The Evening Wrap: Sharad Pawar claims he is still NCP chief

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar asserted on Thursday that he is the chief of the party. Sharad Pawar was addressing the media following his party’s working committee meeting. On the question of age, he said, “82 or 92, I shall continue to do my work.” On Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s claim of majority, he said, “The facts will be known well in time.” On Ajit Pawar being chosen on June 30 as President, Sharad Pawar said, “Anyone can say anything. There is no truth in this.” Briefing the media here, “We will go to the election commission and if need be, we will take a legal recourse too, but I don’t think we will need to do that,” he added. “I will concede. I didn’t realise how efficient the central agencies are,” said Sharad Pawar, to a question on whether he didn’t know about this rebellion. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday met Sharad Pawar at the NCP president’s residence in an apparent show of support to the veteran leader amid a rebellion in his party. Soon after Sharad Pawar addressed the media, Gandhi reached 6, Janpath, the official residence of the NCP veteran. Ajit Pawar joined the Shiv Sena-BJP Government on July 2 as Deputy Chief Minister while eight other NCP MLAs took oath as Ministers. The NCP has 53 MLAs in the 288-member Assembly. Madhya Pradesh CM Chouhan washes feet of urination incident victim, apologises to him Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on July 6 washed the feet of a tribal youth, on whom a man had urinated, to express sorrow over the incident and apologised to him. Chouhan said he was saddened by the incident, as he washed the feet of the youth, Dashmat Rawat, while sitting on the floor at the CM’s residence in Bhopal. He called the youth “Sudama” and said, “Dashmat, you are now my friend.” Chouhan also discussed various issues with him on the occasion, especially to know whether benefits of different welfare schemes were reaching him, an official said. Earlier, the CM and the tribal man together planted a sapling at the Smart City Park in Bhopal. Police on July 5 arrested Pravesh Shukla, who is accused of urinating on the tribal man in Sidhi district. Action under the stringent National Security Act (NSA) was also initiated, an official earlier said. A video of the incident went viral on social media platforms on July 4, following which the police registered a case against him. Opposition MPs walk out of Parliamentary panel for not debating Manipur Congress and Trinamool Congress members walked out of a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) on Home after their demand to deliberate on the ethnic strife in Manipur was denied by the panel Chairperson and BJP MP Brij Lal. “We stand against such an evasion of responsibility to discuss an issue of national importance and therefore choosing to walk out of the meeting,” three MPs — Trinamool Congress’ Derek O’Brien and Congress members Digvijay Singh and Pradip Bhattacharya — said in a joint letter submitted on Thursday before walking out of the meeting. Last month, both TMC MP Derek O’ Brien and Congress MP Digvijay Singh had written letters to Lal, asking him to convene a meeting on Manipur, which was rejected. Responding to their request, Lal said that the agenda for the meetings scheduled in July had already been fixed and no new issue could be taken. In Thursday’s meeting, prison reforms in Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were taken up. Manipur, the protesting MPs said, is in serious crisis. “Having been a senior police officer yourself, you understand the gravity of the situation. Manipur needs healing and an end to the violence. We as elected representatives cannot look away,” the letter stated. Ethnic violence broke out in Manipur on May 3, and according to some estimates, 140 persons have died in the strife. No matter how laudable the new IT Rules are, if the effect is unconstitutional, it must go, says Bombay Hight Court The Bombay High Court on Thursday said that no matter how laudable or high the motives are while framing the new Information Technology (IT) Rules, if the effect of a rule or law is unconstitutional then it must go. A division bench of justices Gautam Patel and Neela Gokhale was hearing a bunch of petitions filed by political satirist Kunal Kamra, the Editors Guild of India and the Association of Indian Magazine and regional channels challenging the constitutional validity of the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2023. The new Rules require social media intermediaries to censor or otherwise modify content that relates to the Central government if a government-mandated fact checking unit (FCU) directs them to do so. On April 21, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had said it will not notify the FCU till July 10. On Thursday, senior advocate Navroz Seervai