A COMBATIVE MODI, ON UCC, MUSLIM OUTREACH, OPPN UNITY

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday made a strong push for a Uniform Civil Code, asking how can the country function with dual laws that govern personal matters, and accused the Opposition of using the UCC issue to "mislead and provoke" the Muslim community. He said that those supporting 'triple talaq' were doing a grave injustice to Muslim daughters and that Pasmanda Muslims, who are backward, are not even treated as equals because of the vote bank politics.

If "Triple Talaq" is an inalienable part of Islam, why it isn't practised in Muslim-majority countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Qatar, Jordan and Syria, he questioned. Citing the example of Egypt, he said the country had abolished Triple Talaq 80-90 years ago, even though 90 per cent of its population comprise Sunni Muslims.

Modi was interacting with BJP workers at a function organised under the party's 'Mera Booth Sabse Majboot' campaign, virtually sounding the poll bugle. Assembly polls in MP are due by the year-end.

Opposition parties including the Congress hit out at Modi for raising issues like UCC only to divert attention from the real issues of unemployment, price rise and Manipur violence and urged him not to make such matters an instrument of 'dog-whistle politics'.

Bihar minister and senior Janata Dal-United leader Vijay Kumar Chaudhary said that Modi's speech betrayed “worry” in the BJP camp following the “supreme success” of the recent opposition conclave.

DMK has contended that a uniform code should first be applied to the Hindus, who will then have to allow people from all castes to pray in temples. "Every person including Scheduled Castes and Tribes should be allowed to perform pooja in any temple in the country. We don't want UCC because the Constitution has given protection to every religion," said DMK's TKS Elangovan.

The BJP in turn, hit out at the opposition, saying UCC has been provided for in the Constitution as directive principles of state policy and that the Supreme Court has also endorsed the provision in its various judgements.

Modi said these days a new word is gaining currency and that is "guarantee". "It is a big responsibility of BJP workers to tell the people that the Opposition is a "guarantee of scams."

The PM said he is giving the "guarantee" that his govt will take action against those involved in "scams" and corruption.

Referring to the Opposition's unity huddle in Patna, the prime minister said, "If you see the history of parties which participated in the meeting, all those seen in that photo are the guarantee of Rs 20 lakh crore worth of scams. The scams of the Congress alone are worth lakhs of crores,” Modi said, linking the grand old party to coal, 2G, commonwealth and other scams.

Taking names, he said, "If you want the welfare of the Karunanidhi family, then vote for DMK. If you want the welfare of K Chandrashekhar Rao's daughter, then vote for BRS. But if you people want the welfare of your sons and daughters and grandchildren, then vote for BJP".

'UNACCEPTABLE', SAYS WHITE HOUSE AFTER TROLLS TARGET SCRIBE WHO PUT QUERY TO PM MODI

The White House has pushed back forcefully over the trolling of Sabrina Siddiqui, an American journalist, after she asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi a question last week at his joint press conference in Washington with US President Joe Biden.

“We’re aware of the reports of that harassment. It’s unacceptable. And we absolutely condemn any harassment of journalists anywhere under any circumstances. That’s completely unacceptable. It’s antithetical to the very principles of democracy that were on display last week during the state visit,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said at a press conference on Monday in response to a question. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also condemned “any efforts of intimidation or harassment of a journalist or any journalist that is just trying to do their job”. “And so, I just want to be very clear about that,” she said.

The online attacks began with the BJP’s IT cell in charge describing her question as “motivated”.

ELECTIONS TO 10 RAJYA SABHA SEATS IN THREE STATES ON JULY 24

The Election Commission of India yesterday announced to conduct elections to 10 Rajya Sabha seats in Goa, Gujarat and West Bengal on July 24.

Elections will be held on one Rajya Sabha seat from Goa as Vinay D Tendulkar is set to retire on July 28.

Three RS seats from Gujarat will go to polls as Dineshchandra Jemalbhai Anavadiya, Lokhandwala Jugalsinh Mathurji, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar Krishnaswamy (Minister for External Affairs) will retire on August 18.

