• Goa again: Eight MLAs led by Michael Lobo, who was earlier removed as the Leader of Opposition, joined the ruling BJP on Wednesday. The Congress had 11 MLAs before defection. It’s a repeat of the previous assembly, in which the Congress had 17 MLAs but by the time it went to the 2022 polls, it had lost 13 of them.
• Amid Bharat Jodo Yatra: The Goa shocker has come to the Congress when Rahul Gandhi is leading a padyatra to strengthen the party, attempting to build a narrative to challenge the Modi government in the 2024 election.
• The trigger: The story began in July when the Congress removed Lobo as the LoP and accused him of hobnobbing with the BJP. Two months later, Lobo held a meeting of Congress Legislature Party (CLP), resolving to merge the CLP into BJP. The MLAs later submitted the letter of merger to the Secretary, Legislature.
• The BJP, which formed the government with 20 MLAs, now has 28 members in the assembly.
• It’s not just Goa: The Congress has recently seen a string of resignations — Vishwanathsinh Vaghela in Gujarat, Rajinder Prasad in J&K and national spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill joined the league of Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal, Sunil Jakhar, Ashwani Kumar and Gujarat Patidar leader Hardik Patel.
• Yatra mystery: While the Congress is betting high on Rahul’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, its route curiously bypasses Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh — the two states due to vote in assembly polls in two months — and barely touches the big state of Uttar Pradesh.

The US expects Pakistan to take “sustained action” against all terrorist groups and that the proposed $450-million maintenance package for the country’s F-16 fleet would help serve this purpose, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said. Meanwhile, Islamabad has formally urged the Taliban administration in Afghanistan to locate, report, and arrest Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM) chief Maulana Masood Azhar, a UN designated terrorist, Pakistani portal The News International reported.

FATF rating

• Washington’s reaction came a day after the Asia-Pacific Group of the FATF, a global watchdog for terror financing and money laundering, rated Pakistan’s level of effectiveness as ‘low’ on 10 out of 11 international goals.
• The regional affiliate of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) released an update on the rating of its members suggesting that Pakistan had a “moderate level of effectiveness” on only one out of 11 outcomes.
• An FATF task force had found Islamabad compliant or largely compliant on all the 34 points in February this year and had decided to field an onsite mission to verify it on the ground before formally announcing the country’s exit from the grey list.

India’s concern

• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday conveyed India’s concern to his US counterpart Lloyd Austin over Washington’s F-16 package for Pakistan, which according to New Delhi, may have serious security implications.
• Earlier, the US clarified that the package did not include “new capabilities, weapons or munitions”. “As part of our longstanding policy, we provide life cycle maintenance and sustainment packages for US-origin platforms,” Price said during a press briefing on Tuesday, as quoted by Dawn.

With the approval by the Supreme Court (SC) for the proposal by the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI), the cricket administrative body’s president Sourav Ganguly and secretary, Jay Shah — who is Union home minister Amit Shah’s son — can now serve another term, lasting three years.

Ganguly, Shah & associates

• The SC, in its order said that “office bearers can have 2 consecutive terms of 3 years each on one post in BCCI and similarly in State after which cool off period will come.” This means that the SC order is not only applicable to the BCCI president and secretary but to all its office bearers.
• Since each term is of three years, this will allow an office bearer in a state cricket association to serve two terms — which is six years — and two terms in the BCCI, since only state cricket association office bearers can contest for BCCI posts. Taken together, a person can serve up to 12 years consecutively before the mandatory cooling off period.

Need for amendment

• The BCCI, arguing for the amendment, submitted that a single three year term was not enough for getting acquainted with the workings of the organisation and to demonstrate leadership — which the SC agreed with.

Breathe easy

• Under the existing provisions of the BCCI constitution, Ganguly and Shah’s continuance as president and secretary would have faced legal hurdles as both have already had three-year stints in Bengal and Gujarat cricket associations respectively

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Uzbekistan on Thursday and Friday to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, which China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin will also attend. This is the first in-person SCO summit since 2019.
• Will Modi, Xi meet? With disengagement at one of the friction points along the LAC in Ladakh, speculation is rife about the Indian PM meeting China’s president on the SCO’s margins. This is the first time that Modi and Xi are coming face to face since 2019, when they met during the BRICS summit in Brasília.
• Why? The Indian and Chinese militaries agreed last Thursday to withdraw from Gogra-Hot Springs in Ladakh — the process completed this week. This is being viewed as a sign of a movement towards normalcy against the backdrop of the Ladakh standoff that began in May 2020.
• Also, Russia has confirmed that Xi will meet with Putin at the SCO summit. Putin is also likely to meet Modi, as Russia seeks to bolster ties with both India and China in the face of continued sanctions imposed by the West, following the invasion of Ukraine in February.
• Xi breaks Covid barrier: While PM Modi has travelled abroad on a few occasions, it is the first time that Xi has flown out of China since January 2020.
• Not to forget that India and China still have 50,000-60,000 troops deployed in the standoff areas as several friction points remain there, including Depsang Bulge and Demchok. The question is, has enough progress been made for a Modi-Xi meet in Samarkand?

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has told the Supreme Court that it does not have the legal power to withdraw recognition of a political party or disqualify its members if a party or its members indulge in hate speech.

