The Evening Wrap: Supreme Court to hear plea on Haridwar hate speech tomorrow

A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana is scheduled on Wednesday (January 12) to urgently hear a petition seeking the arrest and trial of people who made hate speeches, inciting violence towards Muslims, at the Haridwar Dharm Sansad. The other judges on the Bench are Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli. The CJI had on Monday assured senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing in the petition, that the court would list the case quickly. “The hate speeches consisted of open calls for genocide of Muslims in order to achieve ethnic cleansing. The speeches are not mere hate speeches but amount to an open call for murder of an entire community. The speeches thus pose a grave threat not just to the unity and integrity of our country but also endanger the lives of millions of Muslim citizens,” the petitioners, former High Court judge Anjana Prakash and journalist Qurban Ali, had highlighted in the apex court. “We are living in different times where slogans in the country have changed from Satyamev Jayate to Shashtramev Jayate,” Sibal had submitted in court during the oral mentioning on Monday. The senior lawyer had said no investigation or arrests have been made despite the registration of FIRs. Video footage raises suspicions of police being hand-in-glove with the orators of hate. The hate speeches were allegedly delivered between December 17 and 19, 2021, in Haridwar by Yati Narsinghanand and in Delhi by ‘Hindu Yuva Vahini’. The petition has sought an independent, credible and impartial probe by a special investigation team into the hate speeches against the Muslim community. The petitioners said “despite the passage of almost three weeks no effective steps have been taken by the police authorities, including non-application of Sections 120B, 121A and 153B of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 that squarely apply to hate speeches”. “The blatant inaction by the police also came into the forefront when a police officer’s video went viral on the internet, wherein one of speakers openly acknowledged the officer’s allegiance with the organisers and speakers of the Dharam Sansad... the police authorities are hand in glove with the perpetrators of communal hate,” the petitioners has argued. Uttar Pradesh Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya defends hate speech at Haridwar event Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya walked out of a BBC interview on Monday, annoyed at questions on the BJP government’s silence over hate speeches made at the Haridwar dharma sansad last month. Maurya also defended the right of the “dharmacharyas” to express their views from their own platform. As per a BBC report on the incident, Maurya asked his security personnel to delete the video of the interview and also pulled at reporter Anant Zanane’s COVID mask. The reporter’s question on why Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister of the State (Uttar Pradesh) remained silent after the statements inciting violence against Muslims were made from the stage of dharma sansad in Haridwar and wouldn’t the silence of the authorities further encourage the perpetrators, upset Maurya. Maurya said, “BJP does not need a certificate. We believe in developing sabka saath sabka vikas.” He also defended the right of the “dharmacharyas” (religious leaders) to express their views from their own platform. The Deputy CM then asked the reporter to talk about statements made by other religious leaders. He further said, “Why don’t you talk about how many people had to migrate from Jammu and Kashmir before [Article] 370 was removed? When you raise questions, then the questions should not be of one side only. The dharma sansad is not of the BJP, it belongs to the monks. What the monks say, what they don’t say in their meeting, is their subject.” When the reporter reminded Maurya that the accused Yati Narasimhanand is from Ghaziabad, Annapurna is from Aligarh, asking why action is not taken against the kind of atmosphere these people were creating, Maurya said, “Nobody tries to create an environment, what is the right thing, what is the wrong thing, what is appropriate in their platform, they would say.” He then turned on the reporter, accusing him of speaking like an “agent” and not as a journalist. In the video posted by the BBC Hindi, he is then seen removing his lapel mic. The BBC in its report said that once the camera was switched off, Maurya pulled the BBC reporter’s COVID mask and directed his security personnel to forcibly delete the video. “The cameraman managed to recover the deleted video — the video has been deleted from both the cameras, it was confirmed by the security personnel of KP Maurya, but the video could be recovered from the camera chip,” the BBC report says. The BBC report also said the news organisation has officially sent a complaint to the National President of the BJP, the State President of the BJP and the Chief Minister of U.P., expressing serious objection to this incident, but no response has been received so far. The Uttarakhand police has registered two FIRs with regard