Six Rajya Sabha seats from West Bengal will also go to polls as Derek O’Brien, Dola Sen, Pradip Bhattacharya, Sushmita Dev, Shanta Chhetri, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray are set to retire on August 18.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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PUTIN THANKS MILITARY FOR AVERTING CIVIL WAR; WAGNER BOSS IN BELARUS

Yevgeny Prigozhin, owner of the private army of inmate recruits and other mercenaries that has fought some of the deadliest battles in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is in Belarus after his abortive armed rebellion against the Kremlin, Belarus’s president said on Tuesday. The exile to Belarus of the 62-year-old owner of the Wagner Group was part of the deal that ended the short-lived mutiny in Russia.

The Russian defence ministry said preparations are under way for Wagner to hand over its heavy weapons to the Russian military. Prigozhin had said his troops were preparing to turn over their weapons ahead of a July 1 deadline for them to sign contracts to serve under the Russian military’s command.

Russian authorities also said Tuesday that they have closed a criminal investigation into the uprising and are pressing no charges against Prigozhin or his troops after the negotiated deal. Still, President Vladimir Putin appeared to set the stage for charges of financial wrongdoing against an affiliated organisation owned by Prigozhin.

In his Kremlin speech to soldiers and law enforcement officers on Tuesday, Putin praised them for averting “a civil war. ” “You have defended the constitutional order, the lives, security and freedom of our citizens. You have saved our Motherland from upheaval. In fact, you have stopped a civil war.”

PAK PASSES LAW TO FACILITATE NAWAZ SHARIF’S RETURN

Pakistan’s national assembly has passed legislation limiting how long lawmakers can be disqualified from office, a state spokesman said on Tuesday, paving the way for exiled former PM Nawaz Sharif’s return to politics.

Sharif served as Pakistan’s PM three times — the last before being ousted over graft allegations in 2017. The Supreme Court barred him from politics for life and he was later sentenced to seven years in jail. In 2019 he was granted medical bail and flew to Britain, where he has remained ever since, continuing to steer the family-run PML-N party from behind the scenes. .

His brother Shehbaz Sharif became PM last year, and the country is due to hold fresh general elections no later than October. On Tuesday, a govt spokesman said the acting president had signed into law an amendment which says courts can only disqualify parliamentarians “for a period not exceeding five years”.

THE REST

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MAHARASHTRA SPEAKER ASKS POLICE TO PROTECT COW VIGILANTES

Maharashtra assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar on Tuesday said he has asked the state police to maintain strict vigil and seal borders to ensure there is no transportation of cattle from neighbouring states and also no attack on gau rakshaks (cow vigilantes).

Narwekar said he had a meeting with the additional director general of police (law and order) and Nanded's superintendent of police over the ”fear” among institutions and NGOs that there could be ”mass gau-vansh hatya” (bovine killing) during the upcoming Bakr-Eid. “So, precautionary measures should be taken also with regards to the violence that had erupted in Nanded and other places," he said.

Notably, a 32-year-old man was lynched allegedly a group of 'cow vigilantes' on suspicion of transporting beef in Maharashtra's Nashik district on Saturday. This was the second incident in Nashik in nearly two weeks of killing of a person by 'cow vigilantes'.

Also, last week, a 'cow vigilante' was killed in an attack in Nanded after he and his friends sought to intercept a vehicle on suspicion that it was smuggling cattle, the police said.

Narwekar said the state is doing its bit to control everything and this is not happening for the first time. “It has been happening and we want to ensure this time it is controlled totally. It was a pre-emptive meeting, precautionary meeting that was taken,” he said.

On Monday, the Congress slammed the Eknath Shinde govt over the incident in Nashik on Saturday and asked if the rule of law existed in the state.