appearing for Kamra said, “The government is essentially saying it is my way or the highway. The government is saying that it will ensure that social media covers only what the government wants and what it (government) terms as the truth and ensure that everything else is censured.” He said all citizens have the right to freedom of speech and expression and the Rules are discriminatory in nature and violate fundamental rights. The court then said, “No matter how laudable or high the motives are, if the effect is unconstitutional then it has to go.” The bench noted, “When the intermediaries are not concerned with the content then they would just comply with the direction from the government. This is why no intermediary company has filed a petition against the Rules.” The court said, “As we are approaching 2024, people will say things in campaign trail. Suppose an online person questions the statements made in campaign trail by political spokesperson, calls it out and if FCU says remove it, how can it do that? Is that the business of the government? Let’s say online magazine calls out political entity, the FCU does nothing. But if there is direction of government to take it down, then you lose safe harbour. Can a site hosting this lose safe harbour if the govt’s FCU flags it as false, and they refuse to remove it?” The hearing will continue July 8. Supreme Court agrees to hear Delhi Government’s challenge to ordinance on July 10 Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud on July 6 told the Delhi Government that the Supreme Court will list on July 10 the Aam Aadmi Party regime’s petition seeking to quash a Central ordinance which puts the Lieutenant Governor back in the driver’s seat by allowing him to exercise control over civil servants in the national capital. Senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, for the Delhi Government, mentioned the plea for urgent listing. The CJI referred to the Delhi Government’s separate challenge against the appointment of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) chairperson, posted on July 11 for hearing. Singhvi said this was a separate challenge against the entirety of the ordinance. The Arvind Kejriwal Government has argued that the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023 was promulgated within just eight days of the Supreme Court’s May 11 verdict in favour of the authority of Delhi Government to make laws and administer civil services in the national capital. The May 11 judgment of a Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice Chandrachud had limited the role of the Lieutenant Governor (L-G), an arm of the Centre, over bureaucrats in the capital to three specific areas — public order, police and land. “The ordinance has now wrested control over civil servants serving in Delhi from the Government of NCT of Delhi to the unelected Lieutenant Governor… It has done so without seeking to amend the Constitution, in particular Article 239AA, which holds that the power and control over services should be vested in the elected government,” the Delhi Government, also represented by advocate Shadan Farasat, has submitted. The government said the ordinance upends the Constitution Bench judgment without “altering its basis”, that is, explaining why the court’s decision to give the authority over services to the elected government was wrong in law. The petition challenges provisions in the ordinance which mandates the formation of a “permanent” National Capital Civil Service Authority (NCCSA) with the Chief Minister, as chairperson, and the Chief Secretary and Principal Home Secretary as Member and Member Secretary, respectively. “The Authority [NCCSA] is designed in such a way that the head of the elected government, the Chief Minister of Delhi, presides over his own minority. The two bureaucrats can outvote him, hold meetings, make recommendations in his absence… the ordinance shows contempt for the elected Assembly and government while making a pretence of their involvement through the Chief Minister,” the petition has contended. LG’s move to stop specialists’ engagement will throttle government’s work: Delhi CM Kejriwal Stopping the engagement of specialists and advisors will “completely strangulate” the Delhi government and its services, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on July 6, hoping the move will be quashed by the Supreme Court. Kejriwal’s remarks came days after Lt Governor V.K. Saxena approved the termination of engagements of 400 specialists working with the Delhi government. In a follow-up to the mass removal, the services department on July 5 wrote to different departments and agencies of government to stop the engagement of persons as fellows and advisors without the approval of the LG. “This will completely strangulate Delhi’s government and its services. I don’t know what does Hon’ble LG achieve by doing all this? I hope Hon’ble SC immediately quashes