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INDIA NEWS
• Waiver calms markets, but tensions loom - Pg 8
• Faith - Pg 11
THE SUPREME COURT on Tuesday
(8) came down heavily on Tamil
Nadu governor R N Ravi and said
reservation of 10 bills by him for
consideration of the president was
in contravention of constitutional
provisions.
A bench of justices J B Pardiwala
and R Mahadevan said that under
Article 200 of the Constitution,
the governor does not possess any
discretion and has to mandatorily act
on the aid and advice of the council
of ministers. Article 200 of the Con-
stitution deals with assent to Bills.
The governor cannot withhold
assent and adopt concept of absolute
veto or pocket veto, the court added.
It said the governor is obligated
to adopt one course of action - give
assent to bills, withhold assent and
reserve for consideration of the
president. The bench said it was not
open for the governor to reserve Bill
for consideration of the president
after it was presented to him for the
second time.
It said the governor must assent
to the bills produced before him in
the second round and the only ex-
ception is in case the bill is diferent
from the first one.
Ten bills that were cleared twice
by the Tamil Nadu assembly but
were stalled and reserved by gover-
nor, appointed by the federal gov-
ernment, since 2020 finally became
laws after the court's intervention
on Saturday (12).
Peace returns to Murshidabad, curbs stay
Soldier killed in Kashmir gunbattle
AIADMK, BJP join
hands for Tamil
Nadu polls
THE SITUATION in violence-hit ar-
eas of Murshidabad in West Bengal
was peaceful and under control on
Monday, a senior police ofcer said.
Prohibitory orders remain in
force in the violence-hit pockets of
the district where the roads wore
a deserted look and shops downed
their shutters.
The internet remains suspended
in the afected areas while security
forces are conducting checks on ve-
hicles along the main roads.
Three people have died and sev-
eral others injured in the violence
which raged in Suti, Dhulian, Sam-
serganj and Jangipur areas since
Friday (11) afternoon but there was
no report of any fresh incident from
anywhere in the district.
The deceased included father-son
duo - Harogobindo Das and Chandan
- who were found with multiple stab
wounds inside their home in Sam-
serganj area.
The third victim, identified as
21-year-old Ijaz Momin, sustained
bullet wounds during clashes at Sajur
More in Suti.
A total of 180 people were arrest-
ed in connection with the violence
following protests against the Waqf
(Amendment) Act till Saturday after-
noon, the police ofcer said.
‘The situation in and around
these disturbed areas is peaceful and
under control. There is no report of
any untoward incident from any-
where in the district of Murshidabad.
Police deployment is there and we
will not allow any form of nuisance
to disturb peace,’ the police ofcer
told PTI.
The Calcutta High Court on Sat-
urday (12) observed that it cannot
turn a blind eye to reports of van-
dalism and ordered the deployment
of federal troops in Murshidabad
district.
At least 18 police personnel
were injured in the clashes and were
undergoing treatment in diferent
hospitals, he said.
Several vehicles, including police
vans, were set on fire, stones were
hurled at security forces and shops,
and police kiosks burnt down during
the rampage.
The Waqf amendment bill that
set of the protests was passed earlier
this month after heated debate.
The new law makes sweeping
changes in the management of vast
tracts of land set aside solely for
Muslim use, potentially stoking ten-
sions between the government and
minority Muslims. Muslim groups
and political parties say the law, like
many of prime minister Narendra
Modi’s policies, aims to alienate and
discriminate against Muslims.
THREE suspected rebels and a soldier
were killed in separate firefights near
Kashmir's unofficial frontier with
Pakistan, the Indian army said on
Saturday (12).
Indian soldiers killed three fight-
ers in a clash that began on Wednes-
day in a remote forest in Kishtwar in
the south of the disputed territory.
Senior Indian army ofcial Brig-
adier JBS Rathi said troops had dis-
played ‘great tactical acumen’.
‘In the gun battle, three terrorists
were neutralized,’ he told reporters.
A soldier was killed in a separate
incident late on Friday night in Sun-
derbani district along the Line of
Control (LoC), the de facto border
between India and Pakistan.
The White Knight Corps said on
X troops had ‘foiled an infiltration
attempt’ there.
A CATHOLIC body said it was denied
permission for the Annual Way of
the Cross procession, a key religious
event observed by the Christian
community on Palm Sunday, in the
national capital, and condemned it
as ‘shocking and unfair’.
Sources in the Delhi Police said
the permission was denied as it was
a ‘non-traditional procession’, and
added that police can deny such per-
missions due to ‘security concerns’.
Federal minister George Kurian
said the permission for the proces-
sion was denied due to ‘security
reasons‘ and noted that even Hanu-
man Jayanti procession, which was
scheduled for Saturday (12), was not
granted approval.
The denial of permission drew
criticism from opposition parties.
In a statement, the Catholic
Association of the Archdiocese of
Delhi said, ‘This is deeply shocking
and unfair. The procession has always
been peaceful and well-coordinated
with authorities. The reason cited
- law and order and trafc - doesn't
hold when others get approvals for
similar events.’
AMIDST US director of national
intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's claims
of finding evidence of massive vul-
nerabilities in electronic voting
machines,India's chief election
commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on
Saturday (12) stated that electronic
voting machines (EVMs) in the coun-
try were absolutely safe and were not
being tampered with.
‘In India, EVMs made by pubic
sector undertakings were used, and
on these machines, legal scrutiny
had been done, and the EVMs of
India cannot be connected to Blue-
tooth infrared, and so it is not pos-
sible to tamper with them,’ Kumar
stated.
On Friday, Congress leader Ran-
deep Singh Surjewala questioned
the Election Commission of India
and the federal government for not
responding to Gabbard's remarks on
the vulnerability of the EVMs.
Gabbard, speaking to the media
on Thursday, said the US Cabinet
had found evidence showing that
electronic voting systems had been
vulnerable to hackers for a long time.
NEARLY two years after parting
ways, the AIADMK and BJP on Friday
(11) rekindled their alliance, with
federal home minister Amit Shah
declaring that the 2026 Tamil Nadu
assembly election will be fought un-
der the leadership of AIADMK chief
Edappadi K Palaniswami.
He also slammed the ruling DMK
for ‘diverting’ attention from key
issues by raking up matters like de-
limitation, NEET and the three-lan-
guage policy.
Palaniswami, also known as
EPS, said the AIADMK was honored
to be welcomed into a partnership
with NDA. ‘An alliance founded on
a shared vision for Tamil Nadu’s
progress and prosperity,’ he said in a
social media update.
The DMK criticized the AIADMK
for joining hands with BJP, calling
the alliance a big ‘betrayal of Tamil
Nadu.’
On a day of quick turns and
twists, Shah consulted with RSS
idealogue S Gurumurthy and by late
afternoon, stitched up BJP's alliance
with Tamil Nadu’s main opposition
party AIADMK. The two had been
part of the NDA combine that faced
the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the
state elections two years later.
Meanwhile, Nainar Nagendran
will be next Tamil Nadu BJP chief,
replacing K Annamalai, who is now
all set for a national role that seems
to be an apparent reward for his work
in the Dravidian heartland.
Top court pulls up TN governor over bill delay
Remembering Ambedkar
Delhi police deny
permission to Palm
Sunday event
EVMs ‘safe’,
‘tamper-proof’:
Poll panel chief
Women take part in a rally organized on the occasion of B.R. Ambedkar's birth anniver-
sary, in Beawar, Rajasthan, Monday (14).
Security forces in
Murshidabad, West Bengal
RN Ravi
BJP and AIADMK leaders