chennai l tuesday l august 12, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 20 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 Top court upholds HC order to axe flagpoles 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 SUCHITR A K A LYA N M OH A NTY @ New Delhi 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 | P9 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 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. TN man drowns in river, three friends also die in attempt to rescue him express read AIADMK’s 2026 rout will begin from the west: CM Tiruppur: AIADMK’s defeat in the ’26 Assembly polls will start from the western region, said CM Stalin in Tiruppur. He added that the state will reach new heights under Dravidian model 2.0 | P4 SC refuses to expunge its remarks on Senthil Balaji NEW DELHI: The SC on Monday refused to expunge its remarks against ex-minister Senthil Balaji in its September 2022 order restoring criminal plaints against him in cash-for-job case | P7 Dayanidhi’s legal notice to Kalanithi withdrawn CHENNAI: The Sun Group said that the legal notice sent to company promoter Kalanithi by his brother and MP Dayanidhi Maran has been “unconditionally” withdrawn | P4 8-yr-old boy killed by bear in valparai S Se n t h i l K u ma r @ Coimbatore e x p r e s s n e w s s e r v i c e @ Tiruvarur Four men drowned in a check dam on Puththaaru River near Nannilam in Tiruvarur district on Monday evening after attempts to save one of their friends from drowning in the waterbody led to the death of the other three. The four victims, identified as P Jayakumar (30), R Hariharan (30), S Manikandan (30), all from VilFlash flood: liyanallur in Tiruvarur, 2 bodies found and A Manivel (28) of MuTiruvannamalai: rukkangudi in Thanjavur, The bodies of two had ventured into the river women, who were for bathing on Monday Ac. swept away by a cording to sources, the flash flood during a friends, who came to the visit to the Lord spot in a car, parked the veMallikarjuna temple hicle on the banks of the atop Parvathamalai river at Keezhkudi village hill, were recovered and ventured into the check on Monday | P6 dam. When they were bathing in the river, one of them started drowning. On seeing their friend struggling to stay afloat, the other three tried to save him but all of them eventually drowned. Those nearby tried to help them, but the victims could not be saved and only the bodies of three victims could be retrieved from the check dam. Later, personnel from the Nannilam fire station retrieved the body of the fourth person downstream of the river. P7 IN an important decision, the Supreme Court has rejected an appeal and upheld the order of the Madras High Court directing political parties and other organisations to remove permanent flagpoles erected by them in public places, including national highways and government lands. A bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi pronounced the order recently after hearing an appeal filed by Kathiravan challenging the HC’s judgment. The petitioner’s counsel challenged the direction and argued that the HC had passed a variety of directions, though the relief sought in the underlying case was limited. After hearing his submission, Justice Maheshwari asked, “How can you use government land for political benefits?” The court also stressed that the scope of High Court jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution is wide in nature, and dismissed the appeal. The root of the litigation is the order passed by Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan of the Ma- heavy rain for 2 days A woman rides a scooter through a brief shower at Chinthadripet in Chennai, while a boy rides pillion, both clad in raincoats, on Monday evening. IMD has forecast heavy rain for North Tamil Nadu districts for the next two days | P Jawahar An eight-year-old son of migrant labourers from Assam was killed in a sloth bear attack at Waverly Estate near Valparai in Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) on Monday evening. This is the second death of a child due to animal-human conflict in the reserve in the last two months. The victim has been identified as S Noor Islam. According to forest sources, the boy, studying in Class 3, was staying with his relatives at a labour quarters in Waverly Estate as his parents were in Assam. On Monday at 5.30pm, one of the , relatives sent him to buy milk at a grocery shop located around 200 metres from the residential quarters. As the child did not return even after 45 minutes, the relatives informed the estate authorities and neighbours, who launched a search. Subsequently his body was found 500 me, tres away from the quarters inside the bushes.  P7 durai Bench of the Madras High Court on January 27, 2025, to remove flagpoles installed by political parties, communal organisations and others in public places within 12 weeks. “After removal of flagpoles, the authorities concerned are directed to recover the cost of removal of flagpoles from the respective political parties,” the judge had said. An appeal filed against the order was rejected by a division bench headed by Justice J Nisha Banu in March. The HC had held that “any public place such as corner of the street, pavement, junction of the road, junction, bus stop and other public-use places are meant for the usage of general public. Therefore, no one has any right to erect any flagpoles by obstructing public users” .  P7 12-week deadline set by hc The Madurai Bench of the Madras HC on January 27, 2025 ordered removal of flagpoles installed by political parties, communal or ganisations and others in public places within 12 weeks. The court had also asked the state to frame rules for erection of flagpoles on private land 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.” OMG! SC orders Delhi-NCR purge of all stray dogs in eight weeks SUCHITR A K A LYA N M OH A NTY @ 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 Ghaz- iabad within eight weeks. The ruling by a bench of justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan came on a suo motu case initiated by it over the spike in incidents of dog bites leading to rabies. The bench also directed that the dog shelters should have sufficient person- nel 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 ac- tion 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 a six-year-old girl in Delhi due to rabies following a dog bite. The bench posted the matter for hearing after six weeks and asked the authorities to file a status report. All these animal activists, will they be able to bring back who have fallen prey to rabies?