by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : A day after Congress President Rahul Gandhi sought the Prime Minister’s support for the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday asked him to support the proposed law to prohibit triple talaq and nikah halala.
He said that as national parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress cannot have two sets of standards in dealing with women and their rights.
In a letter to Gandhi, which was released to the media, Prasad said: “As part of the new deal, we should approve, in both houses of Parliament, the Women’s Reservation Bill, the law prohibiting triple talaq and imposing penal consequence on those who violate the law, and prohibiting nikah halala.”
Under the triple talaq practice, a Muslim man can instantly divorce his wife by orally repeating the ‘talaq’ word thrice. As per ‘nikah halala’, a woman divorcee has to marry someone else, consummate this marriage to get a divorce and remarry her earlier husband.
Prasad’s letter came a day after Gandhi wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to seek his support for the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament’s monsoon session starting on July 18, claiming that the BJP appears to have had second thoughts on the proposed law even though it was a key promise in its 2014 manifesto.
“As national parties, we cannot have two sets of standards in dealing with women and their rights. We are already too late in conferring the right of adequate representation, equality in personal laws and doing away with such provisions which compromise women’s dignity,” Prasad said.
The BJP leader also targeted the Congress chief over the lapsing of the Women’s Reservation Bill with the dissolution of the last Lok Sabha.
“The bill was originally proposed by the National Democratic Alliance government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee but could not be passed for want of a consensus in Parliament.
“It was reintroduced during the UPA-II government in the Rajya Sabha. Despite disturbances, the BJP and NDA stood in firm support of the bill and got it passed in the Rajya Sabha. For reasons best known to the government of that day, no effort was made to get the bill passed in the Lok Sabha,” Prasad said.
The Minister said that the Modi government welcomes Gandhi’s initiative to support the bill. “However, the government will like to understand fully the reasons why the bill was not taken up for three years by the UPA government in the Lok Sabha and allowed to lapse?”
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Corporate, Corporate Buzz, Events, Media, News, Social Round-up
New Delhi : Amid growing impact of digitisation on the media and entertainment industry, a two-day Asia Media Summit will be held here from Thursday that will discuss an array of issues including media business models in new era and emerging technologies in broadcasting.
The summit, being held in India for the first time, will be addressed by Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
The theme of the summit is “Telling Our Stories – Asia and More” and will see participation of over 200 foreign delegates representing 39 countries including Pakistan and China. Representatives of international organisations including the FAO and UNESCO will be among those participating.
A “prestigious event” of the Asia-Pacific region which is into its 15th edition, it is being organised by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, the Indian Institute of Mass Communication and the Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd.
The discussions will be around themes such as media regulation policies, should all good stories be commercially successful, new technologies in broadcasting and film industry to enhance story telling, media business models in new era and sustainable development stories.
While a pre-summit workshop was held on May 8 and May 9, the summit will be held on May 10 and May 11.
Officials said that media and entertainment industry in India was a “sunrise sector” and grew at 11 per cent in 2016.
They said total revenue was $20 billion in 2016 and is expected to touch $35 billion by 2021.
Citing a recent study, the officials said that the sector is expected to add around eight lakh new jobs in the next five years.
The total output of the media industry is estimated at 2.9 per cent of the country’s GDP and about four million people are associated with it directly or indirectly, they said.
The officials said that creating a job in media and entertainment industry is estimated to create 3.6 jobs in the economy.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, Entrepreneurship, Markets, News, Politics, Technology
New Delhi : Taking a cue from industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s oft-repeated statement that ‘data is the new oil’, the Minister for Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Ravi Shankar Prasad urged entrepreneures to help India become a big centre for data analysis.
“How can you help India become a big centre of data analysis? …as someone said, data is the new oil,” Prasad said, speaking at an event to recognise start-up ventures jointly organised by MeitY, Assocham and Ericsson.
The minister said the government needed data for policy making but the data procured should be anonymous.
