QBullet: 9 Parties Oppose Simultaneous Polls; 4 Thai Boys Rescued
Here are the top stories of the day.
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1. CM Post in Way as BJP Holds Talks With PDP Rebels, Sajad Lone for J&K Govt
Details have emerged of negotiations for formation of a new government in Jammu and Kashmir between the Bharatiya Janata Party, ally Sajad Lone’s Peoples Conference and PDP rebels, with the hurdle being who gets the chief minister’s post.
Sources said the BJP is willing to concede any demand or ministry but is adamant on the CM’s post. “They see this a rare opportunity to get their own CM,” sources said.
However, top sources in the PDP rebel camp, who held meetings with BJP leaders in Delhi last week, said they were not willing to concede. “At some point in the future, J&K may have a chief minister from the BJP, but this is not the time for it,” they said.
(Source: The Indian Express)
2. JD(U) to Wait for BJP’s Offer Before Deciding on Seats
The Janata Dal (United) is not worried over seat-sharing adjustments with the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar and will decide once the BJP makes an offer, the party’s general secretary KC Tyagi said on Sunday, 8 July, after a national executive meet authorised Nitish Kumar to take a call on various issues, including the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
The party’s meet, which was held in Delhi, took place in the backdrop of reports of strained ties between the JD(U) and BJP. While ruling out any collaboration with its older allies, the Congress and Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the JD(U) sought to establish an independent identity at the meeting by criticising actions of BJP leaders, too. Kumar said those who had the intention of marginalising his party would get marginalised.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
3. Lynch Mobs Acted With Impunity Knowing Victims Lived on Margins
A migrant worker, three mentally challenged men, a patient undergoing treatment for depression, two members of a denotified tribe, a “colourfully dressed” visitor outside a dargah, five nomads.
Of the 20 people lynched in the last three months across the country by murderous mobs fuelled by rumours of child-lifters, 13 were “soft targets” from the margins of society, who are the “most vulnerable to such attacks”, an investigation by The Indian Express has revealed.
Police records accessed by The Indian Express of 27 lynchings from nine states over one year also show that in all these cases, there was no previous enmity involved. All the victims were strangers trapped in areas inflamed by rumours, mainly over social media, of child kidnappers on the prowl.
(Source: The Indian Express)
4. Four Thai Boys Rescued From Flooded Cave
Four of the 12 Thai schoolboys were rescued from a flooded cave on 8 July as divers launched a daring and dangerous mission to free the children and their soccer coach who have been trapped underground for more than two weeks, officials said.
Thirteen foreign divers and five members of Thailand’s elite navy SEAL unit guided the boys to safety through narrow, submerged passageways that claimed the life of a former Thai navy diver on 6 July.
(Source: The Hindu)
5. Nine Parties Oppose Proposal for Simultaneous Elections
Political parties were divided on the issue of holding simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections during consultations with the Law Commission of India.
As many as nine parties expressed their reservations while four parties supported the move.
The two major national parties – the BJP and the Congress – stayed away from the Law Commission’s deliberations. The BJP has, however, written to the Law Commission Chairman, Justice BS Chauhan, stating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always argued in favour of simultaneous polls and sought time to submit their detailed response later.
(Source: The Hindu)
6. India Could Shelve Fifth Generation Fighter Jet Programme With Russia Due to High Cost
India has conveyed to Russia its unwillingness to go ahead with the joint development of a fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) primarily due to high cost involved in the project, official sources said.
They, however, said the negotiations between the two countries on the ambitious project have not yet been shelved as India was ready to have a re-look at co-development of the jet if an appropriate cost sharing formula between the two countries was arrived at.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
7. Hamid Ansari Responds to Farewell Barb: ‘Many Felt PM Modi Comment Not Accepted Practice’
Former Vice-President Hamid Ansari has responded for the first time to comments made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his last day in the Rajya Sabha, noting that “many considered the comments to be a departure from accepted practice on such occasions”.
In the preface of a book that compiles his selected speeches, Ansari talks about Modi’s remarks at a farewell event held for him, almost a year ago. “The Prime Minister participated in this and while being fulsome in his complements also hinted at what he perceived to be a certain inclination in my approach on account of my having spent, as he put it, both a good part of my professional tenure as a diplomat in Muslim lands and in post-retirement period on minority-related questions,” Ansari says.
(Source: The Indian Express)
8. IPS Officer’s Brother Among New Hizbul Mujahideen Recruits Named on Burhan Anniversary
On the death anniversary of its commander Burhan Wani, militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen has released pictures of over 20 youth who have joined the outfit since 21 May this year. The pictures include that of Shams-ul-Haq, brother of an IPS officer. Haq went missing in May this year, a month after seven militants were killed in an encounter at his ancestral house in Shopian.
The pictures that have been posted on social networking sites show young men wielding assault rifles to announce joining the militant ranks. “We already had inputs about many youths whose pictures have come out today,” a police officer told The Indian Express. “For the past two months, they (Hizb) didn’t release pictures of their new recruits on the social media. Perhaps, they were waiting for this day”.
(Source: The Indian Express)
9. Ghaziabad Sewage Plant Cleaning Takes Fatal Turn, Three Men Dead
A sewage treatment plant employee who collapsed and fell inside a 35-foot-deep tank, and two others who tried to save him, died in Ghaziabad on Sunday morning.
The incident took place around 9:15 am at the Loni Sewerage Plant in Balram Nagar. Police said while two of the dead – sweeper Roshan Lal and machine operator Mahesh – worked at the plant, the passerby, Bulbul, lived nearby and worked as a waste picker. While Lal fell inside the tank first, police said Mahesh and Bulbul tried to rescue him and lost their lives in the process.
(Source: The Indian Express)
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