1. War Not a Solution, Issue Can Be Resolved Through Talks: Sushma on Doklam
War is not a solution and India will resolve the border standoff with China through dialogue, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said on Thursday, as the Communist neighbour again asked New Delhi to withdraw troops from Doklam if it wanted peace.
It was not possible to resolve every issue through war and solutions could be found through talks, Swaraj told the Rajya Sabha about the standoff between the border guards of the two countries close to Sikkim in India’s northeast.
“Patience and bhasha saiyam (restraint) are very important to resolve the issue. If there is no restraint, it provokes the other side,” Swaraj said during a four-and-a-half-hour discussion on India’s foreign policy and engagement with strategic partners.
Opposition member raised various issues including Doklam standoff, China’s attempts to encircle India and New Delhi’s Pakistan policy. “Countries have armies to stay prepared for war. But war is not a solution to anything. Even after war, there has to be a dialogue. So have dialogue without a war,” she said.
Source: Hindustan Times
2. Major, Sepoy Killed in Shopian Ambush
In another day of bloodletting in Kashmir, an Army major and a soldier were killed in an ambush in Shopian while two terrorists were gunned down by security forces in Kulgam district on Thursday.
A joint team of the Army’s 62 Rashtriya Rifles, Special Operations Group and the CRPF launched a cordon-and-search operation at Zaipora village in Shopian following a tip-off about the presence of some terrorists at around 2.30 am on Thursday.
However, the terrorists hiding in the area fired at the forces and Major Kamlesh Pan dey, along with sepoy Tanjin Chhutin and Kripal Singh, were were hit, defence spokesman Rajesh Kalia said. Major Kamlesh and Sepoy Tanjin succumbed to their injuries at the military hospital. The condition of Kripal was said to be critical. The district police officer said the search operation to track down the terrorist group was still going on till the filing of this report.
Sources said the terrorists, believed to be three in number, managed to escape while taking advantage of darkness during the pre-dawn hours. Hizbul Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the terror attack.
Source: Times of India
3. First Attack Over Meat in Bihar: 3 Held, Beaten Up
In the first case of cow vigilantism in Bihar, a week after the JD(U) tied up with the BJP to form the state government, three men were allegedly beaten by local residents in Bhojpur Thursday on suspicion that they were transporting prohibited meat in a truck. The truck, which was intercepted near Shahpur, has been seized and meat samples sent for laboratory tests, said police. Police suspect that the truck, which was bound for West Bengal, was carrying buffalo meat.
Cow and buffalo slaughter is banned in the state, according to The Bihar Preservation and Improvement of Animals Act, 1955. Police have arrested the three who were assaulted and identified them as Sarfuddin Khan and Ajmulllah Khan from Bikramganj and Gulam Khan of Hariharganj in Rohtas district. However, those who intercepted the truck are yet to be identified, said police.
Source: Indian Express
4. SC Rejects Congress Plea, Refuses to Stay EC Notification on NOTA
In a setback to the Congress, the Supreme Court refused to stay the Election Commission’s notification allowing NOTA in the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections on 8 August in Gujarat. The apex court has, however, agreed to examine the constitutional validity of the 1 August notification of the Election Commission allowing the NOTA option.
Issue notice. We will examine it. We are not going to stay the proceedings.SC Bench
Hearing the plea on Thursday, the three-judge bench of Justices Dipak Misra, Amitav Roy and AM Khanwilkar questioned the petitioner over the delay in raising the issue. “why are you so late in raising the question as EC issued notification in Jan 2014?,” the bench observed.
In his plea, Gujarat Congress chief whip, Shailesh Manubhai Parmar, asked the court to quash the notification as it violates the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and Conduct of Election Rules, 1961.
Source: Indian Express
5. More I-T Raids on K’Taka Minister
The Income Tax department continued its searches on Karnataka Energy Minister DK Shivakumar’s properties in Delhi, Bengaluru and Mysore for the second consecutive day on Thursday, a move that has triggered a political storm, with the Congress accusing the BJP of witch-hunt ahead of Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat.
Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel is locked in a tight contest for the third seat from Gujarat due to rebellion by six party MLAs who resigned and apprehension of a few more joining them.
