When the bill has to be passed and we have no other option, it is passed without discussion Coimbatore l tuesday l august 05, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l late city EDITION Will push bills in Parliament if Oppn protest continues: Rijiju Government will be compelled to press for the passage of its bills amid protests in Parliament, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said Kiren Rijiju, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Warning amid continued protests by oppn Will act in national interest: minister The minister’s warning came as the Opposition’s relentless disruptions over SIR dimmed the prospects of normal functioning of the two Houses. While the Lok Sabha saw little transaction of any listed business on Monday, the Rajya Sabha was adjourned as a mark of respect for its member and ex-Jharkhand CM Shibu Soren, who passed away on Monday ■ ■ Rijiju said the government wants a thorough discussion in Parliament over its bills but will act in ‘national interest’ if protests continue Hitting out at the Oppn, he said they had agreed to a two-day discussion over the National Sports Governance Bill and National Anti-Doping (Amendment) Bill, but they disrupted proceedings | P9 AUG 7 INDIA bloc leaders will meet on Thursday to firm up strategy 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 India ‘Oval’ and out with head held high India calls out Trump on Russia Accuses Washington of “unjustified” targeting, says US once encouraged such trade deals J aya n t h J a c o b & dIPA K M O N D AL @ New Delhi India celebrate England’s Jamie Overtone wicket in the fifth and final Test on Monday. Captain Shubman Gill (right) with the Player of the Series medal. Mohammed Siraj was adjudged Player of the Match | AP TNIE in England Firoz Mirza @london T he Oval match was the story of the series. It reflected the ferocity with which it was fought. First Test, England win comfortably India re. turn the favour with same magnanimity Third Test, England . win but with quite an effort. India draw despite trailing by 311 runs in the fourth. It would have been a travesty for cricket had the last not gone to the wire. India won by the barest of margins — six runs. Series 2-2. The celebration in the middle was wild. It’s poetic that after carrying the burden of bowling in the series, Mohammed Siraj took the final wicket and finished with a fifer (four in first innings and 23 overall). There he stood celebrating like his football idol Cristiano Ronaldo. He admitted how he changed the wallpaper on his phone on Monday morning to inspire him on the field. The conditions early on favoured pacers and Siraj was right on the money With only . 35 runs to get, margin of error was thin. The crowd, like in all days thronged the stadium to witness one of cricket’s most enthralling finishes. India did not disappoint, either. Siraj in beginning of the series was in the shadow of Jasprit Bumrah. As a batter, he was the last to fall in the third Test at Lord’s. On Monday he was the archi, tect of a historic win. A lot was at stake for the two incredibly talented sides. No series has seen so many ups and downs or twists and turns as this one. If Harry Brook and Joe Root were regaling the audience with their artistry, Siraj enthralled with 25 deliveries he bowled out of 53. He had taken three out of four wickets that fell. And, of course, the adage of frontline bowler for India will be his to keep. As for now, it’s Oval and out.  P13 SC’s ‘true Indian’ barb at Rahul S u c h i t r a K a lya n Mo h a n t y @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Monday castigated Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his comments on China capturing Indian territory in the wake of the Galwan attack in 2020, adding if he was an “true Indian”, he wouldn’t have said it. “How do you (Rahul) get to know when 2000 sq km was acquired by China? What is the credible material? A true Indian will not say this. When there is a conflict across border, can you say all this? Why can’t you ask the question in Parliament?” asked a bench comprising justices Dipankar Datta and Augustine George Masih. The court, however, stayed further proceedings against him in a defamation case in Lucknow and fixed the matter for further hearing after three weeks. During the hearing, Justice Datta said, “just because you have 19(1)(a) you cannot say anything.” Senior advicate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Rahul, said: “If he can’t say these things which are published in the Press, he can’t be a leader of opposition... It is also possible that a true Indian will say that our 20 Indian soldiers were beaten up and killed and that it is a matter of concern.” The defamation complaint filed by Uday Shankar Srivastava, former Border Roads Organisation (BRO) director. What DOES the u.s. BUY FROM rUSSIA? IN a strong rebuttal to renewed US criticism on India’s trade with Russia, India on Monday accused Washington and its allies of “unjustified and unreasonable” targeting, reminding them that it was the United States itself that once encouraged those very purchases to stabilise global markets. The sharp message from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) came minutes after US President Donald Trump threatened to ‘substantially’ raise tariffs for India’s continued purchase and resale of Russian oil. In a statement on Truth Social on Monday Trump , said: “India is not only buying massive amounts of Russian Oil... they are selling it on the Open Market for big profits. The MEA pointed out that the US continues to import uranium hexafluoride from Russia for its nuclear industry, palladium for its electric vehicle sector, and fertilizers and chemicals vital to its industrial base They don’t care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine... I will be substantially raising the tariff paid by India to the USA.” In its blistering r e s p o n s e, I n d i a made it clear that such rhetoric smacks of geopolitical hypocrisy. “India has been targeted by the United States and the European Union for importing oil from Russia after the commencement of the Ukraine conflict,” said MEA spokesper- job creation TN Rising conclave: State inks 41 MoUs worth `33K crore E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Thoothukudi