IndiGo Fire Scare, Parliament Deadlock, Fake Embassy Busted
A major air scare was averted when IndiGo flight 6E 7966 from Ahmedabad to Diu aborted takeoff after one of its engines caught fire. The ATR 76 aircraft, carrying 60 passengers, was evacuated safely. Pilots followed protocol, declared a 'Mayday' and returned to the bay. The aircraft is now undergoing technical inspection.
UP STF arrested Harshvardhan Jain for operating a fake embassy of the fictitious nation 'Westarctica.' From a rented house in Ghaziabad, he ran a hawala racket and posed as a diplomat. Seized items include ₹44 lakh in cash, foreign currency, 12 fake diplomatic passports, 34 fake seals, and forged MEA documents.
India has responded to a UK report claiming British victims of the June 12 Air India Flight 171 crash were wrongly identified. The crash killed 241 onboard and 19 on the ground. The MEA says it is working with UK authorities to address the issue.
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Editing: Zeeshan Akhtar
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The Hindu
31 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Rahul to lead 16-day ‘Vote Adhikar Yatra' in Bihar as Congress intensifies fight against SIR
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, is all set to start a 16-day-long 'Vote Adhikar Yatra' from Sasaram in Bihar on Sunday (August 17, 2025), as the principal Opposition party steps up its campaign against alleged irregularities in the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in the State. On Wednesday (August 13, 2025), Mr. Gandhi put out a video on his X handle in which he is seen interacting with a group of voters, who have been declared dead in the SIR exercise, concluded recently. 'There have been many interesting experiences in life, but I never got the chance to have tea with 'dead people'. For this unique experience, thank you, Election Commission!' Mr. Gandhi said. Taking the fight to ground zero, Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal met the INDIA bloc leaders in Sasaram to assess the preparation for the yatra to be led by Mr. Gandhi. 'The fight to protect our democracy will take place on the streets! Starting August 17th, LOP Sh Rahul Gandhi ji and the INDIA parties will embark on a massive Vote Adhikar Yatra across Bihar — against the dangerous SIR exercise, and to make the battle against Vote Chori a mass movement!' Mr. Venugopal said in a X post on Wednesday (August 13, 2025). Though the Congress is yet to officially announce the exact route, it is tentatively scheduled to pass through 24 districts (of the total 38) and cover nearly 60 of the 243 Assembly seats. The yatra will cross Aurangabad, Gaya, Nalanda, Munger, Purnia, Madhubani, Darbhanga, Katihar, Bhagalpur, Sitamarhi, East and West Champaran, and Gopalganj. Supaul, Siwan, Chhapra and Arrah, among others. Many of these areas have seen a large number of complaints about the deletion of voters in the SIR exercise. The yatra will conclude with a public rally at Patna's Gandhi Maidan on September 1. Video launched On Wednesday (August 13, 2025), the party launched a new video around the alleged theme of vote chori [theft], with the video showing how fake votes were being cast in the name of genuine voters. 'Do not let your right to vote be snatched away. Ask questions, demand answers this time! Raise your voice against vote chori. Free constitutional institutions from the clutches of the BJP,' Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said in a post on X. 'The theft of your vote is the theft of your rights, the theft of your identity!' Mr. Gandhi added. On Tuesday (August 12, 2025), the party announced a series of programmes under the banner of Vote Chor, Gaddi Chhod [Vote thief, vacate the seat]. Candlelight vigil on Aug. 14 On August 14, the party will take out a nationwide candlelight march at 8 p.m. in all districts, followed by 'Vote Chor, Gaddi Chhod' rallies in all States between August 22 and September 7, and finally a month-long nationwide signature campaign from September 15 to collect five crore signatures. But beyond the opposition to the SIR exercise, the Congress is hoping that Mr. Gandhi's yatra would infuse the much-needed energy into the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) and build a momentum for the party in the run-up to the Assembly election later this year. 'If you see the Lok Sabha seats through which Rahulji's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra passed, the Opposition alliance won several of these seats. We won Sasaram, the Rashtriya Janata Dal won Aurangabad and so on. We are confident that the Congress's fortunes will change with Rahulji's yatra,' veteran Congress leader Kishore Kumar Jha said.
