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■ Simon Commission, 1927 : • Indian Statutory Commission, popularly known as Simon Commission was appointed by the British government in 1927 under the chairmanship of John Simon to review the workings of Government of India Act 1919 and suggest future measures. • It consisted of 7 british members of Parliament, including the Chairman. • Clement Atlee was a member of the Commission. He would later become Britain’s Prime Minister during Indian independence and partition in 1947. □ Reason for the establishment of Simon Commission : • Diarchy was introduced in India by the Government of India Act 1919. The Act also promised that a commission would be appointed after 10 years to review the working and progress made on the measures taken through the Act. • The conservative British government, in power at the time, feared electoral defeat by the Labour party of Britain. To protect their foothold in India, the British government appointed the Simon Commission in 1927; although the Commission was due only in 1929. • The purpose of this Commission was to recommend to the British government questions raised about constitutional reforms in British India. • Lord Birkenhead, the Secretary of State for India, iterated that the Indians were not capable of formulating a scheme of constitutional reform that could be accepted by different sections of Indian politics. Thus, he was responsible for setting up the Simon Commission in the year 1927. □ Opposition against Simon Commission : • The Simon Commission was an all-white Commission. The members of this Commission were British. It was criticised because there was not a single Indian representative in the Commission. • The Indian National Congress in its 1927 Madras session decided to boycott commission at every stage and every form. • Other parties like the Muslim League, Liberal Party, Hindu Mahasabha etc also decided to boycott the Simon Commission. However, Unionists in Punjab and Justice Party in the south decided not to boycott the commission. • When the Commission landed in February 1928, there were mass protests, hartals and black flag demonstrations all over the country. • People were chanting the slogan, "Simon Go Back". • In Lahore, Lala Lajpat Rai, who was leading the demonstration against the Simon Commission, was brutally lathi-charged. He died later that year due to injuries sustained then. • The new government of the labor party was in power and the PM Ramsey McDonald declared that once the Simon committee submits its report a round table would be convened to discuss dominion status to India. • The Commission’s report was published in 1930. □ Recommendations of Simon Commission Report : • Abolition of diarchy. • Extension of representative governments in the provinces. • There should be complete autonomy in the provinces including law and order but the Governor should be given over-riding power in certain matters like internal security. • There should be a federal Government at the Centre, consisting of British India and the Princely states. • Retention of separate communal electorates until the communal tensions had died down. □ Impact of Simon Commission Report : • Simon Commission, led to acceptance of the challenge of Birkenhead by Indians to frame a constitution on its own, which resulted in Nehru report of 1929. • Arrival of Simon Commission and its subsequent protests at pan India level united the Indians against the British might. • The Simon Commission led to the Government of India Act 1935 which acted as the basis for many parts of the current Indian Constitution. • The first provincial elections were held in 1937 and it saw Congress governments being set up in almost all the provinces.

■ Privilege Motion : • Privilege motion is moved by a member when he feels that a minister or any member has committed a breach of privilege of the House or one or more of its members by withholding facts of a case or by giving wrong or distorted facts. • The Members of Parliament are granted certain privileges individually and collectively so as to perform their duties properly. But if any of the members disregard or misuses any of these privileges or rights, it is considered as a breach of the privilege motion and is liable for punishment under the Parliamentary laws. • This motion is applicable for members of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and if any member notices another member or members breach it, they can move the privilege motion against the accused members. • A committee of 15 members is elected by the Speaker in the Lok Sabha and a committee of 10 members is elected by the Chairperson at the Rajya Sabha. These committees are responsible for managing all the cases and accusations related to the privilege motion and take relevant actions against and breach of the motion. □ Cases of Privilege Motion : There have been various complains raised for the breach of the privilege motion. There have a few cases that rather a lot of public attention. Those are : • The breach of privilege motion was passed on to the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister of the country, claiming that they had misled the members of the Parliament on the Rafale fighter jet deal. • The most significant privilege motion was passed in 1978 against Indira Gandhi. The motion was passed on by the then Home Minister Charan Singh claiming excesses made by her during Emergency. She was found guilty and was expelled from the House.

