Morning Brief: Modi’s New Push For Social Justice; Collegium Clears 51 Judges; Erdogan Wins Turkish Vote

Good Morning, Swarajya Readers! Here's What You Need To Know Today.

Modi’s New Push For Social Justice: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday came out strongly against triple talaq and called for measures to ensure that "socially backward" in the community got benefits from affirmative action for other backward classes. "There are backwards in the Muslim community also. We must reach out to them,” Modi said during his address at the end of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s national executive meeting in Bhubaneswar. On triple talaq, he said women have the right to live with dignity.

Telangana Passes Muslim Quota Bill: A bill to increase the reservation quota for socially and economically backward among Muslims and the Scheduled Tribes to 12 and 10 per cent respectively was unanimously passed by the Telangana assembly on Sunday. The Backward Class, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Reservation Bill 2017 received the support of the entire Opposition. The passage of the bill followed the suspension of five BJP members who vehemently opposed the bill both inside and outside of the assembly.

Collegium Clears Names Of 51 Judges: The Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) J S Khehar has recommended 51 names for appointment as judges in 10 high courts in the country. The names were cleared by the collegium by trimming a list of 90 names received from the various high court collegiums, sources said and added that of the 51, 20 are judicial officers and 31 are advocates. The collegium has recommended the names for the high courts of Bombay, Punjab and Haryana, Patna, Hyderabad, Delhi and Chhattisgarh.

Triple Talaq: Social Boycott Threat: The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on Sunday asserted that it had the “constitutional” right to implement Muslim personal law. The board said though the practice is “wrong” it is still a valid way to end a marriage. “If talaq is given without Shariat reasons, those involved will be socially boycotted,” AIMPLB general secretary Maulana Wali Rehmani said. On the Babri Masjid issue, Rehmani said the board would accept the Supreme Court’s decision on the matter while stressing that “no outside settlement was acceptable”.

VHP Vows To Impose Cow Slaughter Ban In Goa: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Sunday said that it is capable of imposing a total ban on cow slaughter and consumption of beef in Goa in next couple of years, without the government’s help. The organisation will impose the ban in the state with the help of the Bajrang Dal and the Durga Vahini activists, senior VHP functionary Radha Krishna Manori said. “Like elsewhere in the country, in Goa, too, we are awakening people against the cow slaughter and eating beef,” he said.

Election Commission Seeks Funds For Paper Trail Units: Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi has written to the government seeking funds to expedite the purchase of paper trail machines before the Lok Sabha elections in 2019. Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail machines produce a printout of the vote cast using electronic voting machines, which can be shown to the voter to dispel any doubts. This printout is then deposited in a box and can be used to resolve any dispute regarding the election.

New Chapter In India-Nepal Ties: Opening a new chapter in the India-Nepal ties, the President of the Himalayan kingdom, Bidya Devi Bhandari, will start a five-day visit to India today, during which she will hold talks with top Indian leadership to strengthen bilateral ties. She will hold talks with President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, exploring ways to expand cooperation. This comes in the backdrop of the two close neighbours whose ties faced some strain following the agitation by the Madhesi community last year.

Turkey Referendum: Erdogan Declares Victory: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared victory in Sunday’s referendum that will grant sweeping powers to his presidency. He hailed the result as a “historic decision”. With nearly 99 per cent of votes in a referendum counted on Sunday night, supporters of the proposal had 51.3 per cent of votes cast, and opponents had 48.7 per cent, the country’s electoral commission announced.

MUST READ OP-EDS

New Fiscal Dharma And A Rules-Based Society: The apparent reluctance of so many governments to adhere to fiscal dharma exactly captures the importance of the Singh committee’s recommendations. It needs to be embraced in earnest and as soon as possible.

The Untold Story Of India’s Bond Market: While the focus is on the rise of bond yields and erosion in banks’ treasury profits, many are missing an interesting development – the intense fight between the bulls and the bears in the Indian bond market.

Kulbhushan Jadhav Row A Test For India’s Intent And Resolve: The issue of Kulbhushan Jadhav death sentence is more complicated than the Sarabjit Singh’s case. Can a strong nation such as India allow Pakistani intelligence agencies to kidnap one of their citizens from Iran and hang him?

What Suresh Prabhu Can Learn From Dave Donaldson’s Paper On Indian Railways: Economist Dave Donaldson’s paper on Indian Railways shows ramping up investment in railways and roads is one of the best ways to promote development in the hinterland.

Are Jan Dhan Bank Accounts Actively Used? Number of active transactions per account transacted by Jan Dhan account holders starts off slow but increases with the age of the accounts. Active transactions initiated by account holders represent nearly 45 per cent of all transactions.

SWARAJYA SPECIAL

From Orpheus To Jesus: The Trail Of The Good Shepherd: The motif of the Good Shepherd is older than Christianity. It was only later, with the rise of the faith in Rome that this pagan motif was associated with Jesus.

We hope you enjoyed reading our morning brief. Have a great day ahead!

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