NEW DELHI 28 JUly 2024 SUNDAY `12 PAGES 24  facebook/TheMorningStandard  X.com/TheMornStandard https://epaper.morningstandard.in All Quiet in Clovelly PLUS: 12 PAGES Tango Spellcasting BOLD MONK Speculation rife on Modi’s August visit to Ukraine Y e s h i S e l i @ New Delhi Speculation is rife on Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelling to Ukraine in August, a month after he visited Russia following the NDA’s third consecutive victory in the general elections. Though there is no official word from the government or the Ukrainian side in Delhi, it has not been denied either. An announcement could possibly be made closer to the day of Modi’s departure. This will be Modi’s first visit to Ukraine ever since Russia invaded the neighbour on February 24, 2022. Ukraine celebrates its national day on August 24, so Modi’s visit could be around that time. The prime minister is also likely to go to Poland after Kyiv. “When Modi visited Moscow earlier this month, he spoke about a peaceful resolution of the conflict and expressed his grief over the death of children (following reports of a hospital attack in Kyiv). He reportedly also shared with President Vladimir Putin on the likelihood of his visiting Ukraine subsequently,” according to a source. It is common knowledge that India and Russia share a strong historic bond and that the possible visit to Kyiv would have no impact on the bilateral ties with Moscow. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had expressed his dismay over the Modi’s warm hug with President Putin. “It’s a devastating blow to peace efforts,” Zelenskyy has said after Modi met Putin. India has always maintained that this is ‘no era for war’ and conflicts must be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy Modi also told Pres. ident Putin that solutions to conflict could not be found on the battlefield. gaza 30 killed in strike on girls’ school Israeli airstrikes hit a school and a hospital in central Gaza on Saturday as the country’s negotiators prepared to meet international mediators to discuss a proposed ceasefire | P9 Bitter Medicine 1 st w o m e n i n 2 0 y r s french promise for Manu BAT strike Pakistan’s Border Action Team (BAT) comprises commandos and highly trained militants. They infiltrated the LoC and threw a grenade in the Kamakari sector of Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district. A gunfight followed, the Army said MAGAZINE Notes from a Mourner’s Life Exclusive Voices Pushpesh Pant Ravi Shankar Ajai Sahni Anu Aggarwal Debashis Chatterjee Prabhu Chawla Shankkar Aiyar Anuradha Goyal Meditations on Murders amma speaks ‘Deadpool Swallows My Life Whole’ Attack by Pak special forces at LoC kills 1 jawan, injures 4 f aya z w a n i @ Srinagar A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned Pakistan on 25th anniversary of Kargil War, Pakistan’s Border Action Team and militants attacked the Army’s forward post along the Line of Control (LoC) in Machil sector of J&K on Saturday. While the Army foiled the attack, a jawan was killed and four other soldiers, including a Captain, were injured in the gunfight. One Pakistani intruder was gunned down. Defence spokesman in Srinagar said the Pakistan special forces team took advantage of bad weather and poor visibility along the LoC in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district. Two or three armed men crossed the LoC and fired on the forward Army post from close proximity he said. , A BAT team generally comprises Pakistani commandos and highly trained militants. Sources said two other BAT members fled to the other side of the LoC after the gunfight. The injured soldiers were taken to the Army’s base hospi- tal at Badamibagh Cantonment in Srinagar for specialised treatment. The deceased jawan was identified as rifleman Mohit Rathour. He succumbed to his injuries in the hospital. The defence spokesman said the Army is trying to ascertain whether the slain Pakistani national was a regular soldier or a terrorist or a guide. Some arms and ammunition were also recovered from the dead Pakistani. Security forces along the LoC and the International Border in J&K are on heightened alert over infiltration attempts. The government is sending two BSF battalions to the Jammu region to strengthen the security grid. Didi walks out of NITI meet; Modi calls for zero poverty Mamata claims she wasn’t allowed to complete her speech; govt rubbishes it India shooter Manu Bhaker | AP W HEN the joy is back for an athlete, it’s not at all joyous for the opponents. Firing freely, soaking the pressure and not thinking about winning or losing has made an indelible mark on her psyche. Manu Bhaker, 22, had trying times before and after the Tokyo Olympics when she was till a teen. She had broken away from her childhood coach (in Japan, she was two points off qualifying for the final). She did not know where her career was heading and was seeking stability . “I told him (coach Jaspal Rana) that I will