Activists

Rao, Gonsalves and Ferreira had been arrested from Hyderabad, Mumbai and Thane respectively, and taken to Pune. Late on Wednesday evening, the Pune district court ordered them to be sent back to their residences where they will be kept under ‘house arrest’. “Arrangements will be made to send all the accused to their respective cities,” said assistant commissioner of police Shivaji Pawar.

According to Pune Police, an event called Elgar Parishad on December 31, 2017 in Pune, where various activists and Dalit organisations came together, was responsible for stoking the violence the next day. In June, the police arrested activist Sudhir Dhawale, lawyer Surendra Gadling, activist Rona Wilson, researcher Mahesh Raut and retired professor Shoma Sen for alleged Maoist ties. A separate probe by Pune (rural) police in the January 1 violence has named two Hindu right wing leaders, Milind Ekbote and Shambhaji Bhide.

The National Human Rights Commission served a notice to the Maharashtra government demanding a report on the arrests. It said the arrests were made in violation of the laid down procedure and so “amounted to human rights violation”. It asked for a factual report on the matter within four weeks. Union home ministry officials said the ministry has nothing to do with the arrests. “Law-and-order and police are state subjects,” said a home ministry spokesperson. A senior security official on the condition of anonymity said the Maharashtra police should have prepared its case better before acting against these individuals.

“It seems that the state police acted in haste by going for arrests of these individuals. These suspects could have been called for questioning first. The option of arrest should have been exercised only if they had refused to cooperate with the probe. And I hope the state police has really solid piece of evidence against these individuals to prove the charge that they were involved in inciting violence,” said the central security official.

Maharashtra government said the police had strong evidence for the arrests. “We have solid proofs of the links of the accused with the Naxal movement. Due process was followed before their arrest based on the evidence the police have,” said minister of state for home Deepak Kesarkar.

In the Supreme Court, two additional solicitor generals, Maninder Singh and Tushar Mehta, appeared for Maharashtra and questioned the locus standi of the petitioners. The petitioners were represented by senior advocate Abhishesk Manu Singhvi, who said the petition was filed in national inter- est. The FIR registered in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence does not mention the activists who, Singhvi submitted, were not even present at the site where the incident took place. Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, also appearing for the petitioners, said the arrests showed how the liberty of citizens has been jeorpardised. Senior advocate Rajeev Dhawan called the arrests random. “If this lady (Bharadwaj) gets arrested then I am the next,” Dhawan added.

Even as the SC heard the petition, hearing into Navlakha’s petition against his arrest continued in the Delhi high court. After almost three hours of hearing arguments, the court was halfway through dictating its order when it was informed of the apex court’s decision. The matter will now be heard on Thursday.

In the Pune court, the city police defended the arrests, producing three letters purportedly recovered during the investigation.the police told the court that the arrested activists were allegedly part of the “anti-fascist” front of the Maoists, were involved in recruiting students and young people, had links with separatists in Kashmir and the North-east and were intending to strike “high political functionaries” . The police also submitted a letter reportedly detailing a plot to assassinate the prime minister.

The arrest of the five activists was condemned by public figures and opposition parties.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar said the arrests were an attempt to divert the attention from the recent breakthrough in the killings of rationalists such as MM Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and Gauri Lankesh. “They are activists. They are Leftists. Their ideology is Left. But I never heard they are associated with Naxalism. It is really unfortunate that the government thought of arresting them,” he said. “The people who have been arrested hold responsible position in the society. Therefore, it is incumbent on the government to put in the public space the reasons for their arrest. This multi-city arrest is a witch-hunt,” Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said.

The BJP hit out at Congress chief Rahul Gandhi for supporting the activists. “Rahul Gandhi said he has no hate against the prime minister. He is now speaking in favour of those who are conspiring to eliminate the prime minister,” BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said. deal with France to buy 36 Rafale warplanes made by Dassault was announced in April 2015, with an agreement signed a little over a year later. This replaced the previous UPA government’s decision to buy 126 Rafale aircraft, 108 of which were to be made in India by the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.

