hyderabad l tuesday l august 12, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l late city EDITION MEA slams munir, says India will not give in to nuclear blackmail Nuclear sabre-rattling is Pakistan’s “stock-intrade”, the MEA said on Monday, in a strong response to the Pak Army Chief’s nuclear threat Rude remarks from ‘friendly 3rd country’ iNDIA TO TAKE UP THE matter with THE u.S. Munir, currently on a visit to the US, made the threat while addressing the Pakistani diaspora in Florida’s Tampa. “We are a nuclear nation. If we think we are going down, we’ll take half the world down with us,” Asim Munir said. In an apparent message to the US, the MEA said it is regrettable that these remarks were made from the soil of a friendly third country ■ ■ Munir’s remarks reinforce the well-held doubts that the Pak military is “hand-in-glove” with terrorist groups, the MEA said in its statement Later in the evening, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told the Shashi Tharoor-led Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs that the government will take up the matter with the US 2nd This is Munir’s second visit to the U.S. in a span of one-and-a-half months 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 Local polls & posts to dominate PAC meeting Rahul Gandhi, Congress leader This fight is not political; it is aimed at saving Constitution... We want a clean, pure voter list Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress president BJP’s cowardly dictatorship will not work! This is a fight to protect people’s right to vote, a struggle to save democracy E x p r e s s Ne w s Se r v i c e @ Hyderabad Sushmita Dev (left) and Mahua Moitra (second from left), both Trinamool Congress, scale a police barricade during a protest march by INDIA bloc MPs from Parliament to the Election Commission of India’s office in Delhi on Monday; and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi attends to TMC’s Mitali Bag after she fainted at the protest venue | PTI High drama as Bihar SIR stir spills onto Delhi’s streets Opposition members of Parliament barred from reaching the ECI office, briefly detained Akhilesh Yadav, Samajwadi Party chief It’s not the first time fingers have been raised at the EC. In UP polls, the SP raised issues multiple times M K Stalin, Tamil Nadu CM The BJP has turned the poll panel into its election rigging machinery. We will not watch it happen in silence Dharmendra Pradhan , Union minister You can’t adversely impact PM Modi’s leadership, people’s mandate, constitutional system via fear P r ee t h a Na i r @ New Delhi In a day of high drama, the Opposition’s protest against the ongoing voter roll revision in Bihar spilled onto the streets with the Delhi Police detaining several top leaders of INDIA bloc, including Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, during their march to the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) headquarters in the capital. While the march led by Rahul began from Parliament House at noon, the MPs were stopped midway as the police had placed multiple barricades on Parliament Street to block them from moving forward. While the police asked the MPs not to proceed further and made an announcement through a loudspeaker that they should send only 30 representatives forward, many MPs sat on the road and raised slogans against the alleged ‘vote theft’ and poll rigging. In the melee, some MPs including SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, TMC’s Mahua Moitra, Sagarika Ghose and the Congress’ Sanjana Jatav and Jothimani, scaled the barricades raising slogans. The protesting MPs were later whisked away by police in buses to the Parliament Street police station. TMC’s Moitra and Mitali Bag fainted while being detained. All of them were released after a brief detention. Later speaking to the media, Rahul said the Opposition is protesting for the right to vote for every Indian and demanding a “clean and pure” voter list, asserting that the issue of alleged irregularities pointed out by him will ‘explode’ soon as it is not related to a single constituency but the whole country . Indicating that he would not submit a signed affidavit as sought by the Election Commission, Rahul asserted that the data analysed by the Congress to provide proof of ‘vote theft’ was taken from the EC’s website. “They cannot talk as the truth is before the entire nation. This fight is not political; it is aimed at saving the Constitution,” said Rahul. Meanwhile, a war of words broke out between the EC and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, who said that he had written to the EC requesting a meeting to collectively hand over a memorandum. The ECI said Jairam had acknowledged its invitation for a meeting with 30 MPs but later “changed his tone”. The EC rebutted Jairam’s claim that he has urged the panel to allow Opposition MPs to collectively hand over a memorandum and not for just a delegation. K’taka min sacked for embarrassing Cong 8 bills get nod sans debate Parliament passed 8 bills without