to the hate speech incident, naming five accused. It has also formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) with an Additional SP and a Deputy SP-level officer as members to investigate the speeches made at the Haridwar event on December 17-19. Swami Prasad Maurya resigns from Yogi Adityanath Cabinet, joins SP Uttar Pradesh Labour Minister and prominent OBC leader Swami Prasad Maurya has resigned from the Yogi Adityanath cabinet, just days after the Election Commission announced Assembly elections for the State. Maurya represents Padrauna in the State Assembly, while his daughter Sanghamitra is the BJP MP from Badaun. In his resignation letter to Governor Anandiben Patel, Maurya claimed that OBCs, Dalits, and youth were being neglected by the Uttar Pradesh government. He also said despite “all ideological differences” with the the BJP, he chose to work with the government. Soon after Maurya submitted his resignation letter, he was welcomed into the Samajwadi Party by party president Akhilesh Yadav but was yet to formally announce his membership of the SP. A decision on the party would be taken soon, he said. As many as four BJP leaders have recently switched to the SP — Radha Krishna Sharma, Madhuri Verma, Rakesh Rathore, and Shashank Tripathi. Income tax returns filing deadline for corporates extended till March 15 The government on Tuesday extended till March 15 the deadline for corporates to file Income Tax returns for the fiscal ended March 2021. The deadline to file tax audit report and transfer pricing audit report for 2020-21 fiscal too has been extended till February 15. This is the third extension given for filing the income tax return for the 2020-21 fiscal for corporates. The original deadline for filing ITR for corporates was October 31, and those with transfer pricing transactions was November 30. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) in a statement said that on consideration of difficulties reported by the taxpayers and other stakeholders due to COVID and in electronic filing of various reports of audit, it has decided to further extend the due dates for filing of Income Tax Returns and various reports of audit for the Assessment Year 2021-22 (2020-21 fiscal). In a first, U.S. surgeons transplant pig heart into human patient In a medical first, doctors transplanted a pig heart into a patient in a last-ditch effort to save his life, and the Maryland hospital said Monday that he’s doing well three days after the highly experimental surgery. While it’s too soon to know if the operation really will work, it marks a step in the decades-long quest to one day use animal organs for life-saving transplants. Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center say the transplant showed that a heart from a genetically modified animal can function in the human body without immediate rejection. The patient, David Bennett, a 57-year-old Maryland handyman, knew there was no guarantee the experiment would work but he was dying, ineligible for a human heart transplant and had no other option, his son told The Associated Press. “It was either die or do this transplant. I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice,” Bennett said a day before the surgery, according to a statement provided by the University of Maryland School of Medicine. On Monday, Bennett was breathing on his own while still connected to a heart-lung machine to help his new heart. The next few weeks will be critical as Bennett recovers from the surgery and doctors carefully monitor how his heart is faring. There’s a huge shortage of human organs donated for transplant, driving scientists to try to figure out how to use animal organs instead. Last year, there were just over 3,800 heart transplants in the U.S., a record number, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees the nation’s transplant system. “If this works, there will be an endless supply of these organs for patients who are suffering,” said Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin, scientific director of the Maryland university's animal-to-human transplant program. But prior attempts at such transplants — or xenotransplantation — have failed, largely because patients’ bodies rapidly rejected the animal organ. Notably, in 1984, Baby Fae, a dying infant, lived 21 days with a baboon heart. The difference this time: The Maryland surgeons used a heart from a pig that had undergone gene-editing to remove a sugar in its cells that’s responsible for that hyper-fast organ rejection. Several biotech companies are developing pig organs for human transplant; the one used for Friday's operation came from Revivicor, a subsidiary of United Therapeutics. “I think you can characterise it as a watershed event,” Dr. David Klassen, UNOS’ chief medical officer, said of the Maryland transplant. Still, Dr. Klassen cautioned that it’s only a first tentative step into exploring whether this time around, xenotransplantation might finally work. The Food and Drug Administration, which oversees such experiments, allowed the surgery under what’s called a “compassionate use” emergency authorization, available when a patient with a life-threatening condition has no other