FRIDAY 28 JUNE, 2024 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard COUP BID BOLIVIAN ARMY, NAVY CHIEFS HELD PAGE 9 140+ A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS NEW DELHI Emergency a punching bag for Murmu as well A day after Speaker Om Birla deplored Emergency President , Droupadi Murmu followed suit on Thursday, describing it as the biggest and darkest chapter of a direct attack on the Constitution, in her first address to a joint session of Parliament after the constitution of the 18th Lok Sabha. Murmu also expressed grave concern over frequent disruptions in Parliament because of differences between the treasury and the Opposition benches. She hailed the record turnout of voters in J&K in the general elections, saying the Kashmir valley has given a befitting reply to the enemies of India who spread false propaganda at global forums. The President also touched upon various policy initiatives like the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) but was silent on the BJP’s promise of a Uniform Civil Code and the One Nation, One Poll proposal. Murmu said, “The Constitution of India has stood up to every challenge and every test in the past decades. Even when the Constitution was in the making, there were forces in the world who wished India to fail”. After the Constitution came into force, it was attacked many times. “The imposition of Emergency on June 25 in AMID the nationwide outrage over allegations of paper leaks and irregularities involving the National Testing Agency (NTA), the opposition parties said that they will demand a discussion on the matter and bring adjournment motions in both Houses of Parliament on Friday The decision was taken . at the meeting of the floor leaders of the INDIA bloc at the residence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. An Opposition leader who attended the meeting told this newspaper that all the parties President Droupadi Murmu addresses the joint sitting of Parliament | PTI Samajwadi Party MP R K Chaudhary’s demand to replace the Sengol installed next to the Speaker’s chair with a copy of the Constitution triggered a war of words on Thursday. While Opposition leaders supported him, the ruling BJP lit into Chaudhary for disrespecting Indian and Tamil culture. Chaudhary had written to Speaker Om Birla demanding that the Sengol, a symbol of transfer of power when India got Independence, be removed as it represents monarchy NOT content with piecemeal Make in India initiatives in its defence procurement, the Union government has made a policy switch to buy as many as 114 Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft (MRFA) only from a vendor who is ready to set up a manufacturing unit in India for the entire aircraft. It also wants transfer of technology and full production in India in a joint venture with a local partner. A new global tender incorporating these conditions is likely to be floated soon. The radical shift in policy is expected to delay the MRFA ac- 1975 was the biggest and darkest chapter of direct attack on the Constitution,” she said. It drew wide criticism on the Opposition benches. As for the ruling NDA, Murmu said the government is taking all efforts to make the Constitution embedded in public’s consciousness. She pointed out that even in J&K, the Constitution is now fully in force. Giving the Opposition a bit of advice, President Murmu said, “Opposition of policies and obstruction of parliamentary functioning are two different things. All of us are responsible for ensuring that no obstacle comes in the way of achieving the resolution of Viksit Bharat.” Amid the row over alleged malpractices in the holding of NEET-UG and the cancellation and deferment of a few other competitive exams, Murmu said, “My government is committed to a fair investigation and ensuring strict punishment to the culprits. Even earlier, we have witnessed many instances of paper leaks in different states.” Speaking about the government, she said the people have given NDA a clear and stable mandate for a third time. P7 FACED with a vertical split, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) teetered on the brink on Thursday. It “disowned” its official candidate for the bye-election to the Jalandhar West Assembly seat, and instead, announced its support to BSP its former ally The by, . poll is due on July 10. A section of party leaders has revolted against SAD chief Sukhbir Badal, demanding that he step down following its debacle in the Lok Sabha polls. The bypoll was necessitated following the resignation of Sheetal Angural as AAP MLA. While the L-G said the commission was created to serve as a policy think-tank manned by domain experts and was not meant to accommodate favoured people, AAP blamed VK Saxena for doing “petty politics” and said committees of Central or BJPruled state govts have political appointees Two men arrested by CBI being taken for medical checkup in Patna | PTI Anurag Thakur is likely to initiate the discussion on Motion of Thanks on the President’s address in LS, while Sudhanshu Trivedi may begin it in the RS. PM Modi may respond to the debate on July 3 in the Upper House unanimously decided to move adjournment motions on the NEET row in both Houses of Parliament. The parties will demand a debate on NEET in both Houses before the discussion on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address takes place, said another senior leader. “We want the