FRIDAY STATE GOVTS CAN’T MOVE SC AGAINST PREZ AND GUV ON BILLS, SAYS CENTRE 29 AUGUST, 2025 epaper.morningstandard.in State governments cannot file such writ petitions by claiming to be a repository of the rights of the people, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told Supreme Court facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard CHINA KIM TO JOIN XI, PUTIN AT PARADE North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will make his first visit to China in six years to attend a military parade, where Russian President will also be present. PAGE 9 IMPORTANT STEP India, Canada thaw as both name envoys J AYA N T H J A C O B @ New Delhi INDIA and Canada on Thursday named senior diplomats Dinesh K Patnaik and Christopher Cooter as their new high commissioners, filling posts that had remained vacant for over 10 months amid one of the most serious diplomatic crises between the two countries in recent decades. Patnaik, a 1990-batch Indian Foreign Service officer and currently India’s ambassador to Spain, will take up his assignment in Ottawa shortly, the Ministry of External Affairs said. Canada’s Foreign Minister Anita Anand confirmed the appointment of Cooter as high commissioner to India, calling it an “important step towards restoring necessary diplomatic services to citizens and businesses in both countries.” The appointments mark a cautious step toward normalising ties that had sharply deteriorated following allegations by then Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau in September 2023 that Indian government agents were involved in the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey British Columbia. India , had dismissed it as “absurd and politically motivated”. In the aftermath, both countries halted trade talks, expelled diplomats, and downgraded the functioning of their missions. Though Canada follows a 120day process to finalise the agrément—a formal diplomatic approval process—for incoming foreign envoys, in Patnaik’s case, the process was expedited. While the deeper political tensions remain unresolved, the restoration of high-level diplomatic representation suggests both sides are now seeking to stabilise the relationship and move toward normalcy . SINDHU STUNS WORLD NO 2 IN ROUND OF 16 Storms into Worlds quarters after beating China’s Wang Zhi Yi PAGE 11 SC: HOW CAN ASSENT BE WITHHELD FOREVER? A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS  NEW DELHI  J8.00  THE adage, ‘Old Habits Die Hard’, was proven all over again as a criminal, who had reportedly turned into a motivational speaker to return to the mainstream, allegedly committed a theft as he could not control his urge to make easy money . Bhubaneswar Police Commissioner S Dev Datta Singh told mediapersons that the accused, Manoj Kumar Singh of Cuttack’s Baideswar, had broken into the house of a newlywed couple in Khandagiribari PAGES 12 Didn’t say I/other will retire @ 75: Bhagwat R A J E S H K U M A R T H A K U R @ New Delhi CLEARING the air over his recent remark on retirement at 75, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday said it wasn’t aimed at himself or anyone else, alluding to the speculation on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “I never said that I will retire or someone else should retire... We are ready to retire anytime in life and ready to work for as long as the Sangh wants us to do so,” he said on the final day of the Sangh’s three-day lecture series to mark the centenary celebrations of the RSS. Reacting to ongoing attempts to reclaim Hindu sites of worship in Kashi and Mathura, he denied the Sangh’s participation in it, but added that its volunteers (swayamsevaks) were free to make their own decisions. Bhagwat also suggested that every Indian family should have three children to keep the population sufficient and under control. “To keep a civilisation alive, India’s population policy suggests 2.1 (average number of children), which basically means three. But resources have to be managed too, so we must restrict it to three,” he said. CENTENARY EVENT On the issue of Hindu Rashtra, Bhagwat said there is no need to declare Bharat a Hindu Rashtra. “It already is. Rishis and munis have already declared it. It does not need any official proclamation,” he said, adding the Sangh cannot change its stance that Hindustan is a Hindu nation. Addressing concerns over foreign funding, he said that there should be no issue if they are used for service work. “But they should be used for that purpose alone. The problem arises when such funds are used for religious conversions. That is why restrictions became necessary .” Commenting on the language debate, Bhagwat said that all of Bharat’s languages are national languages. “All the languages of Bharat are national languages. But, there should be one common link language and it should never be a foreign language.” If Indians don’t budge, I don’t think President Trump will: Hassett Trump’s top Talks still on aides double at multiple down on India levels: Govt J AYA N T H J A C O B @ New Delhi POLICE LIFELINE Police personnel