English News Paper

29/07/2021

28/07/2021

Crisis in Tunis

Parliament's suspension seems a power grab

by President, not a response to public anger T unisian President Kais Saied's decision to sack the Prime Minister and suspend Parliament, amid wi despread anti-government protests, has trig gered the worst political crisis in the country since the Arab Spring protests. Among the countries affected by the Arab street protests, Tunisia was the only one that managed to successfully transition from dictatorship to parliamentary democracy. But the North African coun try's elected rulers never managed to ease its economic woes, or offer stable governance. Tunisia has had nine governments since 2011, with its crisis-hit economy be ing battered further by the COVID-19 outbreak - last year, its GDP contracted by 8.8% in real terms. The trig ger now is the government's poor handling of the pan demic. The country of 11.8 million has recorded nearly 18,000 COVID-related deaths so far - one of the highest per capita death rates in the world. Only 7% of the pop ulation are fully vaccinated. Last week, the govern ment's move to speed up vaccination by opening it for all above 18 years ended in stampedes and violent inci dents. Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi sacked the Health Minister, but public anger refused to subside. On July 25, Tunisia's Republic Day, protests broke out and the offices of the ruling party, Ennahda, stormed. This allowed the President to sack the government.

President Saied says he stepped in to "save the state". But in a country where the wounds of decades-long dic tatorship are yet to heal, his move to dissolve an elected government would raise concerns rather than comfort. Both the President and Parliament are popularly elect ed. Mr. Mechichi had the backing of Ennahda, the lar gest party in the suspended Parliament. President Saied, who is an independent, has had a testy relation ship with Ennahda and the Prime Minister. While the Mechichi government has clearly failed in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, the President's move to dissolve Parliament appears more a power grab than a genuine attempt to address the country's problems. Ennahda and at least two other parties have accused Mr. Saied of orchestrating a coup. If they resort to protests, it would pitch the parties that control Parliament against the President, deepening political instability. The 2014 Constitution has called for a constitutional court to set tle crises like these, but the court has not been formed yet. Under the Constitution, the President oversees on ly the military and foreign affairs, while the Prime Mi nister is in charge of the day-to-day affairs of gover nance. So to avoid a constitutional crisis, the President will have to appoint a Prime Minister, who should win the confidence of the Assembly of the People's Repre sentatives. Mr. Saied should act within his constitution al limits, recall Parliament and allow the formation of a legitimate government, which could take steps to ad dress Tunisia's economic and health-care woes.

Newspaper

28/07/2021

Dangerous conflagration The clash between Assam and Mizoram's

police forces was clearly avoidable Tollowing a dangerous and avoidable escalation of an otherwise dormant border dispute, five police men and a civilian from Assam were killed in the Mizo border town of Vairengte in clashes between pol ice from the State and their counterparts in Mizoram, on Monday. The sequence of events, beginning October 2020, suggests that what began as skirmishes between residents close to the disputed border between Assam's Cachar and Mizoram's Kolasib districts has snowballed into a violent confrontation between police and resi dents. The events point to a failure of the constitutional machinery, empowered to de-escalate tensions at the border. The presence of central paramilitary forces should have helped maintain the peace, but it is cu riously not the case. Besides, Assam and Mizoram are governed by the BJP and its ally, the Mizo National Front, respectively, and are part of North-East Demo cratic Alliance, of which the Assam Chief Minister, Hi manta Biswa Sarma, is a founder-convenor. The politi cal bonhomie should have allowed the respective Chief Ministers to tamp down border tensions and to return to the status quo through joint fact-finding teams, in volving the administrative officials in maintaining the peace over the border issue. Instead, both Chief Minis ters have been exchanging allegations on Twitter, seek ing the intervention of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and using videos to tell a story that suited their version of the events - a farcical means of communica tion. This also occurred just days after both Chief Minis ters (along with others) met with Mr. Shah to discuss the resolution of inter-State border disputes. The unfor tunate loss of lives has led to hardened stances, with Mr. Sarma announcing that Assam would deploy "4,000 commandos to guard its border", even as Mizoram's Chief Minister Zoramthanga has maintained that the ca sualties followed from the Assam police's actions.

Sectarian tribalism has been the bane of the North eastern States, with underdevelopment acting as a cata lyst in complicating knotty issues over land and other issues in the region. There is no sure-shot and quick so lution possible to the border disputes between various States without a spirit of give and take and a civic en gagement brokered by the Union government. But for that to happen, governments should, first, not condone violence of any kind and restrain partisans engaging in such activity in their respective States. A resort to one upmanship will only prolong the disputes and harden stances. The Home Ministry must ensure that the As sam-Mizoram border situation is first subject to de-es calation and steps taken to return to the status quo that prevailed before the skirmishes began in October 2020 with the cooperation of the respective States.

Newspaper

28/07/2021

Cinemas in Telangana to open on July 30

The State registers 645 new infections:; with higher testing, Kerala records a sharp increase in cases

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

After a gap of over three months, movie theatres in Telangana are scheduled to reopen on July 30, with Telu- gu films Thimmarusu and Ishq. Theatres have been permitted 100% audiences.

