1. Ahead of PM’s Tour, Palestine Hopes to Keep India Ties Firm
India’s relations with Israel should not come at the “expense of ties” with Palestine, but the Palestinian Authority (PA) understands the need for India to de-hyphenate ties with both, says the Palestinian President’s diplomatic adviser Dr Majdi Al Khalidi in an interview ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel.
“Our interest is [for Palestine] to deepen our relationship, and we hope that stronger ties with Israel will not come at the expense of this relationship. We understand that India has to manage its own balance in the region, and we would like to make [a] separation between these ties as well,” Al Khalidi, told The Hindu in an interview over the telephone from Amman, Jordan, where he is currently.
Source: The Hindu
2. BJP Defends Leader in Jharkhand Lynching Case
After they put together the sequence of events leading to the lynching of meat trader Alimuddin Ansari in Ramgarh in Jharkhand on 29 June, police are zeroing in on the involvement of members of a cow-protection group, who may have been later joined by members of the public.
Among the three arrested so far, of the 12 named, are Nityanand Mahato, co-in-charge of the BJP’s district media cell of Ramgarh, Santosh Singh, with links to a local Gau Raksha Samiti, and a youth barely out of his teens, Chhotu Rana, who runs a chicken shop and is not believed to have any association with any right-wing organisation.
Source: The Indian Express
3. J&K: Protesters Clash With Security Men in Pulwama
Clashes broke out Sunday evening between protesters and security personnel when the latter cordoned off Malangpora village in Pulwama to launch a search operation.
A joint team of J&K Police and Army cordoned off the village after inputs about the presence of militants there. Soon, a large number of people took to the streets and threw stones at them to prevent the operation. Police fired teargas shells to disperse them.
Source: The Indian Express
4. Flood Situation Worsens in Assam, Nearly 2.75 lakh People Affected
The flood situation in Assam has deteriorated, as one person lost his life and nearly 2.75 lakh people were affected across seven districts of the state.
A report by the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said the body of a person was recovered from Subansiri river in North Lakhimpur. It is suspected that he drowned due to strong currents of the river on 19 June.
The ASDMA said that around 2.75 lakh people of Lakhimpur, Jorhat, Golaghat, Cachar, Dhemaji, Biswanath and Karimganj districts were affected by the flood. Saturday’s report said 2.68 lakh people were hit in the latest wave of flood across eight districts.
Source: Hindustan Times
5. Dalit Group From Gujarat Stopped From Gifting 125 kg Soap to Yogi Adityanath
A group of Dalit protesters from Gujarat were stopped at the Jhansi railway station on Sunday evening, with police saying the preemptive step was taken as their presence in Lucknow could disturb peace.
The 45-member group was carrying a 125kg bar of soap with the image of Buddha carved on it, which they wanted to gift to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to allegedly “cleanse his mentality towards Dalits”.
The gift is viewed as a tit-for-tat response against reports of officials distributing shampoo and soap bars to 100-odd Musahar Dalit families at a village in Kushi Nagar, a day before their meeting with the chief minister this May.
Source: Hindustan Times
6. India Pushes Troops in Doka La in Longest Impasse Since 1962
India has pushed in more troops in a "non-combative mode" to strengthen its position in an area near Sikkim, where its soldiers have been locked in a standoff with Chinese troops for almost a month now in what has been the longest such impasse between the two armies since 1962.
India brought in more troops after the destruction of two of its bunkers and "aggressive tactics" adopted by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), sources said. In a "non-combative mode", the nozzle of a gun is placed downwards.
Source: PTI
7. Congress Alone to Blame for Opposition Mess: Nitish Kumar
In his sharpest attack in the recent past against his Bihar ally, JD(U) national president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said Sunday that the Congress alone was “responsible for the current mess” in the Opposition.
Speaking at the state executive meeting of his party, Nitish said:
The idea of a Sangh-mukt Bharat cannot fructify without taking all Opposition parties into confidence. The Congress alone is to blame for the current mess in the Opposition fold…
Targeting the Congress’ “recalcitrance”, Kumar said, “It is because of the Congress that we could not have an alliance in UP, it was because of the Congress that we could not have an alliance in Assam, and the Congress did not take us into confidence for the presidential polls as well.”
Source: The Indian Express
8. Beijing Using Doklam to Arm Twist Delhi on OBOR?
China's official news agency sent signals on Sunday that the ongoing border stand-off with India was caused, at least partly, by Beijing's desperate need to force an unwilling India to accept its One Belt One Road (OBOR) programme.
The border row was triggered after Chinese troops began building a road in Doklam, which falls in the Sikkim-Tibet-Bhutan trijunction, within weeks of the OBOR summit that India refused to attend.
“Harbouring suspicion... toward China’s intention, India has decided to stay away from the China-proposed belt and road initiative, citing sovereignty concerns as its main reason,” Xinhua said, and admitted to the military stand-off.
Source: The Times of India
9. Pranab on Relationship with PM Modi: We Kept Divergences to Ourselves
Days before the end of his tenure, President Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday spoke candidly about his relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During the launch of his book President Pranab Mukherjee – A Statesman at Rashtrapati Bhavan, Mukherjee said that divergences with Modi did not hamper the President-Prime Minister relationship.
“Little more than 3 years, we have acted in close cooperation. It is not that there cannot be any divergence of view. Surely, there have been divergences of views. But we have been able to keep those divergences, if there be any, only to ourselves. It did never find any place anywhere and it did not affect the relationship between the President and the PM, between the titular head and the actual head of the administration and council of ministers,” Mukherjee said, expressing his “deep gratitude and appreciation” to the prime minister.
Source: The Indian Express
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