discussion, including the National Sports Governance Bill, the National Anti-Doping (Amend) Bill and the I-T (No 2) Bill and Taxation Laws (Amend) Bill | P7 poll row: BJD set to go to HC Eight months after complaint to the ECI about irregularities in 2024 Assembly and LS polls in Odisha, the BJD will escalate the matter to the Orissa High Court | P5 Ba n s y Ka l a p pa @ Bengaluru On the surface, it seemed like a routine resignation. But behind the calm façade of Cooperation Minister K N Rajanna’s sudden exit from the Karnataka cabinet lies a web of controversy high-stakes power struggles , and whispers of betrayal that have set the state’s political corridors abuzz. The 74-year-old minister, a close confidant of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, part of the latter’s core support group and a key face of the ST community, suddenly resigned on the first day of the legislature session. The timing couldn’t have been more telling. The tipping point was a seemingly offhand comment. A few days ago, he had said that the controversial voter K N Rajanna list in the Mahadevapura assembly constituency which is central to the , Congress’ “vote theft” offensive, had been prepared during the Congress rule. This gave an impression that Congress too did not do anything on the very issue the party is fighting against. For the Congress brass, it was appalling. For Siddaramaiah, it was an embarrassment. Even before Rajanna sent in his resignation, the Chief Minister’s Office forwarded its recommendation for his ouster to Raj Bhavan. The message was clear: it was a purge. Purge Delhi-NCR of strays in eight weeks: Apex court SSC exams 80-20 pattern to continue E x p r e s s Ne w s Se r v i c e @ Hyderabad The school education department on Monday announced that the existing system of awarding 80% marks for external assessment and 20% for internal assessment will continue from the academic year 2025–26. This decision reverses an order issued in November 2024, which had prescribed 100% marks for external assessment. The latest order, issued by Education Secretary Yogita Rana to the Director of School Education, states that the November 28 and 29 orders have been kept in abeyance until further notice. The director has been permitted to continue the current arrangement for the SSC public examination. marshals pause HYDRAA work over salary cut S Ba c h a n J ee t S i n g h @ Hyderabad e x p r e s s n e w s s e r v i c e @ New Delhi the Supreme Court on Monday directed the Delhi government and the civic authorities of Delhi-NCR to round up all stray dogs at the earliest and put them in dog shelters to be set up by the civic authorities of Gurugram, Noida and Ghaziabad within eight weeks. The ruling by a bench of justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan came on a suo motu case initiated by it followig the death of a six-year-old girl in Delhi due to rabies. The bench also directed that the dog shelters should have sufficient personnel to sterilise and immunise the dogs, aside from looking after them. The centres would be under CCTV surveillance to ensure the dog remains in the facility the court added. , The bench held that the situation is so grim there is no room for sentiments. It warned of strict action against individuals and organisations in case of obstruction, which might also prompt the court to initiate contempt proceedings. The court said while the order is clear about what should be done, it is for the civic bodies to decide how to implement it. “For this, if they have to create a force they shall do it at the earliest,” the bench said. The court had initiated suo motu proceedings on July 28 following media reports highlighting the tragic death of the girl. The Political Affairs Committee (PAC) of the ruling Congress is likely to take a decision on the course of action to conduct local body elections based on majority opinion. A decision to this effect appears to have been reached during a meeting between Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and TPCC president B Mahesh Kumar Goud here on Monday . During the meeting, which lasted over an hour and a half, the TPCC chief and the chief minister are learnt to have decided to hold a PAC meeting on August 16 or 17. They also discussed a wide range of organisational and governance matters. The meeting prioritised expediting appointments to various board and corporation director posts. This is seen as an essential move to strengthen grassroots leadership and reward loyal cadres ahead of crucial elections. The Congress government faces a dilemma as the bills pertaining to the enhancement of 42% reservations for BCs are still pending with the BJP-led Union government. Notably the , HYDRAA Commissioner AV Ranganath reassures marshals that their salaries won’t be cut, in Hyderabad on Monday Monsoon emergency services in Hyderabad were briefly affected on Monday after marshals of the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA), comprising ex-servicemen, stayed away from duties to protest a salary cut. The protest ended in the evening after HYDRAA Commissioner AV Ranganath assured them that their salaries would not be reduced. He told the marshals that the issue would be resolved and that the government was considering an increase in salaries for employees working during natural disasters. As many as 93 marshals gathered at Sanjeevaiah Park, Necklace Road, expressing concern over receiving about `7,000 less this month than their agreed pay The Finance department had . issued an order on August 5, 2025, revising HYDRAA employees’ salaries, which triggered the protest.  