Ahmedabad, February 10

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered status quo on the dismantling of decommissioned aircraft carrier ‘Viraat’, but a Gujarat-based ship-breaker who has purchased it said it is now too late for any restoration effort.

Over 40 per cent of the dismantling work has been completed so far, said Mukesh Patel, Chairman of Shree Ram Group based at Alang in Bhavnagar district which bought the ship at an auction in July last year for Rs 38.54 crore.

The firm began the dismantling at its ship-breaking yard at Alang in December 2020, and now it is impossible to reassemble the parts that have been cut, he said.

“Over 40 per cent of dismantling work is complete. We have already pulled the ship towards the shore and also dismantled some portions of the hull, making it impossible for the ship to remain afloat now,” said Patel, after learning about the SC order from the media.

“I have not received any notice yet from the court.

But it is already too late for the ship to be used for any other purpose. Our legal team would submit a reply if a notice is served to us,” he said.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered status quo on the dismantling of ‘Viraat’ which was in service with the Indian Navy for nearly three decades.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde issued notice to the Centre and others seeking response on a plea filed by a firm which seeks preservation of the ship as a museum.

The centaur-class aircraft carrier, INS Viraat, was in service with the Indian Navy for 29 years before being decommissioned in March 2017.

The Centre had in July 2019 informed Parliament that the decision to scrap Viraat was taken after due consultation with the Indian Navy. — PTI

Tribune News Service
Sonepat, February 10

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha on Wednesday decided to intensify the farmers’ movement.

The farmers will observe ‘rail roko’ (rail blockade) on February 18 for four hours from 12 pm to 4 pm across India.

Vinayak Padmadeo
Tribune News Service
Ghazipur, February 10

Mata Savitribai Phule Mahasabha (MSPM) tent is attracting a lot of attention from the crowd in Ghazipur.

Over 30 children, mostly rag pickers and children of guards from the nearby colonies and a few from farming families sitting in protest are making a big ruckus as they repeat numbers and alphabets in chorus.

The noise quotient is bringing a number of curious onlookers to the tent.

The Savitribai Phule Pathshala has been running at the Ghazipur protest site since January 22.

The pupils — their numbers fluctuate from 30 to 60 daily — started off with a great difficulty as the Andolan Committee weren’t keen on having a school at a protest site.

The indifference notwithstanding, the school is not only prospering, it is bringing a lot of change in the lifestyle of these young students in terms of their keenness to learn and also towards their personal hygiene.

“Initially we couldn’t see the colours on their clothes. They were all covered in dirt,” said Nirdhesh Singh, who runs the school along with three other teachers.

“Now they have all started to work towards cleanliness and personal hygiene. Nowadays they troop in well before the start of the school,” Singh, who had to initially lure these children with candies and other treats to bring them anywhere near a white board, said.

“Madam I haven’t got my notebook yet. You have to give me two books as well,” Shabbo, who is seven, asked Limdevi Maurya, who took the class on Tuesday.

Karthik, 10, whose father is a guard in the nearby Gaursons apartment, was in attendance.

Kunal Pradhan, 8, a student of Balvidya Public School, said, “Sir mera school lockdown se band hai, isliye aata hun (my school is shut since lockdown that’s why I come).”

Young Jamshed, whose father Jawaid is a rickshaw puller, has been a regular attendant.

“Bahut accha lagta hai (It feels really good),” he says.

Nirdhesh, who is also the national president of MSPM, said the organisation works for the poor and downtrodden in Uttar Pradesh and when they joined the protest only then this idea of running a school came about.

“We run a campaign for de-addiction and suggest to take up education to prosper,” she explained.

“Nobody is bothered about the lifestyle of poor. So it was important for us to show these children that they are also a part of our society. And that’s how this school came into being,” she added.

Besides pupils, the school has also started to attract attention of teachers like Limdevi, who has travelled all the way to the protest site from Bastar, Chhattisgarh.

“I came here yesterday,” Maurya said.

“Today was my first day. I enjoyed it thoroughly. And it helped that these children already know the numbers and alphabets,” she added.

New Delhi, February 10

Union Minister and former Army chief General VK Singh (Retd) on Wednesday said his statement on transgressions by the Indian troops on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) was distorted that gave China a platform to try and “cover their own aggressive tracks”.