IPC & RP Act

• “In the absence of any specific law governing “hate speech” and “rumour mongering” during elections, the ECI employs various provisions of the IPC and the Representation of People Act, 1951 to ensure that members of political parties or even other persons do not make statements to the effect of creating disharmony between different sections of society,” the poll panel said in response to a PIL on hate speech.

The problem

• The affidavit of the Director (Law) of the ECI pointed out that hate speech has not been defined under any existing law in India. It said that the issue of hate speech had been dealt with by the top court and the matter was referred to the Law Commission of India.
• But the Commission’s 267th report neither answered the court’s question as to whether the poll panel should be empowered to derecognise a political party or disqualify its members if they commit the offence of hate speech nor expressly made any recommendations to Parliament to strengthen the Election Commission of India to curb the menace of hate speech, ECI said.

Dos & Don’ts

• The ECI also stated that a list of dos and don’ts has been drawn up to curb the menace. The Model Code of Conduct has listed certain practices as corrupt practices and electoral offences as per IPC and RP Act, it added.

• The Mizoram government has informed the Centre that it has no intention of pushing back thousands of refugees taking shelter in the state unless and until the military-ruled Myanmar gives assurances and makes arrangements for their security and resettlement in that country.
• Centre-state meeting: The matter was discussed by State Planning Board vice-chairman H Rammawi with joint secretary of the External Affairs Ministry Smita Pant on Tuesday in Delhi.
• Fresh influx: There has been a fresh influx of refugees following Myanmar military’s air raids on Rakhine and Chin states in the past few weeks. Mizoram has been hosting over 30,000 refugees since the February 2021 coup and subsequent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in the neighbouring country.
• Ethnic ties: The Mizos share ethnic ties with the Chin people of Myanmar. Last year, chief minister Zoramthanga wrote to PM Modi saying that “it was not possible for Mizoram to refuse shelter to our own brethren who fled Myanmar fearing for their lives”.
• Humanitarian assistance: The Lunglei district administration in south Mizoram, which is seeing a fresh influx, urged NGOs to provide assistance to the refugees. The humanitarian assistance project, commencing in the state from January 1, 2022, will continue till December 31, 2022. More details here

• A direct to PCCs: About a month before the Congress votes to elect its next president, reports suggest all state units have been asked to pass resolutions authorising interim president Sonia Gandhi to nominate PCC chiefs and All India Congress Committee (AICC) members.
• A deadline: The PCCs have been asked to pass the resolutions by September 20. The presidential election process begins on September 22 with the issue of notification. Nominations could be filed during September 24-30. Date of voting, if needed, is October 17.
• Why resolutions matter: If the PCCs authorise Sonia to nominate PCC chiefs and AICC delegates, it would practically mean that she is appointing the voters for the presidential election. The Congress’s constitution says these voters are to be elected in a bottom-up process.
• The G-23 leaders, including Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari, have been demanding a free and fair internal election. They have also demanded the central election authority to make public the voters’ list.
• There’s more: Technically, the PCCs can also authorise Sonia to nominate the next president, thus bypassing the entire election process. The Congress has not voted in a presidential election in 22 years — since 2000, when Sonia defeated Jitin Prasada.
• The timing: Despite being just one of the 50-odd Lok Sabha MPs, Rahul remains the supreme authority for the Congress leaders. His 12-state Bharat Jodo Yatra is being seen as an assertion of his might on the Congress. But Rahul apparently does not want to return as the Congress president, a post he quit after the 2019 election.
• Who if not Rahul: He has also maintained that the next Congress president should be a non-Gandhi — a first in 24 years. Reports say family loyalist Ashok Gehlot, the Rajasthan CM is the favourite of the Gandhis for the top party post.

A record fine of 4.125 billion euros ($4.13 billion) was imposed on Google by the General Court (GC) of the European Union (EU), Europe’s second highest court, after the search engine giant was found guilty of using its Android mobile operating system (OS) to stymie its rivals.

Why this stings

• Apart from being the biggest ever fine slapped on the company, this is the second court defeat for the company, which last year lost a challenge to a 2.42 billion euro ($2.42 billion) fine imposed by the EU antitrust enforcer, which has launched three investigations against Google going back to over a decade.
• Cumulatively, the EU’s antitrust body has fined Google 8.25 billion euros ($8.42 billion). In the current case — whose ruling was announced on Wednesday — Google unsuccessfully argued that the case against it was unfounded and allegations that it imposed its search engine and Chrome browser on Android phones were false.
• The ruling could also potentially open the floodgates for similar fines and penalties by other antitrust regulators as they seek to pile on the pressure against what are perceived as monopolistic practices by Big Tech companies. In fact last year, South Korea fined Google nearly $180 million for abusing its dominance in a similar case targeting Android.

The case

• The European Commission had ruled that Google’s practices restrict competition and reduce choices for consumers — observing that the company’s practices were in violation of EU rules as it required smartphone makers to take a bundle of Google apps if they wanted any at all and prevented them from selling devices with altered versions of Android.
• The GC noted that it “largely confirms the Commission’s decision that Google imposed unlawful restrictions on manufacturers of Android mobile devices and mobile network operators in order to consolidate the dominant position of its search engine.”

What next

• Google is likely to challenge the GC’s order by appealing to the EU’s highest court, the European Court of Justice, for a final say on the fine, which was the equivalent of $5 billion when levied. The GC marginally reduced it from the 4.34 billion euro fine imposed by the EU’s executive Commission in 2018.