MAMATA BANERJEE SUFFERS INJURIES AS CHOPPER MAKES EMERGENCY LANDING

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was mildly injured when the helicopter in which she was flying made an emergency landing at the Sevoke air base near Siliguri in the northern part of the state due to bad weather on Tuesday afternoon. She was found to have suffered ligament injuries in the left knee and left hip joint.

Taking a jibe, BJP State President Sukanta Majumdar questioned the recurring nature of Mamata Banerjee’s injuries before every election. “Whenever there is an election, the Chief Minister gets injured in her leg. Repeated foot injuries are not a good sign at all. However, I wish her a speedy recovery,” he commented.

CAG AUDIT INTO RENOVATION OF KEJRIWAL’S RESIDENCE

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India is conducting a “special audit” into the alleged irregularities in the 2020 renovation of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence, the lieutenant governor’s (L-G) secretariat said in a statement Tuesday.

According to the statement, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs recommended the audit on the basis of a recommendation letter from the L-G’s secretariat detailing the alleged irregularities.

The development comes a month after Delhi’s vigilance department flagged several “irregularities” in the renovation undertaken in 2020.

The CAG audit has drawn a sharp response from the Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which condemned the move and claimed it came despite a CAG inquiry last year finding nothing. “Conducting a CAG inquiry is a prerogative of an elected govt, and by interfering in the affairs of the Delhi govt, the central govt is violating constitutional principles,” the AAP statement read, while calling the move a systemic targeting of opposition leaders.

On the other hand, the opposition BJP welcomed the move, with Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva claiming that the inquiry would “soon reveal under whose pressure the PWD officials violated laws”.

PM MODI FLAGS OFF FIVE VANDE BHARAT TRAINS

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday flagged off five new and upgraded versions of Vande Bharat Express trains, including two for the poll-bound state of Madhya Pradesh.

Two Vande Bharat trains, which will link Bhopal (Rani Kamalapati station) with Jabalpur and Indore, respectively, were flagged off by the PM, who was in Bhopal.

At a function held at the Rani Kamalapati station in Bhopal, the Prime Minister also virtually flagged off Vande Bharat services connecting Goa (Madgaon) with Mumbai (CST) and Ranchi with Patna. For Goa, Jharkhand and Bihar, this will be the first Vande Bharat service operating from their territories.

The Prime Minister also virtually flagged off Vande Bharat service between Dharwad and Bengaluru in Karnataka.

With today’s launch of the five trains, the total number of Vande Bharat trains operating in the country has risen to 23. All states where electric trains run have at least one Vande Bharat Express service now. This marks the fulfillment of the target set by Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw of launching by June Vande Bharat services in all those states that can be accessed by electric locomotives.

All Vande Bharat trains launched so far have been flagged off by PM Modi.

4 YEARS AFTER JHARKHAND MAN KILLED, 10 ACCUSED CONVICTED

Almost exactly four years to the day a 22-year-old man died in Jharkhand’s Sarikela-Kharsawan district in 2019, days after he was tied to an electricity pole, assaulted, and allegedly forced to chant religious slogans for a case of suspected theft, a district court on Tuesday convicted 10 people accused in the death.

District Judge and Additional Sessions Judge and POCSO special judge Amit Shekhar held the 10 guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

Ansari was assaulted in Dhatkidih village of Saraikela Kharsawan in the early hours of June 18, 2019. On June 22 morning, Ansari, who was in judicial custody for theft, complained of nausea, vomiting and chest pain. As he fell unconscious, Ansari was rushed to Sadar Hospital, and then to Tata Main Hospital in Jamshedpur, where he was declared dead on arrival.

He worked as a labourer and welder in Pune and had come home to celebrate Eid.

The quantum of punishment will be announced on July 5.

BANKS SEEK CLARIFICATION FROM GOVT BEFORE TCS ON CREDIT CARDS KICKS IN

Banks have sought several clarification from the govt ahead of the Tax Collected at Source (TCS) regime kicks in or international usage of credit cards.