shoot TSS @ olympics with you only and I don’t know if I would continue after 2024,” she had told this daily earlier. She had learnt her lessons from the last Olympics and reIndraneel Das alised that people forget Paris what medal you have won when you lose. On a wet Saturday at Chateauroux, the shooting venue some 250km away from Paris, Bhaker lifted the spirits of the Indian shooting team. She stood, in her own inimitable way with one hand in the pocket and one , holding the weapon in front. She started off slowly, but once she hit the target, it was the Bhaker show. The stats are staggering too. She finished third with a score of 580 behind Veronika Major (582) and Jin Ye Oh (582) but Manu shot the highest number of inner 10s with 27. Sunday could well be the day when India win their first (Final live from 3.30 PM) medal of the Games.  MUKE S H RAN J AN @ New Delhi The vision of Viksit Bharat can be realised through Viksit states. The aspiration of Viksit Bharat should reach the grassroots level i.e. to each district, block, and village Narendra Modi Naidu spoke for 20 mins. Assam, Arunachal, Chhattisgarh, and Goa CMs spoke for 15-20 mins. But as soon as I spoke for 5 mins, they kept hitting the bell Mamata Banerjee West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday created a flutter by claiming she was not allowed to complete her speech at the NITI Aayog governing council meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an allegation that was emphatically denied by the government. Mamata also claimed that her microphone was turned off five minutes into her speech. But the Press Information Bureau’s fact-checking vertical rubbished it. “The clock only showed that her speaking time was over. Even the bell was not rung to mark it,” the PIB said. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, too, trashed the allegation and said every chief minister was “allotted their due time to speak”. B V R Subrahmanyam, the Chief Executive Officer of NITI Aayog, informed that all Make policies to attract FDI, Modi urges states Modi urged all states to take advantage of technological and geopolitical changes to make India developed by 2047. He advised them to make policies conducive for attracting FDI. He also directed the NITI Aayog to prepare an investment-friendly charter CMs were allotted seven minutes to speak. They got their turn in alphabetic order. “Since Mamata was representing West Bengal, her turn would have come in the afternoon, but she made a request to speak before lunch and it was agreed.” Mamata was the only CM from an Opposition-ruled state to participate. Her Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar, who is part of the NDA at the Centre, also did not make it. In all, 10 CMs did not show up. Putting it in context, TMC sources said Mamata attended the meet despite attempts by the Opposition INDIA bloc to wean her away so as to send a , message that she would not be guided by Congress strategies. In his address, Modi emphasised the need to tackle poverty on an individual level rather than just at a programme level. “We must target zero poverty as a priority for a Viksit Bharat starting at the village level,” he said, adding it would have a transformational effect across the country . In her speech, Mamata said, “Many states have been deprived in the Budget, including my state, which has been deprived of MNREGA funds for the last three years.” She said the Centre cannot discriminate between states based on its political equation with the parties governing them. P7 ‘Pregnancy no barrier in govt jobs’: HC flays RPF Can LGBTQI donate blood? SC to take up plea ‘biased’ rules @ New Delhi S h e k h a r S i n g h @ New Delhi The Delhi High Court has ruled that pregnancy is neither an illness nor a disability and should not be the grounds to deny government employment to a woman. The HC reprimanded the Railway Protection Force (RPF) for denying a pregnant woman’s request to defer her Physical Efficiency Test (PET) for a constable position. A division bench of justices Rekha Palli and Shalinder Kaur expressed strong disapproval of the way the RPF and the Centre treated the woman. “It appears that the respondents have treated pregnancy as though it were a sickness or a disability on account of which women could be ousted from the selection proc- ess,” the HC observed. “In our view, motherhood should never and can never be the basis for denying public employment opportunities,” it said. The HC said the RPF could have easily postponed PET for the petitioner, who had informed officials about her pregnancy and her inability to perform high and long jump. The HC directed the RPF to conduct the woman’s tests and document verification within 6 weeks. If she fulfills the eligibility criteria, the HC ordered her appointment to the post of constable with retrospective seniority and other benefits. “Discrimination based on pregnancy should never hinder a woman’s right to pursue career aspirations,” the