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• New flashpoint: Day after Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal moved the external affairs ministry against Lieutenant Governor Vinai Saxena’s denial of permission for visiting Singapore, the LG recommended a CBI investigation into the Kejriwal government’s new excise (liquor) policy.
• What for: Saxena’s office listed a number of irregularities in the liquor policy alleging “deliberate and gross procedural lapses to provide post tender undue benefits to liquor licensees”.
• Manish Sisodia, the deputy CM, has been named by Saxena in his complaint alleging that “the sole aim” of the new excise policy was to benefit private liquor barons for financial benefits to individuals at the highest echelons of the government leading up to Manish Sisodia.
• Told you so! This is how Kejriwal responded to Saxena’s charges. “I have been saying that they will arrest Manish Sisodia. There is a new system in India. They decide who has to be jailed, then a fake case is created against that person. This case is fake. There is no truth in it.”
• Kejriwal sees a larger game. “The AAP has been growing since its win in Punjab. The AAP’s time has come. They cannot see us rise to a national level thus they are resorting to such measures. But nothing will stop us.”
• Meenakashi Lekhi, the Union minister and senior BJP leader, countered Kejriwal taunting him saying, “he gave himself certificates of honesty”. She described the liquor policy as a “fraud on the people of the national capital”.
• Singapore tripped: This comes after Saxena advised Kejriwal not to attend a conference in Singapore saying it is beneath a CM’s stature. In defiance, Kejriwal knocked the doors of the Ministry of External Affairs, with his party alleging that “India’s image is being hampered”.

In the first deal between Russia and Ukraine ever since the former invaded the latter in February, the two nations signed a UN-mediated deal that will allow the export of 5 million tonnes of grain per month from three Ukrainian ports.

Deal deets

• The deal, signed in Istanbul, will allow ships carrying grain — and monitored and inspected by a Joint Coordination Committee comprising representatives of Turkey, Ukraine, Russia and the UN — to pass through a safe corridor in the Black Sea, onwards through the Bosphorus in order to reach global markets.
• The deal, valid initially for 120 days from Friday, can be extended for a similar period unless either Russia or Ukraine announce their intention to terminate it. Currently, about 20 million tonnes of grain is stuck at Ukrainian ports due a sea blockade enforced by the Russian navy.

The significance

• Aside from the fact that the deal will provide “a great support for the Ukrainian economy” as the summer harvest season is in full swing there, it will help cool down food prices globally that have risen sharply due to shortage of food grains from the country called the world’s food basket.
• According to estimates, the choking of foodgrain supplies from Ukraine put in peril the food security of between 400 million to 800 million people globally, with a real risk of vast populations of several countries facing hunger — such as in Somalia, Yemen and Sudan.

The hope

• Hopes that the grain deal may lead to a thaw and a ceasefire among the two nations may however be a little far-fetched for now, as the Russian defence ministry on Friday claimed that it had destroyed “four launchers and one reloading vehicle for the US-made multiple launch rocket systems (HIMARS)” earlier this month. Ukraine however, denied Russia’s claims.

The United Nations’ highest court on Friday dismissed preliminary objections by Myanmar to a case alleging the Southeast Asian nation is responsible for genocide against the Rohingya ethnic minority.

A global issue

• The decision establishing the International Court of Justice’s jurisdiction sets the stage for hearings airing evidence of atrocities against the Rohingya that human rights groups and a UN probe say breach the 1948 Genocide Convention.
• In March, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the violent repression of the Rohingya population in Myanmar amounts to genocide.
• Tun Khin, president of the Burmese Rohingya Organization UK, welcomed the decision, saying 600,000 Rohingya “are still facing genocide,” while “one million people in Bangladesh camps, they are waiting for a hope for justice.”

Who filed the plea?

• The African nation of Gambia filed the case in 2019 amid international outrage at the treatment of the Rohingya in, hundreds of thousands of whom fled to neighbouring Bangladesh amid a brutal crackdown by Myanmar forces in 2017.
• It argued that both Gambia and Myanmar were parties to the 1948 convention and that all signatories had a duty to ensure it was enforced. More details here

• Opposition members on Friday walked out in protest from a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Defence, alleging they were not allowed to discuss the Agnipath scheme.
• What: Members of Congress and BSP urged committee chairman Jual Oram to allow a discussion on the controversial military recruitment scheme, arguing it has huge implications and required parliamentary scrutiny, but were denied the permission.
• Who: Congress MPs K C Venugopal and Uttam Kumar Reddy, besides BSP’s Danish Ali, who are members of the panel, argued with the chairman that the Agnipath scheme has already been discussed in the Consultative Committee on Defence and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and the three service chiefs have made a presentation before it.
• Why: The members are learnt to have contended that not allowing a discussion on Agnipath amounted to an insult to Parliament and that not informing the committee about the scheme is a breach of privilege.
• Where: The chairman is believed to have told the opposition members that they could raise this in Parliament and discuss it there but did not allow the scheme to be discussed in the committee. The members claimed they have raised the issue in the meetings of the business advisory committees of both houses, but the government is not ready to discuss the issue.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa may have been ousted from power, but his political allies are now calling the shots in Sri Lanka. New President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday appointed his school classmate Dinesh Gunawardena as the country’s new prime minister.