rescuing ST Residential School students trapped in floodwaters at Sarampalli village in Kamareddy district, Telangana, on Wednesday. Around 300 of those children were shifted to safer locations | EXPRESS | P8 171.3 mm rainfall received at Ramareddy village in Kamareddy district between 8.30 am and 4 pm 69 trains were cancelled in Telangana, while 18 other trains were partially cancelled due to water overflowing on the tracks 15 SDRF teams and 5 NDRF teams deployed in Kamareddy and other districts; 100 Army personnel engaged in rescue, relief in Medak KAPIL SHARMA CAFE ATTACK EXPRESS READ 4 MEN LINKED TO BISHNOI GANG HELD Reddy questions letter on him by ex-judges N I T I N R A W AT @ New Delhi DELHI Police on Thursday claimed to have arrested four operatives linked to foreign-based gangsters Harry Boxer and Rohit Godara from the city and Punjab. While two of them were held from Delhi, two others were arrested from Mohali. Boxer and Godara are associated with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. The accused have been identified as Kartik Jakhar (29), Kavish Phutela (25), Manoj Saharan (21), and Pawan Kumar (30). According to police, information was received against the members of the gang of Boxer-Godara, who are hiding in the US and making extortion calls to businessmen, builders and property dealers in Rajasthan, Punjab and Delhi and extorting money from them. It was learnt that Jakhar is coordinating the operations in India, whereas Kavish is an active member. Boxer is wanted in many cases of extortion and firing, and hiding in a foreign country and operating his gang in association with Rohit Godara in India through Jakhar and his aides. Boxer has threatened comedian Kapil Sharma after shooting at his café in Canada, police said. On Wednesday, information was received that Jhakar and Kavish have been sent to Delhi by Boxer. The police chased them asking them to surrender when were crossing Dharmshila Cancer Hospital in Vasundhara Enclave on a motor-cycle at 12.50 am. However, the pillion rider opened fire on the police. In exchange of fire, Jakhar received bullet injury in his leg, In a follow-up operation, Saharan and Kumar were arrested from a hotel in Mohali on Thursday morning. Some signatories of a recent letter attributed to 56 ex-judges slamming 18 other former judges over their criticism of Amit Shah’s remarks on Justice Sudershan Reddy’s Salwa Judum ruling say they never signed it, the INDIA bloc V-P candidate claims. | P7 Bengal readies for poll body’s SIR rollout In an indication of the SIR of poll rolls kicking in soon in West Bengal, the state administration on Wednesday instructed the appointment of all electoral registration officers and assistant electoral registration officers within 24 hours | P8 IndiGo lease of Turkish planes extended In a significant development, aviation regulator DGCA has given a six-month extension till February 28, 2026 to IndiGo to operate two leased Boeing 777 aircraft from Turkish Airlines with certain conditions. | P4 Burglar-turned-motivational speaker held for theft R A M A S H A N K A R @ Bhubaneswar The Supreme Court’s five-judge Constitution bench hearing a Presidential Reference seeking clarity on whether timelines could be imposed on the President and governors for deciding on bills passed by the State legislatures, said the term ‘as soon as possible’ used in Article 200 of the Constitution will serve no purpose if consent is withheld for “eternity” area on August 14 when they were not around, and decamped with gold ornaments worth `20 lakh and `1 lakh cash. Police registered a case, collected information and took tech support to identify and nab Singh in connection with the crime. Having criminal record since 2011, Singh told the investigators that he had decided to quit the crime and return to the mainstream. He opened a YouTube channel ‘Change Your Life’ about three months back with an objective to reintegrate criminals into the society by ‘Change Your Life’ Manoj Kumar Singh broke into the house of a newly-wed couple on August 14 and decamped with gold ornaments worth over `20 lakh and `1 lakh cash. Having criminal record since 2011, Singh said he had quit the crime and opened YouTube channel ‘Change Your Life’ three months back. motivating them to quit committing crimes. However, he could not control his urge to make easy money through burglary. Singh’s daughter who assisted him in recording videos and upload them on YouTube reportedly deleted the channel after he was arrested once again on charges of theft. Out of the total stolen items, Singh had mortgaged 82 gm at a non-banking financial company’s branch in Nayagarh and availed a loan of `4.73 lakh. Police have seized stolen gold ornaments and cash from Singh. During investigation, it was established that the accused was a thief and was earlier booked in 10 cases. P U S H P I TA D E Y @ New Delhi HARDENING their stance against India over New Delhi’s energy trade with Russia and refusal to open up its markets for American corporations, US President Donald Trump’s two top economic advisers, Kevin