options. It will be crucial to share the data gathered from this transplant before extending it to more patients, said Karen Maschke, a research scholar at the Hastings Center, who is helping develop ethics and policy recommendations for the first clinical trials under a grant from the National Institutes of Health. “Rushing into animal-to-human transplants without this information would not be advisable,” Maschke said. Over the years, scientists have turned from primates to pigs, tinkering with their genes. Just last September, researchers in New York performed an experiment suggesting these kinds of pigs might offer promise for animal-to-human transplants. Doctors temporarily attached a pig’s kidney to a deceased human body and watched it begin to work. The Maryland transplant takes their experiment to the next level, said Dr. Robert Montgomery, who led that work at NYU Langone Health. “This is a truly remarkable breakthrough," he said in a statement. “As a heart transplant recipient myself with a genetic heart disorder, I am thrilled by this news and the hope it gives to my family and other patients who will eventually be saved by this breakthrough.” The surgery last Friday took seven hours at the Baltimore hospital. Dr. Bartley Griffith, who performed the surgery, said the patient’s condition — heart failure and an irregular heartbeat — made him ineligible for a human heart transplant or a heart pump. Dr. Griffith had transplanted pig hearts into about 50 baboons over five years, before offering the option to Bennett. “We’re learning a lot every day with this gentleman,” Dr. Griffith said. “And so far, we’re happy with our decision to move forward. And he is as well: Big smile on his face today.” Pig heart valves also have been used successfully for decades in humans, and Bennett’s son said his father had received one about a decade ago. As for the heart transplant, “He realises the magnitude of what was done and he really realizes the importance of it,” David Bennett Jr. said. “He could not live, or he could last a day, or he could last a couple of days. I mean, we’re in the unknown at this point.” Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 3,58,74,930 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 4,85,608. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 11 JANUARY 2022 [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]( Supreme Court to hear plea on Haridwar hate speech tomorrow A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana is scheduled on Wednesday (January 12) [to urgently hear a petition seeking the arrest and trial of people who made hate speeches]( inciting violence towards Muslims, at [the Haridwar Dharm Sansad](. The other judges on the Bench are Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli. The CJI had on Monday assured senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing in the petition, that the court would list the case quickly. “The hate speeches consisted of open calls for genocide of Muslims in order to achieve ethnic cleansing. The speeches are not mere hate speeches but amount to an open call for murder of an entire community. The speeches thus pose a grave threat not just to the unity and integrity of our country but also endanger the lives of millions of Muslim citizens,” the petitioners, former High Court judge Anjana Prakash and journalist Qurban Ali, had highlighted in the apex court. “We are living in different times where slogans in the country have changed from Satyamev Jayate to Shashtramev Jayate,” Sibal had submitted in court during the oral mentioning on Monday. The senior lawyer had said no investigation or arrests have been made despite the registration of FIRs. Video footage raises suspicions of police being hand-in-glove with the orators of hate. The hate speeches were allegedly delivered between December 17 and 19, 2021, in Haridwar by Yati Narsinghanand and in Delhi by ‘Hindu Yuva Vahini’. The petition has sought an independent, credible and impartial probe by a special investigation team into the hate speeches against the Muslim community. The petitioners said “despite the passage of almost three weeks no effective steps have been taken by the police authorities, including non-application of Sections 120B, 121A and 153B of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 that squarely apply to hate speeches”. “The blatant inaction by the police also came into the forefront when a police officer’s video went viral on the internet, wherein one of speakers openly acknowledged the officer’s allegiance with the organisers and speakers of the Dharam Sansad... the police authorities are hand in glove with the perpetrators of communal hate,” the petitioners has argued. [underlineimg] Uttar Pradesh Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya defends hate speech at Haridwar event Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya [walked out of a BBC interview]( on Monday, annoyed at questions on the BJP government’s silence over hate speeches made at the Haridwar dharma sansad last month. Maurya also defended the right of the “dharmacharyas” to express their views from their own platform. As per a BBC report on the incident, Maurya