There will be consequences for countries looking to circumvent the US sanctions against Russia, the US warned even as Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in India on Thursday evening. Visiting US deputy NSA Daleep Singh, who is leading US efforts to sanction Russia, didn’t specify the consequences but said these were part of private discussions and the US would not like to see any country attempting to take advantage of the current situation.

Oil is the problem
Singh said the US had not set any red line for India to follow, as the latter seeks to buy oil from Russia at a discount, and that India’s current energy import from Russia didn’t violate any US sanction as there was an exemption for energy imports. Indian sources, while not naming the US, had said earlier this month that countries with oil self-sufficiency could not “credibly advocate” restrictive trading with Russia.

More criticism
The US commerce secretary and the Australian trade minister criticised India for considering a Russian proposal to buy oil that would undermine sanctions. “Now is the time to stand on the right side of history, and to stand with the US and dozens of other countries, and not funding and fuelling and aiding President Putin’s war,” commerce secretary Gina Raimondo said in Washington. Dan Tehan, Australia’s trade minister, said it was important for democracies to work together “to keep the rules-based approach that we’ve had since the second world war”.

British foreign secy comes calling
The Ukraine crisis figured prominently in talks between external affairs minister S Jaishankar and his visiting British counterpart Liz Truss on Thursday. “Foreign secretary Liz Truss is in India as part of a wider diplomatic push following Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine last month,” a British High Commission statement said. On Wednesday, German security and foreign policy adviser Jens Plotner had met with India officials.

Citing the improved security situation and fast-track development, the government has decided to reduce the number of areas under Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Nagaland, Assam and Manipur after several decades. The move came three months after the government constituted a committee to examine lifting AFSPA in Nagaland where 14 civilians were killed by the Army in December 2021 in a case of “mistaken identity”.

What goes
The disturbed area notification was in force in the whole of Assam since 1990. From April 1, it will be removed completely from 23 districts and partially from one district. Manipur (except Imphal municipality area) has been under disturbed area declaration since 2004. Now, 15 police station areas of six districts will be excluded. In Nagaland, the notification has been in force from 1995. It is being withdrawn from 15 police stations in seven districts.

Elsewhere in the north-east
In 2015, AFSPA was in force in three districts of Arunachal Pradesh, a 20-km belt of the state along the Assam border and in 16 police station areas in nine other districts. This has gradually reduced and the disturbed area notification is applicable in only three districts and in two police station areas in one other district. The notification under AFSPA was completely removed from Tripura in 2015 and Meghalaya in 2018.

What is AFSPA
The Act empowers security forces to conduct operations anywhere and arrest anyone without any prior warrant. Civil society groups and rights activists have been demanding withdrawal of the ‘draconian law’ from the north-east claiming violation of human rights by the armed forces. The AFSPA has been in force for decades in the three north-eastern states to assist the armed forces operating there to tackle insurgency.

Honourable mention
Manipuri activist Irom Chanu Sharmila fought against AFSPA by remaining on hunger strike for 16 years, before ending it on August 9 in 2016.

Slogans and sedition

• The Allahabad High Court granted bail to three Kashmiri students of an engineering college in Agra who were booked on charges of sedition for allegedly raising pro-Pakistan slogans after India lost to Pakistan in World T-20 match in October last year.

Verdict and words

• The court said: “the unity of India is not made of bamboo reeds which will bend to the passing winds of empty slogans”.
• In his order Justice Ajay Bhanot said, “The foundations of our nation are more enduring. Eternal ideals bind the indestructible unity of India. Constitutional values create an indissoluble union of India. Every citizen of the country is the custodian, and the state is the sentinel of the unity of India and the constitutional values of the nation.”
• The order also stated that students travelling freely to different parts of the country in the quest for knowledge is the true celebration of India’s diversity and a vivid manifestation of India’s unity. “It is the duty of the people of the hosting state to create enabling conditions for visiting scholars to learn and to live the constitutional values of our nation,” the order stated.

Law and lawyers

• The court also took exception to the decision of the Agra District Bar Association for not providing any legal assistance to the Kashmiri students and the assault on them in the district court premises.

Maharashtra

• All pandemic-related restrictions including the mandatory wearing of masks will be lifted in Maharashtra from April 2, the state government announced on Thursday. Health Minister Rajesh Tope said wearing masks would be voluntary. The US, UK and many countries in Europe have lifted restrictions related to mandatory masks, he said.

Delhi

• The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) decided on Thursday that there will be no fine now for not wearing face masks at public places because of a significant decline in the number of fresh Covid-19 cases. The DDMA is yet to issue an order in this regard.
• Currently, there is a fine of Rs 500 for not wearing masks at public places in Delhi.

And…

• The Centre had earlier advised the states and Union territories to consider discontinuing the Covid containment measures in view of a sharp decline in the number of fresh cases of the infection in the country.
• More states are likely to announce relaxation of similar measures in the coming days.

