The Weekly GK Compendium – 1

September the 18th

Ramesh Chandra Tripathi is the plaintiff who appealed (later, successfully) for a deferment of the Babri Masjid title suit judgement.

Sri Lanka’s former Army Chief Sarath Fonseka, the leader of the Eelam War IV has been recommended for a 3-year-jail term by a court martial. The trial relates to the establishment’s accusation that he violated the protocol required in Arms procurement.

Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram is the head of an all-party delegation that was sent by the Centre to find a solution to the J&K issue, and, for the time-being, assuage the high tempers that have been running in the Valley for the last 3 months.

The Mining Draft Bill, which has received the Group of Ministers, will have a provision that will allow for the sharing of 26% of profits of mining corporations with the local people living in the vicinities of the mines.
Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front is headed by Yasin Malik. This was previously a violent organization but has since renounced violence and taken civil rights activism as means to achieve freedom for JKLF.
September the 19th

Afghanistan has gone in for its second Parliamentary elections since the Taliban’s eviction from power in 2001.
Mini-fact-file
– Capital – Kabul
– President – Hamid Karzai
– Taliban’s Chief – Mullah Umar
– Ahmed Shah Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance, was assassinated (known as “Lion of Panjshir”). – The NA played an important role in fighting the Taliban alongiwht NATO troops in 2001.

Chief-of-Army Staff of the Indian Army – General V. K. Singh

September the 20th
India won both its reverse singles match, effecting a 3-2 turnaround in its Davis Cup World Group[Tennis] play-off against Brazil. The win marked the first occasion of India rallying from a 0-2 deficit to claim a tie since its competition debut in 1921.

Rohan Bopanna veat Ricardo Mello in straight sets for a decisive victory, and Somdev Devrraman benefited from Thomaz Bellucci’s choice to retire from the game due to exhaustion

Prashant Bhushan, highly respected advocate ruffled quiet a few feathers when, in his interview to the Tehelka magazine declared that almost half, i.e 16 to 17 Chief Justices of India had been corrupt, he then, went on to name them. Contempt of Court proceedings have been initiated against him.

His father, Shanti Bhushan has on similar lines, filed applications naming 8 of the 16 to be “corrupt”.
[To understand the issue of Contempt of Court in the Indian Legal context completely, you can visit – http://www.legalserviceindia.com/article/l255-Contempt-of-Court.html and http://indialawyers.wordpress.com/2007/10/29/contempt-of-court-and-the-truth/]

September the 21st
The All-Party-Hurriyat Conference, an umbrella organization primarily in India-administered Kashmir advocates the separation of the State of Jammu and Kashmir from India and, hence attaining statehood. Important leaders include Mirwaiz Omar Farooq (Head of the Aawami Action Committee), Syed Shah Geelani (Against dialogue, hardline and heads the Jamaat Islami – Kashmir, not to be confused with its Indian namesake, which is different ideologically) and Yasin Malik, head of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, of which we have talked about already.

Sajjan Kumar, Indian National Congress leader found no consolation from the Supreme Court of India which gave the trial-court its go ahead in proceeding with his case pertaining to the massacre of 60 people in the Delhi Cantonment during the 1984 Anti-Sikh riots. Sajjan Kumar is one of the accused.

Jagdish Tytler is another INC leader who has also been accused of conspiring and also participating the killings of Sikhs in Delhi after the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984. However, the victims of this pogrom, like the victims of many riots in the country, are still looking for that elusive thing called “Justice”.

September the 22nd

The “Pride of India Award” instituted by India International Foundation, was given the first Sikh and Asian judge of the United Kingdom, Sir Mota Singh, who was also knighted by the Queen earlier this year.
Jalayagnam is a major irrigation scheme and project started by the late AP CM Y.S.Rajashekhar Reddy and one of the key-schemes that are still being implemented.

The European Union Commission President is Jose Manuel Borosso. Its foreign minister is Baroness Catherine Ashton and the first and present President of EU is Herman Rompuy.

Millennium Development Goals, also called MDGs are essentially commitments made by the governments of various developing countries with regards to issues like potable drinking water for all of their citizens, improvement in the Gender Equality Index, poverty reduction, fighting hunger.

French President: Nicolas Sarkozy
German Chancellor: Angela Merkel
Spain’s Prime Minister: José Luis Zapatero
September the 23rd
Indian Oil Corporation Chairman – B. M. Bansal

Umayalapuram Sivaraman is a famous Mrigangam player

Justice V. S. Sirpurkar recused himself from the three member committee investigating the allegations of corruption and land grab against Justice P. D. Dinakaran.

The committee was set up after 75 members of the Rajya Sabhha moved a motion for the removal of Justice Dinakaran
[For everything about the removal of Judges in India and its process make sure you visit – http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/The-law-on-impeachment-of-judges/555056/]

Navi Pilay is the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
September the 24th

The scheduled judgement by the Special Court in Lucknow on the Babri-Ramjanmabhoomi title dispute was deferred to the 28th. The reasoning of the court was that if there was scope to solve the 60-year-old issue through talks and negotiations, then such a scope must be given a chance. The two major parties to the Civil Suit, however didn’t welcome the judgement saying that negotiations had been tried and had failed 4 times till now.
[Further reading: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article740596.ece?homepage=true]

[Note: This is not a comprehensive compendium. However, this is almost close to one. The compilation is haphazard, and hence, if the reader has issues understanding any part of this compilation he/she may contact us at clatgyan@gmail.com for clarification, we’d be more than glad to help!]

Best
Aymen