Nagaland Post This issue 12 + 4 = 16 Pages @ ` 5.00
www.nagalandpost.com
Vol XXIX No. 207
DIMAPUR, THURSDAY, JULY 4, 2019 Pages 16 ` 5.00
Goa CM regrets inability to free freedom fighters from jails
Brazil beat Argentina; enter Copa America final
Iran to exceed uranium enrichment limit from Sunday: Hassan Rouhani
national, Page 12
sports, Page 15
international, Page 9
Rahul formally quits as Cong chief Party in deep crisis as CONG working committee gropes for answers
NEW DELHI, JUL 3 (PTI): In more trouble for the crisis-hit Congress, Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday publicly announced his resignation as its president, taking responsibility for the Lok Sabha polls debacle, and called for “hard decisions” to rebuild the party and making people accountable for the “failure” of 2019. In a four-page open letter, Gandhi also urged the Congress Working Committee (CWC) to entrust a group of people with the task of finding a new president as it would not be proper for him to do so. The 49-year-old leader --who has been adamant on his decision to quit as party president since May 25 -also stressed on the need for the Congress to “radically transform itself ”. In a letter that was emotive in places and combative in others, Gandhi said he owed the country and his party a debt of tremendous gratitude and love, but maintained that at times he stood “completely alone” in his fight against the Prime Minister and RSS.
No proposal to scrap sedition law, says MoS Home NEW DELHI, JUL 3 (AGENCIES): Rejecting demands from several opposition parties, including Congress, the Centre on Wednesday said that there is no plan as of now to scrap the Colonial-era sedition law under which inciting hatred against the government is a punishable offence. Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State (MoS) Home Nityanand Rai said, ‘’ There is no proposal to scrap the provision under the IPC dealing with the offence of sedition.’’ Rai made these remarks while responding to a question raised by Telangana MP Banda Prakash. The sedition law states that whoever, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the government shall be jailed without or with fine. Former Home minister Rajnath Singh, who is now handling the Defence portfolio, had at several occasions in past called for the need to make the sedition law stronger to deal with “anti-national` elements.
This is it!
“He got here after his counter was flooded and now he’s selling vegetables.” K Y M C
Rahul Gandhi
“As President of the Congress Party, I am responsible for the loss of the 2019 election. Accountability is critical for the future growth of our party. It is for this reason that I have resigned as Congress President,” he said. “Rebuilding the party requires hard decisions and numerous people will have to be made accountable for the failure of 2019. It would be unjust to hold others accountable but ignore my own responsibility as President of the party,” he said in the letter posted on the Twitter. In his Twitter account,
Gandhi’s designation as “President” of Congress was also changed to “Member of Congress and Member of Parliament”. Today’s public announcement by Gandhi, putting an end to ‘will he or will he not’, is seen by many political commentators as yet another blow to the crisis-ridden Congress, which is caught in a phase of uncertainty over the issue of leadership. Rahul succeeded his mother Sonia Gandhi as Congress President in December 2017 and his major success at the helm of the 133 year old party was winning the three state elections in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh in December last year. Congress sources said Gandhi continues to be party president till his resignation is accepted by the CWC and a new chief is appointed after due process. They also said a meeting of the CWC will be convened soon which will decide on future course of action. The names of veteran party leaders Sushil Ku-
mar Shinde, Mallikarjun Kharge and Ashok Gehlot are among the probables doing rounds for the position. However, there is no official confirmation about it. Heralding what could be a new era in his party, Gandhi said it had been a honour to serve the Congress, whose values and ideals have served as the lifeblood of “this beautiful nation”. “I fought because I love India... At times I stood completely alone and am extremely proud of it,” he said. “The stated objectives of the RSS, the capture of our country’s institutional structure, is now complete. Our democracy has been fundamentally weakened. There is a real danger that from now on, elections will go from being a determinant of India’s future to a mere ritual,” he said. Gandhi said this capture of power will result in “unimaginable levels of violence and pain for India”, while alleging that the PM’s win does not negate the “breadth of corruption allegations against him”.