House to function well. The Opposition has made its position clear that the NEET issue should be discussed in Parliament on a priority basis. We won’t let the Since the last date for the withdrawal of candidates was on Wednesday, the SAD was unable to change its authorised candidate, party leader Daljit Singh Cheema told the media. Surjit Kaur was supposed to be SAD’s original candidate, but she was selected by a party panel whose mem- History for Rainbow nation South Africa cruised past Afghanistan to enter their first-ever Men’s World Cup final PROTEAS PACE LIGHTS UP TRINIDAD On a Trinidad and Tobago surface that had immense variable bounce, South Africa pacers Marco Jansen (3/16), Kagiso Rabada (2/14) and Anrich Nortje (2/7) attacked the stumps consistently and reaped the rewards to dismiss Afghanistan for just 56 runs Knowing what is needed to make history, South African openers bided time but at the same time picked up crucial runs before eventually taking the team home. With the victory, South Africa men finally broke the semifinal curse they have had since in the ICC events over the past couple of decades FOR ARUNDHATI ROY Booker Prize-winning author, facing threat of prosecution over comments on Kashmir 14 years ago, was honoured with the prestigious prize for her “unflinching” writings. bers have rebelled against the party chief. The party then announced its support to BSP’s Binder Kumar. “The party has conveyed to its workers to support Binder Kumar in the bypoll. I have requested Surjit Kaur not to contest the election,’’ Cheema said. “We managed to get only 2,600 votes in this Assembly segment in the Lok Sabha polls. The BSP, our former ally, requested the party to support it in Jalandhar West,” he added. The decision has drawn flak from party rebels who accused the party leadership of running away from the electoral battle. SOUTH AFRICA CRUISE THROUGH HONOUR PEN PINTER PRIZE E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ New Delhi Blame game The Union government has been encouraged by its success in getting US company GE Aerospace Defence and Systems to produce fighter jet engines in India in collaboration with the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. As per the deal signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s last visit to the US, GE will transfer 80% technology of its F414 jet engines that will power the Mk2 version of India’s indigenously-developed Light Combat Aircraft. The gover nment has increased the FDI sectoral limit in defence to 74% to make the country a defence manufacturing hub. MRFA L-G VK Saxena on Thursday cleared the way for temporarily dissolving the Delhi Dialogue and Development Commission (DDCD) by rescinding its three non-official members alleging opaqueness in their appointment and unjustified salary they draw from the commission, which is up to `3.8 lakh. The L-G move has drawn strong objection from the AAP “The L-G’s decision is illegal, . unconstitutional and a brazen violation of the jurisdiction of his office,” the AAP said. The L-G ordered the dissolution will remain in force till a mechanism is developed for screening and selection of domain experts as its vice-chairman and members, Raj Niwas officials said. In a file noting marked to the Delhi chief secretary, the L-G noted that the whole exercise of creating the DDCD by the incumbent government was only to extend financial benefits and extend patronage to certain favoured political persons. Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj accused Saxena of doing petty politics. “This is well known that all commissions, committees, boards of the Central or BJP-ruled state governments have political appointees without any test/interview. It’s an old practice. The women commission, SC/ST commission are all live examples,” he said. PM likely to respond in Upper House on July 3 H A R P R E E T B A J W A @ Chandigarh quisition further. sault’s Rafale, Boeing’s Super India has 31 squadrons of Hornet F/A-18, SAAB’s Gripen, fighter jets as against the sanc- Lockheed Martin’s F-21, Rustioned strength of 42. sian MiG-35 and the EurofightA large number of parts of er Typhoon. fighter aircraft purchased earSources said French compalier are already being manny Dassault, makers of Raufactured in India under fale, which has been the the offset obligations. frontrunner to bag the 114 This is the first time contract, is not keen to that the government transfer technology for will be insisting on production in India. DEAL manufacturing comThe Indian government plete aircraft in India has already bought 36 Rawith technology transfer. fale jets for the Indian Air Approximately valued at $20 Force and is likely to go ahead billion, the MRCA is said to be with its decision to purchase 26 one of the world’s biggest de- Rafale Marine to replace the fence deals in recent times. ageing MiG-29s being used on Among the aircraft in the race I N S Vi k r a n t a n d I N S to bag the contract are Das- Vikramaditya. L-G, AAP engage in tiff over govt think-tank PAGES 12 Rajya Sabha Privileges Committee on Thursday held 12 opposition MPs guilty of misconduct for disrupting the House’s proceedings last year P7 SAD disowns its candidate, backs BSP in Jalandhar West bypoll Policy switch to make full fighter jets in India S H A H I D F A R I D I @ New Delhi P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi SENGOL ROW AFTER SP MEMBER’S SUGGESTION @ New Delhi J8.00 