Giving an analogy, the minister said: “Suppose in a particular area a large number of children get affected (by some diseases) and the government wants to have a policy (to help them). I seek your (start-ups) support. You must have the data, why this particular ailment is happening in this part of the country — geographical, social, economic (data).”
“But data must be anonymous, so that victims (people) are not known.”
Prasad further said: “My take on data privacy is very simple. There has to be a balance between data availability, data utility, data innovation, data anonymity and data privacy.”
Saying that “we generate a lot of data”, the minister added that it should be properly safeguarded.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Ravi Shankar Prasad
New Delhi : Amid attacks from the Congress over the Rs. 12,600-crore PNB scam, the BJP on Monday accused former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram of aiding jewellers Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi — main accused in the multi-crore bank fraud case — through an 80:20 gold import scheme.
The Bharatiya Janata Party BJP) also targeted Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and sought answers from him on the issue.
Talking to reporters here, BJP leader and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that Chidambaram gave his “blessings and benefits under the 80:20 scheme” to seven private jewellers on May 16, 2014, the day the results of Lok Sabha polls were announced.
“These seven jewellers included Geetanjali and Star jewellers,” Prasad said.
He said the 80:20 gold import scheme was started in August 2013 under the UPA government and was repealed by the Narendra Modi government three months after it came to power.
Prasad said earlier only Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation and public sector undertakings had the right to import gold, but that was changed.
“There was round-tripping under the scheme,” he alleged.
The 80:20 scheme was brought for nominated banks/ agencies/ entities to “rationalise” import of gold in any form to tame the current account deficit.
Prasad said exit polls had predicted that the Congress would lose elections and Chidambaram would not have been Finance Minister after the results were out.
“It was expected of the then learned Finance Minister that he will follow constitutional norms (of not taking important decisions),” Prassad said.
“Chidambaram should say, Rahul Gandhi should say why benefits were passed on to seven private companies under 80:20 scheme on May 16. The nation wants to know,” he asked.
He said Chidambaram’s order was subsequently cleared by the Reserve Bank of India on May 21.
“Mr. Chidambaram, is it ‘jumla’ or corruption? We want that real picture of Chidambaram should come before people. Mr. Chidambaram, please reply is it jumla, blatant favouritism, malafide conduct or rampant corruption?” Prasad said.
He alleged that the Congress was trying to spread misinformation about and fear against the BJP among people.
“Congress should reply who were the people lobbying for Geetanjali and what was the cut?” he said.
Prasad also targeted former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the increase in stressed assets of banks under the UPA government.
He said that the total advance given by banks in 2008 was Rs 18.06 lakh crore which rose to Rs 52.15 lakh crore in March 2014.
Prasad said that stressed assets of banks were pegged at 36 per cent in March 2014 but these subsequently rose to 82 per cent.
“Several times the real picture was not allowed to come on bank records during the UPA rule. The economic structure of the country was shattered by the Congress,” he said.
The Minister stressed there had been no NPAs (non-performing assets) in the loans given under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.
“Under the so-called economist Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the entire banking system was completely sought to be derailed because of interventions, because of pressures, because of patronage,” Prasad said.
The Congress has been targeting the government, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the Rs 12,600-crore PNB bank fraud case and seeking answers from then over Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi being able to leave the country.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Ravi Shankar Prasad
New Delhi : The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed a Bill that criminalises instant divorce with three years of imprisonment for Muslim husbands after the government rejected an overwhelming demand from the Opposition to refer the legislation to a Parliamentary standing committee for detailed consideration.
The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017 was passed by a voice vote after rejecting a resolution moved by Revolutionary Socialist Party member N.K. Premachandran that the legislation be circulated for public opinion.
Various amendments moved by opposition members, including Asaduddin Owaisi (AIMIM) and Premachandran, were negatived in divisions. The BJD and AIMIM later staged a walk out.