Decision on new chief will be collective: Venu Soon after Rahul Gandhi announced that he was no longer the Congress chief, party General Secretary, Organisation, KC Venugopal said that the decision to appoint a new party President will be a “collective” one. Venugopal, who was in Kerala, told over phone: “Yes, I am aware that Rahul Gandhi has resigned... a decision on electing a new party chief will be a collective one.” Asked when a meeting of the Congress Working Committee - the party’s highest decision-making body, will be called to decide on the new chief, he refused to answer. Sources in the party said a resolution is not in sight for at least a week. Party leaders told The Indian Express that Rahul and Sonia will travel abroad later this week to visit Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s husband Robert Vadra, who is said to have either undergone or is slated to undergo a surgery at an undisclosed location.
JCPI calls for meeting on July 5 to decide on ‘indigenous Naga’ DIMAPUR, JUL 3 (NPN): Once again reminding all tribe hohos and civil society organizations (CSOs) about the proposed meeting on Register of Indigenous Inhabitants of Nagaland (RIIN) at Saramati hotel here on July 5 at 11 a.m., Joint Committee on Prevention of Illegal Immigration (JCPI) said the meeting was very crucial and urged all presidents and general secretaries of such organisations to attend it without fail. In a joint statement, JCPI convener K Ghokheto Chophy and secretary Tia Longchar, stressed that the issue who was an indigenous Naga would be deliberated at the meeting, given the widespread adoption and mixed marriages prevalent in Naga society, and especially against the backdrop of infiltration of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants into the State. Explaining that unless Nagas defined who was an indigenous person and who was not, implementation of ILP in the State, including Dimapur, would be a useless exercise. The deliberation would have to take place without delay as the State
government had already notified the RIIN exercise, it stressed. JCPI said due to pressure exerted by it and the sagacity of chief secretary Temjen Toy led to formation of Abhishek Committee on ILP. The duo said it was only expected that the entities cooperate and listen to each other, particularly when the sensitive RIIN exercise was to take place. JCPI said while teachers would be roped in to enumerate the indigenous inhabitants, it reminded the State government not to repeat the e-roll farce during the RIIN enumeration. It also pointed out that the Election Commission had admitted that out of 11 lakh entries in the e-roll, four lakh entries were bogus. Thus, said JCPI that Naga civil society cannot allow the teachers – as they were susceptible to pressure from politicians, clan, regional, tribal politics- to have the final say as far as indigenous enumeration is concerned. It called for some sort of vetting in the enumeration process by a third party and that till this loophole was addressed in the July
5 meeting and its findings/ solution forwarded to the government, the government need to wait for the meeting’s outcome. Meanwhile, JCPI appreciated the State government, particularly state BJP led by deputy Y Patton and BJP president Imna Along, for vociferously opposing the “mischievous” PIL filed against extension of ILP to Dimapur in Supreme Court (SC) by one Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay. The committee particularly hailed the threejudge SC bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi for dismissing the PIL filed by the “so-called BJP leader”. It also thanked advocate general KN Balgopal for ensuring the defeat of the “malicious” PIL. In the consultative meeting held with all nonNaga communities on June 28, JCPI said the general consensus was that the PIL filed by a non-citizen of Nagaland and without knowing the ground reality should be condemned by all. The committee also thanked Gorkha Elders’ Forum for being the first non-Naga organisation to demand that Upadhyay should withdraw the PIL.