1st Medal 🥇 for our country in Tokyo Olympics.

■ Bal Gangadhar Tilak : • Bal Gangadhar Tilak, commonly known as Lokamanya Tilak was a leader of the Indian independence movement and belonged to the extremist faction. • He was born on 23rd July 1856 in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra. • Tilak received a Law degree from Government’s Law College, Bombay in the year 1879. • His famous slogan is "Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it". • A book ‘Indian Unrest’ written by Valentine Chirol, an English journalist, stated Tilak the "Father of Indian unrest". • He called for people to be proud of their heritage. He was against the blatant westernisation of society. • Founder of the Deccan Education Society (1884) along with his associate Gopal Ganesh Agarkar and others. • One of the founders of the Fergusson College (1885) in Pune through the Deccan Education Society. • Tilak started the Swadeshi movement in India and to promote it, Tilak with Jamshedji Tata established Bombay Swadeshi Stores. • He popularised the Ganesh Chathurthi festival and propounded the celebration of Shivaji Jayanti on the birth anniversary of the monarch Chhatrapati Shivaji, the first Hindu ruler who fought against Muslim power in India and established the Maratha Empire in the 17th century. • He died on August 1, 1920. □ Political life : • He joined the Indian National Congress (INC) in 1890. • Surat Split - It was the splitting of the INC into two groups - the Extremists and the Moderates - at the Surat session in 1907. • The Extremist group was led by Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai and Bipin Chandra Pal and the moderate group was led by Gopal Krishna Gokhle. • Along with Bipin Chandra Pal and Lala Lajpat Rai, he was called the ‘Lal-Bal-Pal’ trio of extremist leaders. • The extremists wanted to end the tyranny rule of British through protest while the Moderates were aimed at administrative and constitutional reforms. • Tilak rejoined the INC in 1916. • Tilak with Annie Besant, Joseph Baptista, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah founded the All India Home Rule League in 1916. In the same year, he concluded the Lucknow Pact with Jinnah, which provided for Hindu-Muslim unity in the nationalist struggle. • He was one of the earliest and the most vocal proponents of complete independence (or) swarajya (self-rule). • He propagated swadeshi movements and encouraged people to boycott foreign goods □ Newspapers and Books : • He published two papers namely "Kesari" in Marathi and "Mahratta" in English. • The two important books are written by Tilak are Gita Rahasya, Arctic Home of the Vedas.

■ Pegasus : • Paris based media nonprofit Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International accessed a leaked database of thousands of phone numbers across the world targeted by a spyware called Pegasus. • Pegasus is a spyware, developed and licensed by an Israeli company, NSO Group. • It can be used to infiltrate smartphones that run on both iOS and Android operating systems, and turn them into surveillance devices. • Pegasus's method of attack is called zero-click attacks, which do not require any action by the user. The spyware can hack a device simply by giving a missed WhatsApp call. • It will alter call logs so that the user has no knowledge of what happened. • In 2016, It infected smartphones using a technique called “Spear phishing" in which the hackers send malicious links to the target via text messages and emails. • In 2019, Pegasus was able to infiltrate a device with a missed call on WhatsApp and could even delete the record of this missed call. • Once the spyware enters the device, it installs a mod ule to track call logs, read messages, emails, calendars, Internet history, and gather location data to send the information to the attacker. • It can also be installed manually on a device or over a wireless transceiver. • If it fails to connect with its command-and-control server for more than 60 days, it self-destructs and removes all traces. • If it detects that it was installed on the wrong device or SIM card, it will self-destruct. • Amnesty International noted that despite issuing security updates, Android and iOS devices were breached. • To stay safe, users need to ensure that software in devices is updated and all apps are installed directly through the offical stores. No suspicious email or text should be clicked.