Blinken defends Afghanistan withdrawal decision and process before U.S. Congress
The Hindu
Blinken said he was in “ constant contact” with U.S. allies and partners “to hear their views and factor them” into U.S. thinking on withdrawal.
Testifying before a U.S. House of Representatives Committee, Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the Biden administration’s decision to withdraw after two decades, as well as the , characterized by chaos and violence focused around Kabul’s airport. Mr Blinken, in his opening remarks, which he delivered via video-link to the House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC) on Monday afternoon, suggested that President Joe Biden had inherited a bad deal on Afghanistan from his predecessor, Donald Trump, that the alternative to withdrawal would have cost lives, and that the withdrawal was coordinated with America’s partners. The secretary said the Trump administration had pressed the (former) Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners, including “top war commanders” and . This put the Taliban in its strongest position since September 2001 and the U.S. had its smallest troop level since the invasion, Mr Blinken said.
Supreme Court ruling on socialism, secularism
Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.
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