asked his security personnel to delete the video of the interview and also pulled at reporter Anant Zanane’s COVID mask. The reporter’s question on why Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister of the State (Uttar Pradesh) remained silent after the statements inciting violence against Muslims were made from the stage of dharma sansad in Haridwar and wouldn’t the silence of the authorities further encourage the perpetrators, upset Maurya. Maurya said, “BJP does not need a certificate. We believe in developing sabka saath sabka vikas.” He also defended the right of the “dharmacharyas” (religious leaders) to express their views from their own platform. The Deputy CM then asked the reporter to talk about statements made by other religious leaders. He further said, “Why don’t you talk about how many people had to migrate from Jammu and Kashmir before [Article] 370 was removed? When you raise questions, then the questions should not be of one side only. The dharma sansad is not of the BJP, it belongs to the monks. What the monks say, what they don’t say in their meeting, is their subject.” When the reporter reminded Maurya that the accused Yati Narasimhanand is from Ghaziabad, Annapurna is from Aligarh, asking why action is not taken against the kind of atmosphere these people were creating, Maurya said, “Nobody tries to create an environment, what is the right thing, what is the wrong thing, what is appropriate in their platform, they would say.” He then turned on the reporter, accusing him of speaking like an “agent” and not as a journalist. In the video posted by the BBC Hindi, he is then seen removing his lapel mic. The BBC in its report said that once the camera was switched off, Maurya pulled the BBC reporter’s COVID mask and directed his security personnel to forcibly delete the video. “The cameraman managed to recover the deleted video — the video has been deleted from both the cameras, it was confirmed by the security personnel of KP Maurya, but [the video]( could be recovered from the camera chip,” the BBC report says. The BBC report also said the news organisation has officially sent a complaint to the National President of the BJP, the State President of the BJP and the Chief Minister of U.P., expressing serious objection to this incident, but no response has been received so far. The Uttarakhand police has registered two FIRs with regard to the hate speech incident, naming five accused. It has also formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) with an Additional SP and a Deputy SP-level officer as members to investigate the speeches made at the Haridwar event on December 17-19. [underlineimg] Swami Prasad Maurya resigns from Yogi Adityanath Cabinet, joins SP Uttar Pradesh Labour Minister and prominent OBC leader [Swami Prasad Maurya has resigned from the Yogi Adityanath cabinet]( just days after the Election Commission announced Assembly elections for the State. [Swami Prasad Maurya at his residence in Lucknow on January 11, 2022 after resigning as Minister in the Yogi Adityanath Cabinet.]  Maurya represents Padrauna in the State Assembly, while his daughter Sanghamitra is the BJP MP from Badaun. In his resignation letter to Governor Anandiben Patel, Maurya claimed that OBCs, Dalits, and youth were being neglected by the Uttar Pradesh government. He also said despite “all ideological differences” with the the BJP, he chose to work with the government. Soon after Maurya submitted his resignation letter, he was welcomed into the Samajwadi Party by party president Akhilesh Yadav but was yet to formally announce his membership of the SP. A decision on the party would be taken soon, he said. As many as four BJP leaders have recently switched to the SP — Radha Krishna Sharma, Madhuri Verma, Rakesh Rathore, and Shashank Tripathi. [underlineimg] Income tax returns filing deadline for corporates extended till March 15 The government on Tuesday [extended till March 15 the deadline for corporates to file Income Tax returns]( for the fiscal ended March 2021. The deadline to file tax audit report and transfer pricing audit report for 2020-21 fiscal too has been extended till February 15. This is the third extension given for filing the income tax return for the 2020-21 fiscal for corporates. The original deadline for filing ITR for corporates was October 31, and those with transfer pricing transactions was November 30. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) in a statement said that on consideration of difficulties reported by the taxpayers and other stakeholders due to COVID and in electronic filing of various reports of audit, it has decided to further extend the due dates for filing of Income Tax Returns and various reports of audit for the Assessment Year 2021-22 (2020-21 fiscal). [underlineimg] In a first, U.S. surgeons transplant pig heart into human patient In a medical first, [doctors transplanted a pig heart into a patient]( in a last-ditch effort to save his life, and the Maryland hospital said Monday that he’s doing well three days after the highly experimental surgery. While it’s too soon to know if the operation really will work, it marks a step in the decades-long quest to one day use animal organs for life-saving transplants. Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center say the transplant showed that a heart from a genetically modified animal can function in the human body without immediate rejection. The patient, David Bennett, a 57-year-old Maryland handyman, knew there was no guarantee the experiment would work but he was dying, ineligible for a human heart transplant and had no other option, his son told The Associated Press. “It was either die or do this transplant. I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice,” Bennett said a day before the surgery, according to a statement provided by the University of Maryland School of Medicine. On Monday, Bennett was breathing on his own while still connected to a heart-lung machine to help his new heart. The next few weeks will be critical as Bennett recovers from the surgery and doctors carefully monitor how his heart is faring. There’s a huge shortage of human organs donated for transplant, driving scientists to try to figure out how to use animal organs instead. Last year, there were just over 3,800 heart transplants in the U.S., a record number, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees the nation’s transplant system. [This handout photo released by the University of Maryland School of Medicine on January 10, 2022 shows surgeons performing a transplant of a heart from a genetically modified pig to patient David Bennett, Sr., in Baltimore, Maryland, on January 7, 2022. Photo: University of Maryland School of Medicine via AFP]  “If this works, there will be an endless supply of these organs for patients who are suffering,” said Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin, scientific director of the Maryland university's animal-to-human transplant program. But prior attempts at such transplants — or xenotransplantation — have failed, largely because patients’ bodies rapidly rejected the animal organ. Notably, in 1984, Baby Fae, a dying infant, lived 21 days with a baboon heart. The difference this time: The Maryland surgeons used a heart from a pig that had undergone gene-editing to remove a sugar in its cells that’s responsible for that hyper-fast organ rejection. Several biotech companies are developing pig organs for human transplant; the one used for Friday's operation came from Revivicor, a subsidiary of United Therapeutics. “I think you can characterise it as a watershed event,” Dr. David Klassen, UNOS’ chief medical officer, said of the Maryland transplant. Still, Dr. Klassen cautioned that it’s only a first tentative step into exploring whether this time around, xenotransplantation might finally work. The Food and Drug Administration, which oversees such experiments, allowed the surgery under what’s called a “compassionate use” emergency authorization, available when a patient with a life-threatening condition has no other options. It will be crucial to share the data gathered from this transplant before extending it to more patients, said Karen Maschke, a research scholar at the Hastings Center, who is helping develop ethics and policy recommendations for the first clinical trials under a grant from the National Institutes of Health. “Rushing into animal-to-human transplants without this information would not be advisable,” Maschke said. Over the years, scientists have turned from primates to pigs, tinkering with their genes. Just last September, researchers in New York performed an experiment suggesting these kinds of pigs might offer promise for animal-to-human transplants. Doctors temporarily attached a pig’s kidney to a deceased human body and watched it begin to work. The Maryland transplant takes their experiment to the next level, said Dr. Robert Montgomery, who led that work at NYU Langone Health. “This is a truly remarkable breakthrough," he said in a statement. “As a heart transplant recipient myself with a genetic heart disorder, I am thrilled by this news and the hope it gives to my family and other patients who will eventually be saved by this breakthrough.” The surgery last Friday took seven hours at the Baltimore hospital. Dr. Bartley Griffith, who performed the surgery, said the patient’s condition — heart failure and an irregular heartbeat — made him ineligible for a human heart transplant or a heart pump. Dr. Griffith had transplanted pig hearts into about 50 baboons over five years, before offering the option to Bennett. “We’re learning a lot every day with this gentleman,” Dr. Griffith said. “And so far, we’re happy with our decision to move forward. And he is as well: Big smile on his face today.” Pig heart valves also have been used successfully for decades in humans, and Bennett’s son said his father had received one about a decade ago. As for the heart transplant, “He realises the magnitude of what was done and he really realizes the importance of it,” David Bennett Jr. said. “He could not live, or he could last a day, or he could last a couple of days. I mean, we’re in the unknown at this point.” [underlineimg] Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 3,58,74,930 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 4,85,608. 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