LAWMAKERS SUSPENDED IN BOTH HOUSES DURING LAST YEAR’S WINTER SESSION 12 RAJYA SABHA MPS HELD GUILTY OF MISCONDUCT FOR CAUSING DISRUPTIONS Oppn to seek NEET debate in House today No word on the ambitious One Nation, One Poll, Uniform Civil Code RAJESH KUMAR THAKUR REEZA HENDRICKS(L), AND AIDEN MARKRAM The South American nation of 12 million watched in shock as military forces appeared to turn on the government of President Luis Arce RAIN AFFECTS INDIA SEMIFINAL On a rain-hit morning, Rohit Sharma married intent with execution as his unbeaten 26-ball 37 took India to 65/2 off 8 overs before the heavens opened up. After Jos Buttler asked India to bat, Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant departed but Rohit and Suryakumar kept the scoreboard moving | P11 CID files chargesheet against BSY in POCSO case EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bengaluru THE Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Thursday filed a chargesheet against former CM and BJP leader BS Yediyurappa in a case registered against him under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. In the 750-page chargesheet, 74 people have been listed as witnesses against Yediyurappa and his aides YM Arun, M Rudresh and G Mariswamy The . three have been named as accused in the chargesheet for allegedly destroying evidence and trying to shield the ex-CM. Yediyurappa has been charged with sexual harassment (IPC 354A), destruction of document or electronic record to prevent its production as evidence (IPC 204), offering gift or restoration of property in consideration of screening offender (IPC 214), and Section 8 of POCSO Act. Yediyurappa, 81, is said to have sexually abused a 17-yearold girl when she visited him along with her mother to discuss a previous physical abuse case in which her mother wanted the senior BJP leader to prevail upon the government to set up a SIT to probe it. The alleged abuse happened on February 2, 2024. Arun, Rudresh and Mariswamy have been accused of forcing the survivor’s mother to delete the videos, which she had posted on social media. The police had booked Yediyurappa on a complaint filed on March 14, 2024. The case was transferred to the CID on March 15. The mother died due to illness at a private hospital in Whitefield on May 27. When Yediyurappa did not respond to a CID notice, the special court registered a case under the POCSO Act and issued a NBW against him on June 13. The next day, the HC stayed his arrest and asked him to appear before CID on June 17. He was recently questioned as well. government get away with this,” said the leader. While Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi will raise the issue in the Lok Sabha, Kharge will take it up in the Upper House. Sources said that the Opposition parties will not relent until discussion happens. Meanwhile, the CBI on Thursday made its first arrests in the NEET-UG paper leak case, taking two persons— Manish Kumar and Ashutosh Kumar—in custody in Patna for allegedly providing safe accommodation to aspirants and giving them leaked question papers and answer keys. P7 ANNUAL REPORT Rise in hate speech in India, claims Blinken EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi THERE has been a ‘concerning increase’ in anti-conversion laws, hate speech, and demolition of homes and places of worship of minority communities in India, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. Releasing the annual State Department report on international religious freedom in Washington on Wednesday (local time), Blinken said not just India but governments around the world are increasingly targeting individuals, shuttering places of worship, forcibly displacing communities, and imprisoning people based on their religious beliefs. He also noted that attacks against Jews and Muslims have increased in the US after the Gaza war started. The 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom says 10 out of India’s 28 states have laws restricting religious conversions for all faiths. Some of these states also impose penalties for religious conversions done for the purpose of marriage, it adds. The report says that in 2023, Christians and Muslims were arrested in India under laws banning forced religious conversions, adding that in some cases, these laws were abused to harass religious minorities. US ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom Rashad Hussain said: “In India, Christian communities reported that local police aided mobs that disrupted worship services over accusations of conversion activities, or stood by while mobs attacked them and then arrested the victims on conversion charges.” The report notes the Indian government’s plan to enact a Uniform Civil Code has been opposed by Muslim, Sikh, Christian, and tribal leaders as well as some state governments on fears that it will turn the country into a Hindu Rashtra. EXPRESS READ Capital gets shower, temp drops to 35.4°C Rain lashed parts of Delhi on Thursday, bringing a much-needed respite from the severe heat as temperature dropped to 35.4°C. The capital saw a drop of 4 degrees in maximum temperature from a high of 39°C on Wednesday. P3 Yet another bridge collapse in Bihar A portion of a bridge caved in Bihar’s Kishanganj, the fourth such incident in the state in 10 days. Officials said the 13-year-old 70-meter-long bridge collapsed under impact of heavy rain. P8
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