Hindustan Times News | 16th March 2022 | 6 PM

HT Daily News Wrap

AAP leader Bhagwant Mann took oath as the CM of Punjab, China’s foreign minister is likely to visit India at the end of this month, White House said India taking up Russia's offer would not be a violation of US sanctions, and other top news in this bulletin.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday took oath as the Chief Minister of Punjab. Mann was administered the oath by Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit. A grand ceremony of the swearing-in has been organized in Khatkar Kalan, the ancestral village of legendary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh. Mann in a video message released earlier invited the people of the state for his oath-taking ceremony, urging men to wear ‘basanti (yellow)’ turbans and women yellow ‘dupatta (stole)’ for the ceremony. Notably, Mann has been wearing yellow turbans, which is identified with Bhagat Singh. The AAP registered a landslide victory in recently concluded Punjab Assembly polls, winning 92 seats, pushing most of its rivals to the margins. Congress won 18 seats in the 117-member Assembly. Mann, who was contesting from Dhuri Assembly constituency in Sangrur district, won by a margin of 58,206 votes over Congress’ Dalvir Singh Goldy. As AAP wins Punjab, it will be the party’s maiden victory in the state and a vast improvement from its performance in the 2017 elections when the party had finished behind Congress.

China’s foreign minister Wang Yi is likely to visit India at the end of this month, though the trip is not yet fully locked in and dates have not been confirmed, people familiar with the development said on Wednesday. If the visit goes as planned, it will be the first by a senior Chinese leader to India after the two countries locked horns in a dragging military standoff in Ladakh sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) since May 2020. The standoff, and a brutal clash in Galwan Valley in June 2020 that resulted in the death of 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops, took bilateral ties to an all-time low. There was no official word from the external affairs ministry on Yi’s reported plans to visit India. The people cited above said on conditions of anonymity that the two sides are in touch, but the visit is yet to be fully finalised. The people said that the proposal for the visit came from the Chinese side and there were plans for Yi, who holds the rank of state councillor, to also visit Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Pakistan as part of the trip to the region. The White House said India taking up Russia’s offer of discounted crude oil would not be a violation of US sanctions, but appealing to all countries amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said ‘think about where you want to stand’. “But also think about where you want to stand when history books are written at this moment in time. Support for the Russian leadership is support for an invasion that obviously is having a devastating impact,” Psaki said after she was asked about a report on the possibility that India could take up the Russian offer of discounted crude oil. “Our message to any country would be abide by the sanctions,” she said. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak reportedly told Indian Petroleum minister Hardeep Puri in a phone call that the country is keen to increase its oil and petroleum product exports to India along with Indian investments in the Russian oil sector, according to a statement issued by Moscow. Reuters reported New Delhi was mulling the option of buying Russian oil on which Putin is offering a heavy discount. “The officials, who declined to be identified, did not say how much oil was on offer, or what the discount was,” the Reuters report said. An accidental missile fired by India last week prompted Pakistan to prepare a retaliatory strike, people familiar with the matter said, showing how close the nuclear-armed neighbors came to blows over a potentially disastrous mistake. Pakistan had prepared to launch a similar missile to strike India but held back because an initial assessment indicated something was amiss, people familiar with the matter said. The Indian missile ended up damaging some residential property but caused no casualties. The Indian Air Force fired the BrahMos medium-range cruise missile on March 9 from the garrison town of Ambala, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of the capital New Delhi, according to people familiar with the matter in India. The mishap occurred due to human and technical errors during a routine exercise to check systems capable of taking offensive action in war, the people said. Still, after the launch India didn’t use the direct hotline between the top army commanders on both sides to inform Pakistan, the people said, asking not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the information. Instead, Air Force officials moved to shut down the missile systems to avoid any further launches, they said. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday called attention to the growing danger of social media giants being used to threaten democracy. Speaking in the Lok Sabha, she said: “Global companies like Facebook and Twitter are used increasingly to shape political narratives by leaders, parties and their proxies.” She added that it “shows the connivance of the ruling establishment with these social media platforms to set political narratives, which is not helpful for democracy and the democratic structure.” Despite being interrupted by MPs from other parties, the Congress leader urged the government to “put an end to systematic influence and interference of Facebook and other social media giants in electoral politics of the world’s largest democracy.” She further stressed protecting the country’s democracy and social harmony. Sonia Gandhi also focused on social media giants providing a level playing field to all parties, saying, “It has repeatedly come to public notice that global social media companies aren’t providing a level playing field to all parties.”