Singh’s comment about Indian troops crossing the LAC had sparked a war of words between the two countries prompting Beijing to blame New Delhi for the military tension at the borders.

The minister also lashed out at the newspaper ‘The Indian Express’ for carrying out a sustained campaign against him.

“For almost a decade, ever since I was the COAS, the Indian Express has launched a sustained campaign against me. A misinformation campaign that sometimes bordered on the bizarre, as was the case with the now infamous coup story, have repeatedly hit the headlines,” he said.

Singh was referring to a news article carried by the daily on April 4, 2012 titled ‘The January night Raisina Hill was spooked: Two key Army units moved towards Delhi without notifying Govt’.

Clarifying his remarks in Madurai on Sunday, the minister said he was purported to have said “India has been transgressing the LAC with China, five times to everyone ingress of theirs”.

“This distortion could not be further from the truth. I had simply stated the established fact that the borders along the LAC have not been demarcated and until that is done there will always be differing perceptions,” Singh tweeted.

The minister also added that the fact is that the People’s Republic of China has refused to settle the border as part of the bullying tactics they have adopted.

He said that Indian side is aware of these tactics and any aggression will be responded to with equal or greater level as was the case in Galwan.

Singh pointed out that in the race to create sensational headlines, newspaper editors must verify what was said and what is reported.

“The distortion of my statement/reply has needlessly given the Chinese a platform to try and cover their own aggressive tracks and shift the blame on India,” he said.

In Tamil Nadu’s Madurai on February 7, Singh, while addressing the media at a Circuit House, had said that China has transgressed into India many times over the years with its own perception of the LAC.

“But none of you come to know how many times we have transgressed, as per our perception. The Indian government does not announce it, while the Chinese media does not cover it,” he said.

“Let me assure you, if China has transgressed 10 times, we must have done it at least 50 times,” Singh claimed.

China reacted to Singh’s statement and its foreign ministry called it “an unwitting confession”.

According to the statement published on the Chinese foreign ministry’s website on February 8, spokesperson Wang Wenbin reacted to Singh’s statement and blamed India for the ongoing border conflict along the LAC in eastern Ladakh.

“This is unwitting confession by the Indian side. For a long time, the Indian side has conducted frequent acts of trespass in the border area in an attempt to encroach on China’s territory and constantly created disputes and frictions which is the root cause of the tensions at the China-India border,” said the Chinese foreign ministry. — IANS

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, February 8

With the focus of the farmers’ movement shifting from Punjab to the Jat hinterland, the Singhu protest site on the Delhi border, so far dominated by Sikh farmers, has donned a secular colour.

The morning starts with the recitation of Gurbani from the stage, followed by Hanuman Chalisa and other religious hymns.

Farmer leaders say the sudden increase in participation of Haryana farmers has further secularised the movement. “Now, it has gone much beyond any communal agenda.

It is now difficult for the state to label this movement a ‘Khalistani struggle’,” says one of the leaders of the 32 farmer organisations spearheading the agitation.

Earlier, farmer leaders were opposing the idea of any religious activity from the official stage at Singhu. In December, even a detailed discussion took place during a meeting of the farmer organisations on ways to save the movement from becoming a “show of one particular religion”.

Apart from exchange of religious values, a mix of cultures is taking place at the protest site. This is the first time a large number of women and children from Haryana are participating at the Singhu border.

“This is something that has never been seen before,” says a lawyer from Punjab and Haryana High Court who returned from Singhu on Sunday.

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 8

The induction ceremony of the first batch of five Rafale jets at the IAF base in Ambala cost the exchequer a little over of Rs 41 lakh, including Rs 9.18 lakh GST, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said in the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

Pak mischief now just limited to border

The Army has limited Pakistan’s mischief to just the border, giving a befitting reply to their misadventures. No praise is enough for the actions taken by the Army, BSF and other security forces in containing Pak-sponsored terrorist activities. — Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister

In ’20, 46 killed in 5,133 ceasefire violations

• Rajnath said there were 5,133 incidents of ceasefire violation by Pakistan last year in which 46 security personnel were killed
• He said 299 incidents of ceasefire violation were reported till January 28 this year and ‘appropriate retaliation’ was carried out

“The first five Rafale aircraft were formally inducted into the IAF on September 10. The arrangements for this event were made mostly through local resources of the IAF. The total expenditure on the event was Rs 41.32 lakh, including Rs 9.18 lakh of GST,” he added.

