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The Election Commission on Monday asked Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to “clarify” and take “rectification measures” over party leader Sonia Gandhi’s alleged remarks supporting “sovereignty of Karnataka”.
The EC letter came hours after the BJP approached the poll panel seeking cancellation of the Congress’s registration as a party and urging it to file an FIR and initiate “exemplary punitive action” against Sonia.
The BJP memorandum to the EC was based on a tweet by the Congress, where it said that in her speech at Hubballi on May 6, Sonia had said that “the Congress will not allow anyone to pose a threat to Karnataka’s reputation, sovereignty and integrity”.
A transcript of her full speech indicates Sonia did not use the word “sovereignty”. Following the BJP’s memo to the EC, the Congress accused the party of “fakery and falsehood”, and of denigrating the state’s “swabhimaan (self-respect)”.
In the letter to Kharge, the EC quoted the BJP’s complaint saying Sonia’s speech was in violation of the oath taken by political parties when they get registered under the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
Section 29A (5) of the Act states that a party shall “bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India… to the principles of socialism, secularism and democracy, and would uphold the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India”.
Express Network
5 more cheetahs to be released into wild at Kuno before monsoon (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Five more cheetahs — three females and two males — will be released from acclimatisation camps into free-ranging conditions at Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park (KNP) before the onset of the monsoon in June, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
In a statement, the ministry also said that Uday, the male adult South African cheetah who was found dead at KNP on April 23, had died of cardio-pulmonary failure, and that a detailed postmortem examination found that it did not suffer from any infectious disease that may affect other cheetahs.
Uday had died just over a week after his release from Boma (quarantine enclosure) to the larger enclosure within KNP.
The ministry reiterated an earlier statement by Madhya Pradesh Forest Department that Uday was stumbling around “in an uncoordinated manner and was unable to lift his head”.
He was sedated by the veterinary team and treated symptomatically. Blood and other samples were collected to send to the lab for examination but he had died that afternoon.
Four Namibian cheetahs have till date been released from fenced acclimatisation camps in KNP. The five animals chosen now for release were picked based on their behavioural characteristics and approachability by the monitoring teams, the statement noted. The remaining 10 cheetahs will remain in acclimatisation camps for the duration of monsoon.
Ideas page
Lower in higher education (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, Education)
The recently released All India Survey on Higher Education 2020–21 shows some contrasting trends. On the one hand, enrollment of Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs in higher education has increased by 4.2 per cent, 11.9 per cent and 4 per cent respectively compared to 2019-20.
The upper castes, whose share in enrollment had been declining with the implementation of Mandal II since the late 2000s but who have come back with the highest growth rate of 13.6 per cent.
On the other hand, the enrollment of Muslim students dropped by 8 per cent from 2019-20 – that is, by 1,79,147 students. This level of absolute decline has never happened in the recent past for any group.
UP accounts for 36 per cent of that total decline followed by Jammu and Kashmir, which accounts for 26 per cent, then Maharashtra (8.5 per cent), Tamil Nadu (8.1 per cent), Gujarat (6.1 per cent), Bihar (5.7 per cent) and Karnataka (3.7 per cent).
Except in Tamil Nadu, Muslims alone witnessed an absolute decline in their enrollment. While the states that have a larger share of the Muslim population account for the higher share of decline, small states too show similar trends. For instance, between 2019-20 — 2020-21, Delhi lost about 20 per cent of its Muslim students while J&K lost about 36 per cent.
Explained
Why has the Arab League reinstated the membership of Syria 12 years after suspension? (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
The Arab League voted to reinstate Syria’s membership after its suspension more than 10 years ago, underlining the thawing relations between Damascus and other Arab countries.
The decision was taken at a closed-door meeting, attended by foreign ministers from 13 out of 22 member states of the organisation, held in Cairo, Egypt.
Syria was ousted from the Arab League in 2011 following President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests, which led to the ongoing civil war in the country. The conflict has since killed around half of a million people and displaced about 23 million.
Sunday’s ruling, which allows Assad to attend the upcoming Arab League Summit in Saudi Arabia on May 19, has also called for a resolution of the civil war and the resulting refugee and drug smuggling crises. A committee involving Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq will soon be created to ensure Syria achieves these goals.
Economy
Ensuring financial stability is a shared responsibility, says FM (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Regulators should maintain a constant vigil as ensuring financial sector stability is their ‘shared responsibility’, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in the 27th meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC).
The FSDC, which includes all financial market regulators as members, also discussed early warning indicators and the need to ensure cybersecurity preparedness of the information technology system to reduce the risk of cyber attacks, protect sensitive financial data, and maintain overall system integrity.
Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth said that daunting challenges are coming from the global economy, but the Indian financial sector is well protected.
But, at the same time, we have to be cautious and be on our toes as soon as early warning indicators are there. These are the set of indicators or an assessment of the economy before the stress assessment of the stress. The financial sector is stretched so that the stresses are noticed well in time for the corrective measures to be taken.