Hindustan Times News | 24th March 2022 | 8 AM

HT Daily News Wrap

Karnataka high court refuses to drop rape charges against a man for his wife’s sexual assault, India maintains its neutral stance on the Rusia-Ukraine situation by abstaining from a resolution brought by Russia on the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, Russia expels a number of American diplomats from the US embassy in Moscow and other top news in this bulletin.
India maintained its neutral stance on the Rusia-Ukraine situation by abstaining from a resolution brought by Russia on the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. The resolution was not adopted by the United Nations Security Council as it got 2 yes votes from Russia and China. India along with 12 other UNSC members skipped voting on the resolution that demanded: “civilians, including humanitarian personnel and persons in vulnerable situations, including women and children are fully protected, calls for negotiated ceasefire for enabling safe, rapid, voluntary and unhindered evacuation of civilians, and underscores the need for the parties concerned to agree on humanitarian pauses to this end.” No countries voted against the resolution which, however, had no reference to the invasion. Other security council members made statements after the vote on the resolution which India skipped. On earlier occasions, India had abstained on voting in the Security Council twice and once in the General Assembly on resolutions on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On March 24, 2020 Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a nationwide lockdown in India to prevent the spread of Covid-19 infections. What has changed in the last two years? Here are four charts which answer this question. In absolute terms the first lockdown was the hardest, but a relative comparison shows different results. How stringent was India’s lockdown when it was first imposed, and what has been India’s unlock progress compared to the rest of the world? A good way to answer these questions is to look at the Oxford Stringency Index data. The Index is a composite measure of nine response metrics: school closures, workplace closures, cancellation of public events, restrictions on public gatherings, closures of public transport, stay-at-home requirements, public information campaigns, restrictions on internal movements, and international travel controls. A comparison of quarterly Oxford Stringency Index scores using data from www.ourworldindata.org shows the second quarter of 2020 (April-June) saw the hardest lockdown in India in terms of number of regulations, with the average score being 89.8. India was ranked 16 among 185 countries in that quarter with the median score being just 74.5. The Karnataka high court on Wednesday refused to drop rape charges framed by a trial court against a man for his wife’s sexual assault, ruling that the marriage doesn’t confer any special male privilege or a license for unleashing a “brutal beast” on the wife. “Institution of marriage does not confer, cannot confer and in my considered view, should not be construed to confer, any special male privilege or a license for unleashing of a brutal beast. If it is punishable to a man, it should be punishable to a man albeit, the man being a husband,” justice M Nagaprasanna said in his verdict, declining to accept the husband’s plea that he cannot be tried for marital rape under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). “In my considered view, such an argument cannot be countenanced. A man is a man; an act is an act; rape is a rape, be it performed by a man the “husband” on the woman “wife”,” the bench pointed out. In March 2017, the woman accused her husband of sodomy, aggravated sexual harassment assault of her 9-year-old daughter, domestic violence, causing hurt. On completing their investigation, the police added section 376 of IPC which relates to punishment for rape, and sections 5 (m) and (l) and section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, which relate to repeated penetrative sexual assault. Almost a month after the United States expelled as many as 12 Russian representatives to the United Nations, Russia, in a retaliatory move on Wednesday, expelled a number of American diplomats from the US embassy in Moscow. “On March 23, Russia’s ministry of foreign affairs gave the embassy a list of diplomats declared ‘persona non grata’ from Russia’s ministry of foreign affairs on March 23,” a State Department spokesperson said, confirming the development. The spokesperson also described the move as Moscow’s ‘latest unhelpful and unproductive step’ in the bilateral ties between the two countries. “Now more than ever, it is critical that the two countries have necessary diplomatic personnel in place to facilitate communication between our governments. Therefore, we call on the Russian government to end its unjustified expulsion of American diplomats and staff,” the spokesperson further said, referring to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. There is no information on the number of diplomats who were asked to leave. Reacting to a video going viral on social media, the Delhi Police on Wednesday issued a clarification that they have not given any director to any Delhi hotel to not give reservations to people from Jammu and Kashmir. “Some netizens are trying to discredit the image of Delhi Police through willful misrepresentation of the video in circulation which can attract penal action,” Delhi Police tweeted. This comes in response to the viral video where a resident of Srinagar, who has been identified as Syed by local media, was denied a room that he booked through a website. The incident took place on March 22. In the purported video, the receptionist can be seen making a call to another person asking what to tell this guest. “Police have said we can’t give rooms to people from J&K,” the receptionist said, in the video which was recorded by the man himself. The video went viral after J&K students’ association national spokesperson Nasir Khuehami shared the video on Twitter calling the incident the impact of ‘The Kashmir Files’ on the ground. “Impact of Kashmir Files on ground. Delhi Hotel denies accommodation to kashmiri man, despite provided id and other documents. Is being a kashmiri a Crime,” the tweet read.