Gold price soars, Silver inches away from touching K1 lakh / kg milestone Gold price on Monday surged J750 to hit J80,650 per 10 grams (99.5% purity), while silver zoomed J5,000 to J99,500 per kg in the national capital Diwali, Geopolitical factors push demand Bullion traders attributed the jump in gold prices to pick-up in buying by local jewellers to meet increased demand in the festive and wedding season. According to experts tracking the commodities market, the price escalation is also driven by the rising tensions in West Asia and uncertainties related to the US elections, prompting investors to pool their money into safe-haven assets kozhikode l tuesday l October 22, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI SC: Secularism part of statute’s basic structure S u c h i t r a K a lya n M o h a n t y @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Monday said secularism had always been held to be part and parcel of the basic structure of the Constitution. A two-judge bench of the court comprising justices Sanjiv Khanna and Sanjay Kumar made the observation while hearing a batch of petitions filed by former Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy, advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain and others, challenging the insertion of the words “socialist” and “secular” in the Preamble of the Constitution. The addition came through the 42nd constitutional amendment moved by the then Indira Gandhi government in 1976. “This court has in a number of judgments held that secularism was always part of the basic structure of the Constitution. If one looks at the right to equality and the word ‘fraternity’ used in Constitution, there is a clear indication that secularism has been held as the core feature of the Constitution,” the bench said. “When secularism was debated, there was only the French model. The SC has struck down statutes that go against secularism. For socialism, we have not followed the Western concept and we are happy about it,” Justice Khanna told the petitioners. India, China iron out wrinkles Both sides arrive at patrolling agreement on LAC Chances brighten for Modi-Xi talks Y es h i S e l i a n d M aya n k S in g h @ New Delhi Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s primary briefing on Monday was about the upcoming 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, but what was casually mentioned became the story of the day — that India and China have arrived at a patrolling agreement along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh. The jaw-dropping announcement of the thaw in eastern Ladakh came in response to a question from this reporter on the buzz on the possibility of Prime Minister Narendra Modi having a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit. At a different event later in the day foreign minister S Jais, hankar indicated that both sides had effectively gone back to the pre-2020 situation. “With that we can say the disengagement with China has been completed. Details will come out in due course,” he said. It was in 2020 that 20 Indian jawans died after a brawl with PLA soldiers in the Galwan valley along the LAC. Bilateral ties became frigid ever since. “Over the last several weeks, Indian and Chinese diplomatic karakoraM Pass daulat BeG oldi Y JunCtion, Depsang Demchok The fine print The pre-2020 situation was that the Army was patrolling till its line of perception in Demchok and Depsang. “Whether we can return to those areas will be clear in the fine print,” sources said and military negotiators have been in close contact with each other in a variety of forums. As a result of these discussions, an agreement has been made for patrolling arrangements along the LAC leading to disengagement and a resolution of the issues that had arisen in these areas in 2020. We will be taking the next steps on this,’’ Misri said. Sources indicated that there is a strong likelihood of the Modi-Xi bilateral. Hoax callers to be placed in RG Kar impasse: Medics call no-fly list: Rammohan Naidu off stir after talks with Didi E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ New Delhi TO deal with the menace of hoax bomb threats to airlines, the Centre plans to amend rules to place the culprits in the no-fly list and initiate criminal charges against them, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said on Monday He said such . threats will be made a c o g n i s a b l e o f f e n c e, which will attract punishment and fines. Naidu said the government is considering amendments to the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against Safety of Civil Aviation Act, 1982, to strengthen measures. “Even though most of them are hoax threats, we cannot take them lightly The lives of passengers . are important, the security situation is important, and protocol is important,” he added. These hoax bomb calls also caused financial loss to airlines that had to divert flights for safety reasons. An airline official said the financial loss due to frequent diversions ranges from a few lakh rupees to a couple of crores per flight, depending on the size of the plane. Meanwhile, top officials of CISF and Bureau of Civil Aviation Security met Home Secretary Govind Mohan on Monday. Sources said the threats originated overseas but their exact location could not be traced so far. E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Kolkata PROTESTING doctors in West Bengal called off their hunger strike on Monday following a two-hour meeting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. They also cancelled their proposed strike across hospitals in the state on Tuesday The decision was taken after a general body meeting . of the doctors in the wake of their meeting with Banerjee in the state secretariat. The doctors had launched the fast-untodeath protest on October 5 in response to the rape-murder of their colleague at RG Kar Hospital in August. Their demands included security within hospitals, systemic reforms in the healthcare sector, and removal of West Bengal’s health secretary . In the meeting, Banerjee assured the doctors of her government’s resolve to address their concerns but she refused to remove health secretary without evidence. The doctors said they were not fully satisfied with the state government’s assurances but decided to relent out of respect for the parents of the RG Kar hospital victim. The parents had urged the medics to call off their fast in view of their deteriorating health. Youth dies by suicide after excise ‘questioning’, kin allege assault E xpress N ews S ervice @ Pathanamthitta A youth reportedly died by suicide after excise officials allegedly assaulted him while questioning in connection with a ganja seizure case in his neighbourhood in Adoor. Vishnu, 27, was found hanging in his house at Pazhakulam on Saturday According to . relatives, the excise officials, who had come to another house, reached Vishnu’s place on Thursday and questioned him rudely “The offcials made . him stand in his underwear, held his hands behind his back, and assaulted him,” they alleged. Following the incident, Vishnu was in a state of depression and remained within the house for two days. He was found hanging in his room on Saturday afternoon, they said. On Monday, Vishnu’s uncle Suresh lodged a complaint with the Adoor police against the excise officials, based on which a case was registered. However, the excise department has refuted the allegations. Excise deputy commissioner V Robert said, during the preliminary investigation, it was learnt that the excise team did not physically assault him. The deputy commissioner has directed assistant excise commissioner Rajeev B to probe the incident and submit a report by Tuesday ● More on P4 . EXPRESS READ Church row: HC summons chief secy, police chief Kochi: Initiating contempt of court proceedings against the state government for its failure to comply with the directive to take possession of six churches from the Jacobite faction, the Kerala High Court has directed the chief secretary, police chief, and the district collectors of Ernakulam and Palakkad to appear in person before the court on November 8. “As charges have to be framed, the respondents shall personally be present before the court on November 8,” ordered Justice V G Arun. P5