Daily Briefing: China objects to Venkaiah Naidu Arunachal visit; Pandora Papers part-10

Within hours, the Ministry of External Affairs rejected Beijing’s statement, saying Arunachal Pradesh is an “integral and inalienable part” of India and objection to visits of Indian leaders to a state of India “does not stand to reason”.

Good morning, 

The Big Story

Two days after India and China blamed each other for failing to make headway in talks over the military standoff on the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh, Beijing said it “firmly opposed” Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh last weekend. Its objection has invited a sharp response from the Indian government, which also underlined the border situation

The Pandora Papers 

Shael Oswal, singer and scion of Oswal Group, used his offshore company in the British Virgin Islands to market coal sold by an Indonesian mining company that he partly owned, according to records in the Pandora Papers investigated by The Indian Express.

From the Front Page 

“The history that is taught today only talks about hum yahan har gaye, hum wahan haar gaye (we lost here, we lost there).” 

 A member of the K Kasturirangan-led committee, set up by the Centre to revise the National Curriculum Framework, said textbooks should talk about the “fighting spirit” of rulers such as Maharana Pratap in battles against foreign invaders.

Ten days after the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, UP Law Minister Brijesh Pathak became the first senior BJP leader to visit the area. But the Minister left after visiting the families of two of those killed: BJP worker Shubham Mishra and MoS Ajay Mishra’s driver Hari Om Mishra. He did not meet the families of farmers who also lost their lives. 

Months after its new rules for social media intermediaries under the IT Act of 2000 triggered a faceoff with tech giants Facebook and Twitter, the Centre has started a fresh round of consultations for a completely new IT law “to deal with present and future circumstances”, The Indian Express has learnt.

Must Read

On September 20, 36-year-old lorry driver Senthil received an ominous phone call informing him that his father had consumed poison and died. But on seeing a photograph of his father’s body, Senthil says it was apparent that he had been beaten to death. Police said that the death of the 57-year-old daily wage worker at a cashew processing unit owned by DMK MP TRVS Ramesh, came at the end of at least two rounds of torture. Five employees of the unit were arrested, while the MP surrendered on Monday. 

If you ask a resident of Banveerpur where Union minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish was on the day of the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, most will say he was present at the venue of a wrestling event. Given the family’s towering presence in the district, most villagers will vouch for his innocence. While his arrest may have dented his shot at contesting the upcoming Assembly polls on a BJP ticket, Ashish, better known here as Monu Bhaiyya, remains his father’s political and business heir. 

The ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu may have swept the rural elections held in nine reorganised districts, but a closer look at the results shows that actor Vijay – considered second only to megastar Rajinikanth in popularity charts – has taken a silent plunge into politics, through his fan club. According to the results, Vijay’s fan club won 115 of the 169 seats it contested, recording a 68 per cent strike rate.

“Inherently absurd”. “Very serious and frightening”. These were some of the words used by Aryan Khan’s lawyer to describe the NCB’s allegations of “illicit drug trafficking”, which were dumped on the 23 year old.The NCB opposed bail to Aryan and two others stating that though no drugs were found on him, he cannot be looked at in isolation and that it was investigating an “international drugs connection”.

And Finally

The first batch of government high school students will appear for their CBSE board exams in 2024, with the state starting the process of board affiliation from this academic year. The aim is to bring 56,000-odd schools under the CBSE umbrella with at least 2,000 of them receiving the affiliation this year itself. According to the state government, CBSE lays a strong foundation for children, especially for higher education and competitive exams.

Delhi Confidential: With PM Modi urging ministries to incorporate the health factor into their development programmes, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has instructed department officials to start a canteen with health food items in the ministry office.

In today’s episode of the ‘3 things’ podcast, Dr V S Chauhan talks about the significance of the malaria vaccine, and what the development means for India.

Until tomorrow, 

Leela Prasad G and Rahel Philipose


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