Rajapaksas’ friends?

• Wickremesinghe, who had been prime minister, was elevated to president by lawmakers this week after then-President Rajapaksa fled. He was apparently seen as a safe pair of hands to lead Sri Lanka out of the crisis, even though he, too, was a target of the demonstrations.
• The new PM, Gunawardena, who is 73 and from a prominent political family, is also a Rajapaksa ally.

Military crackdown

• Gunawardena’s appointment came hours after security forces made several arrests and cleared a protest camp near the presidential palace in the capital, Colombo, where demonstrators have gathered for the past 104 days venting ire at the Rajapaksas over the country’s economic collapse.
• At least two journalists and two lawyers were allegedly assaulted by security forces. The Bar Association of Sri Lanka claimed one lawyer and several journalists were arrested.
• The lawyers’ association called for a halt to what they call “unjustified and disproportionate actions” of armed forces targeting civilians. It called on Wickremesinghe to ensure he and his government respected the rule of law and citizens’ rights.
• On Monday, Wickremesinghe declared a state of emergency that gave him broad authority to act in the interest of public security and order.

• Two viral diseases, originating in Africa decades ago, have now sounded high alert in Kerala, which reported the third confirmed case of monkeypox on Friday, and also reported outbreak of African swine fever in two farms in Wayanad, prompting a decision of mass culling of pigs soon.
• Monkeypox: A 35-year-old man, who recently returned from the UAE, tested positive for monkeypox becoming the third confirmed patient of the viral disease in India. All three patients are in Kerala with a travel history to the UAE.
• After the first confirmed case of monkeypox on July 14, the Centre rushed a team to Kerala. He was later found to be infected with the West African strain of the virus. On July 15, the government set up 15 labs for testing the suspected cases of monkeypox. The second case was reported on July 18. Both patients are undergoing treatment and are stable.
• African swine fever is a highly contagious viral disease affecting the wild and domestic pigs, with a very high mortality rate. There is no vaccine against the disease.
• Hours after the outbreak was reported from two Wayanad farms, the authorities initiated steps on Friday to cull at least 300 pigs.
• Threat to humans? African swine fever is not a health threat to humans but it hits the pork industry and thus the livelihood of farmers in a big way. Animal to human transmission is rare but experts called for extreme caution, asking people to consume only properly cooked red meat.
• The Kerala government has prepared a swine fever action plan and accordingly directed the pig farms to strictly implement the biosecurity and waste disposal mechanism. Transportation of pigs and pork is banned in Kerala from neighbouring states.

• Bollywood star Ajay Devgn, who had infamously courted controversy earlier in May this year for calling on Hindi to be made India’s national language in a spat with Kannada star Kichcha Sudeep, was not surprisingly awarded the National Film Award for Best Actor — his third — for his starring role in the Hindi flick Tanhaji. Incidentally, the movie, which was also produced by Devgn, also won the National Film Award for Best Picture Providing Wholesome Entertainment.
• Devgn shared the honours for the Best Actor award with southern star Suriya, for his role in the Tamil movie Soorarai Pottru, which also won the Best Feature Film award as well as the Best Actress award for Aparrna Balamurali. Soorarai Pottru, which means ‘Praise The Brave’, is loosely based on the life of G R Gopinath, the founder of India’s first low cost airline, Air Deccan.
• The three BJP-ruled states of Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh were declared the Most Film Friendly states at the announcement of the 68th National Film Awards, which honoured the best cine works of 2020 as due to Covid-19 first and second waves in 2020 and 2021, the awards announcement was delayed.

Full list of winners here

Submitting that the ‘Right to be Forgotten’ has various shapes and shades to it, Google India argued before the Delhi High Court that there can’t be a blanket order to determine the scope of the right to be forgotten.

Who wants to be forgotten?

• Google’s submission came in reference to the Jorawar Singh Mundy case wherein the US citizen who was acquitted in a case of drugs possession, had sought the blocking of the judgement on search engine sites like Google as that was creating hardship in his life due to misplaced prejudice among prospective employers who refused to hire him when they found that he had been to prison.
• The HC,which had adjudicated on the case last year, had agreed with the plea and ruled that the petitioner was entitled to some interim protection, though it had added then that the matter required further consideration.

Google’s submission

• The search engine giant, in its submission, said that in a case of a sexually explicit image, the concerned person had an unquestioned right of removal but in other circumstances, the same may not be available as a matter of right as in the former case, it also involved the right to privacy.

A small escape

• The court, which set the next date of hearing in the matter for October 12, also directed that Google India was to be deleted as a party to the case and in its place, Google LLC — the parent company of Google India — was now impleaded in the case.