The deal has become controversial with the Opposition, led by the Congress, saying that the price at which India is buying Rafale aircraft now is R1,670 crore for each, three times the R526 crore initial bid by the company when the UPA administration was trying to buy the aircraft. It has also said that the previous deal included a technology transfer agreement with HAL.

“The offer of 2007 had a basic 2007 price, plus escalation, plus currency variation. In 2015 or ’16, this would have been 9% costlier than what the basic aircraft price negotiated was… Loaded to unloaded, you compare the price again. The 2016 price is 20% cheaper than the 2007 offer. So we got it cheaper,” Jaitley said in the interview.

He asserted that no rules were bypassed and the Cabinet Committee on Security approval was taken during the deal, and negotiations took about 14 months to complete.

The deal has also become controversial because one of the offset deals signed by Dassault is with the Reliance Group of Anil Ambani. The Congress alleges the earlier deal was scrapped and a new one signed just to provide Ambani this opportunity for an offset deal. Both the government and Reliance Group have repeatedly denied this.

Jaitley said that, under the offset policy of the UPA, any original equipment manufacturer (OEM) can select any number of Indian partners, both from the private sector and the public for offset supplies.

He attacked the Congress for compromising the nation’s security through “policy paralysis” and not going ahead with a deal after the tendering process was completed.

Responding to Jaitley’s remarks, the Congress asked if the government was scared of a joint parliamentary probe.

“If Modi government has nothing to hide, why can’t they agree to the JPC probe?” asked Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari.

Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said that vendors have to disclose how the offset contracts would be discharged under the defence procurement policy. “For him (Jaitley) to say that offset is not part of the contract is wrong,” he argued.

The NDA government has maintained that it cannot disclose the details of the price on two counts: a confidentiality agreement with France, and the strategic reason of not showing its hand to India’s enemies.

The Congress has rejected this contention and described it as an excuse to conceal the price of the aircraft.

The demonetisation exercise has achieved its objective, said economic affairs secretary Subhash Chandra Garg on Wednesday. He added that cash in circulation in the economy had decreased after demonetisation, indicating the success of the exercise in moving Indians towards a digital economy.

“I think the process of demonetisation is now complete. All the demonetised notes have been returned, notes worth ₹10,000 crore have not come back. There are some amounts stuck in court cases and some with law enforcement agencies. But the amount involved in those is very small,” Garg said.

“There is now ₹ 3-4 lakh crore less in the system than prior to demonetisation,” he added.

Refusing to get dragged into the debate about the intended objectives of demonetisation, Garg said: “Cash in hand is not the only form of black money. Black money is also in the form of benami assets”.

“One of the many advantages of demonetisation was that when the new notes came they virtually weeded out all fake currencies,” he added.

Demonetisation has cast its shadow on political discourse and state election campaigns in the country since November 2016. The BJP leadership has accused the opposition Congress of encouraging corruption and ignoring the interests of the poor. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, himself an economist and former RBI governor, said the note ban was an exercise in ““monumental mismanagement”.

Congress’ chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala demanded an apology from Prime Minister Modi.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said: “Every single claim of Modi and his ministers about the Indian economy has proven to be wrong. He promised 10 crore jobs 5 year ago, but (there has been) all-round loss of jobs across the country since 2014. No amount of spin or PR can cover this disastrous failure of Modi.”

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal demanded the release of a white paper on the note ban. “People suffered immensely due to demonetization. Many died. Business suffered. People have a rt to know - what was achieved thro demonetization? Govt shud come out wid a white paper on the same,” he said in a Twitter message.

One economist noted the multiple objectives the government had set out to achieve through demonetisation and its “shifting goalposts.”

“While a few objectives were achieved, the economy paid a high price for it, especially the MSME ( micro, small and medium enterprise) and NBFC (non-banking financial company) sectors,” said Abizer Diwanji, partner and national leader of the financial services practice at consulting firm EY.