Daily News Dose: Kerala CM says work on Vizhinjam port won't be stopped | Aug 23, 2022

Hello, this is your daily dose of news from Onmanorama. I'm your host, Haritha Benjamin, and these are the major news stories of the day:

1. The protest by fisherfolk at Vizhinjam continued to dominate the headlines on Tuesday too. Commenting on agitators' main demand, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told Assembly that work on Vizhinjam port work would not be stopped and said 

it was not causing soil erosion

2 Baba Ramdev found himself at the receiving end of the Supreme Court's ire for the Patanjali ads that attempted to discredit allopathy and doctors. The apex court even asked the Centre to restrain the yoga guru

3. BJP MLA Raja Singh held for remarks aimed at Prophet Muhammad in Hyderabad

4. A day after the Supreme Court terminated the Committee of Administrators (CoA), returning officers of the All India Football Federation decided to hold elections on September 2

5. Chief Justice of India NV Ramana has agreed to consider the plea challenging remission granted to 11 convicts in Bilkis Bano case

Let's get into the details

1. Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday rejected the primary demand of the fishers agitating at Vizhinjam in Thiruvananthapuram that the work on the Vizhinjam port should be stopped forthwith.

He was replying to an adjournment motion moved by Congress MLA M Vincent.

It also seemed that the Chief Minister was unfavourable to the other big demand of the agitating fishers, of constituting an expert panel to study the social and geological impact of the construction on the coast.

According to the Chief Minister, the Vizhinjam port construction was not responsible for the erosion along the southern coast of the state. He attributed the erosion solely to climate change, especially the frequent cyclones and depressions that had buffeted the coast since 2016.

2. The Supreme Court on Tuesday pulled up Baba Ramdev in connection with advertisements attempting to discredit allopathy and its practicing doctors amid the COVID-19, and asked the Centre to restrain him.

A bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising Justices Hima Kohli and C.T. Ravikumar said: "Why is Baba Ramdev accusing allopathy doctors? He popularised Yoga. That is good. But he should not criticise other systems."

When informed about Ramdev's advertisement in the media against allopathy, the Chief Justice said, "what is the guarantee that Ayurveda will cure all diseases".

The counsel appearing for the Indian Medical Association (IMA) pointed at the advertisements, where Ramdev had made disparaging statements against allopathy. 

3.  BJP MLA Raja Singh was arrested in Hyderabad today for his controversial remarks aimed at the Prophet Mohammad. The BJP suspended the MLA following the arrest.

On Monday, the MLA released a video criticising stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui and made controversial remarks against the Prophet.

Several people belonging to the community staged protests in various parts of the city on Monday night demanding Singh's arrest.

An FIR was booked against Singh under various sections of IPC about promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs and criminal intimidation among others.

Before we move on, here's a quick reminder to checkout Onmanorama's other podcasts, Wacky News and News Brake. Wacky News is a collection of the weirdest and strangest news from across the globe and News Brake is a clutter-free explainer of the major news story of the week. Both programmes are available on all podcast platforms. 

Now, back to Daily News Dose.

4.  The elections to the All India Football Federation (AIFF) Executive Committee will be held on September 2 and fresh nominations can be filed from Thursday, the returning officer has announced.

The Supreme Court on Monday terminated the Committee of Administrator (CoA), as demanded by the world governing body FIFA, and pushed back the AIFF election by a week.

The nominations for the posts can be filed between Thursday and Saturday while the scrutiny will be done on Sunday.

5. The Supreme Court has agreed to consider listing a plea challenging the grant of remission by the Gujarat government to 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case.

A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana took note of the submissions of senior advocate Kapil Sibal and lawyer Aparna Bhat against the grant of remission and consequent release of the convicts in the case.

The apex court had earlier asked the Gujarat government to consider the plea of remission. 

The 11 convicts walked out of the Godhra sub-jail on August 15 after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy. They had completed more than 15 years in jail.

A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Mumbai on January 21, 2008, sentenced the 11 to life imprisonment on charges of gang rape and murder of seven members of Bilkis Bano's family. 

That brings us to the end of this episode. Be sure to come back tomorrow. As always, thanks for listening to Daily News Dose.