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The Waqf Amendment Bill, which seeks to reduce the authority of waqf boards and increase government control over them, was tabled in the Lok Sabha by Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday. The bill proposes amendments to 44 sections of the Waqf Act, 1995, including allowing non-Muslims on waqf boards, restricting property donations and changing how waqf tribunals function.
Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi alleged that the Bill aimed to defame minorities and divide Indian society. Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav said it was part of a strategy to maintain the government’s vote bank.
The Janata Dal (United) and Telugu Desam Party, both allies of the Bharatiya Janata Party, expressed support for the bill. As the BJP does not have a majority in the Lok Sabha by itself, it may need the support of these parties to pass the Bill. Read on.
In garb of ‘amendments’, waqf bill intends to undo one of India’s oldest Muslim institutions
The Tamil Nadu Assembly has passed a resolution urging the Centre to retrieve Katchatheevu island from Sri Lanka. Chief Minister MK Stalin said the move was necessary to protect Tamil Nadu fishermen’s traditional rights and livelihoods. He noted that the island’s retrieval was the “only permanent solution” to end the detention of Indian fishers by the Sri Lankan Navy.
Katchatheevu, an uninhabited island in the Palk Strait, became a territory of Sri Lanka through a 1974 maritime boundary agreement but remains a contentious issue in Tamil Nadu politics due to recurring clashes between the Sri Lankan Navy and Indian fishermen. Stalin urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to seek the release of detained Indian fishermen during his scheduled visit to Sri Lanka this week.
The Bharatiya Janata Party accused Stalin of using the issue for political gain. Before the Lok Sabha election in April 2024, Modi blamed the Congress for “callously” giving away the island to Sri Lanka under Indira Gandhi’s government. Read on.
The Delhi High Court has directed the Wikimedia Foundation to remove allegedly defamatory content about Asian News International from Wikipedia, a free online collaborative encyclopaedia edited by volunteers. The order was passed on an interim application filed by ANI as part of a Rs 2 crore defamation suit.
The news agency alleged that the foundation had published false and defamatory material on ANI’s Wikipedia page with intent to harm its reputation. The Wikipedia page about ANI mentions that the news agency has been criticised for acting as a “propaganda tool” for the Union government.
In October, the High Court directed the Wikimedia Foundation to take down a page related to the case’s proceedings, after which Wikipedia restricted access to the page. The Wikimedia Foundation challenged the order in the Supreme Court, which issued a notice to ANI. The next hearing in the matter is on April 4. Read on.
A Delhi High Court case could end up threatening how Wikipedia works in India
Two women, suspected to be Maoists, have been killed in a gunfight with security forces in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandla district. The two women had a bounty of Rs 14 lakh each on their heads, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav said.
The Hawk Force, a specialised unit of the state police, was conducting a search operation for suspected Maoist activity in the Sarai forest when the gunfight occurred, Balaghat Inspector General of Police Sanjay Kumar said.
Over the past five years, more than 20 suspected Maoists have been killed in gunfights with security forces in Madhya Pradesh. In the Bastar region of neighbouring Chhattisgarh, Scroll reported that while the police claimed to have killed many reward-carrying Maoists in 2024, the families of several of the dead claimed that they were civilians. Read on.
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