HOUSES RAZED

QUAD MODI

and infrastructure projects and meetings with some of Japan’s top business leaders will dominate the agenda for the first day of Modi’s visit to Japan Monday.

Modi is visiting Tokyo at the invitation of his Japanese counterpart Kishida to participate in the second in-person Quad Leaders Summit on May 24. On Monday, he will attend the event convened by Biden to launch the Indo-pacific Economic Framework (IPEF). The bilateral meeting between Biden and Modi will include a “constructive and straightforward” dialogue along with a continued discussion on the Ukraine situation, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.

Kishida visited India in March for the annual bilateral summit, and Modi said he will continue his conversation with his Japanese counterpart to strengthen the India-japan special strategic and global partnership.

“The newly elected Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese will be joining the Quad Leaders Summit for the first time. I look forward to a bilateral meeting with him during which the multifaceted cooperation between India and Australia under the comprehensive strategic partnership, and regional and global issues of mutual interest will be discussed,” Modi said.

During the bilateral summit in March, Kishida and Modi announced their intention to realise public and private investments and financing from Japan worth five trillion yen over the next five years. Japan is home to nearly 40,000 members of the Indian diaspora.

India and countries such as Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore are widely anticipated to join negotiations for the IPEF, though the US and other countries have not made any formal announcement regarding the membership of what is being described by American officials as an economic arrangement for the integration of Indo-pacific economies. Indian officials have said that New Delhi has received details of the US initiative and discussions have been held on the issue.

Foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra said on Saturday discussions were going on regarding IPEF even as he acknowledged that economic cooperation is a very important segment of India’s focus on the Indo-pacific, both in terms of harnessing opportunities for economic partnership and capacity-building.

IPEF is being perceived as a fresh bid by the US to assume a larger role in the economic sphere and regain credibility following former president Donald Trump’s decision in early 2017 to pull out of the Trans-pacific Partnership (TPP). IPEF is not a trade agreement and will have no impact on matters such as tariffs.

The four pillars of IPEF are fair and resilient trade, including standards for digital, labour and environment, resilient supply chains, infrastructure projects and clean energy, and tax and anti-corruption.

Sullivan on Sunday dismissed suggestions that IPEF was a security arrangement, and said it is “an economic arrangement focused around the further integration of Indo-pacific economies, setting of standards and rules, particularly in new areas like the digital economy, and also trying to ensure that there are secure and resilient supply chains.”

He said IPEF “will not be negotiating out maritime security arrangements”, even as he dismissed suggestions by the Chinese side that the framework would be a closed arrangement.

IPEF will work to create highstandard approaches to the digital economy, clean energy transition, diverse and resilient supply chains and open and transparent economic governance, Sullivan said.

police officer from another district, has been started. It won’t be surprising if police had some role in his death as well. But that will be known after the probe is over,” Mahanta said.

A post mortem examination of Islam’s body has been conducted and the report is awaited, GP Singh, special DGP (law and order), said. “Post-mortem report, forensic report of viscera sample and the independent probe by police will decide the cause of death. If we find there was some foul play in Islam’s death, a regular case in that regard would be lodged and investigation initiated against those involved,” he added.

Giving details about the attack on the police station, Mahanta said it was the outcome of “organized and systemic planning”.

Some terror elements including those with links to Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), a terror outfit from Bangladesh with links to Al Qaeda in Indian Sub-continent (AQIS), could have also played a role in Saturday’s incident, the DGP said.

Confirming the arrests, GP Singh, special DGP (law and order), said, “We have registered a case and arrested five people and detained 15 others for questioning. An SIT has been formed to probe the incident. It will complete investigations within 45 days and file charge sheet within 60 days.”

The SIT will also get in touch with officials in Barpeta and Bongaigaon districts, where investigations into terror links of the accused from Bangladesh are already underway, Singh said.

“If any links with banned terror or jehadi outfits are established with the accused in the mob attack, we will include provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act,” Singh said.

The police are probing if the police station was attacked in an attempt to destroy records. “Investigations by SIT would also probe if there was a pre-planned move to destroy records kept at police station or snatch weapons kept there,” Singh said.

During its probe, the police have identified people involved in the drug trade and dacoities in the region, DGP Mahanta said. “In the videos of Saturday’s incident, we have identified a person involved in trade of illegal drugs called Anowar. Another dreaded dacoit called Allauddin has also been seen in the videos. There were many records of people involved in drug trade and dacoities in the police station,” Mahanta said.

Meanwhile, the residents in the area alleged that several houses were razed. These included Islam’s house and the houses of two of his relatives.

Mahanta, however, said the demolition drive was conducted after police found suspicious activity in some of the houses.

“In order to investigate that and clean the area, we have razed some homes and if required we will conduct digging in the area as well. We have reason to believe that there was a conspiracy behind the attack and our investigation will focus on that,” said Mahanta.

Senior police officials including Nagaon superintendent of police Leena Doley did not respond to HT’S requests for comment.

The violence and the police action have led to a political controversy in the state.

Sibasagar MLA and president of Raijor Dal, Akhil Gogoi said, “Attack on a police station is condemnable and action should be taken against all involved. But under what law did the police went ahead and razed houses of some people?”

Information minister Pijush Hazarika, who is also the guardian minister for Nagaon, said that none of those involved in the attack on the police station would be spared.

“The burning of a police station by a mob is unfortunate. Action should be taken against all those involved. But there should also be investigation on how a person died in custody. Why was the station allowed to be burned? Where were the police? Why didn’t they prevent it?” Congress MLA from Batadrava, Sibamoni Bora, said.

CENTRE DUTY CUTS

on petrol from ₹13 a litre to ₹5, and on diesel from ₹8 to ₹2, which became effective from Sunday. “Although RIC is part of the non-divisible pool, the revenue collected through this cess is utilised by the Centre in infrastructure development in states,” a government official said, requesting anonymity.

The duty reduction made on Saturday has a revenue implication of ₹1 lakh crore a year for the Centre, the FM said. “The duty reduction made in November’21 has an implication of Rs 1,20,000 cr a year for Centre. Total revenue implication...on these two duty cuts is thus ₹2,20,000 cr a year,” she said. Implying that the duties and cess on auto fuels helped providing relief to the poor and farmers, and the revenue thus generated has been used in developmental work, Sitharaman cited the RBI’S data for a comparative analysis.

“RBI data shows total developmental expenditure incurred by the ...@narendramodi Govt during 2014-22 was ₹90.9 lakh crore. In contrast, only ₹49.2 lakh crore was spent on developmental expenditure during 2004-14,” she said. “The expenditure incurred by our Govt under @Pmoindia @narendramodi includes ₹24.85 lakh crore spent so far on food, fuel and fertiliser subsidies and ₹26.3 lakh crore on capital creation”, she added.

Experts, however, said there are some indirect implications on states’ revenues even when the Centre reduces non-shareable excise components because value-added tax (VAT) charged by states on petrol and diesel are according to the value of the fuels. Accordingly, the VAT on petrol in Delhi (including VAT on dealers’ commission) on Sunday came down to ₹15.71 a litre from ₹17.13, Indian Oil Corporation data showed. Similarly, diesel VAT in Delhi fell from ₹14.12 per litre to ₹13.11 a litre on Sunday.