probative value of evidence. Gupta then referred to a statement from the State police chief which said more could be re-deployed from other parts of the State by “thinning-out” existing deployment in the State or from Jammu and Kashmir. Kirti Azad, Ashok Tanwar, Pavan Varma join Trinamool Congress West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday welcomed former BJP MP Kirti Azad and former Congress leader Ashok Tanwar, along with former JD(U) MP Pavan Varma, into the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Delhi. Since its victory in the West Bengal Assembly elections, for the third consecutive time, trumping the BJP, the TMC is keen to occupy the national stage. Tanwar, once considered close to senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, was an MP from Sirsa during 2009-2014 and also the president of the party’s Haryana unit. He quit the Congress days before the Haryana Assembly elections in October 2019 after he was replaced by Kumari Selja and denied a ticket for the Assembly elections. In February this year he launched his own party, Apna Bharat Morcha. Banerjee said the TMC would start working soon in Haryana and hinted that the party could even contest the next Assembly elections in the State. “The TMC family is complete. Ashok Tanwar is not alone. I have told him to begin work and he will visit both Kolkata and Goa. He will go to Haryana and travel the State. We have to all work together,” Banerjee told reporters. Azad, who briefly worked with the Congress, too joined the TMC. A member of the 1983 cricket World Cup-winning squad, Azad was suspended from the BJP for openly targeting the then Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley over alleged irregularities and corruption in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) in December 2015. He joined the Congress in February 2019 just ahead of the general elections. The Congress fielded him from the Darbhanga Lok Sabha constituency which the party has won thrice, but he lost the election to the BJP candidate. “I will work under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee. Will start working on the field. The BJP’s politics is divisive and we will fight it. Today a personality like her is needed in the country who can show the country the right direction,” Azad said. Varma, a former adviser to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, was expelled from the ruling JD(U) in 2020. He was an MP till July 2016. He was also the national general secretary and spokesperson of the JD(U). “Looking at the current political circumstances and the potential in Mamata Banerjee, I have today joined the TMC,” said Varma. Banerjee is in the capital for a four-day visit. She will be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday. Banerjee expressed her gratitude to all the leaders who joined the TMC. “I am thankful to you all for supporting me in this fight to defeat the BJP,” she said. Jayalalithaa death, treatment must be probed in ‘eminent public interest’ The Tamil Nadu Government in the Supreme Court on Tuesday described former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa as “undoubtedly one of the tallest leaders” of the State whose 75-day treatment, and finally death, at the Apollo Hospitals in Chennai need to be inquired into in “eminent public interest”. Appearing before a Bench of Justices S. Abdul Nazeer and Krishna Murari, senior advocate Dushyant Dave, for the State, said “all the Government wants is an inquiry”. The State narrated a series of events “which showed the seriousness of her death”. “Her estate was burgled within days. A guard there was murdered. Another person’s wife and daughter were killed. A third person manning the computer died… All this shows the seriousness of her death,” Dave submitted. He said the investigation into these cases was on. The State was replying to a petition filed by the Apollo Hospitals alleging bias on the part of the Government-appointed Justice A. Arumughaswamy Commission of Inquiry into the former Chief Minister’s death. During the hearing, the court asked whether the Commission can be reconstituted. To this, Dave referred to precedents of the apex court which held that the Executive, once it has constituted a Commission of Inquiry, cannot interfere in its functioning or usurp its powers. He said the Commission was merely a “fact-finding body”. Its report would be purely recommendatory in nature. “No prejudice would be caused to anybody,” he noted. The proceedings before the Commission were stayed by the Supreme Court in April 2019 on the basis of a plea by Apollo Hospitals that the inquiry panel’s functioning was “replete with bias”. Apollo Hospitals submitted that the Commission, instead of conducting an impartial probe, had filed a pleading alleging “criminal intent” on the part of the hospital and its doctors. Complaint lodged against director and producers of Suriya-starrer Jai Bhim in Chidambaram court Vanniyar Sangam president, Pu. Tha. Arulmozhi, on Tuesday lodged a private complaint before the Judicial Magistrate II in Chidambaram against the producers and director of the acclaimed