Morning Brief: Tough Action Vowed After Jawans Attacked; BJP Wins Big; US Drops ‘Mother Of All Bombs’

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Tough Action Vowed After Jawans Assaulted In Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Police on Thursday registered an first information report (FIR) on a complaint filed by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) over a video clip showing some youths beating its jawans during by-poll to the Srinagar parliamentary constituency on 9 April. Taking strong exception to the assault of CRPF jawans by Kashmiri locals, the central government promised stern action. The CRPF, meanwhile, said that it will strongly deal with the assaulters.

BJP Wins Big In By-Polls: Fresh from a massive victory in the recently-held assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday won the assembly by-polls in Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Rajasthan. Congress won two assembly seats in Karnataka, while one assembly seat from West Bengal was won by the Trinamool Congress. Besides the Srinagar parliamentary seat, by-elections were held in 10 Assembly constituencies in seven states on Sunday. Voter turnout for Srinagar was an unprecedented 2 per cent.

India To Build Fuel Pipelines To Bangladesh: In a significant step to boost energy co-operation, India will build pipelines to carry diesel and natural gas to Bangladesh. Oil Secretary K D Tripathi on Thursday said the pipelines are part of a non-binding framework of understanding which India will enter into with Bangladesh for cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector. While a 131-km pipeline will be laid from Siliguri in West Bengal to Parbatipur in northern Bangladesh to transport diesel, a line from Dattapulia in West Bengal will take natural gas to Khulna, the third-largest city of Bangladesh.

Modi: Women Can Now Retain Maiden Names On Passports: Asserting that women are at the centre of the government developmental schemes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that they are free to retain their maiden names in their passports now after the marriage. Modi said his government is working in different ways to empower them through various schemes like Mudra and Ujjwala, among others. Lijjat Papad and Amul are the shining examples of what our women can do if empowered, the prime minister pointed out.

Grace Marks Policy On Its Way Out? The concept of grace marks for students may become a thing of the past. The Human Resource Development Ministry has called a meeting of all state school boards on 24 April to build consensus on a proposal to scrap the policy of marks moderation or grace marks. The meeting was called after the Central Board of Secondary Education urged the government last December to consult all state boards on the issue, as unilateral scrapping by only CBSE would puts its students at a disadvantage during admission to universities.

Non-Bailable Warrant Out For Zakir Naik: A non-bailable warrant against televangelist and founder of Islamic Research Foundation Zakir Naik was issued by a special court on Thursday. The order comes after a plea was filed by the Enforcement Directorate, which had claimed that Naik’s absence was a ‘hindrance’ to the investigation and that he had been ‘non-cooperative’. Special Judge P R Bhavake observed that for thorough investigation in such offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the presence of the accused is necessary.

China Option Open, Says Naga Army Chief: Insurgent group National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak Muivah (NSCN-IM) on Thursday accused the Union government of delaying the final settlement to the decades-old Naga issue. It also claimed that “the China option” was open for the outfit. Naga Army chief Phunting Shimrang alleged that the centre was trying to “humiliate” the Nagas by delaying the settlement. “It is only after we went to China that India woke up. Will India wake up only if the Naga army starts doing that again?” Shimrang said. He also dismissed the suggestion that the Naga problem is India’s “internal issue”.

Corruption Complaints See Significant Jump: The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has revealed that there has been a significant increase in corruption complaints received against various government departments. The probity watchdog received a total of 49,847 complaints in 2016, as against 29,838 received by it in 2015 – an increase of about 67 per cent, said the CVC. It also said that the highest of 11,200 such complaints were against railway employees. Of these 8,852 were disposed and 2,348 were pending. The complaints received by the CVC in 2015 were 50 per cent less than a total of 62,363 received by it in 2014.

US Drops ‘Mother Of All Bombs’ In Afghanistan: The United States dropped "the mother of all bombs," the largest non-nuclear device it has ever unleashed in combat, on a network of caves and tunnels used by Islamic State in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, the military said. The 21,600 pound GBU-43 bomb was dropped from a MC-130 aircraft in the Achin district of Nangarhar province, close to the border with Pakistan, Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump said. President Donald Trump described the bombing as a "very successful mission”. It was not immediately clear how much damage the device did.

MUST READ OP-EDS

Farmers Need Freedom: Agriculture needs a new intellectual paradigm that empowers farmers to cope with the inevitable long periods of demand supply mismatch by freeing them to maximise profits in the good years. Farmers don’t need subsidies, they need capital. For that, price is the best fertiliser.

Executive Decisions Are Not For Judges: The judiciary has the right to check the overreach of the executive and the legislature, but there is no such check on the judiciary. The Supreme Court ban on the sale of liquor is an example of judicial overreach. Such policies are unambiguously in the domain of the executive.

Delhi’s Inefficient Electricity Subsidies: Subsidising any consumption through end-user prices creates distortions. Instead of a fixed threshold, a progressive system with phase-out would encourage more energy saving and benefit the poor.

Transition To Indian Accounting Standards: The Final Lap Begins: While there is a lot to look forward to for various stakeholders, it’s ultimately the spirit with which the standards are applied by companies that will determine whether the IndAS transition has been successful in meetings its objectives.

SWARAJYA SPECIAL

Mamata Impeding Better Indo-Bangla Ties With Her Intransigence Over Teesta Water-Sharing: India has an ally in Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka. What is troublesome is that Mamata Banerjee may just make sure that come 2019, the Bangladesh Prime Minister is no longer in power.

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