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PM Modi targets Congress over demand for caste census; tremors felt in Delhi-NCR; top news from October 3
Today’s Latest News Transcript at 8:30 PM on 3 October 2023
Prime Minister Narendra Modi targeted the Congress over its demand for a caste census in the country, asking whether they want to take away the rights of minorities. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had hailed the Bihar caste survey, saying that the country needs a caste-based census to give people their due rights as per their population. Modi said: “Congress started a new chant yesterday. Their leader said rights should be proportional to population. I say, the biggest population is the poor. For me, poor people have the biggest population and my mission is their welfare.” Despite a bandh announced by the ruling Congress in Chhattisgarh over privatisation of the Nagarnar steel plant, thousands attended Modi’s rally in Jagdalpur city.
Moving on: The strongest earthquake in Nepal in more than eight years, originating quite close to the border districts in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, triggered strong tremors across north India Tuesday afternoon. The area, about 200 km southeast of Joshimath in Uttarakhand, and 280 km north of Lucknow experienced two back-to-back earthquakes within half an hour, the first one at 2.25 pm and the other at 2.51 pm. The first one was measured to be 4.7 in magnitude, while the second was 6.2, according to the National Centre for Seismology in New Delhi. Moderate tremors were felt in Lucknow, Kanpur and other districts of Uttar Pradesh Tuesday afternoon.
India has told Canada that it must repatriate 41 diplomats by October 10, the Financial Times reported. Ties between India and Canada have become seriously strained over Canadian suspicion that Indian government agents had a role in the June murder in Canada of a Sikh separatist leader and Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who India had labeled a “terrorist”. India has dismissed the allegation as absurd. Canada has 62 diplomats in India and India had said that the total should be reduced by 41, the newspaper said.
Meanwhile: The Delhi Police are conducting raids in at least 35 locations, including houses of seven journalists and places associated with the news portal NewsClick. A fresh case has been registered by the Delhi Police Special Cell against the news portal under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The organisation is under the scanner of the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police and the Enforcement Directorate amid allegations it received funds from China. Sources said the funds were received illegally and documents were not provided to the authorities. Raids were also conducted in Mumbai, including at Teesta Setalvad’s house. Meanwhile, comedian Sanjay Rajaura was taken to the Special Cell’s office in Lodhi Colony for questioning
AS IT TRIES to make inroads into the Muslim community in Kerala, the ruling CPI(M) has landed in an embarrassing controversy. Addressing a seminar organised by an atheist outfit on uniform civil code, CPI(M) state committee member K Anil Kumar was reported to have said that the Communist party’s influence had led to Muslim girls in Malappuram giving up the hijab, equating it to the community becoming more “progressive”. Muslim leaders in Kerala have since hit back at Kumar, with the first salvo fired by an MLA backed by the CPI(M), K T Jaleel. Malappuram is a Muslim-dominated district, with Kumar a familiar CPI(M) face on prime-time news TV debates.
A total of 107 MPs and MLAs have hate speech cases against them and 480 candidates with such cases have contested elections in the last five years, according to poll rights body Association for Democratic Reforms. The ADR and National Election Watch have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of all the incumbent MPs and MLAs, besides the unsuccessful candidates in the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls held in the country in the said period.
In world news: The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to three scientists “for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter.” Pierre Agostini of The Ohio State University in the US; Ferenc Krausz of the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in Germany; and Anne L’Huillier of Lund University in Sweden won the award as the Nobels season resumed. Scientists Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman from Hungary and the United States respectively won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries enabling the development of mRNA Covid-19 vaccines.
Lastly: Thai police said they had arrested a 14-year-old suspected gunman after a shooting at a luxury mall in the capital Bangkok that emergency services said had killed three people and injured four others. The Metropolitan Police Detective department said on its Facebook page that a 14-year-old suspected gunman had been arrested and was being questioned over the incident at the Siam Paragon mall. Emergency services shared an image of a police officer apprehending and handcuffing an individual laying face down on the floor.
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Today's Top News Headlines and Latest News at 8:30 pm on 3 … – The Indian Express
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