Sri Lanka is turning off street lights to save electricity as its worst economic crisis in decades brought more power cuts and halted trading on its main stock market. The island of 22 million people is struggling with rolling blackouts for up to 13 hours a day because the government does not have enough foreign exchange for fuel imports. The power cuts add to the pain of Sri Lankans already dealing with shortages of essentials and rocketing prices.

Inflation zooms
Retail inflation hit 18.7% in March over the same period a year ago while food inflation reached 30.2%, partly driven by a currency devaluation. “This is the worst level of inflation Sri Lanka has experienced in over a decade,” Dimantha Mathew, head of research at First Capital Research, told PTI.

Stocks tumble
The Colombo Stock Exchange cut daily trading to two hours from the usual four-and-a-half because of power cuts for the rest of this week at the request of brokers. But shares slid after the market opened on Thursday and the CSE halted trading for 30 minutes — the third time in two days — after an index tracking leading companies dropped by more than 5%.

Why is it so bad
The crisis is a result of badly-timed tax cuts and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic coupled with historically weak government finances, leading to foreign exchange reserves dropping by 70% in the last two years. Sri Lanka was left with reserves of $2.31 billion as of February, forcing the government to seek help from the International Monetary Fund and other countries, including India and China.

Saying that it was “of the opinion that there is no basis to treat Vanniyar as a separate group compared to others”, the Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday said the Tamil Nadu law granting 10.5% reservation in educational institutes and government jobs to the Vanniyar caste as “ultra vires Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution” and struck it down.

Why is it unconstitutional

• The apex court said that while “caste can be the basis of internal reservation, but it cannot be the sole basis” even though it recognised the state’s power to pass the Act.
• The SC ruling upheld the judgement by the Madras High Court which had said that “the enactment has been passed by the State without any quantifiable data on population, socio-educational status and representation of the backward classes in the services.”
• Moreover, the high court had noted that if the Vanniyars are granted 10.5% reservation out of the 20% reservation allotted for the Most Backward Classes (MBC), it would leave only 9.5% reservation for the remaining 115 MBCs.

Who are the Vanniyars

• Among the largest backward communities, the Vanniyars wielded significant political power in the 1940s and 1950s. They have been demanding 20% reservation in state and central services each, launching state-wide agitations in the mid-1980s.
• According to the first Tamil Nadu Backward Classes Commission report in 1970, the Vanniyars were largely concentrated in the northern districts of Chengalpattu, South Arcot, North Arcot, Salem, Dharmapuri, Trichirappalli and Thanjavur districts while their numbers were thin in the southern districts.

• Mounting dues: A report by Reuters, citing a letter internally circulated by Reliance Industries, says the company justified its stealth takeover of Future Retail stores on the night of February 25 due to pending dues of $634 million that Future Retail owed on account of the rentals for its stores.
• Helping hand: In the letter, Reliance says that the takeover was necessitated to keep Future “out of harm’s way” which is why it went “well and truly beyond what can be expected.” The Mukesh Ambani promoted company adds that since Future had missed several rent payments, it led to the unfolding of events on February 25 wherein Reliance staff physically took charge of Future retail outlets to not only ensure continuity of business operations but also “no impediment” to their deal.
• Money muscle: The “significant steps” that Reliance undertook included Rs 1,100 crore of unpaid rent and Rs 3,700 crore of working capital. Reliance, which had signed a $3.4 billion agreement with Future to take over its retail business — which is being contested by Amazon citing an existing business deal with Future — had over the past several months taken over the rental agreements of 900 of Future Retail’s 1,500 stores, whilst allowing the latter to operate them.

The verdict

• Two decades after 69 persons were killed at Gulbarg Society in Chamanpura area of Ahmedabad during post-Godhra riots, a 35-year-old man, who was a juvenile at the time of the incident, has been held guilty in the case and punished with community service.

The accused

• Mahesh (name changed) was part of the mammoth mob that attacked the Muslim colony on February 28, 2002, where 69 persons, including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, were killed. For the offences he has been held guilty, the court has ordered him to render community service for three months at the Civil Hospital. His parents have been ordered to pay a fine of Rs 15,000.
• Like others, Mahesh, too, was slapped with the charges of murder, rioting, arson and unlawful assembly. However, since he was 15, his case along with three other accused below 18 years was separated.

The case

• The Gulbarg Society massacre was one of nine cases, which were ordered to be probed by a special investigation team (SIT) by the Supreme Court in 2008. In 2016, a special court found 24 persons guilty and acquitted 36 others in the case of murder and rioting.
• Only 11 persons were found guilty of murder in this case, whereas 13 others got convicted for lesser offences like rioting, arson, unlawful assembly, loot, trespass etc. for which maximum punishment awarded was ten years. Out of 11 convicted for murder, the court had found five persons guilty of dragging, killing Jafri and burning his body.