continued on P5 Telangana Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Ordinance has also not been cleared by the Governor, preventing the state government from issuing a GO to implement 42% reservations. Another major agenda item was formulating a strategy for the upcoming Jubilee Hills Assembly byelection, a politically high-profile seat that could influence party morale ahead of larger electoral battles. Party insiders say the leadership is keen on a data-driven campaign backed by constituency-specific issues. As part of this, the party decided to conduct more surveys to gauge public opinion. Additionally, it resolved to ensure micro-level poll management by assigning divisionlevel responsibilities to ministers and senior party leaders, in a bid to secure at least one segment in the Hyderabad region.  continued on P5 The Party & the govt As a party, the Congress is strongly advocating for holding polls only after the implementation of 42% quota for Backward Classes, while the Congress government is equally concerned about the suspension of Panchayat Raj funds due to the absence of elected bodies. US trade talks on track; India draws red lines PUSHPITA D E Y & J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi Amid growing uncertainty over the future of trade negotiations with the US, this newspaper has learnt that the visit of the US delegation in the last week of August is on schedule. “There has been no change in the plans of the US delegation visit to India as scheduled on August 24,” confirmed two persons from the Ministry of Commerce. There was speculation about the fate of trade talks after US president Donald Trump recently ruled out talks with India till the tariff issue is resolved. “There has been no communication from the US so far (regarding the cancellation). Their visit is scheduled on August 24 and the meeting has been scheduled in the third week of August,” said an official. The next round of negotiations is to take place in Delhi on August 25—just before an additional 25% tariff on India kicks in, apart from the existing 25% levy . A query sent to the US Trade Representative re- Donald Trump mained unanswered till the time of filing this report. Meanwhile, the government on Monday told members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs that India has certain ‘red lines’ that can’t be crossed in the negotiations with the US. Senior officials, including Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal, briefed the panel. Sources said the government asserted its uncompromising stance on core sectors, especially agriculture and dairy while outlin, ing a strategy to cushion the economic blow through export diversification. “Red lines were clearly flagged,” a source said, “particularly against the US demand to open India’s agri and dairy sectors. There will be no compromise on these.” SC flags targeting of HC judge by appellant in case against CM S u c h i t r a Ka lya n M o h a n t y @ New Delhi Observing that it has become a trend amongst lawyers to criticise judges for no reason, the Supreme Court on Monday directed a litigant and his lawyers to tender an unconditional apology to a Telangana High Court judge against whom they lev- elled “scurrilous allegations”. A bench comprising Chief Justice BR Gavai and Justices K Vinod Chandran and Atul S Chandurkar observed that it has become a trend that whenever a political figure is involved, it is perceived that the petitioner has not got justice and seeks transfer. The bench also made it clear that the judges of a high court enjoy the same immunity as judges of the Supreme Court, noting that under the constitutional scheme, high court judges are “in no way inferior” to judges in the apex court. The top court made these di- rections while hearing a suo motu contempt plea during which it observed allegations against high court judges were contemptuous and could not be condoned. The case arose from a transfer petition filed by N Peddi Raju, alleging bias and impropriety against the high court judge who quashed a criminal case under the SC/ST Act against Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy . During an earlier hearing, the top court voiced its displeasure over Peddi Raju making scurrilous allegations against Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya of the Telangana High Court.  continued on P5 We can’t allow judges to be put in a box or litigants to make such allegations BR Gavai, Chief Justice of India