Shivakumar was looking after 42 Congress MLAs from Gujarat who have been shifted to a luxury resort near Bengaluru to avoid a break in their ranks.
I-T officials said that since the search operation was still on, there was no clear estimate of the total amount seized. Search papers from Bengaluru revealed that no cash was seized in the raids till Wednesday night.
Source: Hindustan Times
6. 11 More Women Claim Hair ‘Mysteriously’ Chopped off, Docs Blame Mass Hysteria
A day after a 60-year-old woman was killed in Uttar Pradesh on suspicion of cutting off people’s hair and 11 more women complained of braids being chopped off in Delhi-NCR on Thursday, psychiatrists blamed mass hysteria as panic spread.
Police, too, have requested people not look at these incidents as a “supernatural phenomenon” or work of a ghost.
“From all the available evidence, it seems the women are cutting their own hair either consciously or in an altered sensorium, likely to seek attention,” said Dr Sudhir Khandelwal, former head of the department of psychiatry at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
Altered sensorium is a medical condition characterised by impaired consciousness or inability to think clearly.
Mass hysteria is not new to India or Delhi.
In 2001, Delhi went in panic mode over “monkey man”, with people claiming to be attacked by a kala bandar (black monkey). Some even ended up injured, said Dr MS Bhatia, head of the department of psychiatry at Guru Teg Bahadur hospital.
Source: Hindustan Times
7. Now, Cops Blame 5 Profs for Ramjas Violence
Police accused five Delhi University professors of leading a group that shouted slogans about “azadi” at Ramjas College earlier this year, which led to clashes on the campus.
Delhi police in its action taken report on the incident, submitted before a city court on Thursday, said participants of a literary festival at the college on 21 February came out of a conference room under the leadership of the five professors raising slogans, which were directed against the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the RSS.
The nine-page report said group led by professors Mukul Manglik, Vinita Chandra, Debraj Mookerjee, NA Jacob and Benu Lal chanted slogans such as “Hum kya mange Azadi”, “Kashmir Mange Azadi”, “Bastar Mange azadi”, “ye pyari pyari azadi”, “ye sundar wali azadi”, “Police tum Bahar Jao”, “Hamara Umar wapas lao.”
It said the group also took out a protest march on the campus on that day.
Source: Hindustan Times
8. IIT Grad Arrested for Stealing Aadhaar Data
Police have arrested Abhinav Srivastav, a 31-year-old post-graduate from IIT-Kharagpur for illegally accessing the server of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). Srivastav is currently employed with cab aggregator Ola.
Cops said Srivastav lives at Yeshwantpur in Bengaluru and hails from Kanpur in UP. Police said he has not accessed any biometric data.
He is suspected to have stolen demographic data details like address, mobile phone number, email address, age and sex of at least 40,000 Aadhaar cardholders by hacking into the UIDAI database.
According to police, Srivastav accessed UIDAI data through the e hospital app hosted by the government's National Informatics Centre (NIC). “Srivastav had developed an e-KYC app and hosted the same on (Google) Play Store. Anyone clicking on this app would enter the e-hospital service, which has Aadhaar-related details in it,“ they said. Police described Srivastav as an employee of Ola at its Koramangala office. Srivastav become part of the cab aggregator when the latter acquired his company , Qarth Technologies, last year.
Source: Times of India
9. Law to Regulate Chit Funds Soon
The Central government is preparing to bring a law to regulate chit fund schemes, a savings and investment instrument that has been used to cheat lakhs of poor people across the country since the 1980s. The proposed legislation is aimed at overhauling and strengthening existing rules to shield investors from fraudulent companies.
“SEBI is looking into the existing chit fund cases. There are state laws to deal with them in Bengal and Odisha. But what to do with those who run operations throughout the country? We are drafting a central law and very soon we will bring it before you,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
Since the 1980 Sanchayita scam involving over a lakh investors in West Bengal hit the headlines, there have been scores of similar cases across the country, including the recent Saradha and Rose Valley scams, that exposed the alleged nexus between fraudulent companies and politicians.
Source: Hindustan Times
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