HC said. Can an LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex) person donate blood? The Supreme Court is likely to hear on Tuesday a PIL recently filed by a Delhi-based gay man challenging the constitutional validity of blood donor rules, 2017. The petition of Sharif D Rangnekar, director of Rainbow Literature Festival, is drafted by lawyer Rohin Bhatt and filed by Ibad Mushtaq. The blood donor rules were issued by the National Blood Transfusion Council (NBTC) and National Aids Control Organization (NACO) and others. These permanently restrain transgenders, female sex workers and LGBTQI persons from donating blood. Rangnekar said that the rules were based on a highly prejudicial and presumptive view taken in the 1980s in the US. Many countries such as the US, UK, Canada, Israel and others have revisited these guidelines and come out with fresh ones that do not impose a blanket restriction on gay men or gender queer persons from donating blood. “It is presumed that a particular group of persons may be suffering from sexually transmit- DJB water turns blue in villages, govt seeks report A n u p V e r m a @ New Delhi Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and chief ministers, including Mamata Banerjee, during a group photo on Saturday | PTI S u c h i t r a K a lya n M o h a n t y Patience Transforms Anger into Calm ted diseases. Medical technology and education, especially in the field of haematology has progressed tremendously. The screening of donors is conducted for every donation before a transfusion,” says Rangnekar, in his PIL, a copy of which is accessed by this newspaper. “Today, a blanket prohibition does not stand to reason,” says the PIL requesting the top court to pass appropriate orders. “The blanket prohibition is also a Today, a blanket prohibition does not stand to reason... The blanket prohibition is also a violation of the right to equality, dignity and life protected under Articles 14, 15, 17 and 21 of Constitution” — Petitioner Highly prejudicial view, says petition in top court The blood donor rules—issued by the National Blood Transfusion Council, National Aids Control Organization and others—permanently restrain transgenders, female sex workers and LGBTQI persons from donating blood. The petitioner says the rules are based on a highly prejudicial view. violation of the right to equality dignity and life protected un, der Articles 14, 15, 17 and 21 of the Constitution,” it argues. “The ban does not afford full membership of living in a society of LGBTQ+ community and thus, reduces them to a second class citizenship,” it says. Rangnekar mentions that clauses 12 and 51 of general criteria under blood donor guidelines and blood donor referral, 2017, are discriminatory and unconstitutional as they exclude gay/LGBTQI persons, permanently, from donating blood. Rangnekar has sought a cour t direction to the Centre to frame guidelines that allow gay and LGBTQI persons to donate blood, with reasonable restrictions based on “screen and defer” or “assess and test” policies. Instead of drinking water, Outer Delhi’s Peeragarhi villagers have been getting blue, foamy water in their taps for over a week. The residents blame chemical and denim factories in the area for disposing of industrial waste, which is contaminating the water supplied by the Delhi Jal Board. Water Minister Atishi has directed the chief secretary to call a meeting of senior officials and act against those violating pollution norms, and submit a report by July 29. “The water is causing health problems. The supply to our areas has been irregular and full of dirt. Factories located nearby dump their waste carelessly Now the situation is that . the water has turned blue,” the area residents said, adding “we’ve informed the authorities, but there is no action.” Delhi Panchayat Collective head Than Singh Yadav reportedly visited the village and noted the growing anger among the villagers. “If nothing is done, we’ll call a meeting of three affected villages and discuss our action plan. The administration is treating rural residents like second-class citizens,” said a village head. BJP leaders attacked the AAP government saying instead of ensuring civic amenities, it was busy in blame-game. Express read EAM discusses ties with Turkiye at ASEAN meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday met his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan during which they discussed bilateral ties and exchanged views on global issues. Jaishankar is in the capital of the Laos People’s Democratic Republic for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting. Student dead in flooding of city coaching centre One of the two students who were trapped in a pool of water that accumulated in the basement of a UPSC coaching institute at Old Rajendra Nagar in central Delhi on Saturday, is feared to be dead, authorities confirmed. Rescue operations were being carried out by the NDRF, police and the fire brigade.