Japanese Encephalitis: Over Panel on sexual State JD(U) suggests law on adoption Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram down globally 40 deaths reported in Assam harassment at G U WA H AT I , J U L 3 (AGENCIES): Over 40 deaths caused by Japanese Encephalitis (JE) have been reported in Assam so far, with new cases being detected idaily. In this year itself, about 135 persons have been infected by Encephalitis and among them 48 have lost their lives till date, APN report stated. Dr. Umesh Phangso, State Programme Officer of National VectorBorne Disease Control Programme, told TNIE that “140 positive cases of JE have been reported. During the same period, 53 people died and 554 positive cases of AES have been reported.” The deaths were reported from Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Karimganj, Kamrup (Metro), Kamrup (Rural), Barpeta, Nagaon, Darrang and Sonitpur districts. Dr. Phangso said all measures had been taken to contain the out-
break. The measures include fogging and spreading of insecticides. JE has claimed hundreds of lives in Assam over the past few years. According to official figures, 134 people had died of the disease in 2013, 165 in 2014, 135 in 2015, 92 in 2016, 87 in 2017 and 94 last year. A team of senior officers of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, headed by Sanjeeva Kumar, additional secretary of the Ministry visited the State and reviewed the situation. For rehabilitation of JE disabled patients, Centre has provided funds for strengthening of two Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation departments at Assam Medical College, Dibrugarh and Guwahati Medical College have been provided. Sources pointed out that JE is vector-borne encephalitis transmitted by Culex groups of mosquitoes.
workplace
DIMAPUR, JUL 3 (NPN): State government has directed all the departments to constitute Internal Committee (IC) under Section 4 of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013. The Internal Committee (IC) has been made obligatory to be constituted in every workplace/directorate/NGOs/Autonomous body/organisation to provide protection and redress complaints of sexual harassment cases against women in the State in the manner prescribed therein. All the departments under the state have been requested to take action accordingly and intimate department of women resources development at the earliest for onward submission to the Ministry of Women & Child Development.
DIMAPUR, JUL 3 (NPN): Emphasising the need to earnestly address the issue of adoption in the state, the Janata Dal United (JDU) Nagaland unit Wednesday strongly suggested for an elaborate law on adoption. JD (U) Nagaland through its media and publicity cell welcomed the decision of PDA to bring Dimapur under the purview of BEFR 1873 and to introduce the system of preparation for Register of Indigenous Inhabitants of Nagaland (RIIN). It has, however, expressed concern that unless certain crucial issues were addressed as a prelude to implementing the above pressing requirements, the very purpose of PDA government would be defeated. Pointing out that Article 371 (A) guaranteed rights of Naga customary and procedures, the JD(U) unit said adoption of non-Nagas by Nagas as per customary law, therefore, becomes significant. It stated that the question whether those adopted nonNagas, as per the special guarantees of the Indian constitution, would be given indigenous rights was a subject matter of serious concern. “It can open a flood gate for conversion by default given the fact that Nagas are
vulnerable,” JD(U) unit stated. Recalling the NSF stand “Nagas by Blood not by Adoption”, the party said that it was only a principle of a student pressure group, which had been the core for decades but outside the purview of an established law. JD(U) has, therefore, strongly suggested for an elaborate law on adoption through legislation of the state assembly urgently addressing all requirements and also taking all stake holders into confidence. With regard to December 1, 1963 as the basis for the entitlement to be given recognition as an indigenous inhabitant of Nagaland, JD(U) unit stated that there should a thorough sensitisation of the Naga populace, especially, the village councils through workshops and seminars by involving civil societies, student bodies and tribal organisations as preliminary exercise before the main policy of RIIN was launched. Meanwhile, the party has welcomed the dismissal of the PIL on ILP by the Supreme Court. The party condemned those responsible behind the petition, which it said was against the Nagas.
NEW DELHI, JUL 3 (IANS): Millions of users worldwide, including in India, were left clueless on Wednesday evening when Facebook and its family of apps including WhatsApp and photo-sharing platform Instagram entered a global outage. People took to Twitter to share their experiences. “Everyone moves to twitter when instagram, facebook, and whatsapp get down, including me!” tweeted one Indian user. “Social media breakdown is the only thing that unites the world,” said another user. Users faced specific problems rather than the entire app not working. On Facebook, users reported that specific posts or photos did not appear, but that the page was loading. Millions of users had problems sending photos, videos and voice messages on WhatApp in India. Only text messages were being shared on mobile messaging service. At Instagram, people failed to upload photos in various parts of the world. Online outage tracker Down Detector logged several complaints from across the world including in India. Facebook said in a statement that confirmed there is a problem with its apps, and it’s “working as quickly as possible” to fix it.