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
'LS polls be considered null': Congress hits back at BJP's 'vote theft' allegations
Hitting back at the BJP for claiming irregularities in seats contested by some top opposition leaders, the Congress on Wednesday said the data shared by the ruling party points to its collusion with the Election Commission (EC) and demanded that the 2024 Lok Sabha polls be considered "null and void" for being held on "fake voter lists". The entire 2024 general election was conducted on "such fake voter lists", Pawan Khera alleged.(File/AICC) The opposition party also demanded the electronic voter list of Varanasi, from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi had won the electoral contest, "so that people get to know whether he had truly won or not". The Congress's attack came after the ruing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claimed irregularities in voter registration in the Rae Bareli, Wayanad, Diamond Harbour and Kannauj parliamentary seats, and asked Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Abhishek Banerjee and Akhilesh Yadav to resign as Lok Sabha MPs, alleging that they secured their electoral triumphs with "vote chori". Giving a slide-show presentation on the issue at the BJP headquarters here on an "analysis" of the electoral rolls of these constituencies represented by opposition leaders, former Union minister Anurag Thakur also flagged "irregularities" in the voter registration in the Kolathur Assembly seat in Tamil Nadu and the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh, and asked Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK supremo M K Stalin and Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Dimple Yadav to resign for "rigging" their election. Hitting back at Thakur, Congress's media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said, "The numbers of five-six Lok Sabha constituencies that he (Thakur) has released ... it took us six months to collect for just one Vidhan Sabha. Where did he get the electronic voter list from? This shows how deeply aligned BJP leaders are with the EC." "We also want to point out that what he has released today is evidence of a crime. We demand that this evidence be handed over to us within 24 hours so we can proceed with the investigation. We also want the electronic voter list of Varanasi, from where the prime minister won (the Lok Sabha election) by a very small margin, so that people can know whether he truly won or not," Khera told PTI Videos. The entire 2024 general election was conducted on "such fake voter lists", the Congress leader alleged. "Today, he (Thakur) has released the data for five-six Lok Sabha constituencies, whereas we had only released a list of 50 booths from one Vidhan Sabha. This proves, by his own action, that the election was held on a fake voter list. We demand that the Lok Sabha election be considered null and void," Khera said. Thakur slammed Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC), SP and DMK leaders for raising questions on the EC and accused them of running a vicious propaganda against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls, which is currently underway in Bihar and would be launched in other states, to protect their "vote bank of illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators" and other "intruders". "Seeing this 'shor' (hue and cry) being made by the opposition, it now seems that 'chor machaye shor'", the BJP leader said, suggesting that those who were in the wrong are now crying foul. "Rae Bareli, Wayanad, Kannuaj to Diamond Harbour -- everywhere one question is coming up, why did they make fake voters? Will they resign for indulging in 'vote chori' and protecting intruders?" Thakur asked.
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
'Electoral rolls can never be static': SC says Bihar SIR 'voter-friendly'
Observing that electoral rolls cannot remain "static" and there is bound to be a revision, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said the expanded list of acceptable documents of identity from seven to 11 for Bihar's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voters' list was in fact 'voter-friendly and not exclusionary.' The Supreme Court also said that the EC had residual power to conduct an exercise like the SIR as it deemed fit.(ANI/File) As the row over the SIR which has been challenged in the top court escalated, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said the Election Commission(EC) had the residual power to conduct such an exercise as it deemed fit. The bench also disagreed with a submission by a petitioner that the SIR of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar had no basis in law and ought to be quashed. Leaders of opposition parties including the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress and the NGO Association of Democratic Reforms(ADR) have challenged the electoral roll revision drive in Bihar. During the hearing of arguments, the ADR submitted that the exercise should not be allowed to be carried out pan-India. Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the NGO, said the EC notification on the SIR ought to be set aside for want of legal basis and never being contemplated in law. He, therefore, contended it couldn't be allowed to go on. The EC can never conduct such an exercise since inception and it is being done for the first time in history and if allowed to happen only God knows where it will end, he added. "By that logic special intensive revision can never be done. One-time exercise which is done is only for the original electoral roll. To our mind, the electoral rolls can never be static," the bench noted. "There is bound to be revision," the top court said, "otherwise, how will the poll panel delete the names of those who are dead, migrated or shifted to other constituencies?" The bench also told senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the petitioners, that despite their arguments that non-acceptance of Aadhaar was exclusionary, it appeared that the large number of acceptable documents was "actually inclusionary". "The number of documents in summary revision conducted earlier in the state was seven and in SIR it is 11, which shows it is voter friendly. We understand your arguments that non-acceptance of Aadhaar is exclusionary but a high number of documents is actually inclusionary." The bench then went on to tell Sankaranarayanan that the EC had residual power to conduct an exercise like the SIR as it deemed fit. It referred to Section 21(3) of the Representation of the Peoples Act (RP Act), which says "the Election Commission may at any time, for reasons to be recorded, direct a special revision of the electoral rolls for any constituency or part of a constituency in such manner as it may think fit." Justice Bagchi further asked Sankaranarayanan, "When the primary legislation says 'in such manner as deemed fit' but the subordinate legislation does not... will it not give a residual discretion to EC to dovetail the procedure not completely in ignorance of rules but some more additives than what the rules prescribe to deal with the peculiar requirement of a special revision?" Sankaranarayanan submitted that the provision only allowed revision of the electoral rolls for "any constituency" or "for part of a constituency" and the EC couldn't wipe out the rolls of an entire state for fresh inclusion. "Actually, it is a battle between a constitutional right and a constitutional power," Justice Bagchi said. The residuary power of the EC flows from Article 324 of the Constitution and the RP Act mentions both summary revision and special revision and the EC in the instant case has only added the word "intensive", that's all, the judge noted. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, also appearing for the NGO, alleged the EC played "mischief" and removed the search feature from the draft roll and the list of 65 lakh people whose names were deleted for being dead, migrated or shifted to other constituencies. "This happened just a day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi did a press conference pointing out that over lakh people(in an Assembly segment in a Lok Sabha constituency in Bengaluru) were fake voters," he added, arguing that an ordinary person was denied the right to search their name on the draft roll whether dead or alive or migrated to another place. Justice Kant said he was unaware of any such press conference but when it comes to the Registration of Electors Rule of 1960, Section 10 mandates the EC to publish a copy of the draft rolls at the office in the constituency. "They have to publish the draft rolls at the office in the constituency. That's a minimum threshold under the law. However, we would have liked it if it was published on the website for wider publicity," Justice Bagchi said. Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the EC, said the petitioners claimed the rural population of Bihar was not tech savvy and now they were talking about the inability of the same people in searching online. On August 12, the top court said inclusion and exclusion of citizens or non-citizens from the electoral rolls was within the remit of the Election Commission and backed its stand to not accept Aadhaar and voter cards as conclusive proof of citizenship in the SIR of voters' list in Bihar.