it,” Kejriwal said in a tweet on July 6. Saxena terminated the services of around 400 ‘specialists’ appointed by the Kejriwal government in different departments, citing alleged irregularities in recruitment. “... All the departments/organizations/boards, etc. under Govt. of NCT of Delhi are therefore directed... All the departments shall immediately stop engagements of all the Fellows/Associate, Fellows/Advisors/Dy. Advisors/Specialists/Senior Research Officers/Consultants, by whatever name, wherein approval of the Hon’ble Lt Governor, Delhi has not been obtained till date,” said the Services department order. It also asked the Finance Department not to release salaries henceforth for those engaged without the LG’s approval. In Brief: Posters inciting violence against Indian diplomats unacceptable: MEA Days after posters inciting violence against Indian diplomats surfaced in Canada and a few other countries, India on Thursday said such activities are not at all acceptable. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi also said that space must not be given to extremist and terrorist elements in the name of freedom of expression. At a media briefing, he also asserted that the safety of Indian diplomats and the country’s missions is of utmost importance for the government. Chandrayaan-3 launch scheduled for July 14 at 2.35 p.m. India’s much-awaited moon mission Chandrayaan-3 has been scheduled for launch on July 14 at 2.35 p.m. IST from SDSC, Sriharikota, the ISRO has announced. This is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface. The propulsion module will carry the lander and rover configuration till 100 km lunar orbit. It has a Spectro-Polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth payload to study the spectral and polarimetric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit. ISRO will attempt a soft-landing on the Moon on August 23 or August 24 this year, ISRO Chairman Somanath S said. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 06 July 2023 [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]( I’m NCP chief, asserts Sharad Pawar [Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar asserted on Thursday that he is the chief of the party](. Sharad Pawar was addressing the media following his party’s working committee meeting. On the question of age, he said, “82 or 92, I shall continue to do my work.” On Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s claim of majority, he said, “The facts will be known well in time.” On Ajit Pawar being chosen on June 30 as President, Sharad Pawar said, “Anyone can say anything. There is no truth in this.” Briefing the media here, “We will go to the election commission and if need be, we will take a legal recourse too, but I don’t think we will need to do that,” he added. “I will concede. I didn’t realise how efficient the central agencies are,” said Sharad Pawar, to a question on whether he didn’t know about this rebellion. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday met Sharad Pawar at the NCP president’s residence in an apparent show of support to the veteran leader amid a rebellion in his party. Soon after Sharad Pawar addressed the media, Gandhi reached 6, Janpath, the official residence of the NCP veteran. Ajit Pawar joined the Shiv Sena-BJP Government on July 2 as Deputy Chief Minister while eight other NCP MLAs took oath as Ministers. The NCP has 53 MLAs in the 288-member Assembly. Madhya Pradesh CM Chouhan washes feet of urination incident victim, apologises to him [Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on July 6 washed the feet of a tribal youth, on whom a man had urinated, to express sorrow over the incident and apologised to him](. Chouhan said he was saddened by the incident, as he washed the feet of the youth, Dashmat Rawat, while sitting on the floor at the CM’s residence in Bhopal. He called the youth “Sudama” and said, “Dashmat, you are now my friend.” Chouhan also discussed various issues with him on the occasion, especially to know whether benefits of different welfare schemes were reaching him, an official said. Earlier, the CM and the tribal man together planted a sapling at the Smart City Park in Bhopal. Police on July 5 arrested Pravesh Shukla, who is accused of urinating on the tribal man in Sidhi district. Action under the stringent National Security Act (NSA) was also initiated, an official earlier said. A video of the incident went viral on social media platforms on July 4, following which the police registered a case against him. Opposition MPs walk out of Parliamentary panel for not debating Manipur [Congress and Trinamool Congress members walked out of a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) on Home after their demand to deliberate on the ethnic strife in Manipur was denied]( by the panel Chairperson and BJP MP Brij Lal. “We stand against such an evasion of responsibility to discuss an issue of national