Submit your Article

Several Indian soldiers were injured in a clash with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) at Yangtse, Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh on December 9, The Hindu reported. Confirming that the incident has occurred, a defence official with knowledge of the matter, without giving the specifics, said that the injuries on the “Chinese side were much higher than on the Indian side.” This is the first incident of its kind after the June 15, 2020 incident when 20 Indian soldiers were killed and several others were injured in violent clashes with the PLA troops in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley. Several senior officials while confirming that the incident took place declined to comment on the specifics of the incident. There was no response from the Army to questions sent till the time of going to print. According to another source, few soldiers sustained fractured limbs during the skirmish and are said to be recuperating at a hospital in Guwahati. Around 600 PLA soldiers were present when the clashes took place, the source said. This is not the first time the area in Arunachal Pradesh has seen a face-off between the Indian and Chinese troops. Since the boundary is undefined, Indian and Chinese troops often face-off while patrolling the area. In October 2021, a similar incident had taken place when some Chinese soldiers of a large patrol team were detained for few hours by the Indian Army they engaged in a minor face-off and clashed near Yangtse, according to The Hindu. In the last few years, the Army has significantly upgrading firepower and infrastructure along the LAC in the Tawang sector and a similar effort is underway in the Rest of Arunachal Pradesh (RALP). This includes road infrastructure, bridges, tunnels, habitat and other storage facilities, aviation facilities and upgradation of communications and surveillance especially in the Upper Dibang Valley region, as reported earlier. As reported by The Hindu earlier, there has been a change in the pattern of PLA patrols, with large size patrols coming now to assert their claim while also testing India across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) which defence officials had said was to prevent any surprise or getting overwhelmed by Indian troops in case there is a flare up as the Army and Into-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP). Before the 2020 standoff in Eastern Ladakh, Chinese bases have largely been much farther from the LAC. Majority of the transgressions in the last few years are in the Western sector while there is an increasing trend of transgressions in the Eastern and Middle sectors, officials has stated earlier. The LAC is divided into Western (Ladakh), Middle (Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand), Sikkim, and Eastern (Arunachal Pradesh) sectors, The Hindu reported. In Eastern Ladakh, India and China are positioned in close proximity at multiple locations along the undefined LAC for more than two years. While several rounds of talks at diplomatic and military level have eased the standoff at few points turning the areas into no-patrolling zones, there are others where the build-up continues.  

Nepali Congress General Secretary Gangan Kumar Thapa has said that it was legally and constitutionally wrong to issue an ordinance to grant amnesty to Resham Chaudhary, who is serving a life term in connection to the Tikapur carnage of August 2015. He expressed his dissatisfaction for bringing the ordinance without holding discussions within the party. Taking to Twitter on Monday, the former Health Minister said, “This ordinance is legally, politically and morally wrong. This is against the parliamentary system. The government should withdraw the ordinance at the earliest.” Leader Thapa said that the party cannot bear the burden of the wrong decision made by the government. “This is a care taker government. It cannot take decisions of far-reaching importance,” he said. The government has no legal and constitutional rights to issue the ordinance, Thapa added. He further went on to say that the government cannot withdraw the cases that are sub-judice in the court. Saying that the executive has intervened in the jurisdiction of the court and Parliament, Thapa, who was elected as a member of the House of Representatives from the recently held election, said that the government should withdraw the ordinance immediately. Chaudhary has been doing time in the central jail for masterminding the carnage at Tikapur, Kailali, which took the lives of eight people including a toddler in August 2015. A Cabinet meeting held on Sunday had decided to issue an ordinance to grant amnesty to anyone convicted of heinous crimes. Earlier today, another party General Secretary Bishwo Prakash Sharma had also objected to the government decision to bring the ordinance.  

With the election results out, senior leaders of the major political parties are busy holding discussions on the new government formation. Most probably, the process to form the new government will start from mid-December. The Election Commission has started preparations to submit the report of the final results of the elections to the House of Representatives and Province Assembly to President Bidya Devi Bhandari on December 15. The process of forming the new government will start after the President receives the report. After the Election Commission hands over the report, the President will have to call the parties to start the process of forming the new government. There is a constitutional provision that the President appoints the leader of the Parliamentary Party with the majority in the House of Representatives as the Prime Minister. None of the parties have secured a majority in this election. That is why, it has not been decided who will lead the government. Parties are holding discussions on the same. According to the Article 76 (1) of the Constitution, if no party garners clear majority, there is a provision that the President can appoint a member of the Parliament who can obtain a majority with the support of two or more parties represented in the House of Representatives as the prime pinister. If the prime minister is not appointed according to the Article 76 (2) within 30 days from the date of announcement of the final results of the election to the House of Representatives as per Article 76 (3) or the prime minister appointed on the same way fails to obtain vote of confidence as per Article 76 (4), there is a provision that the President appoint the parliamentary party leader of the party with the highest number of members in the Parliament as the prime minister. The prime minister appointed as per Article 76 (2) or (3) will have to obtain vote of confidence within 30 days. The Election Commission had submitted the results of the 2017 election on February 14. CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli was appointed the prime minister on February 15.  

Prabhu Sah, who got elected as an independent candidate in the recently concluded elections, CPN (Maoist Center) deputy general secretary duo Pambha Bhusal and Janardan Sharma and Secretary Devendra Paudel held a meeting at party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s residence in Khumaltar on Monday. During the meeting that lasted for an hour, the leaders discussed power sharing, a leader of the CPN (Maoist Center) said. They also discussed the ordinance issued to amend the Criminal Code to withdraw the cases. A Cabinet meeting held on Sunday had decided to issue the ordinance. Sah was elected as a member of the House of Representatives with the support of the ruling coalition. He has been constantly holding meetings with the Maoist Center leaders lately. Earlier, Dahal had held meetings with Resham Chaudhary, who has been doing time on the murder charge, Janamat Party Chairman CK Raut and Nepal Samajbadi Party Chairman Mahendra Yadav. Recently, the Maoist supremo has intensified meetings with the leaders of various political parties to urge them to help him become the prime minister.