Modi moots ‘One Nation, One Uniform’ for police, asks to uproot both 'gun-totting', 'pen-wielding' Naxals

New Delhi: Stepping up the attack over the Adani issue, the Congress on Monday pounded on the Securities and Exchanges Board of India (Sebi), alleging that the market regulator is seeking to project an “image of hyperactivity” following the new Hindenburg report on its chief Madhuri Buch, but reminded that what matters is actions not activities.

Rejecting the Sebi statement defending its action on Adani Group and giving a clean chit to its chief, the party demanded that the Supreme Court must transfer the investigation to the CBI or a Special Investigation Team “given the likelihood of Sebi’s compromise”.

Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh also reiterated the party’s demand for Buch’s resignation and a probe by the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC). “At a minimum, the Sebi Chairperson must resign to restore Sebi’s integrity,” he said.

He said the Sebi response on the ongoing probe into Adani Group has “sought to project an image of hyperactivity” by referring to issuance of 100 summons, 1,100 letters and emails and examining documents running into 12,000 pages. “This must have been very exhausting, but it diverts attention from the core issues involved. Actions matter, not activities,” he said.

In a statement, he said the “illusion” that the Sebi Chairperson and her husband had separated their finances has been “shattered by the revelation” that after joining Sebi, she had transactions in the fund from her personal email account on February 25, 2018.

It is “shocking to discover” that the Sebi Chairperson and her husband invested in the same Bermuda and Mauritius-based offshore funds where Vinod Adani and his close associates, Chang Chung-Ling and Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli, also invested, he said, adding that both these funds were currently under Sebi investigation.

“Did the Sebi Chairperson recuse herself from the Adani investigations? Do these conflicts of interest explain the prolonged investigation, a delay that has benefited both Adani and the Prime Minister while damaging Sebi’s reputation? How can a match proceed if the umpire herself is compromised?” Ramesh said.

On SC’s March 2023 order to investigate the allegations of stock manipulation by Adani Group, he said the Sebi investigation remains incomplete . The fact is that Sebi’s seeming inability to close two of its 24 investigations against Adani Group has delayed the publication of its findings for over a year, he said.

This “delay conveniently” allowed Prime Minister Narendra Modi to navigate an entire general election without addressing his role in facilitating his “close friend’s illicit activities”, he alleged.

Launched on March 1, 2024, an insurance scheme for Indian workers in the UAE provides compensation of up to Dh75,000 for families in the event of the employee’s death, whether due to accidents or natural causes.

Over 5,500 workers have already benefited from the new welfare scheme, the Indian Consulate in Dubai said on Tuesday.

Known as the Life Protection Plan (LPP), this policy was introduced to address a gap in employment benefits for the 2.27 million blue-collar workers in the UAE.

Although many companies offer health insurance and compensation for work-related injuries and deaths, there was previously no mandatory coverage for natural deaths.

As a result, families could face financial difficulties, including repatriation costs, if their primary breadwinner passed away.

To tackle this issue, the Indian Consulate arranged a meeting between major UAE companies employing blue-collar workers and two insurance providers.

Recently, these insurance providers, namely, Extra Co Group of Companies and Gargash Insurance, completed formalities – at the Consulate – for workers to subscribe to the scheme.

However, this plan has to be opted by the employers or companies for their employees and is currently not available for individual subscribers.

What do the benefits entail?

The Life Protection Plan for workers offers extensive coverage, including worldwide protection, for employees with a UAE employment visa.

It provides benefits for death from any cause, whether natural or accidental, and includes coverage for permanent total or partial disability due to an accident.

Additionally, the plan covers repatriation expenses up to Dh12,000 per person in the event of death. The coverage is available for individuals aged 18 to 70 years.

How much does the plan cost?

•    Dh72 per year – Dh75,000 compensation
•    Dh50 per year – Dh50,000 compensation
•    Dh37 per year – Dh35,000 compensation

Notably, around 3.5 million Indians live in the UAE, with about 65 per cent employed in blue-collar jobs, according to the Indian Consulate.

In 2022, the mission reported 1,750 deaths in Dubai, with 1,100 being workers. A similar pattern was observed in 2023, with 1,000 worker deaths out of a total of 1,513. Over 90 percent of these deaths were due to natural causes.

Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, has been killed in an attack in the Iranian capital Tehran.

The Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) announced in a statement on Wednesday morning that Haniyeh and one of his bodyguards were killed when their residence was hit in Tehran.

The assassination saw a projectile hitting a residence allocated to war veterans in the Iranian capital at 02:00 a.m. local time on Wednesday (2230 GMT on Tuesday).

The IRGC statement said the attack is under investigation and the results will be announced later in the day.

The Palestinian resistance leader was in Tehran to attend the inauguration ceremony of the Iranian president-elect Masoud Pezeshkian. 

Who was Ismail Haniyeh?

Haniyeh was born at Gaza’s al-Shati refugee camp in 1962. 

He joined Palestinians’ First Intifada (Uprising) against the occupying entity in 1987, upon graduation from the Islamic University in Gaza.

The anti-occupation activism prompted Israeli officials to jail him for a short period that year. 

He was imprisoned again for six month in 1988.

A year later, the Israeli authorities put him behind bars for three years on charges of belonging to Hamas. 

Haniyeh spent a year in exile in Lebanon following release, but returned to Gaza afterwards.

In the 1990s, he climbed the ranks within the movement as a close aide and assistant of Hamas’ co-founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

In 2000s, Haniyeh consolidated his position as one of Hamas’ political leaders. The decade also witnessed him and Yasin escaping an Israeli assassination attempt.

Fronting Hamas, he reversed the Fatah movement’s drawn-out reign in 2006, when the resistance group scored a landslide victory in the Palestinian legislative elections.

Haniyeh then served as the Palestinian Authority’s prime minister until 2014, when he was dismissed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

He replaced Khaled Mashaal as Hamas’ politburo chief on May 6, 2017.