importance and therefore choosing to walk out of the meeting,” three MPs — Trinamool Congress’ Derek O’Brien and Congress members Digvijay Singh and Pradip Bhattacharya — said in a joint letter submitted on Thursday before walking out of the meeting. Last month, both TMC MP Derek O’ Brien and Congress MP Digvijay Singh had written letters to Lal, asking him to convene a meeting on Manipur, which was rejected. Responding to their request, Lal said that the agenda for the meetings scheduled in July had already been fixed and no new issue could be taken. In Thursday’s meeting, prison reforms in Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were taken up. Manipur, the protesting MPs said, is in serious crisis. “Having been a senior police officer yourself, you understand the gravity of the situation. Manipur needs healing and an end to the violence. We as elected representatives cannot look away,” the letter stated. Ethnic violence broke out in Manipur on May 3, and according to some estimates, 140 persons have died in the strife. No matter how laudable the new IT Rules are, if the effect is unconstitutional, it must go, says Bombay Hight Court [The Bombay High Court on Thursday said that no matter how laudable or high the motives are while framing the new Information Technology (IT) Rules, if the effect of a rule or law is unconstitutional then it must go](. A division bench of justices Gautam Patel and Neela Gokhale was hearing a bunch of petitions filed by political satirist Kunal Kamra, the Editors Guild of India and the Association of Indian Magazine and regional channels challenging the constitutional validity of the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2023. The new Rules require social media intermediaries to censor or otherwise modify content that relates to the Central government if a government-mandated fact checking unit (FCU) directs them to do so. On April 21, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had said it will not notify the FCU till July 10. On Thursday, senior advocate Navroz Seervai appearing for Kamra said, “The government is essentially saying it is my way or the highway. The government is saying that it will ensure that social media covers only what the government wants and what it (government) terms as the truth and ensure that everything else is censured.” He said all citizens have the right to freedom of speech and expression and the Rules are discriminatory in nature and violate fundamental rights. The court then said, “No matter how laudable or high the motives are, if the effect is unconstitutional then it has to go.” The bench noted, “When the intermediaries are not concerned with the content then they would just comply with the direction from the government. This is why no intermediary company has filed a petition against the Rules.” The court said, “As we are approaching 2024, people will say things in campaign trail. Suppose an online person questions the statements made in campaign trail by political spokesperson, calls it out and if FCU says remove it, how can it do that? Is that the business of the government? Let’s say online magazine calls out political entity, the FCU does nothing. But if there is direction of government to take it down, then you lose safe harbour. Can a site hosting this lose safe harbour if the govt’s FCU flags it as false, and they refuse to remove it?” The hearing will continue July 8. Supreme Court agrees to hear Delhi Government’s challenge to ordinance on July 10 Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud on July 6 told the Delhi Government that the [Supreme Court will list on July 10 the Aam Aadmi Party regime’s petition seeking to quash a Central ordinance]( which puts the Lieutenant Governor back in the driver’s seat by allowing him to exercise control over civil servants in the national capital. Senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, for the Delhi Government, mentioned the plea for urgent listing. The CJI referred to the Delhi Government’s separate challenge against the appointment of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) chairperson, posted on July 11 for hearing. Singhvi said this was a separate challenge against the entirety of the ordinance. The Arvind Kejriwal Government has argued that the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023 was promulgated within just eight days of the Supreme Court’s May 11 verdict in favour of the authority of Delhi Government to make laws and administer civil services in the national capital. The May 11 judgment of a Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice Chandrachud had limited the role of the Lieutenant Governor (L-G), an arm of the Centre, over bureaucrats in the capital to three specific areas — public order, police and land. “The ordinance has now wrested control over civil servants serving in Delhi from the Government of NCT of Delhi to the unelected Lieutenant