The government’s determination to get the Bill passed could be gauged from the fact that it was introduced in the morning and taken up for consideration in the afternoon by suspending relevant rules, and then passed in the evening by sitting late beyond the scheduled close of the House.
Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who introduced the bill and later piloted it in the Lok Sabha, said history was being created today.
He said the issue was not of religion or faith but of “gender justice and gender equality” and appealed to all the parties to rise above political considerations and politics of votebank. “Women are seeing that justice will be done to them. Let us speak in one voice that we are for gender justice and gender equity and pass the Bill unanimously,” Prasad said, winding up the discussion.
Opposition parties accused the government of bringing the bill with “ulterior political motives”.
Prasad said instances of instant triple talaq continue despite the Supreme Court ruling it as unconstitutional in August this year.
He said the government had hoped the situation will improve after the Supreme Court verdict. “We had hope. The judgment came on August 22. There were 300 triple talaq cases in 2017 of which 100 had taken place after the Supreme Court verdict. This raises a big question,” Prasad said.
He also referred to media reports on Thursday about an incident at Rampur in Uttar Pradesh in which a woman had been given talaq-e-biddat for waking up late.
The bill seeks to declare pronouncement of talaq-e-biddat (three pronouncements of talaq at one go) by Muslim husbands void and illegal in view of the Supreme Court verdict.
Prasad said while Justice Rohington Nariman and U.U. Lalit held in their judgment in August that instant divorce was unconstitutional and the government should look at bringing a law, Justice Kurian Joseph had observed that what is a sin in Islamic laws cannot be legal.
The Minister saw no justification in the demand for referring the Bill to a standing committee saying the affected Muslim women were crying for justice and were fully backing it. He said there was contradiction in members wanting it to be referred to a standing committee and some arguing why it was not brought earlier.
The Bill makes the act of pronouncing talaq-e-biddat punishable offence. There is provision for subsistence allowance from the husband for the livelihood and daily supporting needs of the wife as also of the dependent children. The wife would also be entitled to the custody of minor children.
Intervening in the debate, Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar said time was now ripe for the passage of the legislation in the interest of Muslim women. He recalled an instance of a British journalist interviewing the late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru after the passage of the Hindu Code Bill when she asked when would the government introduce reforms in Muslim laws.
Nehru was not opposed to reforms of Muslim personal laws but merely said the time was not opportune then, Akbar said. “That time has come now.”
Though Opposition members, including from the Congress, supported the legislation, they wanted it to be referred to a parliamentary committee so that several lacunae can be removed and the provisions strengthened in favour of Muslim women. The law must ensure that subsistence allowance and maintenance to the women and the children was not stopped, they felt.
Some felt that the BJP government was in a haste to pass the Bill not because of its concern for Muslim women but because it sees this as a first step towards bringing in a Uniform Civil Code. They wanted the measure to be given up immediately.
During the debate, BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi accused the Congress of appeasing Muslims and said there is a need for codification of Muslim personal laws in the country.
“They (Congress) always did appeasement politics for which the country has paid for 30 years and today we have this chance. If we lose this chance today we will not have another chance.,” she said.
“Codification of Islamic law is needed in this country. No one knows what is Sharia, Talaq-e-Biddat… No one knows the difference,” she added.
She also said that Muslim women need not be in any fear as they had a “brother” in Narendra Modi
Owaisi took several digs at the Modi government and also said those who “marry and abandon” their wives should be punished and the government should bring a law to this effect.
He termed the bill as “bad law”.
Prasad, who responded to the concern of opposition members about making triple talaq punishable, said such concerns were not raised when punishment was provided under Dowry Prohibition Act. He said the amount of subsistence will be decided by courts.
He said the bill was against those who seek to keep women in fear.
Sushmita Dev of Congress said the government was not legislating on the issue of marital rape citing that the law might be misused, and asked if the law on Talaq-e-Biddat may not be misused.
—IANS