Mahesh Koneru, who pro- duced the legal thriller Thimmarusu, said the team waited for theatres to reopen and did not consider a digital release.

COVID-19

Ishq was originally sche- duled to release on April 23. Another film, Narasimhapu- ram, was also expected to be released on July 30.

The State government is sued a notification directing theatre managements to adhere to the maximum ceil- ing rates, as laid down by the government.

Film exhibitors had been pointing out that in rural areas, ticket prices were un- realistically low, between 10 and 250, Exhibitors argued that they would not be able eet recurring mainte- nance and sanitation costs with such low ticket prices.

Film industry representa tives were hopeful that And- hra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy would allow ticket pricing that would also benefit theatres," N.V. Prasad, a film

producer said. Film industry insiders said

more than 20 Telugu films had completed censor certi- fication formalities and were awaiting release in late Au- gust and September.

Khammam witnessed a spike among 645 cases in the State for the second day with 72 new infections on Tues- day. With this, it stayed at the top of the State's infection tally for the day along with Greater Hyderabad also logged 72 cases. The district had recorded 62 cases on Monday. The new cases in- cluded 58 from Karimnagar, 52 from Warangal Urban, 47 from Pedapalli and 42 from Nalgonda.No case was re- corded in Narayanpet, and only one infection each was detected in Vikarabad and Medak.

Kerala registered a steep increase in COVID-19 cases with 22,129 new infections on Tuesday, as testing in- creased to 1,79,130 samples. The test positivity rate (TPR) was 12.35%. The State had 1,45,371 active cases on Tuesday.

The State added 156 re- cent COVID deaths to the of ficial list.On Tuesday, the number of patients newly ad- mitted to hospitals climbed to 2,351. However, total hos pitalisations of those with moderate or severe COVID has remained more or less steady at 26,266.

Malappuram district re- ported the highest number of 4,037 cases, Thrissur 2,632, Kozhikode 2,397, Er- nakulam 2,352, Palakkad

2.115, Kollam 1,914, Kottayam 1,136, Thiruvananthapuram 1,100, Kannur 1,072, Alap puzha 1,064, Kasaragod 813, Wayanad 583, Pathanamthit ta 523, and Idukki 400 cases.

Karnataka on Tuesday re ported 1,501 new cases, 354 of them from Bengaluru Ur ban, and 32 deaths.

The TPR for the day was 146 %. The State conducted 1,02,494 tests.

As many as 1,767 people tested positive for COVID-19 and 29 succumbed to the in fection in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday. Chennai, along with 16 other districts, re corded no deaths due to CO VID-19.

(With inputs from Thiru vananthapuram, Bengaluru and Chennai bureaus)

Newspaper

28/07/2021

A man who treads middle path

Newly elected CM Bommai was troubleshooter for BJP during House stalemate

KARNATAKA BUREAU

BENGALURU/HUBBALLI

Sixty-one-year-old Basavaraj Bommal, chosen by the BJP as the next Chief Minister of Karnataka, is known as a man who treads the middle path in a right-wing political outfit.

Known as a man who is not easily ruffled and has good parliamentary skills, he is known to be a trou bleshooter for the BJP dur ing the legislature stalemates as he also has cordial rela- tionship across political affi- liations. Even during the tur bulent times in the faction-ridden BJP, Mr. Bom mai did not have many polit- ical detractors.

Politics and administra tion are not new to him, as he is the son of Janata Pari- var stalwart the late S.R Bommal, who had served as Chief Minister of the State and also Union Minister.

to the BJP fold and also went on to become its Chief Minister.

Hailing from Hubballi in north Karnataka, Mr. Basav ir araj Bommal is one the few prominent leaders from the region who have made it big in the State's political landscape.

Mr. Basavaraj Bommal served as political secretary to the then Chief Minister J.H. Patel in 1996-97.

In 1997, he was elected to the Legislative Council for the first time from the Local Bodies Constituency (Dhar wad, Haveri, and Gadag area) and then went on to re tain it in 2003.

He was elected Deputy Opposition Leader of the Up per House from 2000 to 2004. He is representing Shiggaon constituency in Haveri district in the As sembly for the third time in a row after joining the BJP.

Change of guard: Karnataka in-charge Arun Singh felicitating CM-elect Basavaraj S. Bommal in Bengaluru on Tuesday. ANI

In fact, Mr. Basavaraj Bommai's migration from a socialist party such as the Ja- nata Dal (United) to the BJP in 2008 had raised many eyebrows, particularly in the wake of his father being a fol- lower of Marxist M.N. Roy. But the junior Bommal man- aged to assimilate into the BJP and also became its soft

and progressive face.

He earned the goodwill of the BJP high command for staying with it when his mentor and BJP veteran B.S. Yediyurappa left the party in 2012. But that did not spoil his relationship with Mr. Ye diyurappa as he remained his trusted lieutenant when the veteran leader returned