film Jai Bhim and Amazon.in, which released the movie on its OTT platform. The complaint accused 2D Entertainment Private Limited, producers Suriya and Jyothika, director T.J. Gnanavel and Amazon.in of distorting facts and portraying the Vanniyar community in bad light in the movie, with a view to creating communal disharmony. Arulmozhi claimed the filmmakers had “wantonly, willfully and intentionally” portrayed the character of the Sub-Inspector of Police, who is guilty of committing custodial death in the film, as belonging to the Vanniyar community. “The symbolic representations in various sequences in the movie Jai Bhim is per se defamatory and intentional act and targeted to defame and cause greater disrepute to the community,” the complaint alleged. Arulmozhi claimed that writer Kanmani Gunasekaran, who helped in providing local language words for the movie, had said that facts were suppressed and the Vanniyar community was defamed. Gunasekaran had returned his remuneration of ₹50,000 to the producers 2D Entertainment Private Limited. The plea sought a direction for initiating action against Suriya, Jyothika, Gnanavel and Amazon under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and sections 499, 500, 503, 504 and 505. Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 3,45,27,263 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 4,66,159. Meanwhile in Europe, Slovakia’s leaders have proposed a national lockdown as the country’s hospitals were hitting their limits amid a record surge of coronavirus infections. Inspired by neighboring Austria, the Slovak government is set to discuss a lockdown for all — vaccinated and unvaccinated alike — at its session on Wednesday. Prime Minister Eduard Heger said it is necessary to act “immediately.” His four-party coalition government was mulling a two or three-week lockdown. `Slovakia reported 9,171 new virus cases on Friday, surpassing the previous record of 8,342 set only a few days earlier. At 45.3%, Slovakia’s vaccination rate is one of the lowest in the EU, well below the 27-nation bloc’s average of 65.5%. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 23 NOVEMBER 2021 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Govt likely to table cryptocurrency bill in winter session of Parliament The [central government is likely to introduce a bill on cryptocurrencies]( during the winter session of Parliament beginning November 29, amid concerns over such currencies being allegedly used for luring investors with misleading claims and for funding terror activities, PTI reported. Currently, there are no particular regulations or any ban on use of crypto currencies in the country. Against this backdrop, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Saturday, held a meeting on crypto currencies with senior officials and indications are that strong regulatory steps could be taken to deal with the issue. According to sources, the proposed bill would focus on investor protection as crypto currencies come under a complex asset class category. Once cleared by the Union Cabinet, the government plans to introduce the bill on crypto currencies in the first week of the winter session. In August, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said she was awaiting an approval from the Cabinet on the crypto currency bill. Both the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have raised concerns about crypto currencies in recent months. The three-week long winter session is scheduled to be held from November 29 to December 23. On Monday, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance discussed the pros and cons of crypto finance with various stakeholders, and several members were in favour of regulating crypto currency exchanges rather than an outright ban on such currencies, according to sources. [Photo used for representation purpose only. File]  At the meeting convened by the prime minister on Saturday, it was strongly felt that attempts to mislead the youth through over-promising and non-transparent advertising of crypto currencies should be stopped. An inter-ministerial panel on crypto currency under the Chairmanship of Secretary (Economic Affairs) had recommended that all currencies except those issued by the state should be banned. [underlineimg] Supreme Court refuses Trinamool plea to postpone Tripura civic polls The [Supreme Court did not accede on Tuesday to a plea by the Trinamool Congress]( to postpone the conduct of municipal elections in Tripura, saying such step was a “last and extreme recourse”. A Bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Vikram Nath, however, directed the Director General Police of Tripura and Inspector General (Law and Order) to meet with the State Election Commission on November 24 to assess the number of CRPF required to “ensure the peaceful conduct of elections”. The officers should then requisition the CRPF or the Ministry of Home Affairs for the forces. Voting for civic body elections is scheduled on November 25.  “The DGP and IGP shall take all steps to ensure that election process is conducted in a peaceful manner, particularly on November 25, leading up to the counting of ballots on November 28,” the court directed. The court said that while “we are not inclined to accede to the prayer for postponement of elections”, it would be the duty of the DGP, IGP and the Home Secretary to assuage any misgivings about fairness in the electoral process in Tripura. Noting that the law enforcement agencies in the State have to act in an “even-handed, non-partisan manner”, the court cautioned the DGP to scrupulously abide by the court’s directions to obviate the need for it to take “coercive action”. The court directed the State to provide a tabulated statement of the complaints lodged, FIRs registered, action taken, arrests made, to be filed along with a compliance affidavit on November 25, the next day of hearing of the case. During the hearing, the Trinamool Congress accused the State and the police of being mute spectators while goons roamed the street, indulging in wanton violence against its candidates. The party, represented by senior advocate Jaideep Gupta, produced photographs in court allegedly of “severe violence” meted out by helmeted men even as the “police look here and there”. Gupta said there have been instances of ransacking, a journalist was beaten up and political workers are being “driven out”. “All this would have a direct effect on the workers... Please give orders to bump up security, then grant a week for campaigning without fear of violence. This would not cause a significant change in the democratic process. Campaigning itself has not been possible. Voters’ confidence is low,” Gupta submitted. The Tripura government, represented by senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, said the petition by Trinamool Congress is a “politically contrived” one, filed in the Supreme Court on the eve of the elections. “How many arrests have you made,” Justice Chandrachud asked the government even as Trinamool said the “only arrests made so far is of my party members”. Jethmalani said “appropriate legal action” has been taken against 88 “trouble mongers”. “What do you mean by ‘appropriate legal action’? Have you made any arrests,” Justice Chandrachud quizzed. Jethmalani said, “no arrests have been made for scuffles”. He referred to a Supreme Court judgment which dissuaded arrest if the offence attracted a punishment less than five years’ imprisonment. He said 10 FIRs have been registered on incidents which were “minor skirmishes” between members of the Trinamool and BJP, the ruling party in the State. He said two out of three battalions of CRPF stationed in Tripura were already deployed to protect the elections. “The problem is with their performance, which is abysmal. They have been standing around as violence goes on,” Gupta said, pointing to the photographs. Jethmalani countered that these photographs did not have any probative value of evidence. Gupta then referred to a statement from the State police chief which said more could be re-deployed from other parts of the State by “thinning-out” existing deployment in the State or from Jammu and Kashmir. [underlineimg] Kirti Azad, Ashok Tanwar, Pavan Varma join Trinamool Congress West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday [welcomed former BJP MP Kirti Azad and former Congress leader Ashok Tanwar, along with former JD(U) MP Pavan Varma]( into the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Delhi. Since its victory in the West Bengal Assembly elections, for the third consecutive time, trumping the BJP, the TMC is keen to occupy the national stage. Tanwar, once considered close to senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, was an MP from Sirsa during 2009-2014 and also the president of the party’s Haryana unit. He quit the Congress days before the Haryana Assembly elections in October 2019 after he was replaced by Kumari Selja and denied a ticket for the Assembly elections. In February this year he launched his own party, Apna Bharat Morcha. Banerjee said the TMC would start working soon in Haryana and hinted that the party could even contest the next Assembly elections in the State. “The TMC family is complete. Ashok Tanwar is not alone. I have told him to begin work and he will visit both Kolkata and Goa. He will go to Haryana and travel the State. We have to all work together,” Banerjee told reporters. Azad, who briefly worked with the Congress, too joined the TMC. A member of the 1983 cricket World Cup-winning squad, Azad was suspended from the BJP for openly targeting the then Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley over alleged irregularities and corruption in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) in December 2015. He joined the Congress in February 2019 just ahead of the general elections. The Congress fielded him from the Darbhanga Lok Sabha constituency which the party has won thrice, but he lost the election to the BJP candidate. “I will work under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee. Will start working on the field. The BJP’s politics is divisive and we will fight it. Today a personality like her is needed in the country who can show the country the right