Will 5th Gen cell network put your health at risk? GPRN/NSCN (K) warns GoI against NEW DELHI, JUL 3 (IANS): With far higher transmission speed than 4G, the fifth generation cellular network or 5G promises to bring about dramatic changes to the way we lead our lives and how healthcare services are provided. There are, however, also concerns regarding adverse health effects of exposure to radiofrequency radiation associated with the roll out of 5G. The strength of radiofrequency (RF) signals fields is highest at its source and as deployment of 5G would lead to more mobile antennas, there are fears of more radiation leading to poor health. Experts are, however, of the opinion that there are not much reasons to fear as long as India follows the standards of safety set by regulatory authorities that are followed in Europe and
other developed nations. The World Health Organization has also played down the fears associated with exposure to RF signals. The only health effect from RF fields identified in scientific reviews has been related to an increase in body temperature from exposure at very high field intensity and this minor increase in temperature do not affect human health, according to the WHO. “The term ‘radiation’ has a tendency to lead to
confusion and cause fear and misconceptions. However, radiation is of two types - ionising and nonionising. Non-ionising radiations which are found in mobile devices have not proved to be harzardous for human health,” Vaibhav Mishra, Additional Director, Department of Cardiac Surgery, Fortis Hospital Noida, told IANS. “It is the ionising radiations which one needs to be careful of. For example - the UV (ultraviolet) rays emitted
by the sun are ionising in nature and can cause significant damage to our cell structures,” Mishra added. “The reason this question is being asked is because 5G will have a higher speed, therefore require more radiation. But there is no long term data or study which concludes that there will be a negative impact on human body from the 5G radiation,” Mishra said. Tarun Sahni from Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals in New Delhi pointed out that many devices like ECG electrodes, pacemakers, ultrasounds emit targeted high frequency radiowaves. “Devices using high frequency radio waves are used for multiple purposes, besides their use in smartphones. But the evidence is not strong enough to suggest that these radiowaves are causing any big risk to
human health,” said Sahni, Senior Consultant, Internal Medicine. He, however, cautioned that anything used at an extreme degree has the potential to cause some impairment. “Even if there is a risk, it’s very minimal,” he added. According to T.V. Ramachandran, President, Broadband India Forum, an association of the telecom network and broadcasters, far from affecting our health adversely, 5G will improve healthcare services. “As far as impact of radiation on health is concerned, we have done enough work on that area and I can tell you that similar concerns were raised when 3G and 4G were rolled out. People with inadequate understanding are raising these issues,” Ramachandran said.
non-fulfilment of its 4 demands
DIMAPUR, JUL 3 (NPN): GPRN/NSCN (K) has war ned the Centre the consequences of failing to adhere to its commitment to four basic points, besides warning other factions against taking advantage of its stoical attitude despite repeated provocations. In a statement issued by its MIP, the group reiterated the four-point demand put forth by it before entering the official ceasefire– i) release of political prisoners, ii) removal of terrorist tag, iii) removal of bounty placed on its top leaders and iv) removal of AFSPA and Disturbed Area. Asking the Centre to address these issues on a priority bases as it was almost a year that it had not seen any positive progress or development, GPRN/ NSCN (K) stressed that
points 1 and 2 were important as by removing the terrorist tag through an official notification by the Union home ministry, the political prisoners would be released unconditionally. The MIP statement explained that NSCN (K) was listed as a terrorist group under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. But as the group led by Khango Konyak had come forward for peace talks, the Centre should remove the tag from the group, unlike the Aung Yung-led NSCN (K), it said. Imploring the Centre to address the issues, the group cautioned that unless this was done, continuing the ceasefire in the next term seemed impossible, as there was no point if these issues were not taken up. (Cont’d on p-7) K Y M C