World 360*

January 2021

Trump’s Impeachment- The 2nd time

Donald Trump became the first US president to have been impeached twice. The first time in

2019, during his tenure as the President (from which he was acquitted), and the second time

in 2021 after the Democrat presidential candidate, Joe Biden was declared as the winner of

the 2020 US presidential election. In 2019, Donald Trump was impeached with charges of

abuse of power and obstruction of justice. Trump was once again impeached by the US

Senate in January 2021 for inciting insurrection that caused the US Capitol riots on January 6

leaving five people dead. The former president, with the use of reckless and impetuous

words, urged loyalists to flock to Washington and protest the congressional certification of

Joe Biden. A few Republicans believe that impeachment will only further aggravate the

burning fire, while others argued that the US Senate has no authority to put a private person,

as Trump is now, on trial. However, senator Mitt Romney, the 2012 presidential candidate of

the Republican, opined that in a legal sense the actions undertaken by Trump falls no short of

sanctioning an impeachment trial. The US Senate continues to hold its view that this time the

impeachment is not for any private conversation, rather for a very public incitement to which

the world bore witness too. Trump on the other hand warns that impeaching him from office

would be a “tremendous danger” to the nation.

US President Joe Biden’s LGBTQ+ decree

Among the first actions as president, Joe Biden issued an executive order barring workplace

discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The revamped website of the

White House invites users to choose their pronouns in the contact form. Although a

seemingly small step, yet it holds significant meaning to the LGBTQ+ community. To

solidify the new administration’s commitment to inclusion, Dr. Rachel Levine has been

nominated as the first transgender woman to serve as the Assistant Secretary of Health at the

Department of Health and Human Services under the Biden administration. This provides

hope to Biden’s promise of undoing the harmful policies of Trump administration.

The alleged Palace for Putin

On January 23, 2021 riots broke out in various places in Russia protesting the arrest of the

opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is also the narrator of the 2021 documentary film

“Palace for Putin”. The film by the Russian non-profit Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK)

highlights the alleged corruption by Vladimir Putin, the current president of Russia over the

building of the Residence at Cape Idokopas which is termed as Putin’s Palace. Navalny was

detained on arrival in the Russian capital, five months after he was almost killed by poisoning

with a nerve agent.

The differential privacy policy of WhatsApp for users in India and Europe has caused great

concern amongst its Indian users. The new policy will allow the messaging app to share more

user data with its parent company Facebook and its affiliate companies. In the absence of a

personal data protection law, the new policy has sparked outrage amongst not only users but

also privacy and security experts in India. With its all or nothing approach, WhatsApp

doesn’t even provide for an option of opting out of the privacy policy to its Indian users.

Legal experts hold that the difference in the policies between India and Europe was due to the

existence of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which safeguards the data

privacy of European citizens.

Tension over demand and supply of Covid vaccines in the EU

The European Union has invited criticism of its member states over the slow pace of

distribution of Covid vaccines. The US and UK are far ahead in the rollout of vaccines

compared to EU which has been hit by delays, supply problems and a row with the vaccine

maker AstraZeneca. The EU coordinates the purchase of vaccines for all its 27 members to

avoid any competition within the member states. In August 2020, the EU had signed a deal

for 300 million doses with the Swedish-UK pharmaceutical firm. However, recently the firm

informed that due to issues with the supply chain the number of initial doses for EU members

would be lower. As a response EU warned that it could tighten the export of vaccines

produced in the bloc. This could affect the UK since the Pfizer plant that supplies the UK is

based in Belgium.

India’s 72 nd Republic Day and Farmers’ Protest

As India celebrates its 72 nd Republic Day, the capital witnessed a violent turn that the

Farmers’ Tractor Rally took. Delhi Police claims that a few protestors violated the conditions

agreed for the tractor rally on the January 26 leading to ‘extensive damage to public property’

and ‘injuries to many police personnel’. Thousands of protestors entered the Red Fort

complex fighting through barricades and tear bombs deployed by the Delhi Police who later

lathi-charged to disperse the crowd. The clash also resulted in the death of at least one

protestor. However, the cause of death wasn’t confirmed because of the different stands taken

by the Delhi Police and the farmer bodies, the former claiming it an accident while the latter

claiming that the protestor was shot. Various farmer leaders pleaded that the protest remains

peaceful and urged the protestors to keep to the designated routes and maintain peace.

Further, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha issued a statement distancing itself from the ‘violent

elements’. Farmer leaders further announced that they would march on foot to the Parliament

on February 1, the day of presentation of the Union Budget.