direction,” Azad said. Varma, a former adviser to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, was expelled from the ruling JD(U) in 2020. He was an MP till July 2016. He was also the national general secretary and spokesperson of the JD(U). “Looking at the current political circumstances and the potential in Mamata Banerjee, I have today joined the TMC,” said Varma. Banerjee is in the capital for a four-day visit. She will be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday. Banerjee expressed her gratitude to all the leaders who joined the TMC. “I am thankful to you all for supporting me in this fight to defeat the BJP,” she said. [underlineimg] Jayalalithaa death, treatment must be probed in ‘eminent public interest’ The Tamil Nadu Government in the Supreme Court on Tuesday described former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa as “undoubtedly one of the tallest leaders” of the State whose [75-day treatment, and finally death, at the Apollo Hospitals in Chennai need to be inquired into in “eminent public interest”](. Appearing before a Bench of Justices S. Abdul Nazeer and Krishna Murari, senior advocate Dushyant Dave, for the State, said “all the Government wants is an inquiry”. The State narrated a series of events “which showed the seriousness of her death”. “Her estate was burgled within days. A guard there was murdered. Another person’s wife and daughter were killed. A third person manning the computer died… All this shows the seriousness of her death,” Dave submitted. He said the investigation into these cases was on. The State was replying to a petition filed by the Apollo Hospitals alleging bias on the part of the Government-appointed Justice A. Arumughaswamy Commission of Inquiry into the former Chief Minister’s death. During the hearing, the court asked whether the Commission can be reconstituted. To this, Dave referred to precedents of the apex court which held that the Executive, once it has constituted a Commission of Inquiry, cannot interfere in its functioning or usurp its powers. He said the Commission was merely a “fact-finding body”. Its report would be purely recommendatory in nature. “No prejudice would be caused to anybody,” he noted. The proceedings before the Commission were stayed by the Supreme Court in April 2019 on the basis of a plea by Apollo Hospitals that the inquiry panel’s functioning was “replete with bias”. Apollo Hospitals submitted that the Commission, instead of conducting an impartial probe, had filed a pleading alleging “criminal intent” on the part of the hospital and its doctors. [underlineimg] Complaint lodged against director and producers of Suriya-starrer Jai Bhim in Chidambaram court Vanniyar Sangam president, Pu. Tha. Arulmozhi, on Tuesday lodged a private complaint before the Judicial Magistrate II in Chidambaram [against the producers and director of the acclaimed film Jai Bhim and Amazon.in]( which released the movie on its OTT platform. The complaint accused 2D Entertainment Private Limited, producers Suriya and Jyothika, director T.J. Gnanavel and Amazon.in of distorting facts and portraying the Vanniyar community in bad light in the movie, with a view to creating communal disharmony. Arulmozhi claimed the filmmakers had “wantonly, willfully and intentionally” portrayed the character of the Sub-Inspector of Police, who is guilty of committing custodial death in the film, as belonging to the Vanniyar community. “The symbolic representations in various sequences in the movie Jai Bhim is per se defamatory and intentional act and targeted to defame and cause greater disrepute to the community,” the complaint alleged. [A poster of the film Jai Bhim]  Arulmozhi claimed that writer Kanmani Gunasekaran, who helped in providing local language words for the movie, had said that facts were suppressed and the Vanniyar community was defamed. Gunasekaran had returned his remuneration of ₹50,000 to the producers 2D Entertainment Private Limited. The plea sought a direction for initiating action against Suriya, Jyothika, Gnanavel and Amazon under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and sections 499, 500, 503, 504 and 505. [underlineimg] Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The [number of reported coronavirus cases from India]( stood at 3,45,27,263 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 4,66,159.  Meanwhile in Europe, Slovakia’s leaders have [proposed a national lockdown]( the country’s hospitals were hitting their limits amid a record surge of coronavirus infections. Inspired by neighboring Austria, the Slovak government is set to discuss a lockdown for all — vaccinated and unvaccinated alike — at its session on Wednesday. Prime Minister Eduard Heger said it is necessary to act “immediately.” His four-party coalition government was mulling a two or three-week lockdown. `Slovakia reported 9,171 new virus cases on Friday, surpassing the previous record of 8,342 set only a few days earlier. At 45.3%, Slovakia’s vaccination rate is one of the lowest in the EU, well below the 27-nation bloc’s average of 65.5%. 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