The Defence Minister said traditionally all-new variant of aircraft were inducted into the IAF through a grand ceremony. The Rafale induction ceremony was attended by the French Defence Minister and top executives of the French aerospace major Dassault Aviation, the manufacturer of Rafale.

The second batch of three Rafale jets arrived in India on November 3, while the third batch of three more jets joined the IAF on January 27. The Rafale are India’s first major acquisition of fighter planes in 23 years after the Sukhoi jets were purchased from Russia.

The first squadron of the Rafale jets is stationed at the Ambala airbase, while the second one will be based at the Hasimara IAF station in West Bengal. India signed an inter-governmental agreement with France in 2016 to procure 36 Rafale fighters at a cost of Rs 59,000 crore.

“India will have 17 Rafale jets by March this year and the entire fleet of the fighter aircraft bought by the country will reach by April 2022,” the Defence Minister added.

New Delhi, February 8

Farmer unions agitating against the three agri laws on Monday asked the government to fix a date for the next round of talks, soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged them to end their stir and invited them to resume the dialogue.

They, however, objected to Prime Minister Modi’s remarks in Rajya Sabha that a new “breed” of agitators called “andolan jivi” has emerged in the country, and said that agitation has an important role in a democracy.

Modi appeals to agitators to give farm laws a chance

Farmer leader Shiv Kumar Kakka, who is a senior member of the Samkyukta Kisan Morcha which is spearheading the ongoing stir, said they are ready for the next round of talks and the government should tell them the date and time of the meeting.

“We have never refused to hold talks with the government. Whenever it has called us for dialogue, we held discussions with Union ministers. We are ready for talks with them (government),” Kakka told PTI.

Centre complicating issue, says Rakesh Tikait on PM Modi’s statement on MSP

Eleven rounds of talks have been held over the contentious farm laws but the impasse continues as the farmer unions remain firm on their demands—the repeal of the three laws and legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP).

In the last round of talks, the government had offered to suspend the laws for 12-18 months, but the farmer unions rejected it.

Thousands of agitating farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at three Delhi border points — Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur — for over 70 days.

Read also: Modi appeals to agitators to give farm laws a chance

Centre complicating issue, says Rakesh Tikait on PM Modi’s statement on MSP

To weed out right-wingers, volunteers screen farmers living in Ghazipur tents

While replying in Rajya Sabha on Monday to a debate on the President’s address, PM Modi assured the farmers that Mandis will be modernised, saying “Not just this, MSP was there, it is there and will remain.”

“We urge those sitting on the agitation that even though it is their right to agitate, the way the old people are sitting there, is not right.

“They (agitators) should be taken back. They should end the agitation and we will together find a solution as all doors are open for dialogue. From this House, I again invite them for dialogue,” Modi said while appealing to farmers to end their agitation.

Farmer leader Abhimanyu Kohar, who is also a member of Samkyukta Kisan Morcha, said the government has already said “hundreds of times” that the MSP will not go anywhere and it will remain in place.

“If the government is claiming that MSP will remain, why doesn’t it provide a legal guarantee on the minimum support price for our crops,” Kohar told PTI.

He said the farmer unions are ready to resume talks with the government, but there should be a formal invitation.

“Any issue can be resolved through proper dialogue. We are ready in-principle to resume talks,” the farmer leader.

In his speech, Modi slammed the mushrooming of a new breed of ‘andolan-jivi’—professional protestors—who are seen at every agitation. These “parasites feast on every agitation,” he said.

“Agitation has an important role in democracy. People have a right to oppose the government’s wrong policies,” Kakka said, referring to the remarks by the prime minister.

Sukhdev Singh, Punjab general secretary of BKU Ekta-Ugrahan, sought to know why the government is not ensuring a legal guarantee on MSP for crops and alleged that it is trying to divert the issue.

Farmer leader Baldev Singh also said government should repeal these farm laws and provide a legal guarantee on MSP for farmers’ crops.

Earlier in the day, farmer leader Rakesh Tikait said business over hunger will not be allowed in the country.

To press their demands, protesting unions held a nationwide ‘chakka jam’ last week, during which national and state highways were blocked in Punjab, Haryana and other parts of the country. PTI