Hassett and Peter Navarro, have issued sharp warnings against India. Hassett, director, National Economic Council, tied Washington’s steep tariffs on Indian goods to New Delhi’s stance on Russia. “If the Indians don’t budge, I don’t think President Trump will,” he said, calling trade negotiations with India complicated and criticising India’s ‘intransigence’ in opening up markets. White House Trade Advisor Navarro bluntly accused India of enabling Russia’s war. In an interview to Bloomberg, Navarro dubbed the Ukraine conflict ‘Modi’s war’, Peter Navarro blaming India for prolonging the fighting by continuing to buy Russian oil. The duo’s sharp remarks signal a renewed hardline posture from the Trump administration as it links trade policy with geopolitical alignment. Kevin Hassett “This isn’t just about trade,” Hassett said. “Part of it has been tied to the pressure we’ve been trying to put on Russia in order to secure a peace deal and save millions of lives. Then there’s the Indian intransigence about opening their markets to our products.” Taking a more provocative line, Navarro said: “Everybody in America loses because of what India is doing… Consumers lose, businesses lose, workers lose because of high Indian tariffs. And the taxpayer? They fund Modi’s war.” Navarro also lashed out at India’s insistence on sovereign decision-making in energy policy calling it “arrogant,” and accused the , country of siding with authoritarians. “India, you’re the biggest democracy in the world. Act like one. Side with the democracies,” he said, lumping India’s Russia and China ties into a broader critique of its foreign policy alignment. WITH the 50% tariffs officially coming into force, New Delhi has intensified efforts to mitigate the fallout. According to a senior commerce ministry official, discussions are on with exporters as well as officials of the Trump administration. “Engagements with exporters are going on. Official-level engagements between the two countries are also on,” the official said. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the Ministry of Exter nal Affairs (MEA), and the Ministry of Commerce are jointly coordinating efforts to cushion the impact on exporters. Speaking to this newspaper, an official said the government is trying to find a way out of the tarUnwavering and iff mess and seriously unequivocal pursuing engagements at support for the multiple levels— government’s diplomatic, political and stance on not commercial. The official yielding to the unreasonable and said the strategies include unethical pressure putting pressure on the of the reciprocal Trump administration ustariffs imposed on ing the Democrats and India by the United businesses there. “BusiStates nesses are the ones who —Sudhir Sekhri, are suffering even in the chairman, AEPC US,” said the official. Meanwhile, separate meetings between ministries and industry representatives are being held. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has initiated dialogues with key trade bodies to address liquidity and financial concerns triggered by the new tariffs. RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra had earlier promised exporters that all measures would be taken to deal with the emerging situation. On Thursday a delegation from the Federa, tion of Indian Export Organisations met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. According to the federation, Sitharaman assured them that the government would safeguard workers’ livelihoods and urged industry leaders to reassure employees about job continuity despite global turbulence. Exporters, despite being concerned about the impact on their businesses, have largely backed the government’s stance of dealing with tariff pressure from Washington. In a 1st, JNU admin dismisses teacher for ‘underperformance, long absence’ I F R A H M U F T I @ New Delhi IN an unprecedented move, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has terminated the services of an assistant professor, citing unsatisfactory performance and unauthorised absence. This marks the first instance in the university’s history that a faculty member has been dismissed during probation for underperformance. An official order issued on August 27 said that Dr Rohan Venkatesh Halapeti Choud- hari, who was appointed to the Centre for Political Studies, School of Social Sciences in April 2024, was on probation for two years. The order states that his probation was extended due to “unsatisfactory performance” and that he had also taken 51 days of unauthorised leave between May and July 2024 without prior per mission. Following a show-cause notice, a committee inquiry, and personal hearing, the Executive Coun- cil approved his termination with immediate effect. The decision has triggered sharp criticism from the Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA), which has termed it a “targeted action” driven by “personal vendetta” of the vice -chancellor. “There are no grounds for such action, as the matter was no more than an inadvertent omission, arising from family medical emergencies,” JNUTA said.