The Tamil Nadu government signed 41 Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) worth `32,553.85 crore during the TN Rising Investors Conclave chaired by Chief Minister MK Stalin in Thoothukudi on Monday. The CM also launched the commer- Stalin cial production of four projects inaugurates established at a cost of `1,230 VinFast’s crore and expected to generate EV plant around 3,100 jobs. Thoothukudi: Addressing the conclave, Sta- CM MK Stalin lin said 22 MoUs worth an as- inaugurated sured investment of `32,288.70 VinFast’s EV crore with the potential to cre- assembly plant, ate 48,649 jobs, and 19 MoUs on the firm’s behalf of MSMEs with an in- first facility vestment of `265.15 crore, ex- outside pected to provide 1,196 jobs, Vietnam, in have been signed. Thoothukudi | “We are materialising indus- P4, P12 trial development in south Tamil Nadu with the construction of a Tidel park in Madurai, neo Tidel park in Thoothukudi, renewable energy projects in Tirunelveli and PM Mitra (Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel) industrial park in Virudhunagar district,” he said.  P7 Chief Minister MK Stalin chaired the Tamil Nadu Rising Investors Conclave in Thoothukudi on Monday | v karthik alagu Jan 11, 1944-aug 4, 2025 Soren and the soil-soaked struggle for self-rule V V P S h a r m a @ New Delhi S hibu Soren was an avatar to the Santhals of the Chhotanagpur plateau of the undivided Bihar. They called him Dishom Guru — the god of all 10 directions. In his younger days, his black locks, flowing beard and chiselled features mesmerised the tribals as much as they frustrated the Bihar Police, as he led a movement for tribal rights that saw a separate tribal state of Jharkhand carved from Bihar in his lifetime. At 81, Soren breathed his last in Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in the national capital from kidney complications on Monday. Called Guruji by now, he became chief minister thrice, never able to complete a full term as politics or police cases disrupted his reign. He even went to Delhi as minister at the Centre, but as the years dragged on, and the health taking its toll, he hung up his boots and, succumbing to dynasty politics, handed over control of the party he co-founded, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), to his son, Hemant. The younger Soren is the current chief minister of a coalition with the Congress. Shibu Soren’s legacy is inseparable from the struggle for tribal rights in undivided Bihar. A Santhal, he grew up in an oppressive environment where politicians, landlords and usurers milked tribals of their dignity and displaced them from their heredi- tary forest dwellings, reducing them to literal slavery. The angry young man decided to rebel and become the prophet of tribal identity His target . was the “diku”, an outsider in the tribal language. The movement he birthed thus arose from generations of exploitation, dispossession and deprivation of tribals — he preferred ‘adivasis’ — till in the early 1970s it turned into a political struggle under the banner of the JMM. Soren nurtured the movement across the land. He would move from village to village on foot. He had nothing he could call his own except the clothes and chappals he wore. The villagers fed him, listened to him, and obeyed him blindly He would explain to them facts of . life they felt but could not express.  Continued on: P10 son Randhir Jaiswal. “But in fact, India began importing from Russia because traditional supplies were diverted to Europe. The United States at that time actively encouraged such imports by India to strengthen global energy market stability .” The message was loud and clear that India will not be lectured, especially by countries that themselves continue trading with Russia while casting stones at others. “India’s imports are meant to ensure predictable and affordable energy costs to the Indian consumer. They are a necessity compelled by global market realities,” Jaiswal said. “However, it is revealing that the very nations criticizing India are themselves indulging in trade with Russia. Unlike our case, such trade is not even a vital national compulsion.” India also offered hard numbers to underscore the double standards. The European Union in 2024 had a bilateral trade of Euro 67.5 billion in goods with Russia. In addition, it had trade in services estimated at Euro 17.2 billion in 2023. This is significantly more than India’s total trade with Russia that year or subsequently European imports of LNG in . 2024, in fact, reached a record 16.5 million tonnes. express read MP hurt as man snatches her chain New Delhi: Mayiladuthurai MP R Sudha was injured on Monday while her chain was allegedly snatched by a scooter-borne man near Polish Embassy as she went on a morning walk. She wrote a complaint to the Union Home Minister mentioning that she received injury on her neck and was highly traumatised by this incident Girl hurt in pet pitbull attack in Chennai Chennai: A seven-year-old girl sustained injuries after she was attacked by her house owner’s pitbull in Chennai on Sunday. The owner was arrested and the dog relocated to a pound | P2 Ungaludan Stalin Nomenclature of schemes: SC to hear TN plea S u c h i t r a K a lya n Mo h a n t y @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear on August 6 the appeal of Tamil Nadu government against the Madras High Court’s interim order restraining it from using names and photographs of living personalities, former chief ministers or ideological leaders in government welfare schemes like the ‘Ungaludan Stalin’. A division bench comprising CJI B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran agreed to hear the matter after senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for TN government, submitted that the high court by its order asked it not to use names and photographs of present and former CMs in welfare schemes. Rohtagi contended that it has been held by the top court in its various orders/verdicts that the name and pictures of CMs, former CMs and political leaders can be used in government welfare schemes. “There is no bar on it,” he said, submitting that the high court has passed an unusual order that no scheme of the government can have the name of the CM or any other political figure.  P7