Governor… It has done so without seeking to amend the Constitution, in particular Article 239AA, which holds that the power and control over services should be vested in the elected government,” the Delhi Government, also represented by advocate Shadan Farasat, has submitted. The government said the ordinance upends the Constitution Bench judgment without “altering its basis”, that is, explaining why the court’s decision to give the authority over services to the elected government was wrong in law. The petition challenges provisions in the ordinance which mandates the formation of a “permanent” National Capital Civil Service Authority (NCCSA) with the Chief Minister, as chairperson, and the Chief Secretary and Principal Home Secretary as Member and Member Secretary, respectively. “The Authority [NCCSA] is designed in such a way that the head of the elected government, the Chief Minister of Delhi, presides over his own minority. The two bureaucrats can outvote him, hold meetings, make recommendations in his absence… the ordinance shows contempt for the elected Assembly and government while making a pretence of their involvement through the Chief Minister,” the petition has contended. LG’s move to stop specialists’ engagement will throttle government’s work: Delhi CM Kejriwal [Stopping the engagement of specialists and advisors will “completely strangulate” the Delhi government and its services, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said]( on July 6, hoping the move will be quashed by the Supreme Court. Kejriwal’s remarks came days after Lt Governor V.K. Saxena approved the termination of engagements of 400 specialists working with the Delhi government. In a follow-up to the mass removal, the services department on July 5 wrote to different departments and agencies of government to stop the engagement of persons as fellows and advisors without the approval of the LG. “This will completely strangulate Delhi’s government and its services. I don’t know what does Hon’ble LG achieve by doing all this? I hope Hon’ble SC immediately quashes it,” Kejriwal said in a tweet on July 6. Saxena terminated the services of around 400 ‘specialists’ appointed by the Kejriwal government in different departments, citing alleged irregularities in recruitment. “... All the departments/organizations/boards, etc. under Govt. of NCT of Delhi are therefore directed... All the departments shall immediately stop engagements of all the Fellows/Associate, Fellows/Advisors/Dy. Advisors/Specialists/Senior Research Officers/Consultants, by whatever name, wherein approval of the Hon’ble Lt Governor, Delhi has not been obtained till date,” said the Services department order. It also asked the Finance Department not to release salaries henceforth for those engaged without the LG’s approval. In Brief: Posters inciting violence against Indian diplomats unacceptable: MEA [Days after posters inciting violence against Indian diplomats surfaced in Canada and a few other countries, India on Thursday said such activities are not at all acceptable](. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi also said that space must not be given to extremist and terrorist elements in the name of freedom of expression. At a media briefing, he also asserted that the safety of Indian diplomats and the country’s missions is of utmost importance for the government. Chandrayaan-3 launch scheduled for July 14 at 2.35 p.m. [India’s much-awaited moon mission Chandrayaan-3 has been scheduled for launch on July 14]( at 2.35 p.m. IST from SDSC, Sriharikota, the ISRO has announced. This is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface. The propulsion module will carry the lander and rover configuration till 100 km lunar orbit. It has a Spectro-Polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth payload to study the spectral and polarimetric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit. ISRO will attempt a soft-landing on the Moon on August 23 or August 24 this year, ISRO Chairman Somanath S said. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [Sign up for free]( Today’s Top Picks [[Supreme Court asks UGC what action taken against caste discrimination in campuses] Supreme Court asks UGC what action taken against caste discrimination in campuses]( [[Inside office cubicles | Work-mind Balance podcast Ep 1] Inside office cubicles | Work-mind Balance podcast Ep 1]( [[Why are Indian highways so unsafe? | In Focus podcast] Why are Indian highways so unsafe? | In Focus podcast]( [[Data | Zero Muslim MPs in many States with over ten per cent Muslim population] Data | Zero Muslim MPs in many States with over ten per cent Muslim population]( Copyright @ 2023, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. If you are facing any trouble in viewing this newsletter, please [try here]( Manage your newsletter subscription preferences [here]( If you do not wish to receive such emails [go here](