In May the govt decided that spending in foreign exchange through international credit cards will be covered under the RBI's liberalised remittance scheme (LRS), under which a resident can remit money abroad up to a maximum of $250.000 per annum without the authorisation of the Reserve Bank. This year’s budget hiked TCS rates to 20 per cent, from 5 per cent on overseas tour packages and funds remitted under LRS (other than for education and medical purposes). The new tax rates will come into effect on July 1. Later, the govt clarified that no TCS will be levied on international spending of up to Rs 7 lakh a year by using credit card.

According to bankers, a person can use several credit cards of different banks to make the payment. In such case, a particular bank will not know what a person has spent through other banks’ credit cards. “If 7 lakh is remitted from 5 different credit cards, how will we come to know that,” he said.

Furthermore, unlike transactions through a bank account where the tax is automatically debited from the bank account, the credit card may not have the limit to deduct the tax amount.

The banks raised these issues with the Indian Banks’ Association which in turn communicated the same with the govt. According to sources, the banks want a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) of the standard operating procedure on this issue.

Bankers said since it is a statutory requirement they have to go ahead with the July 1 implementation but expects to get clarity before that.

IIT BOMBAY DIRECTOR DEFENDS ENGINEERS’ NON-CORE CAREER CHOICES

Defending the non-engineering career choices of IITians, Professor Subhasis Chaudhuri, director of IIT Bombay, says that criticising such decisions is “short-sighted” as people who pursue unconventional paths, like Nandan Nilekani, not only generate employment but also contribute to the nation’s wealth.

Earlier this month, IIT Madras director V Kamakoti had expressed concern about the growing trend of engineers opting for non-engineering jobs and called it a “waste of resources.”

Chaudhuri, however, has a diametrically opposite opinion of the same. “This is very short-sighted. Even as individuals venture into non-core sectors, they are creating thousands of jobs. Now, would you be happy if someone joined an assembly line job and remained there for the rest of their life without adding value?” he asked.

He added, “Those who explore unconventional paths generate employment and contribute to the nation’s wealth. Unfortunately, people fail to understand this. It is important to assess their contributions. Was Nandan Nilekani wrong to go into a non-core sector? Look at how many jobs they have created, how much wealth they have created. We have to respect that.”

PROSUS NV SLASHES VALUATION OF EDTECH GIANT BYJU'S TO $5.1 BILLION

Dutch-listed technology investor Prosus NV has slashed the valuation of troubled Indian edtech startup Byju's to $5.1 billion according to its annual report, a fall of more than 75% from the startup's $22 billion valuation last year.

Prosus cut the value of its 9.6% stake in Byju's to around $493 million in the financial year ended March 31. Prosus is the company's biggest investor shareholder.

ICC WORLD 2023: FORMAT AND SCHEDULE ANNOUNCED

The 2023 World Cup will kick-off on October 5 as defending champions England take on New Zealand at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad in repeat of the final of the 2019 edition.

Hosts India begin their campaign against five-time World Cup winners Australia in Chennai on October 8. India-Pakistan clash will be played in Ahmedabad on October 15.

A total of 10 teams will participate at the showcase event, the first eight having already qualified through the Cricket World Cup Super League. The final two spots will be determined at the end of the Qualifier tournament in Zimbabwe, which concludes on July 9.

Each team plays the other nine in a round robin format with the top four qualifying for the semi-finals.

The first semi-final will be held on November 15 in Mumbai and the second semi-final will be held the following day in Kolkata. Both semi-finals will have a reserve day.

The Final will take place in Ahmedabad on November 19 with November 20 slated as the reserve day.

There will be a total of 10 venues – Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Dharamsala, Delhi, Chennai, Lucknow, Pune, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Kolkata.

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for. – Epicurus

OFF TRACK

The new bride had spent two hours preparing her first breakfast. She sat down at the table, eagerly watching as her husband slowly savored each forkful.

"How was it, Honey?" she asked when he'd finished.

"Well," he began thoughtfully, wiping his lips, "you probably could have beaten the eggshells a little longer. But on the whole, it was a good start."